WordPress plugins developed by Erick can be found at http://www.ethitter.com/plugins/.

disparate.info, my blog on all manner of topics that catch my interest, represents WordPress used for its original purpose, blogging. The blog, employing the minimalist Journalist theme by Lucien Marin, also showcases two of the plugins I’ve developed: the Simple Facebook Share Button and the Tag Dropdown Widget.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Sonshine Soup Kitchen, I redesigned the organization’s website using Joomla. The soup kitchen staff was very interested in being able to update their site themselves, including posting current donation needs, serving data, and their quarterly newsletter. The Joomla-powered design represents a significant improvement over the previous Microsoft Frontpage-built site. This site represents the last I intend to creating using Joomla as I have shifted my focus to implementing WordPress as a CMS.

While a student at the University of Hartford, I created a site for the student chapter of the Audio Engineering Society. The site was built in PHP and employed a custom content management system (CMS) designed to suit the limited needs of the chapter. Formerly located at http://www.hartfordaes.org, the design provided event notifications, newsletters, links to various sites of interest to members, and an extensive image gallery comprised of photos depicting typical activities occurring in the studios available at the University of Hartford. The site was abandoned by my successors after I graduated from the audio engineering technology program in 2006.

To this end, the services offered by eth consulting emphasize freely-available and open-source solutions wherever possible, while seeking relationships with service providers that share its philosophy of economical client service.

eth consulting specializes in implementing WordPress-based sites for its clients based on their specific needs. In addition, Erick’s familiarity with the technologies underlying this open-source product ensures customized solutions that reflect the true nature of his clients.

As part of providing a complete solutions for its clients, Erick partners with the organizations he serves to ensure the long-term viability of the sites he develops. This approach reinforces the importance he places on the products offered and means his clients have someone to turn to should an issue or previously-undeveloped need arise.

A portfolio is available at http://www.ethitter.com/web-development/portfolio/.

WordPress plugins Erick has developed are available at http://www.ethitter.com/plugins/.

More information is available by contacting Erick.

Description

Creates a list of tags as an alternative to the tag cloud. List can be bulleted, numbered, or deliminated by line breaks; custom list formatting is also available. Widget provides options to specify list label and trim long tag names to fit theme constraints, as well as display post counts. Widget can also exclude tags based on tag slugs.

List function can also be called directly for use in non-widget themes using <?php if(function_exists('TLW_direct')) {TLW_direct();} ?>. See FAQ for TLW_direct arguments.

Compatibility

The Tag List Widget is compatible with WordPress 2.3 – 2.9.1.

Installation

1. Upload tag-list-widget.php to /wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate plugin through the WordPress Plugins menu.
3. Activate widget from the Appearance > Widgets menu in WordPress. (In earlier versions, Widgets are found under the Presentation menu.)
4. Set list label and maximum tag length from the widget’s options pane. To exclude tags, enter a comma-separated list of slugs in the space provided. Then select deliminator from options provided.

Frequently Asked Questions

• I entered tags to be excluded, but they are still appearing. What happened?
  • The list of tags to exclude should be entered as a comma-separated list with no whitespace between the tag slugs and commas. For example, to exclude the general and uncategorized tags, enter the following:
    • general,uncategorized
• I set the deliminator to a bulleted (or numbered) list, but the bullets don’t appear.
  • Some themes use CSS to hide the list markers in the sidebar. To counteract this, you must apply custom CSS to the list as described in the following FAQ.
• Can I use CSS to style the list?
  • Two CSS IDs are applied to the list generated by this plugin. The first, “taglist”, is applied to the list as a whole. The second, “taglist_item”, applies to the individual list elements.
  • For example, if your theme hides the bullets and you would like to display round bullets, add the following CSS to your theme’s stylesheet. This can be done via the Theme Editor found under Appearance > Editor.
    • #taglist {list-style-type:disc;}
  • If you desire a numbered list but the numerals aren’t showing, add the following CSS to your theme’s style sheet:
    • #taglist {list-style-type:decimal;}
  • Other list-style-type options include circle, which displays an unfilled circle, and square, which displays a solid-colored square. A Google search on the term “CSS list style” will yield innumerable resources to aid in styling the list that results.
• If my theme does not support widgets, can I still use the plugin?
  • If not using a widget-enabled theme, insert the function <?php if(function_exists('TLW_direct')) {TLW_direct();} ?> where the list should appear. The function has five required arguments; omitting any will generate an error. All arguments should be enclosed in quotes. If a particular argument is not desired, simply insert two quotation marks as demonstrated below. The arguments are: limit, display count, code before item, code after item, and excluded tags.
    • Limit – the maximum length of a tag that should be displayed. If a tag is truncated, an elipsis (…) will be added to indicate the truncation. Set to “0″ to display full tags.
    • Display count – to show number of posts with a particular tag, set this argument to “on”. Otherwise, simply enter two quotation marks in this argument’s place to exclude post counts.
    • Code before item – any valid HTML you would like to display before each tag.
    • Code after item – any valid HTML you would like to display after each tag.
    • Excluded tags – enter a comma-separated list of tags to be excluded from the resulting list.The following example demonstrates how to omit a particular argument without generating a parse error.
  • In this example, full tags are displayed with post counts, no HTML is added before the tag names, a line break is added after each tag, and no tags are excluded.
    • <?php if(function_exists(‘TLW_direct’)) {TLW_direct(“0″,”on”,”",”<br />”,”");} ?>
  • The following examples demonstrates how specific tags (general and uncategorized in this case) can be excluded. All other arguments mirror the preceding example.
    • <?php if(function_exists('TLW_direct')) {TLW_direct("0","on","","<br />","general,uncategorized");} ?>
• If the function is called directly, can tags be excluded?
  • To exclude tags when using the TLW_direct function, enter a comma-separated list of tag slugs in the last argument of the function. The preceding FAQ more fully demonstrates this.
• If the function is called directly, can I display post counts?
  • Yes, to display post counts when using the TLW_direct function, set the second argument to “on”.Conversely, to prevent post counts from displaying, simply enter two quotation marks as the second function argument.
• I would rather display my tags in a dropdown menu. Is this an option?
  • To display tags as a dropdown, see my Tag Dropdown Widget, available in the WordPress Plugin repository at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tag-dropdown-widget/.
• Where can I get more help?
  • For support, visit the plugin homepage at http://www.ethitter.com/plugins/tag-list-widget/.

