WPInsite http://www.wpinsite.com WordPress blog, themes, plugins and more... Fri, 18 May 2012 02:57:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Good Space Responsive Minimal WP Theme http://www.wpinsite.com/premium-wordpress-themes/good-space-responsive-minimal-wp-theme http://www.wpinsite.com/premium-wordpress-themes/good-space-responsive-minimal-wp-theme#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 02:57:40 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5317 (more...)]]> Good Space is a WordPress theme especially for creative agency. It’s very clean, minimal with modern design.

Good Space Responsive Minimal WP Theme

Good Space Responsive Minimal WP Theme

This theme is also has a responsive ability. Moreover, it comes with tons of features. Including our page items that can be managed very easily via our awesome tool, ‘Page Builder’.

Admin panel in this theme is a real feature rich. You can also create unlimited sidebar, choosing over 450 fonts or if you want to use your own, we provide a Cufon uploader. You can also translate each elements to your language via this admin panel.

Good Space SEO built-in

The developer has reconstructed about how to use title. We use heading tag(H1,H2,H3,…) for title which is good practice for search engine site. Main contents are moved above sidebars (including both sidebar layout), now search engine will easily fine your main contents first. Also, ‘alt’ tag for images is supported. This is also help search engine to analyst your site easily.

Good Space Theme Features

  • .pot file for localization available
  • SEO Optimized
  • Unlimited Color
  • 6 Footer Layouts
  • 4 Blog styles
  • 450+ Fonts Available
  • Drag Drop Page Builder
  • Drag Drop Slider Manager
  • Built-in Translator
  • Built-in Shortcodes
  • Font Uploader
  • Logo Uploader
  • Background Uploader
  • 15 Pre-defined Background Patterns
  • Thumbnail Options
    • Static Image
    • Slider
    • Video
  • Price Table
  • Social Share for Posts
  • Social Link on Header
  • Video Tutorial for Setting Up as Demo Site

Screenshots

Homepage layout

Homepage layout

 

The Goodlayers Admin Panel

The Goodlayers Admin Panel

 

Great variety of theme functions

Great variety of theme functions

More details and/or purchase the Good Space Responsive Minimal WordPress Theme

Developer: GoodLayers
Release Date: 1 May 2012
Latest version: v1.0.1 – 3 May 2012
Style: Responsive
Price: $35
Click below to view a demonstration of the Good Space Responsive Minimal WordPress Theme
Demonstration

Click below to view more information and/or purchase the Good Space Responsive Minimal WordPress Theme
Visit ThemeForest

Be sure to check out the Premium WordPress Themes category for other great premium WordPress themes or our Free WordPress Themes category for free themes.

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/premium-wordpress-themes/good-space-responsive-minimal-wp-theme/feed 0 Loading jQuery into your WordPress theme http://www.wpinsite.com/code-snippets/loading-jquery-into-your-wordpress-theme http://www.wpinsite.com/code-snippets/loading-jquery-into-your-wordpress-theme#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 01:57:00 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5307 (more...)]]> In this code snippet we will learn how to load the latest version of jQuery into our WordPress themes.

Loading jQuery into your WordPress theme

Loading jQuery into your WordPress theme

WordPress themes are becoming so much more featured packed with custom sliders and fancy navigation menus that external JavaScript libraries are required to run them. Powering these special effects is the jQuery JavaScript library.

To be able to have these special effects in our WordPress themes we must ensure that we have the jQuery library loaded correctly.

A lot of Theme developers and plugin developers require the jQuery library to be loaded for their themes or plugins to work as intended. Most times they will load the jQuery library for you. There may be times when you will need to load the jQuery library yourself into your active theme. Having a basic knowledge of PHP will help in this process but is not mandatory.

Insert jQuery into your WordPress theme

WordPress comes already loaded with the jQuery library. There are a couple of ways we can go about loading the library into our current WordPress theme. For both example we are going to use the wp_enqueue_script WordPress function.

We are going to insert the jQuery script into the “header.php” file of our current theme.

Navigate to your current theme directory wp-content/themes/my-current-theme and open up your header.php file.

Locate the <head> </head> tags.

Load the jQuery library that is built into WordPress

Enqueue the version built into WordPress

The first option we are going to explore is how to load the jQuery library that is built into WordPress. Enter the below code in between your <head> </head> tags in the header.php file.

wp_enqueue_script('jquery');

That is simple enough!

Load the latest version of the jQuery library

The next method entails us loading the latest version from the Google library.

To do this add the below code below your <head> </head> tags

wp_enqueue_script( 'jquery', 'http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.pack.js', '', '', false );

Now, save your header.php file. You will now have the most recent minified version of jQuery loaded into your WordPress theme.

Be sure to check out our other great WordPress Code Snippets and WordPress Articles.

