My Technophilic Musings

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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Updated my WordPress plugin shantz-wp-qotd to version 1.2.2 today.

Introduction: Shantz WP QOTD is a plugin to add quotes to your wordpress blog in a few easy clicks. It adds quotes to your posts and your sidebars with a multitude of options for sources and customization.

Changelog:

Version 1.2.2

• Fixed a bug because of which quotes were blank some times. Thanks to Thom for reporting it.

For more details and download, go to Shantz WordPress QOTD Home Page

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Quote of the day: “Kenny’s family is so poor that yesterday, they had to put their cardboard box up for a second mortgage.” — Cartman

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: plugin, QOTD, shantz-wp-qotd, version 1.2.2, wordpress, WP

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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There are many code syntax highlighter plugins available for WordPress (e.g. iG Syntax Highlighter, WP-Syntax, etc) but almost all of them have a problem. They want you to write the code in “HTML editing mode”. If you use any kind of WYSIWYG or visual editors (like built in TinyMCE or offline clients’ similar modes), there is a grave problem. Your code becomes garbled. e.g.:

If you intend to write:

It might turn out as:

 The issue here is that the code highlighting plugins use the “exact” text entered within the [ code ] (or similar) tags, and since we used the WYSIWYG/visual editors, they add html formatting tags to the code and also convert some special characters into HTML entities (e.g. > into &gt;, < into &lt;, white space into &nbsp;, etc).

The workaround is that you can write the code in html editing mode. But the problem here is that if you happen to switch to the visual mode or edit your post in this mode any time later, the problem will come back which makes editing posts a pain. So, here is a simple hack that will let you write your code in visual/WYSIWYG mode without doing anything special.

Continue reading »

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Quote of the day: Morpheus: Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: code, code hilighting, Hack, html editor, html entities, html_entity_decode, iG:Syntax Hiliter, plugin, strip_tags, TinyMCE, visual editor, wordpress, WP-Syntax, wysiwyg

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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If you serve any kind of files for download on your WordPress blog(s), one thing you should definitly be looking out for is a download manager plugin. Post attachments are oh-so-2007. Uploading files to your server and hand-posting links everywhere is a pain in the butt. And what about your hunger for statistics?

Well, if you agree with me, then i would like to tell you about two fantastic plugins:

• Drain Hole: This is a real time saver. Some of the features are:
• Automatic scanning of directories to generate downloadable files.
• Simple interface to upload files
• Categorized downloads
• SEO urls (no more of those weird links)
• Automatic hotlink protection
• Simple integration with SVN repositories
• Can maintain versions of the files (cool !!)
• Download urls can be different from their actual path in your server
• Can even pick files from directories residing out of your www or public_html directory.
• Superior download security by assigning permissions based on WordPress user roles.
• Template tags allow you to insert any particular file(s) or list of all files or files in  particular folder on any post, page, sidebar widget
• Statistics – no. of downloads, IP addresses, referrers, etc
• Can force files like php, html, txt etc to be downloaded rather than displaying in browser
• Pretty, can attach icons to files for displaying, different templates can be used for displaying files
• and…..AJAX

phew, lemme catch my breath here…you can download it from here.

• WP-Vault: This is the second best plugin I could find in this category. It is not as feature rich as Drain Hole, e.g., it misses SEO URls, hotlink protection, svn integration, versioning, etc, but it does have its own set of interesting features:
• get files from FTP/HTTP directly without downloading to computer first. (a real time saver)
• Image galleries from stored images.
• Supports WordPress’ caching mechanism to reduce load on database.

You can take your own pick out of the two. And yeah, this blog uses Drain Hole, if you must ask.

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Quote of the day: All we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us-Penelope

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: ajax, Blogging, blogs, download manager, drain hole, ftp, hotlink protection, http, image galleries, plugin, SEO, statistics, svn integration, wordpress, WP-Vault

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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For the uninitiated:

Shantz WP QOTD is a plugin to add quotes to your wordpress blog in a few easy clicks. It adds quotes to your posts and your sidebars with a multitude of options for sources and customization.

I made a few additions / modifications to the code and the plugin has been updated to 1.1.0. The changes are:

• Added Custom tag support for adding quotes anywhere in your posts/pages
• Added Custom quote separator support and multi-line quotes support

Config Screenshots:

I recommend that you update to this new version asap, as apart from the above mentioned changes, the code is a bit more cleaner as well, which would run a bit better IMO and also help in any modification if you have in mind. For full details and downloads, go to shantz-wp-qotd page.

