This is a replay of the live broadcast with Bill Conrad (Wizard), John @WPPluginsAZ , Dr. Nick Hernandez, Kim Ades, and Mike Sheehan
John appeared as a guest on this show check out some great information.
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Subscribe to WPPlugins A to Z on Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | RSS
It’s episode 78. We’ve got plugins for Youtube Playlists, Image Sizing, Stats, Cookies and more. It’s all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z.
This Podcast Can now be found at WPPluginsAtoZ.com
You can now also find the show by using the new Podcasts app on your Apple device, with the ability to speed up the show to hear John and Marcus knock out 6 plugins in 10 minutes! (Though we do sound rather chipmunk-like) Great app with a really great new way to hear the show streaming to your phone wherever you are without having to download to your device or use iTunes.
Do you need WordPress Emergency WordPress support for issues you know when you see the ever favorite White Screen of Death. Or just some questions on how to do something please visit www.johnoverall.com/wordpress-emergency-support/ for some quick tips or request some help.
WordPress 3.5 (tentative) scope coming together, release due December 5
Popularity Stats 0.0.8
The Lowdown:
Pretty simple and straight forward install and activate then check the setting on it and then look at the pretty graphs to see how your site is doing. The only issue I had was it seems to need jquery and was not loading it properly so I had to go and find something to manage my jquery. This however did not solve the issue guess it is simply too old so I had to file this one under the it was a good idea at the time.
Rating: Well since I tossed this none.. Or One..
White Label CMS 1.4.6
The Lowdown:
This is a pretty nice way of customizing your WordPress install from changing out the WordPress logo in the admin dashboard to hiding the unnecessary stuff for your clients like the nag bar when updates need to be done. You can add your own welcome panel for when your users login where you can supply contact info or a message. You can hide some dashboard panels as well as adding custom css for the admin area. You can also modify some menu items.
Rating: 3 Dragons
EU Cookie Law 1.0
The Lowdown:
I pretty much just stumbled across this and tough it might be useful for our European listeners or anyone else who would like to notify their visitors that they are being tracked by cookies. It seems a law went into effect in the European Union that says sites must let visitors know that cookies are being used and if they continue to use the site they agree to that. Simply install then customize the acceptance time and your own message and let her fly.
Rating 3 Dragons
**** Plugins Reviewed by Marcus ****
Provides an easy way to highlight important content on your posts and pages inside a box with a drop shadow.
Requires: 3.0 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-7-16
Downloads: 266
Drop Shadow Boxes provides an easy way to highlight important content on your posts and pages. Includes a shortcode builder with a preview so you can test your box before adding it. It will work on the latest versions of all browsers. Some older browsers may not display the shadows – but they will display the box with the content. Please see the following page for examples to see how it performs on your browser: https://www.stevenhenty.com/products/wordpress-plugins/drop-shadow-boxes/examples/
The plugin itself doesn’t require any configuration. There isn’t a setting page, just a shortcode builder which you can access from the media toolbar while you’re editing the post/page by clicking on the box icon next to the upload/insert media button.
If you prefer not to use the shortcode builder, or if you’d like to modify an existing drop shadow box here’s the shortcode reference guide.
Example usage:
Marcus’ Take:
This is a really neat way to have inline styling that can be called in-post to grab your reader’s attention. Worked well for a client with frequent sales and offers on site.
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/youlist/
A simple shortcode to embed YouTube™ playlists or many YouTube™ videos in a single YouTube™ player
Requires: 3.0 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-7-16
Downloads: 150
This plugin adds the shortcode [youlist] so you can easily embed YouTube™ playlist or many videos in a single YouTube™ player into your posts and pages.
The plugin can also display YouTube™ playlist from a search string or all uploaded videos by a user.
To embed a playlist with thumbnails:
[youlist pid=”PL3FF15AA7ED356D9F”]
Marcus’ Take: This was a great solution for a client that wanted to play back to back viedos on their web site. We simply created a playlist and embedded with this plugin. Worked like a charm!