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/code-snippets/loading-jquery-into-your-wordpress-theme/feed 0 Create a Custom WordPress Comments Form Validation Plugin http://www.wpinsite.com/articles/create-custom-wordpress-comment-form-plugin http://www.wpinsite.com/articles/create-custom-wordpress-comment-form-plugin#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 02:52:48 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5264 (more...)]]> Validating our WordPress comments form using jQuery is a great way to ensure a one click form submission and a greater user experience for our post contributor.

There is nothing more frustrating than completing a blog comments form to only realize that you have forgotten to complete a mandatory field after you have clicked the submit button. That well thought out comment has now been lost forever.

This can not only be frustrating to the end user however it can also deter users from contributing in your blog discussions. What if there was an easier way? A way to notify the users and post contributors of any errors as they are filling out the comments form. Well, using a little bit of jQuery code we can achieve exactly this and therefore provide a much better end user experience.

The basic WordPress Comments Form

The default WordPress Comments form

The default WordPress Comments form

The default basic WordPress comments form only requires the user to complete a few fields. These include:

  • The User full name
  • Email Address
  • Website URL
  • Comments

By default the built-in form validation provided by the WordPress core validates the user full name,the email address and the comment itself. If we submit the form without providing the mandatory fields the form will be submitted and we will see the following error message.

The default error message

The default error message

In this article we are going to walk through the process of creating a custom plugin to present the user with inline jQuery form validation when completing the WordPress comments form. This way they do not have to go to a new page to see if there are any error messages. We will display the error messages, if any when they click the comment form submit button.

Our Completed Custom Comments Validation plugin.

This is a screenshot of what our plugin is going to look like at the end of this tutorial. The great thing about validating the comment form in this manner is that if the user has JavaScript disabled the built-in WordPress core validation will still get run.

The completed plugin

The completed plugin

 

STEP 1: Create our plugin framework.

The first thing to do when creating a WordPress plugin is to create our plugin folder and create the skeleton or framework files. We are going to be using the jQuery Validation Plugin 1.9.0 from Bassistance.de jQuery comment validation library for our plugin.

In this article I am going to be using the Twenty Eleven theme that ships free with the latest version of WordPress.

  1. Navigate to your plugin directory: “wp-content/plugins”.
  2. Create a new folder called “custom-comments-validation”. This is the main plugin folder that will hold all the files for our plugin.
  3. Inside the “custom-comments-validation” folder create the below sub folders:
    • css
    • js
Plugin folder structure

Plugin folder structure

The “CSS” folder is going to contain our Cascading Style-sheet for the plugin. The “JS” folder is going to contain our JavaScript files.

 STEP 2: Create our main PHP plugin file

Now, we want to create our main PHP plugin file that will be used to control our custom comments plugin. Open up your desired code editor and create a new .php file called custom-comment-validation.php. All WordPress plugins need a valid comment block of the top of the main file that feeds WordPress the valid information on the plugin.

Add the below code to the “custom-comment-validation.php” file

/**
* Plugin Name: Custom Comments Validation
* Plugin URI: http://www.wpinsite.com
* Description: Adds custom jQuery form validation to the WordPress comments form
* Version: 1.0
* Author: WPInsite
* Author URI: http://www.wpinsite.com
* License: GPL
*/

Most of the fields above are self explanatory however for a deeper incite into creating WordPress plugin visit the official WordPress plugin creation page.

STEP 3: Add the Comments Validation jQuery

Because our plugin is providing client side form validation we must provide the jQuery JavaScript library that we are going to use.
Navigate to the Bassistance.de website and download the latest version of the jQuery Validation Plugin

Once the files have been downloaded open and extract all the files.
Inside the directory you will see a file called jquery.validate.js.
Copy this file and place it into the “js” folder located within our plugin directory.

Copy the jquery.validate.js file

Copy the jquery.validate.js file

Inside our “js” folder we are going to have two JavaScript files. The first one being the jquery.validate library and a second file containing the jQuery code to control our plugin and process the actual comment form validation.

Create a new file called “custom-validation.js” and add the below code:

jQuery(function($) {
var errorContainer = $("<div class='error'>Please fill out the required fields</div>").appendTo("#commentform").hide();
var errorLabelContainer = $("<div class='error errorlabels'></div>").appendTo("#commentform").hide();
$("#commentform").validate({
rules: {
author: "required",
email: {
required: true,
email: true
},
url: "url",
comment: "required"
},
errorContainer: errorContainer,
errorLabelContainer: errorLabelContainer,
ignore: ":hidden"
});
$.validator.messages.required = "";
$.validator.messages.email = "&raquo; " + $.validator.messages.email;
$.validator.messages.url = "&raquo; " + $.validator.messages.url;
});

This is the meat of the plugin. This code snippet instructs the jquery.validate library as to what form and what fields we want validated. This code will output the error notification messages to the user completing he comments form. Be sure to change the wording to your own needs.