Changelog

• 0.3
  • Reduced variables stored in database to two.
• 0.2
  • Added function TLW_direct

Description

Creates a dropdown list of tags as an alternative to the tag cloud. Widget provides options to specify dropdown label and trim long tag names to fit theme constraints, as well as display post counts. Widget can also exclude tags based on tag slugs. Dropdown function can also be called directly for use in non-widget themes using <?php if(function_exists("TDW_direct")) {TDW_direct("limit", "count", "exclude_tags");} ?>.

Compatibility

The Tag Dropdown Widget is compatible with WordPress 2.3 – 2.9.2.

Installation

1. Upload tag-dropdown-widget.php to /wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate plugin through the WordPress Plugins menu.
3. Activate widget from the Appearance > Widgets menu in WordPress. (In earlier versions, Widgets are found under the Presentation menu.)
4. Set dropdown label and maximum tag length from the widget’s options pane. To exclude tags, enter a comma-separated list of slugs in the space provided.

Frequently Asked Questions

• If my theme does not support widgets, can I still use the plugin?
  • If not using a widget-enabled theme, insert the function <?php if(function_exists('TDW_direct')) {TDW_direct("limit", "count", "exclude_tags");} ?> where the dropdown should appear. Replace limit with the maximum tag length to display, using “0″ to display full tags. To display post counts, set count to “on”, otherwise count should be set to “off”. To exclude specific tags, replace exclude_tags with a comma-separated list of tag slugs, such as “general, wordpress, widget”.
• What happened to the makeTagDropdown() function?
  • To implement additional features via the function, version 1.6 introduces the TDW_direct function. For compatibility purposes, the makeTagDropdown function is still present, but it does not provide the features available with the new function.
• If the function is called directly, can tags be excluded?
  • To exclude tags when using the TDW_direct function, enter a comma-separated list of tag slugs as the function’s third option, enclosed in quotation marks. See the first FAQ for more information.
• If the function is called directly, can I display post counts?
  • Yes, post counts can be displayed by setting the TDW_direct function’s second option to “on”. See the first FAQ for more information.

Changelog

• 1.6
  • Add TDW_direct function.
  • Add count and exclusion options to new direct-implementaiton function (TDW_direct).
  • Corrects two XHTML validation errors.
• 1.5.2
  • Unloads tag exclusion list upon deactivation.
• 1.5.1
  • Moved plugin pages to ethitter.com.
• 1.5
  • Added option to display number of posts within each tag.
• 1.4
  • Added option to exclude tags based on comma-separated list of slugs.
• 1.3
  • Rewrote certain widget elements for compatibility back to version 2.3.
• 1.2
  • Added function to remove plugin settings when deactivated.
• 1.1
  • Added the ability to trim tag names when calling the function directly.

Upgrade Notice

• 1.6
  • Replaces makeTagDropdown with TDW_direct function, adds post count and exclusion options to direct-implementation function.
  • makeTagDropdown function retained for backwards compatibility, but will be phased out in a future release.
  • Corrects two XHTML validation errors.

Description

Painlessly add a Facebook® Share button to your posts and pages.