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Quote of the day: "I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and then I thought: What the hell good would that do?"

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: blog, customization, plugin, Programming, projects, QOTD, quote of the day, Shantz, shantz-wp-qotd, shantz-wp-qotd 1.1.0, sidebar, Updated, widget, wordpress, wordpress blog, WordPress Plugin

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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Shantz WP QOTD is a plugin to add quotes to your wordpress blog in a few easy clicks. It adds quotes to your posts and your sidebars with a multitude of options for sources and customization.

== Description ==

There are many quotes plugins out there. This one has been started with a view to have the best of features and options, ease of use and multiple sources to get the quotes from.

Features:

• Add quotes to all your posts automatically.
• Widget support - Can also have a widget in the sidebar for quotes.
• Customize and style your quotes with your own text and tags.
• Multiple sources for quotes (paste in admin page, get from file implemented, fetch from web/rss soon to come)
• Multiple patterns for quotes - Random Quote, Quote of the day (all posts display quote of the day), Quote of that day (all posts display quote for their own days)
• Pattern for widget can be different
• Customization for widget can be different
• Add quotes to top or bottom of posts
• Custom template tag to add quote anywhere you want
• Custom quote boundary decalarator tags/Multiline quote support
• Enable/Disable the quotes without deactivating the plugin
• Option to exclude pages from displaying quotes

Coming Soon:

• Fetch from web/RSS support
• Quotes Categories
• Pics support for quotes
• Anything else you want
• File selection

And more...

== Installation ==

The Shantz-WP-QOTD plugin can be installed in following easy steps:

1. Unzip "shantz-wp-qotd" archive and put all files into your "plugins" folder (/wp-content/plugins/). It is advisable to create a sub directory into the plugins folder, like /wp-content/plugins/shantz-wp-qotd/

2. Activate the plugin

3. Go to Options > Shantz WP Quotes, adjust your settings and save them.

4. For adding and configuring widget to sidebar, go to Presentation > Widgets.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= How to add quotes anywhere in the posts/pages? =
Use the tag "<!-- shantz-wp-qotd {option} -->" anywhere in your post (without the quotes).
Note:
1. {option} (including the braces) has to be replaced by the quote pattern that you want: qotd, qottd or r. qotd is quote of the day, qottd is quote of that day and r is random.
2. The tag has to be added using the code editor and not the visual editor, otherwise it will replace the <, > with their HTML equivalents.

= How to use the custom separator/multi-line quotes? =
By default, if you leave the custom separator box blank, the plugin uses a newline character as the separator. However, if you have quotes that have multiple lines, you can change this to a tag of your choice, say [quote]. Now, in your quotes file (or quotes pasted in admin panel options) add this tag at the end of each quote and you are done.

= What is the format for saving quotes? =
In text box in admin page, as well as in the file, the quotes have to be saved as one on each line. Each quote is separate by newline.

= Where is the file with quotes located =

For the get from file option, a file "quotes.txt" has to be present in the same directory where shantz-wp-qotd.php is residing. A sample quotes.txt has been given with this plugin (with some quotes from southpark, simpsons, matrix and deus ex)

= I checked the option "exclude pages" but my pages are still displaying quotes =
Check your WordPress version. This option is effective only for Version 2.1 and above

= How to upgrade to a new version =
Simply overwrite the old files with the new ones.

== Screenshots ==

Config Screens and plugin in action:

You can also see the plugin in action right here on my site (check bottom of posts and the right sidebar topmost widget)

== Version History ==

• Version 1.2.2
  • Fixed a bug because of which quotes were blank some times. Thanks to Thom for reporting it.

• Version 1.2.1
  • Option to exclude pages from displaying quotes is also compatible with wordpress version < 2.1

• Version 1.2.0
  • Added option to exclude pages from displaying quotes
  • Fixed a bug that quotes source selection checkboxes always remain checked after updating settings.
  • Cosmetic: Fixed a few spelling mistakes

• Version 1.1.0.1
  • Cosmetic: Changed readme.txt according to wp-extend standards

• Version 1.1.0
  • Added Custom tag support for adding quotes anywhere in your posts/pages
  • Added Custom quote separator support and multi-line quotes support
• Version 1.0.1
  • Fixed some styling related issues in text added before/after quote displayed in widget (especially links related issues)

• Version 1.0.0
  • Initial version

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written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: plugin, QOTD, quote of the day, Shantz, sidebar, widget, widget support, widgets, wordpress, wordpress blog, WordPress Plugin, WP-QOTD