STEP 4: Style our Comments Validation plugin

The final file that we want to create is the CSS file that will containing the styling to display when outputting our custom comment validation messages. This file will color the validation text red and also highlight the fields in red that were not completed. Once again you can customize this to your own needs.

Create a new CSS file called “custom-validation.css” and add the following CSS code:

#commentform input.error, #commentform textarea.error { background-color: #f99; }
#commentform div.error, #commentform label.error { color: #F00; }
#commentform div.errorlabels label { display: block; }

STEP 5: Tie it all together and complete the plugin file

Now that we have our framework in place it is time to complete the plugin. To do this we need to go back to the main plugin file page: “custom-comment-validation.php” and complete the script to instruct WordPress the load the required files for our plugin.

Under the plugin header code that we added earlier, add the below code:

function init_comment_validation() {
wp_enqueue_style('commentvalidation', WP_PLUGIN_URL . '/custom-comment-validation/css/custom-validation.css');
wp_enqueue_script('jqueryvalidate', WP_PLUGIN_URL . '/custom-comment-validation/js/jquery.validate.js', array('jquery'));
wp_enqueue_script('commentvalidation', WP_PLUGIN_URL . '/custom-comment-validation/js/custom-validation.js', array('jquery','jqueryvalidate'));
}

add_action('init', 'init_comment_validation');

We use the WordPress wp_enqueue_style hook and the wp_enqueue_script hook to load our required plugin files.

Your completed plugin files should look like this

custom-comment-validation.php

<?php
/**
* Plugin Name: Custom Comments Validation
* Plugin URI: http://www.wpinsite.com
* Description: Adds custom jQuery form validation to the WordPress comments form
* Version: 1.0
* Author: WPInsite
* Author URI: http://www.wpinsite.com
* License: GPL
*/

function init_comment_validation() {
wp_enqueue_style('customvalidationcss', WP_PLUGIN_URL . '/custom-comment-validation/css/custom-validation.css');
wp_enqueue_script('jqueryvalidate', WP_PLUGIN_URL . '/custom-comment-validation/js/jquery.validate.js', array('jquery'));
wp_enqueue_script('commentvalidation', WP_PLUGIN_URL . '/custom-comment-validation/js/custom-validation.js', array('jquery','jqueryvalidate'));
}

add_action('init', 'init_comment_validation');
?>

js/custom-validation.js

jQuery(function($) {
var errorContainer = $("<div class='error'>Please fill out the required fields</div>").appendTo("#commentform").hide();
var errorLabelContainer = $("<div class='error errorlabels'></div>").appendTo("#commentform").hide();
$("#commentform").validate({
rules: {
author: "required",
email: {
required: true,
email: true
},
url: "url",
comment: "required"
},
errorContainer: errorContainer,
errorLabelContainer: errorLabelContainer,
ignore: ":hidden"
});
$.validator.messages.required = "";
$.validator.messages.email = "&raquo; " + $.validator.messages.email;
$.validator.messages.url = "&raquo; " + $.validator.messages.url;
});

js/jquery.validate.js

This will contain the jQuery script for the jquery.validate.js file from the bassistance.de website.

css/custom-validation.css

#commentform input.error, #commentform textarea.error { background-color: #f99; }
#commentform div.error, #commentform label.error { color: #F00; }
#commentform div.errorlabels label { display: block; }

Activate & test the plugin

At this stage we can start testing our newly developed custom comments validation plugin. Navigate to the “plugins” page within the WordPress Dashboard and activate the plugin.

Activate the plugin

Activate the plugin

Conclusion

There you go! It was a fairly short tutorial and a fairly small WordPress plugin. Just taking an hour out of your day to create a simple comments plugin like this can be a win, win situation providing a much better user experience for your blog users.

Be sure to check out our other great WordPress Articles and Plugins

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/articles/create-custom-wordpress-comment-form-plugin/feed 0 Quform Ultimate WordPress Form Builder http://www.wpinsite.com/wp-plugins/quform-ultimate-wordpress-form-builder http://www.wpinsite.com/wp-plugins/quform-ultimate-wordpress-form-builder#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 22:29:56 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5240 (more...)]]> Quform WordPress is a brand new plugin that allows you to build multiple forms in WordPress easily and quickly with total control.

Quform Ultimate WordPress Form Builder

Quform Ultimate WordPress Form Builder

If it’s a complex quote or booking form or just a simple contact form, Quform plugin will allow you to do this without touching any code. In a few clicks you will have a fully functional form. It’s that simple.

