Update to WordPress Relocate File Upload plug-in

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A small update to the plug-in I wrote last year. This plug-in will move the File Upload box that is just below the content entry textarea. You can download the latest version of this plugin-in now. relocate_file_upload_v1.1.zip

The original version of the plug-in is here:
http://www.codehooligans.com/2006/11/29/relocate-wordpress-file-upload-section/

The small change was to correct some of the JavaScript to correctly build the DBX collapsible box. This version of the plug-in has been tested on the following WordPress versions:

  • SVN Bleeding
  • WordPress 2.1.3
  • WordPress 2.0.5
  • WordPress 2.0.2

Good luck using this. And again if any issues are found please let me know. The plug-in is pretty simple less then 30 lines of actual code.

WordPress Austin group growing

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Just under two weeks ago I created a new group on Meetup.com. The purpose of the group was to get people together to talk about WordPress.

I’m very happy to update everyone that the WordPress Austin group has a total of 13 members. This is mostly just a a word of mouth effort. I just find it amazing how people come together. Thank you to everyone who has joined. We are still a few weeks away from the initial April 23 meeting.

If you are new to this conversation please checkout the Meetup.com group page http://wordpress.meetup.com/173/, The Upcoming.org Event page http://upcoming.org/event/168004/, The new Google Groups page http://groups.google.com/group/wordpress-austin or just keep you eyes on this site for more information.

A new sheriff in town

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So this morning I hit the office minding my own business. I had a very bad drive in to work with the rain. I avoided the early morning office conversations because I wanted to keep my head focused on getting some client project work accomplished. This client work involves using WordPress to host the site. But the client also wants to host an Events calendar.

So I pull up my browser and type two words into the search box, WordPress and Events. The first item returned from the search was titled ‘WordPress enthusist Events…’. Curious, I clicked the link. I was brought to the Meetup.com main page. This page listed all the know WordPress groups. This was great. I used to use Meetup.com years ago and was an active member of the local PHP developers and Web Standards groups. But after meetup.com started charging things dropped off. So I quickly scanned the listing and didn’t see anything listed for Austin, hmm. I tried the zipcode search. Nothing. Then I saw the banner, “Start a WordPress meetup group in your area…’. Another hmm.

I had to think about this a little. I really enjoy working in WordPress. And if I had any balls at all I would have worked harder to land the recent job opening at Automattic.com/. So I decided to pony up my credit card and launch the group. I’m the group leader. Can say what that will bring. But I do hope to spread the good word of WordPress.

Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Austin, TX area? Desire to meet others in the area with similar interests? Then consider joining the group. http://wordpress.meetup.com/173/

I’m also a member of the local Refresh Austin group. There are plenty of members of this group who also use and enjoy WordPress. But do they have time to possibly attend both groups? Only time will tell I guess.

Also setup a mirror Event on Upcoming.org in case you don’t like Meetup.com http://upcoming.org/event/168004/?ps=5

WYSIWYG Button Manager for WordPress

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Have you ever managed a large list of content authors on a WordPress site? Ever want to allow certain authors to use more advanced WYSIWYG editor functionality? Keep reading.

Problem

As most users of WordPress 2.x and 2.0.x are aware WordPress come with a very small list of the editor buttons enabled. In order to enable these other buttons you had to open a file (tiny_mce_gzip.php) and add the buttons manually. Now editing the php file is fine for most programmers or folks familiar with WordPress. but for the average user this might be a hard task. Another problem with this option is you are in fact enabling the buttons for all users. If you happen to manage a site with a large list of authors you may want to only allow more advanced WYSIWYG buttons for the authors you trust.

Solution

Announcing the beta version of the WYSIWYG Button Manager for the TinyMCE Editor that comes as part of WordPress. This plug-in allow an administrator user to define WYSIWYG Panels. Each Panel is a set of three rows of allowed buttons. Via this plug-in you can define each button row custom to the users needs. Simple.

So how does this plug-in work? All WYSIWYG Panels are stored as a data structure (array) into the wp_options table. the key for this options record is ‘WYSIWYG_button_manager_data’. when you associate the Panel with the user a new usermeta record is added to the wp_usermeta table. The key for these records are ‘WYSIWYG_panel’.

When the user goes to edit/author an entry a couple of filters are called from WordPress. These filters are ‘mce_buttons’, ‘mce_buttons2’ and ‘mce_buttons3’. If you have defined a Panel that contains any buttons then these will be used over the default WordPress buttons. Really this only overrides the first ‘mce_buttons’ since this is the only variable defined via WordPress. The second and third row are left blank.

Testing

I’ve installed this plug-in into three version of WordPress. I know this plug-in will work with version 2.0.2, 2.0.5 and the latest SVN nightly grab.

Download

The beta version of this plug-in can be downloaded here

Problems

If you use this plug-in and have any problems please do not hesitate to contact me.

Installation

Drop the unzipped file into your wp-content/plugins folder. Via the WordPress Admin interface navigate to the Plugins page. Activate the plug-in. you should see a new menu under the Manage section ‘WYSIWYG Manager’. Only Admin-level users will see this options.

Future

As mentioned this is only a beta version. It’s functional but lacks some of the ‘bling’ options in today’s web 2.0 interfaces. I’d like to provide a complete list of dragable buttons to the user and let them build the editor rows instead of needing to type in the button name. Other ideas include making this plug-in aware of external MCE plug-ins used.

On vacation for the last week of the year

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Lucky me. Mindshare closes the office doors for the last week of the year. This on top of getting two weeks vacation to take during the year. What a fantastic company to work for. So this week I’m off and getting bored. Sondra’s family came to town and celebrated Christmas. It was short and sweet. They have all left now and Sondra has gone back to work. So for th emost part I’m on my own during the day. Her mom is also home. so I try and spend my time doing things. At the moment I’m sitting at Mozart’s Coffer house on Lake Austin Blvd. http://www.mozartscoffee.com/. I took a turn walking around Town Lake trying to drop some weight for the new year and before we go on our cruise in Jan. 2007.

I have some projects I’m trying to work on. I’ve changed the theme on this site. And I have a list of WordPress plugins to develop. Mostly these are from working in WP for the past 14 months. Looking at what is offered and what clients request. So keep this site bookmarked so you don’t miss the announcement of the new WordPress plugins I develop.