Rating: 4 Dragons
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/the-auto-image-resizer
This Plugin reduces all uploaded images to the maximal used image dimensions of your WordPress website.
Requires: 3.3 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.5
Last Updated: 2012-7-14
Downloads: 260
The “Auto Image Resizer” is a state of the art WordPress Plugin which reduces your uploaded images to the maximal used image dimensions of your WordPress website.
If the uploaders (author, member, whoever) browsers supports html5, gears, flash or silverlight the images will be resized directly on the client otherwise the server will do that. So the plugin works in every case regardless of the clients browser or OS
Marcus’ Take: This really helped out with a graphic intense client site that had a lot of scaled up images embedded as mere thumbs in a post. This plugin scaled the size of everything, resizing to a more manageable and load-worthy image.
Rating: 4 Dragons
Rate us at iTunes, blubrry.com, ViaWay.com and any place else you find us.
More Lazy Plugins
John can be contacted at:
on my website @ https://www.johnoverall.com/
Twitter @Ahkonsu
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JohnOverallcom
email: dragon@wppluginsatoz.com
Marcus can be contacted at:
Marcus Couch can be contacted at his website at marcuscouch.com
Twitter @marcuscouch
Facebook at facebook.com/marcuscouch
email: marcus@wppluginsatoz.com
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe to WPPlugins A to Z on Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | RSS
It’s episode 77 and we’ve got plugins for Stats, Databases, Featured Videos, Ad Injection, JQuery and Security. Plus more of your audio feedback from around the world! It’s all right here on WordPress Plugins A-Z, Coming up Next!
This Podcast Can now be found at WPPluginsAtoZ.com
You can now also find the show by using the new Podcasts app on your Apple device, with the ability to speed up the show to hear John and Marcus knock out 6 plugins in 10 minutes! (Though we do sound rather chipmunk-like) Great app with a really great new way to hear the show streaming to your phone wherever you are without having to download to your device or use iTunes.
Do you need WordPress Emergency WordPress support for issues you know when you see the ever favorite White Screen of Death. Or just some questions on how to do something please visit www.johnoverall.com/wordpress-emergency-support/ for some quick tips or request some help.
Ken the author of the scripts and styles plugin from last episode. Still a nice plugin.
Marcus gives a shout out to Dave Jackson, host of Weekly Web Tools. If you are looking for things that can help your site that are not always wordpress based, Weekly Web Tools is the place to go to hear about all the latest applications to use in conjunction with running an online business.
Now I have a question.
I would like to create my own webpage as much as possible as I am very curious how it’s done and I love to be creative. My webpage is for my photography business and that’s where I have a question.
Could you recommend certain Themes and/or plugins which are a must? Perhaps also Twitter/FB/G+/P etc Widgets. And how can I post something on my blog which then is automatically pushed to my FB/G+/Twitter accounts?
Thanx a lot for your support. And again I love the show. But not Diablo :D
Oliver Schirach — Denmark
Tim Norton from Australia, thanks us for last episode’s GZIP Compression plugin.
**** Plugins Reviewed by John ****
Ad Injection 1.2.0.15
The lowdown:
This plugin is a pretty nice way of adding Google ads to your website. the only issue i had was in the installation and configuration of the plugin. It required some deciphering to understand how to place all the code and setting up how many ads would; appear and when. All in all a pretty good plugin though once you figure out the installations of it all. I do like the way you can float the ads left or right but it has one flaw I think in that it will only allow you to float all or none. It does have some nice features for filtering the ads by ip, keyword, referrer such as search engines. You can also limit ads to appear only in certain categories or with certain authors. Lots of ways to limit ad showing.
Rating: 3 Dragons.
JQuery Expanding Box 1
The Lowdown:
I needed a simple way to create expanding boxes for an FAQ page and instead of coding jquery I thought I would see if there was a plugin ready to go and here it it is. It turns out this is a very nice plugin for handling that on a couple of pages when you do not want to code everything. It uses short codes to handle the placement of the expansion of content and you can format it in any way you like. All in all a nice little plugin. It did require a small bit to understand the full use of the short codes but they do offer you some starter samples to get you going.