Features include:

• Supports all five button types, including custom button text;
• Supports placing button above or below content;
• Button can be shown on either posts, pages, or both;
• Includes compatibility modes for seamless theme integration;
• Allows user to override default padding options (defaults provided in admin interface);
• Button can be added via shortcode;
• Function can be added manually.

Compatibility

The Simple Facebook Share Button plugin is compatible with WordPress 2.7 – 2.9.1.

Installation

1. Unzip simple-fb-share-button.zip and upload entire simple-fb-share-button folder to wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate plugin through the WordPress Plugins menu.
3. Set display, button, and placement options from Settings > Simple FB Share Button.
4. To manually include the Share button, see the Help page in the plugin’s Settings page.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How Do I Manually Add Share Buttons?
  • After activating the plugin, go to Settings > Simple FB Share Button and select “Plugin Help” at the top of the screen.
• Why Does My Blog’s Tagline Appear Instead of a Summary of My Content?
  • The Facebook Sharer uses the <meta name="description" content="XXX"> tag to gather information about the content you are sharing. Some templates set the description tag to be your tagline. If you are using a plugin that creates a meta description tag from your content, such as HeadSpace or All In One SEO, you should edit your template’s header.php file to remove the <meta name="description" content="XXX"> tag.

  What are the Theme Compatibility Modes?

  • In certain themes, the button may overlap other theme elements, such as comment buttons or other plugins. The plugin includes three compatibility modes to help resolve these problems with minimal effort user effort. Know that in some cases, these modes will not resolve button placement problems. In that case, a custom CSS style may be needed.
    • Mode 1 disables the CSS float property (a setting that allows the button to, as the name implies, float adjacent to your blog’s content) and relies on the alignment of the button wrapper to place the button.
    • Mode 2 prevents other elements from floating adjacent to the button (using the CSS clear property).
    • Mode 3 combines the functions of Modes 1 and 2.

Changelog

• 1.0.4
  • Plugin pages moved to ethitter.com
• 1.0.3
  • Fixed FB.Loader error exhibited by some versions of Internet Explorer.
• 1.0.1
  • Corrected Subversion error that omitted buttons from version 1.0.
• 1.0
  • Added shortcode;
  • Removed SFBSB_do() function and replaced with SFBSB_direct();
  • Added built-in help page;
  • Reformatted settings page for better navigation;
  • Removed redundant button style.

Upgrade Notice

• 1.0.4
  • Plugins pages moved to ethitter.com
• 1.0.3
  • Resolved FB.Loader error exhibited by certain versions of Internet Explorer.
• 1.0.1
  • Buttons will appear in options screen and help pane.
• 1.0
  • Removed redundant button style;
  • Added new, more flexible function for direct implementation;
  • Added shortcode;
  • Reformatted settings page.

Painlessly add a Facebook® Share button to your posts and/or pages.

Version 1.0.4 of the Simple Facebook® Share Button includes:

• Supports all five button types, including custom button text;
• Supports placing button above or below content;
• Button can be shown on either posts, pages, or both;
• Includes compatibility modes for seamless theme integration;
• Allows user to override default padding options (defaults provided in admin interface);
• Button can be added on an as-needed basis using a shortcode;
• Function can be added manually;
• Plugin now includes built-in help accessible from within the settings page.

Compatibility

Version 1.0.4 is compatible with WordPress 2.7 and higher.

Download

This plugin is available in the WordPress plugins directory at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-facebook-share-button/.

Readme

The plugin readme is available at http://www.ethitter.com/plugins/simple-facebook-share-button/readme/.

Donations are gladly accepted via PayPal and are used solely to support development of this and future plugins.

After struggling to find a solution to the problem of unwieldy tag clouds, I created a WordPress plugin to display my tags as a dropdown list. You can see it in action in the sidebar at http://disparate.info/.

Version 1.6 of the Tag Dropdown Widget includes:

• Ability to specify label shown above tag dropdown;
• Ability to trim long tag names to fit within sidebar;
• Ability to display post counts;
• Ability to exclude specific tags;
• Ability to trim long tag names, display post counts, and exclude specific tags when using the direct-implementation function in themes that don’t support widgets;
• Compatibility with earlier versions of WordPress.

The function powering the Tag Dropdown Widget can also be called using the <?php if(function_exists(TDW_direct)) {TDW_direct("limit", "count", "excluded_tags");} ?> command for use outside of the sidebar or in a theme that does not utilize a widgetized sidebar.

Compatibility

Tag Dropdown Widget v1.6 is compatible with WordPress 2.3 and higher.

Download

This plugin is available in the WordPress plugins directory at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tag-dropdown-widget/.

Readme

The plugin readme is available at http://www.ethitter.com/plugins/tag-dropdown-widget/readme/.

Donations are gladly accepted via PayPal and are used solely to support development of this and future plugins.