WordPress plugins released
I developed two plugins (so far) to support the new Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East site, and they are now listed in the WordPress Plugin Repository:
So far today I have compulsively checked the download statistics and somehow 60+ people downloaded PageSpot within about 6 hours of it being published. I know there are a lot of WordPress blogs and users out there but there must be even more than I assumed.
Nick, are the any implementation examples available of PageSpot and it’s use?
Marty
I have not set up an example site with public access to the back-end for exploration or example-ation. Nor do I plan to. Sorry, I just don’t have the infrastructure, time, and inclination to maintain such a thing. PageSpot is currently in use on the Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East site at habitatportlandmetro.org; the homepage is a 4-spot layout consisting of north, east, west, and south spots, and pretty much every section of the site has its own assigned custom sidebar.
Hey Nick,
I’m trying to get pagespot working too, but it doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve created a page template with pagespot in the name, and then I set that template on a test page, but I don’t see the “PageSpot admin box will become active for that Page.”? And when I put [[PageSpot:Featuring]] in the new page that is using the pagespot template, it just renders as “[[PageSpot:Featuring]]”.
I do see something at the bottom that says “Set this page’s template to a PageSpot template to use PageSpot.” but it’s not active. The name of my themed page is “front page pagespot” and it’s relative file is page_pagespot.php
What have I done wrong?
I am using wp 2.8.2 on Ubuntu Jaunty…
I have the sidebar items working ok though.
Hi datakid,
If the PageSpot admin box on your Page edit screen says “Set this page’s template to a PageSpot template to use PageSpot”, then it isn’t recognizing that the template assigned to your Page is a template that it should parse. Its only test for the template file is that the word “pagespot” appears in the template filename, and the file’s extension is .php.
You also first have to save your Page after selecting the template, before the PageSpot admin box will become active.
I have to say this plugin is a MUST HAVE for anyone serious about using Wordpress as a CMS.
Take this page as an example: [http://]cheapukshortbreaksreviewed.com/cheap-hotel-short-breaks/de-vere-hotels-breaks/
I’ve edited the template so that I can include PageSpot pages by creating containers where I can add things on a per page basis. With this example, I’ve created containers for:
- Right hand side banner space, so I can add a custom banner based on the company being promoted
- Where the search box for ‘de vere’ is, this is another container where I can drop anything in like an Ad or in this case, their search box
- And below this I’ve added other companies which are similar to this one. What this in particular means is that users can click any of the links in this box and use the same box to view other companies. Why is this useful? If I wish to add a new company, I add this in the original page and all pages that use this automatically update to the latest version!
Why this is similar to a CMS is that within most CMS’s you have the ability of assigning areas in your website which have shared content, which is easily editable. By this, I’ve created a set of containers which means I can edit a page without worrying about editing sidebar codes or anything, I can use the Wordpress HTML editor to create and edit these!
Now for it to be supercool I’m waiting for the ability to somehow add this at post-level…
By the way, if you are interested in charging for the ability to add this at post level let me know and lets see if we can sort something out?
Shoot me an email, nick at this site’s domain name dot com, and we can discuss.