Article
Over the last year or so I’ve released several plugins for WordPress. Some of the were adaptations of existing plugins, some were built from the ground up, some have been updated and some…well…haven’t. The release of WP2.5 gives me a good opportunity to take a look at what plugins (other than Fluency as I think […]
Over the last year or so I’ve released several plugins for WordPress. Some of the were adaptations of existing plugins, some were built from the ground up, some have been updated and some…well…haven’t. The release of WP2.5 gives me a good opportunity to take a look at what plugins (other than Fluency as I think I’ve covered it enough on here in the last month or so) I have released, and what their future holds.
Current Version: 3.0
Development Status: 4.0 is in progress.
Next Release: Before the end of April.
While this is relatively simple plugin, it took me a while to get the basics working as I had originally intended them too. The first release was quite buggy to say the least, which was the main reason that v2 follow fairly soon after. I was happy enough with v2 not to update it any further, until WP2.3 came out and changed the way that categories were handled. I updated UCC to v3, bringing WP2.3 compatibility, along with some much need “cleansing” of my code, the removal of unneeded cruft, basically it was an overall refinement.
I’ve recently started work on v4.0 which will add (much needed) widget support which will make it even easier for users to add to their blogs, I’ve also sorted out a few oddities in the code which have been there since v2.
» Continue reading “Plugin Status Update”
Article
As mentioned a couple of days ago I’ve been working on an update to Twitt-Twoo. Its nothing ground-breaking, but hopefully some of the changes that I’ve made will make it a little more ‘friendly’ to use.
First up there have been a few changes to the code, mainly to incorporate some of the recent changes to the […]
As mentioned a couple of days ago I’ve been working on an update to Twitt-Twoo. Its nothing ground-breaking, but hopefully some of the changes that I’ve made will make it a little more ‘friendly’ to use.
First up there have been a few changes to the code, mainly to incorporate some of the recent changes to the Twitter API, including the deprecation of ‘relative_created_at’ from the feeds. To overcome this I’ve used a modified combination of a couplef of the scripts posted in the Twitter fan wiki. There wasn’t a php version listed, so I adapted the javascript one. Works nicely.
The other big change is the addition of “caching”. Its not like Alex King’s Twitter Tools, in that it doesn’t store a record for all your tweets, all I’m doing it simply storing the latest tweet and its time in the wp options table. For more details about this have a read of my previous post.
The last lot of changes were to remove the need for you to manually enter your twitter id number, and the url for your twitter profile image. Both are now sucked out of the feed the first time that you update. I have also incorporated a request to add and option to allow you to turn your Twitter image on or off.
As always, if you have any troubles, or if you’ve got any suggestions then just leave a comment here, or swing by the support forum and leave a message there.
For more details, and installation tips visit the Twitt-Twoo homepage.
Download Twitt-Twoo 1.1 Now!
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Twitt-Twoo Support Forum
Article
Originally I had planned (and hoped) that the simplistic nature of Twitt-Twoo would be a good thing. But due to the rising poularity of Twitter in general it seems that going off and requesting my current status everytime a page loads is not particularly good.
Sure its fine when the Twitter service is ok, but it is […]
Originally I had planned (and hoped) that the simplistic nature of Twitt-Twoo would be a good thing. But due to the rising poularity of Twitter in general it seems that going off and requesting my current status everytime a page loads is not particularly good.
Sure its fine when the Twitter service is ok, but it is frequently “delayed. And due to the position I have Twitt-Twoo in, this “delay” stops the rest of my sidebar loading until it finishes doing it magic. I had a suggestion just after I first launched Twitt-Twoo, to perhaps implement some sort of cahcing to reduce the need for the Twitter feed to be access every time a page is loaded.
So over the past few days (well, when I wasn’t spending stupid amounts of time at work over the weekend) I have been working on implementing this ‘caching’ idea. I think its almost there, but I will hold off releasing it until I’m happy with it, which hopefully should be too long.
The method I am using involves storing the latest ‘tweet’, the time for that tweet, and the last time twitter was checked. Now when the plugin loads, it checks the ‘last checked’ time and if it was less than 10 minutes ago it just pulls out the status and time from my Wordpress db. If its been longer than 10 minutes, then it goes off (server side) and updates the latest tweet in the database etc.
I’m using the updated version right now, so I would like any feedback regarding load times, andwhether or not you still notice that the sidebar “freezes” because its waiting forTwitt-Twoo. Providing I don’t come accross any major problems, and the general feedback is good I will try and get Twitt-Twoo 1.1 released by the end of the week.