Quform Features

Using the form builder is made simple with drag and drop and one click functionality and it works in all major browsers. There are options and settings for the basic user and for professionals. There are far too many features to list them all here, so here are the favorites:

  • Create a form without knowing any HTML or PHP !
  • Drag and drop form elements
  • Fully translatable for all languages
  • Easy to use user interface
  • View submitted form entries inside the WordPress admin
  • Send submitted form data via email
  • JavaScript calendar (datepicker) with 24 themes and 62 languages
  • NEW Export submitted form data to Excel / OpenOffice
  • NEW Conditional logic to show/hide fields
  • NEW Dynamically set form values from the URL
  • NEW Fully supported form inside a lightbox
  • File uploads, sent as attachments or saved to the server (or both)
  • Preview while building
  • Flash upload progress
  • Group elements for complex form layouts
  • 15 included element types
  • Conditionally set recipients based on form values
  • Custom autoreply
  • 6 included filters to strip invalid data
  • 9 included validators
  • Import/export forms across websites
  • Plenty of help and support

Styling features

Making your form look great

Not only does the Quform take care of the functionality, it can very easily make your form look great too. Quform has a unique form theming system. You can use one of our themes, create your own theme or use other peoples theme designs. For the more advanced user, you will not be disappointed with the flexibility of the styling features of Quform. You can have total control of your form design and there are plenty layout options so you can take it as far as you like.

  • Dark and Light themes included
  • Create your own themes
  • Easily edit the CSS of elements via the form builder
  • Use a variety of label placements to display elements
  • Uniform (Sexy forms with jQuery) included
  • qTip2 Tooltips with 12 included styles
  • Group elements to separate sections or for layout
  • Unique identifiers make it easy to manipulate an element
  • Customize inputs with onscreen color picker

ScreenShots

A simple contact us form

A simple contact us form

 

Creating your first form

Creating your first form

 

Using the amazing visual designer

Using the amazing visual designer

 

Each input has a variety of settings

Each input has a variety of settings

Quform truly is an amazing WordPress plugin. It is fun and a delight to use. The features bundled into this plugin are absolutely amazing and this plugin is perfect for the beginner WordPress user to the most advanced users.

More information and purchase the Quform Ultimate WordPress Form Builder WordPress plugin

Developer: ThemeCatcher
Version: 1.3.5
Style: Form Builder
Price: $25
Click below for more information on the Quform Ultimate WordPress Form Builder WordPress plugin
More Information
Click below to purchase the Quform Ultimate WordPress Form Builder WordPress plugin
Purchase Quform

To view other great plugins available for your WordPress installation be sure to view our Plugins category.

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/wp-plugins/quform-ultimate-wordpress-form-builder/feed 0 Esthetically Pleasing Free Gardening WordPress Themes http://www.wpinsite.com/free-wordpress-themes/esthetically-pleasing-free-gardening-wordpress-themes http://www.wpinsite.com/free-wordpress-themes/esthetically-pleasing-free-gardening-wordpress-themes#comments Sat, 05 May 2012 02:12:38 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5210 (more...)]]> Gardening and being outdoors is such a pleasing and esthetic environment to be in. What a better way to escape than to view this release of free WordPress gardening themes.

In this article we are going to escape reality and venture into the world of WordPress Gardening Themes by viewing this amazing list of free themes that you can download and use for free.

Nurturing Garden Smile

Nurturing Garden Smile Free WordPress Gardening Theme

Nurturing Garden Smile Free WordPress Gardening Theme

The amazing and fresh gardening template is compatible with latest WordPress versions and of course, backward compatible. Coming with threaded comments and a couple of other useful settings and tested on major web browsers.

Demonstration Download the Nurturing Garden Smile theme

Parallax Fun Theme

Parallax Fun Theme

Parallax Fun Theme

A free premium quality jQuery animated WordPress theme, just great for a kids themed blog.

Features:

  • Animated header
  • Animated menu
  • Options page
  • Cross-browser compatible (tested in Firefox, Opera, Safari, Google Chrome, IE)
  • Working with the last version of WordPress and lower
Demonstration Download the Nurturing Garden Smile theme

Gardening Theme WP 9 WordPress Theme

Gardening Theme WP 9 WordPress Theme

Gardening Theme WP 9 WordPress Theme

A free gardening related WordPress theme: Features: * ads ready * options page * widget ready, RSS ready, Gravatar ready * xhtml & css valid * cross browser compatible (working in all major browsers) * working with the last version of WP and lower

Demonstration Download the Gardening Theme WP 9 WordPress Theme

Gardening Theme WP 8

Gardening Theme WP 8

Gardening Theme WP 8

A free gardening related WordPress theme: Features: * ads ready * options page * widget ready, RSS ready, Gravatar ready * xhtml & css valid * cross-browser compatible (working in all major browsers) * working with the last version of WP and lower

Demonstration Download the Gardening Theme WP 8

Gardening

Gardening Free WordPress Theme

Gardening Free WordPress Theme

Gardening is a free 2 columns WordPress theme with Option/Admin Panel, featured posts and post thumbnail image. Suitable for real estate blogs.