Rating: 4 Dragons
Wordfence Security 3.0.8
The Lowdown:
This plugin was introduced to me by a client who had it recommended to him after his site was hacked. I have now installed it on several sites and am finding it pretty useful. It has a premium version that will scan your plugin files and theme files against the repository. It does scan the core files against the repository it will send you alerts and it even has some firewall rules you can implement. It will tell you if someone is trying to use your password retrieval page as well as lock out their IP address. It will look at live traffic and all in all this is a pretty nice security plugin.
Rating: 5 Dragons
**** Plugins Reviewed by Marcus ****
Edit Any Table
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/edit-any-table/
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Requires: 3.0.0 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-7-8
Downloads: 58
A WordPress plugin/Dashboard Widget that allows you to connect to any database and edit the contents.
This plugin is a dashboard widget to allow you to connect to any MySQL database of your choice (as long as your hosting allows) and search, edit, add and delete records in an easy to use interface. Ideal if you have built a site referencing another database and you want to allow other editors/administrators of the site to alter, update, delete, add and correct entries.
Marcus’ Take: A really great platform for the do it all webmaster. This lets you edit any database that you have credentials for. I was searching for a plugin that I could edit my ad server output and found this as a result. It gave me everything I asked for and more.
Rating: 5 Dragons
Replace Featured Image with Video
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/replace-featured-image-with-video/
Version Reviewed: 1.2
Requires: 2.7.2 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-7-7
Downloads: 169
Replace Featured Image with Video is a simple plugin to replace the featured image in your wordpress post or page with a video. Supports Youtube, Dailymotion, Vimeo and many other sites that provide embedd code.. just don’t forget to edit the embedd code to the size of your featured image. BONUS: This plugin will override any existing featured image so removal or deletion is not necessary.
Marcus’ Take: In a nutshell, this will replace the featured image in your wordpress website with a video. I have been looking for a way to add videos into a theme automatically, as I would have embedded images from the featured images inserted dynamically. This cross-theme solution was my lazy way out of programming the entire theme core over.
Rating: 5 Dragons
WP Post Stats
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-post-stats/
Version Reviewed: 2.0
Requires: 2.8 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-7-3
Downloads: 364
Simple wordpress plugin that embeds a counter in your blog and shows the number of visits your website’s pages and posts has. Enables you to display how many times a post/page had been viewed.
Marcus’ Take: Simple and easy way to add a counter on your posts for popularity reasons. I sought this out for a client project that needed an old school counter. This was an easy way to get the counter embedded without going through a third party counter source.
Rating: 3 Dragons
Rate us at iTunes, blubrry.com, ViaWay.com and any place else you find us.
More Lazy Plugins
How to Contact Us:John can be contacted at:
on my website @ https://www.johnoverall.com/
Twitter @Ahkonsu
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JohnOverallcom
email: dragon@wppluginsatoz.com
Marcus can be contacted at:
Marcus Couch can be contacted at his website at marcuscouch.com
Twitter @marcuscouch
Facebook at facebook.com/marcuscouch
email: marcus@wppluginsatoz.com
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe to WPPlugins A to Z on Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | RSS
It’s episode 76, and we’ve got plugins for Scripting, Fonts, Compression, Twitter, and a few plugins that operate in Real-Time. Its all coming up next on WordPress plugins A-Z!
This Podcast Can now be found at WPPluginsAtoZ.com
You can now also find the show by using the new Podcasts app on your Apple device, with the ability to speed up the show to hear John and Marcus knock out 6 plugins in 10 minutes! (Though we do sound rather chipmunk-like) Great app with a really great new way to hear the show streaming to your phone wherever you are without having to download to your device or use iTunes.
Do you need WordPress Emergency WordPress support for issues you know when you see the ever favorite White Screen of Death. Or just some questions on how to do something please visit www.johnoverall.com/wordpress-emergency-support/ for some quick tips or request some help.
Turned into a beautiful Canada Day here this past week and a happy July 4 to all our American listeners.