Article
Twitt-Twoo v1.1 has now been released, it is recommened that you download the latest version which you can find here: Twitt-Twoo v1.1 Released
As I’ve talked about in the past couple of weeks, I have been working on my latest Wordpress plugin. Twitt-Twoo is essentially a very simple little plugin to allow you to do a very […]
Twitt-Twoo v1.1 has now been released, it is recommened that you download the latest version which you can find here: Twitt-Twoo v1.1 Released
As I’ve talked about in the past couple of weeks, I have been working on my latest Wordpress plugin. Twitt-Twoo is essentially a very simple little plugin to allow you to do a very simple thing, update your Twitter status directly from your blog’s sidebar.
There was already at least one plugin available which added similar functionality to the Wordpress admin. While this was good I wanted to be able to change my status without having to go into the admin area first. Plus I wanted to add a couple of other things. There was also a plugin available that would place a widget with your current status in you sidebar. It displays your status and when it was last updated. Again I liked this, but I wanted more.
Twitt-Twoo brings together both these functions into one easy to use plugin. AJAX is used to update your status so that no page load is required. Just click the ‘edit’ link, enter your new status and click ‘update’. Easy as that. And don’t worry about that little edit button, because it will only be available when you are logged in, just like a normal post edit link. Users of Facebook will be very familiar with this style of status updating. I guess Facebook’s status was the true inspiration for this plugin.
You even get three ways to add Twitt-Twoo to your blog. If you are using Wordpress Widgets, once you activate the plugin you will have new Twitt-Twoo widget available to you. If you are using K2, or a K2-derivative such as my own Redoable, then there is a sidebar module available. Or if you prefer to manually change the code of your sidebar, then you can do that too.
So what does it do? Twitt-Twoo is pretty simple.
- Displays your latest Twitter status, and when it was last updated.
- Displays your Twitter icon/avatar next your status.
- Allows for easy updating of your status from the sidebar.
- Updates using AJAX, so no page reload is required.
- Provides a link to your personal Twitter page. eg. http://twitter.com/deanjrobinson
- Provides a link to your Twitter RSS feed.
- Simple options page located in admin Options->Twitt-Twoo
- Provides a ready-to-use widget/module.
- Comes with a new Twitt-Twoo icon, inspired by the Feed and Share Icon projects.
For more details, and installation tips visit the Twitt-Twoo homepage.
Twitt-Twoo v1.1 has now been released, it is recommened that you download the latest version which you can find here: Twitt-Twoo v1.1 Released
Downoad Twitt-Twoo 1.0 Now!
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Twitt-Twoo Support Forum
Sidenote
So I’ve spent all weekend working away on my latest offering to the Wordpress community. Twitt-Twoo is a plugin that will allow you to update your Twitter status right from your sidebar, it also provides a link to your Twitter ‘home page’, a link to the RSS feed of your Twitters.
You can add it to your sidebar manually, or using the sidebar widget, and if you’re a Redoable user there will also be a sidebar module. It also comes with a shiny little icon.
Twitt-Twoo will be available once final testing is complete.
Article
A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a twitter account, and since then I have been trying to work out the best way that I could utilise it with my blog, and more specifically with Redoable.
Having just read Alex King’s plans for his own twitter plugin, there doesn’t seem to be much that his […]
A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a twitter account, and since then I have been trying to work out the best way that I could utilise it with my blog, and more specifically with Redoable.
Having just read Alex King’s plans for his own twitter plugin, there doesn’t seem to be much that his plugin won’t be able to do once it is released. There are also a few other plugins out there that interact with twitter in various ways.
Twitter Updater will update your twitter to reflect any changes you make to your blog when you make them. Twitter Update Status lets you update twitter from within your Wordpress admin area. And there are couple of different plugin that let you display your current twitter comment.
But as yet I haven’t found one to do what I want in a twitter plugin. So today I started work on combining features from a couple of exisiting plugins, and adding a bit of ajax to allow updating directly from your sidebar wehn you are logged into your blog.
This is something that Alex King has said he might include with his plugin, but instead of waiting I’m going to have a crack at it myself. I don’t need all the archiving, auto updating stuff, I just was to display my twitter and update it easily.
For those who have used Facebook, they should be able to understand the concept behind my thinking. In Facebook you can set your current ‘status’, sort of like your status in Jabber or MSN, and you can do it just by clicking a little edit button, typing your status and hitting enter. Done, easy as that. And thats what I want to bring to Wordpress with ‘Twitt-twoo’, my twitter plugin.