Features:

  • Options Page
  • Featured Content
  • Ads banners ready
  • Logo
  • .PSD included
  • Social Icons, Facebook.
Demonstration Download the Gardening Free WordPress Theme

Garden Sand

Garden Sand Free WordPress Theme

Garden Sand Free WordPress Theme

Garden Sand, a two column garden theme for gardening blogs, flower blogs or plant blogs. The theme is in beige and green colors and has one widget ready sidebar on the left side.

Demonstration Download the Garden Sand Free WordPress Theme

The Garden Theme

The Garden Theme

The Garden Theme

Stylish colorful flowers WordPress theme.

Ideal theme maybe for gardening blogs.

Demonstration Download The Garden Theme Free WordPress Theme

Garden Safari

Garden Safari Free WordPress Theme

Garden Safari Free WordPress Theme

Garden Safari, a two column garden theme for gardening blogs, flower blogs or plant blogs. The theme is in grey, orange and white colors and has one widget ready sidebar on the left side.

Demonstration Download Garden Safari Free WordPress Theme

Be sure to check out the Free WordPress Themes category for other great free WordPress themes or our Premium WordPress Themes category for premium WordPress themes.

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/free-wordpress-themes/esthetically-pleasing-free-gardening-wordpress-themes/feed 0 Launch Effect Viral Campaign WordPress Theme http://www.wpinsite.com/free-wordpress-themes/launch-effect-viral-campaign-wordpress-theme http://www.wpinsite.com/free-wordpress-themes/launch-effect-viral-campaign-wordpress-theme#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 09:52:55 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5172 (more...)]]> Launch Effect is a fun to use one-page theme that lets you create a viral campaign in minutes. It is available as in a free version or a feature packed premium version.

Launch Effect Viral Campaign WordPress Theme

Launch Effect Viral Campaign WordPress Theme

Launch Effect is a free WordPress theme that lets you create a viral campaign in minutes. The theme allows the user to customize a landing page that introduces a business, product, or event and prompts visitors to sign up with their email to earn some sort of incentive (beta invite, discount coupon, a gift, etc.). The visitor is then encouraged to share a unique referral link that tracks their friends’ sign ups. Conversions are tallied on WordPress, and the user can determine who should receive the incentives.

Launch Effect was created by Barrel, a digital agency in New York. We built a working version in just a few weeks and tried to think of relevant uses. When it came to creating some sample “launch” pages, we realized that our theme could be used by all kinds of businesses, not just tech startups and group buying sites. Restaurants, product companies, spas, boutiques, and events such as galas, dance parties, and movie screenings can all benefit from an easy-to-create viral campaign.

Since August 2011, Launch Effect has over 8,000 downloads of the free version. In December 2011, we released Launch Effect Premium, which extends the theme beyond a landing page and allows users to create fully-featured websites with viral sign-up capabilities. Our upcoming plans for the theme can be seen on the Free Roadmap and the Premium Roadmap.

 Simple to setup, Simple to use

Setting up Launch Effect only takes 5 minutes and requires no web design or development knowledge. Simply follow the instructions to install and have fun using the sleek user interface to customize the look of your launch page.

Fully Customizable

The Launch Effect comes fully-equipped with a robust Theme Options panel that allows you to customize your Launch Page to suit your business—add your own cinematic background, customize colors, upload your logo, and even display a video all from our sleek user interface.

Built-In Stats

The Launch Effect comes with an easy-to-understand built-in stats page accessible only by you. The stats track who spread the word about your site, and who signed up as a result.

Track and Reward Your Fans

Upon signing up, your Launch Effect page automatically generates a unique URL for your fans to share with their friends. This is where your marketing genius comes in: think of how many ways you can use the URL to incentivize your fans to spread the word about your product!

Launch Effect Screenshots

The Launch Effect Visual Designer

The Launch Effect Visual Designer

 

Fully Customizable with lots of options

Fully Customizable with lots of options

 

Easy-to-understand built-in stats page

Easy-to-understand built-in stats page

More information and download the Launch Effect Viral Campaign WordPress Theme

Developer: Barrel

Style: Viral Marketing

Price: Free
$35 for single site
$65 unlimited sites

Click below to view more details and download the free version of on the Launch Effect Viral Campaign WordPress Theme
Download Free Version
Click below to purchase the premium edition of the Launch Effect Viral Campaign WordPress Theme
Purchase Premium Version

Be sure to check out the Free WordPress Themes category for other great free WordPress themes or our Premium WordPress Themes category for premium WordPress themes.