Jamie Hayes from down under in Aussie land
WordPress 3.4 update closes important security hole seems there is some cross-site script holes in 3.4 among other things so update…
Scripts n Styles 3.2
The Lowdown:
While polishing off a major project I ran into an issue that I hoped would have a plugin solution instead of having to go into the css one more time. The problem was needing to make a custom on a couple of posts but only for the text sure easy enough to do in css but hey I am the plugin guy after all. So I went looking and this is what I found.
Now I had high hopes but it turns out I was not able to focus this on a per post basis so I had to go back to the css to write what I wanted but it does have some great potential for site-wide css and scripts and it has something interesting called hoops that may come in handy. It allows an admin to allow certain html usage that is often stripped out by WordPress to prevent less leveled users from messing thins up. Plus a few other tools that may be fun.
Well scratch all that just as I was about to toss i discovered how to make it work and it is pretty sweet how it applied something to a specific page. Seems that I almost the box on the post/page that allows you to enter something for that specific post experiment with some other scripts and wow they hit it out of the park here I think what a time save when you only need to customize a single page or two.
Rating 5 Dragons.
WP-Cufon 1.6.10
The Lowdown:
So you need some custom fonts and you cant find what you want at Google fonts or fonts.com or any other place this may be your solution. Well you need to go here and convert your font https://cufon.shoqolate.com/generate/ then install this plugin and upload a couple files to your site. In particular you need to upload the font you just turned into a .js script. Setting and assigning it is pretty much the same as any font you can either assign by main body types ie H1 or p tags or assign to specific spots via custom css using the plugin before. I did find this one a bit more work to use that other ways I have talked about in the past for webfonts.
Rating 3 Dragons
Gzip Compression 1.0
The Lowdown:
Well what can I say this is a lazy plugin drop it in turn it on and it speeds up load times for your site. Does it work well it does seem to I tested it on a graphic heavy site and it did load faster so I have to say yes.
Rating 4 Dragons.
**** Plugins Reviewed by Marcus ****https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search-in-place/
Search in Place improves blog search by displaying query results in real time. It displays the results dynamically as you enter the search criteria.
Requires: 3.0.5 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-7-2
Downloads: 204
Search in Place groups search results by their type, labeling them as post, page, or attachment, and highlights the searched terms.
Features:
Marcus’ Take: Search has always been the Achilles heel of WordPress. This plugin helps to bridge that gap and display your results in Real-Time. This plugin worked great for a client site that required a more robust search functionality.
Rating: 4 Dragons
—
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/real-time-twitter/
Real Time Twitter display your tweets on your sidebar in REAL TIME. It will retrieve tweets based on time specified without page reload.
Requires: 3.0 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.3.2
Last Updated: 2012-6-29
Downloads: 591
Real Time Twitter provides you the latest tweets in real time.
Features:
Marcus’ Take: Another great Real-Time plugin that allows you to use Twitter in the sidebar to display lists and multiple Tweet authors.
Rating: 3 Dragons
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/email-to-commenters/
Send email to post commenters
Requires: 3.3 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-6-26
Downloads: 119
Send email to your post commenters with 2 clicks. If you want to send email to users who commented on a certain post, you can do that easily. Also you can select all the commenters from your site to send email.
Marcus’ Take: Great way to get in touch with your closest and most active members of your site’s community. Simply designate who you want to contact (or all) and then click send. It’s a great tool that I used for some client work. I would love to see some automated functionality added to this, but it’s a great start.
Rating: 4 Dragons
Rate us at iTunes, blubrry.com, ViaWay.com and any place else you find us.
More Lazy Plugins
How to Contact Us:
John can be contacted at:
on my website @ https://www.johnoverall.com/
Twitter @Ahkonsu
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JohnOverallcom
email: dragon@wppluginsatoz.com
Marcus can be contacted at:
Marcus Couch can be contacted at his website at marcuscouch.com
Twitter @marcuscouch
Facebook at facebook.com/marcuscouch
email: marcus@wppluginsatoz.com
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