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/free-wordpress-themes/launch-effect-viral-campaign-wordpress-theme/feed 0 How to only load scripts if WordPress Widget is Active http://www.wpinsite.com/code-snippets/how-to-only-load-scripts-if-wordpress-widget-is-active http://www.wpinsite.com/code-snippets/how-to-only-load-scripts-if-wordpress-widget-is-active#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:29:24 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5112 (more...)]]> Have you ever wanted to load certain scripts depending on whether a widget is being displayed? Using the WordPress is_widget_active we can run a check to check if the widget is being displayed and load the relevant scripts.

How to only load scripts if WordPress Widget is Active

How to only load scripts if WordPress Widget is Active

Recently whilst developing a new Google Maps WordPress widget I came across a scenario where I only wanted to load the scripts associated with this widget if the actual widget was being displayed.

Why not load the JavaScript files in the header I hear you ask? Well, to try and optimize the site and minimize on server requests I thought it best to only load the associated JavaScript’s if the widget was being used.

After investigation I found that there was a built-in WordPress function called is_widget_active. As the function name states it lets us check whether the widget is active and therefore being used.

The WordPress built-in is_widget_active Widget function

This Conditional Tag checks whether the widget is displayed on the front-end of your site. It is a Boolean function, meaning it returns either TRUE or FALSE.

The usage for this function is as follow:

<?php is_active_widget( $callback, $widget_id, $id_base, $skip_inactive ); ?>
  • $callback - Widget callback to check. (optional)
  • $widget_id – Widget ID. Needed for checking.
  • $id_base – Base ID of a widget created by extending WP_Widget. (optional)
  • $skip_inactive – Whether to check in ‘wp_inactive_widgets’. (optional)

Now with this knowledge in hand we can now design a conditional function to only load the required files if the actual widget is being used.

To implement this function we first need to navigate to our theme directory.
Navigate to wp-content -> themes -> your-curent-theme and open the functions.php file.

Copy the below function and add it to your current active themes functions.php file.

/**
 * Only load the Google Maps API if the gMaps widget is active
 */
function check_widget() {
    if(is_active_widget( '', '', 'wpinsite_google_maps')){
		wp_enqueue_script('jquery-gmap-apis', 'http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false');
		wp_enqueue_script('jquery-gmap', get_template_directory_uri(); .'/js/jquery.gmap.min.js');
    }
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'check_widget');

Code Explanation

As mentioned previously I only wanted to load the Google Maps API if the widget is being displayed. The widget I developed requires two JavaScript files. The first one the actual Google Maps API JavaScript and the second is a jQuery Google Maps plugin.

The only parameter I pass the “is_active_widget” function is the actual widget ID. When I created the widget I gave it the ID of “wpinsite_google_maps“. Therefore the function checks whether the widget with the ID of “wpinsite_google_maps” is actually loaded and is being displayed. If it is then load the two JavaScript files. I have also decided to use the “wp_footer” hook to load the JavaScript files in the theme footer but you can load then wherever you like.

Fairly straight forward. To customize the widget function for your usage simple retrieve the widget ID in question and change the name of the files you wish to be loaded.

Be sure to check out our other great WordPress Code Snippets and WordPress Articles.

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/code-snippets/how-to-only-load-scripts-if-wordpress-widget-is-active/feed 0 Author+ Premium WordPress Plugin http://www.wpinsite.com/wp-plugins/author-premium-wordpress-plugin http://www.wpinsite.com/wp-plugins/author-premium-wordpress-plugin#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 02:38:03 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5094 (more...)]]> Author+ is a new premium WordPress plugins that helps you achieve more search engine traffic with rich author bios, and Google Snippet integration.

Author+ Premium WordPress Plugin

Author+ Premium WordPress Plugin

What is Author+?

This plugin adds to Profile Pages an extended “Author Bio”. This allows users to add more information to what they’d feel comfortable adding underneath the post. This Author Bio can be displayed on the author page, as opposed to the standard “Author Description”.
This plugin is a framework, so requires a bit of PHP skill and experience in template editing to make it work.

Author+ is a revolutionary WordPress Plugin that turns your author pages into feature rich content. It has three main features which are unique to Author+.

Give Your Authors A Boost and Exposure Using Extended Author+ Bios Features

Author Pages are previously bland list of posts that offer little value to your readers. With Author+ you can create extended Author Bios which can be easily embedded into the author templates. These help turn author pages from bland template driven pages to content rich pages, turning them into valuable landing pages on your blog.

Easily Create Goggle Rich Snippets – Increase Clickthroughs from Search Engines To Your Blog!

Google are currently implementing Rich Snippets – information about the target page in question embedded in the search engine results. Author+ will help you easily and quickly make your author pages and your blog posts compatible with Rich Snippets. Google Rich Snippets have been proven to increase click-throughs to your blog, so you can get more traffic to your blog.

Reward Regular Contributors With “Top Author” Pages

Turn your about us page into a doorway page for your authors quickly and easily with one line of code. This page auto-updates with the details of your most prolific authors, meaning your best and most prolific authors will get the most exposure on your blog.

All of the above is controlled by a central administration system, so you can ensure maximum security of your blog.

Author+ Screenshots

The Author+ Administration features

The Author+ Administration features

 

The plugin widget

The plugin widget

 

The newly layed out extended user bio

The newly layed out extended user bio

More information and purchase the Author+ Premium WordPress Plugin

Developer: BloggingDojo

Style: SEO

Price: Single: $25

Click below to view more details on the Author+ Premium WordPress Plugin
More Information
Click below to purchase the Author+ Premium WordPress Plugin
Purchase Author+

To view other great plugins available for your WordPress installation be sure to view our Plugins category.

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/wp-plugins/author-premium-wordpress-plugin/feed 0 How to add an Author Page to Your WordPress Blog http://www.wpinsite.com/articles/how-to-add-author-page-to-your-wordpress-blog http://www.wpinsite.com/articles/how-to-add-author-page-to-your-wordpress-blog#comments Sat, 21 Apr 2012 01:56:14 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5065 (more...)]]> A great feature to have for your WordPress blog is to have a dedicated page for each author that contributes. Having multiple authors contribute to your WordPress blog is not uncommon and most author’s would appreciate the bio author page.

How to add an Author Page to Your WordPress Blog

How to add an Author Page to Your WordPress Blog

In the article we are going to learn how to create own very own author page so that each contributing author to your blog can have their own bio page with some profile details.

Having multiple author contribute to your site is a fantastic way expand your blog. You may decide on using co-authors and guest authors to help produce fresh contents to attract different types of audiences.

Not all WordPress themes come with an “author.php” file includes with them. The two very popular free themes that comes complete with WordPress, ‘Twenty Ten‘ & ‘Twenty Eleven‘ do actually come with the “author.php” template. If this template file exists then this is what template WordPress will use when displaying an author page. If no template file exists then WordPress will fallback to the “archives.php” template.

WordPress has a detailed structure that it uses to look for a specific template based on what page is requested. View the modified image below to see the path structure that is used when requesting a WordPress author page.

WordPress template path

WordPress template path

This image clearly demonstrates the template that WordPress will lokk for in the theme directory when a certain page is requested.

WordPress Author Page Template Breakdown

Here is a breakdown of how WordPress tries to look for our template to use for our author page.

  1. author-{nicename}.php – If the author’s nice name were rami, WordPress would look for author-rami.php.
  2. author-{id}.php – If the author’s ID were 6, WordPress would look for author-6.php.
  3. author.php
  4. archive.php
  5. index.php

OK, now that we understand the process that WordPress goes through to look for our template, what do we do if our theme do not have an “author.php” or “archives.php” template? Simple! We just create one.

Creating our custom Author template

The first aspect we want to tackle in developing our new template is our coding environment. So firstly, open up your development coding IDE. It may be Adobe Dreamweaver, notepad or anything similar.

The template basics

Each template that we use in our WordPress theme has a code structure that we must abide by for it to be recognized and be able to work correctly. This article isn’t on WordPress template design in general so I will assume you have a little knowledge on this subject, if not jump over to the official WordPress templates basics.

Each template we use, usually includes:

  1. Header – contains all the information that needs to be at the top — i.e. inside the <head> tag — of your XHTML web page.
  2. Content – contains the posts and pages of your blog, i.e. the “content” of your site.
  3. Sidebar – contains the area to display the inbuilt WordPress widgets.
  4. Footer – contains the information that goes at the bottom of your page, such as copyright and contact information.

With you editor open create a new page and call it “author.php“. Here is the skeleton framework code that we can use to create our custom author template. Copy and paste the below code into the page you just created and save the file.

<?php
/**
* The template for displaying Author Archive pages.
*/

get_header(); ?>

<!-- This is where our main content will go -->

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Now we have a fully functioning author page setup. The only thing that we are missing now is the actual content about the author. Currently in our skeleton template we have a comment code “<!– This is where our main content will go –>“. What our next task will be is to replace this code comment with the author bio code.

We will achieve this functionality by using some of the available WordPress author template tags. Paying tribute to each of our contributing author’s we are going to add the following details for each author page:

  • The author name or nickname
  • The avatar is available
  • Date author registered
  • Website
  • Bio or personal description
  • All the posts by the author

Go ahead and replace the above code comment with the below code. We will use the WordPress loop to retrieve and display the author details and all the posts by the author page we are viewing.

What we have done here is created a loop and queued the first post. This enable us to gather all the author details for usage. We then run a simple check, done by a PHP if statement.

if(get_the_author_meta('description')):

This check ensures that the author has added a description in the WordPress Dashboard profile page. By not doing this check there may be very little information to display about the user.

Now we have created and added all the code to display our author page. The only thing left to do now is merge all the code together. Copy and paste the below code into the “author.php” template.

<?php
/**
* The template for displaying Author Archive pages.
*/

get_header(); ?>

<div id="content">
<?php
if(have_posts()) the_post();

// If a user has filled out their description, show a bio on their entries.
if(get_the_author_meta('description')):
?>
<h2>Author Posts & Bio - <?php echo get_the_author(); ?></h2>
<p><?php echo get_avatar( get_the_author_meta( 'user_email' ), apply_filters( 'author_bio_avatar_size', 60 ) ); ?></p>
<p><strong>Author Since: </strong><?php echo the_author_meta('user_registered'); ?></p>
<p><strong>Website: </strong><a href="<?php echo the_author_meta( 'user_url' ); ?>"><?php echo the_author_meta( 'user_url' ); ?></a></p>
<p><strong>Bio: <?php echo the_author_meta('description'); ?></strong></p>
<h3>Posts By <?php echo get_the_author(); ?>:</h3>

<?php endif;
rewind_posts();
?>
<ul>
<!-- The Loop -->

<?php if(have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<li>
<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: <?php the_title(); ?>">
<?php the_title(); ?></a>,
<?php the_time('d M Y'); ?> in <?php the_category('&');?>
</li>

<?php endwhile; else: ?>
<p><?php _e('No posts by this author.'); ?></p>

<?php endif; ?>

<!-- End Loop -->
</ul>
</div>

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Now we have a completed author bio and information that any contributing author would be proud to have. Remember you are not limited to the code above. The layouts you can choose are endless. By using the available template tags you can add any information about the author that you wish.

This is what our simple un-styled author page is looking like at this stage:

Our un-styled page

Our un-styled page

With a little bit of time and some CSS styling applied you can sharpen up your author bio page a bit.

Our completed styled bio page

Our completed styled author bio page

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/articles/how-to-add-author-page-to-your-wordpress-blog/feed 0 SEO Friendly Images WordPress Plugin http://www.wpinsite.com/wp-plugins/seo-friendly-images-wordpress-plugin http://www.wpinsite.com/wp-plugins/seo-friendly-images-wordpress-plugin#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:36:47 +0000 Broady http://www.wpinsite.com/?p=5052 (more...)]]> SEO Friendly Images is a tried and tested premium WordPress plugin that automatically optimizes all images on your blog for search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

SEO Friendly Images WordPress Plugin

SEO Friendly Images WordPress Plugin

SEO Friendly Images is not a newly released WordPress plugin. It has been around for a while and has recently undergone a major facelift. New features have been introduced.

What is SEO Friendly Images?

SEO Friendly Images is a unique WordPress plugin that automatically optimizes all images on your blog for search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. It does this by manipulating the image “title” and “alt” tags.

In the world of Search Engine Optimization we as bloggers often overlook simple aspects of our articles and image when creating new posts. We sometimes simply opt to leave the “title” tags out of the image declaration and even leave the “alt” tags blank.

That is where SEO Friendly Images comes to the rescue. The plugin manipulates our images by AUTOMATICALLY adding the optimal “alt” and “title” tag to the image based on the image name, post title and other customizable parameters. SEO Friendly Image produces valid XHTML markup that abides by the Google Image publishing guidelines.

By designing our Blog with these features and standards in mind, SEO Friendly Images helps search engines like Google better understand the context of your image, which in turns help it rank better in Google Images Search, resulting in increased traffic.

Plugin Features

SEO Friendly Images is intelligent in the fact that it can also change how and where your  images link through set of rules. For example in your archive or index page you can have the images link to the post, and when clicking the image in the single post it is shown in the Colorbox.

How about SEO automatically creating an images XML sitemap? Purchase the PRO version of the plugin and you have the option to automatically create an images XML sitemap which you can submit to Google (through Webmaster tools) to automatically help add all your images to the Google Index.

SEO Friendly Images is “plug & play”, you simply activate it and it will immediately start working for you with the default options. If you like to tweak settings you can do that too – for example enable Colorbox previews for your images and add different rules this can be achieved through the plugins settings page.

Screenshots

The plugin has many useful options at your disposal

The plugin has many useful options at your disposal

 

You can configure your own image rules

You can configure your own image rules

More information and purchase the SEO Friendly Images WordPress plugin

Developer: Vladimir Prelovac
Style: SEO
Price: Personal – Single site: $49,
Business – Unlimited sites: $79
Click below to purchase the personal edition SEO Friendly Image premium WordPress plugin
Purchase Personal Edition
Click below to purchase the business edition SEO Friendly Image premium WordPress plugin
Purchase Business Edition

To view other great plugins available for your WordPress installation be sure to view our Plugins category.

]]> http://www.wpinsite.com/wp-plugins/seo-friendly-images-wordpress-plugin/feed 1