Transcript of Episode 475 WP Plugins A to Z

All transcripts start from the point in the show where we head off into the meat and potatoes. They are the complete verbatim of John and Amber’s discussion of this weeks plugins that have been reviewed.

WordPress Plugins A to Z Podcast and Transcript for See complete show notes for Episode #475 here.

Episode #475

John:    Okay, so we start out with some ClassicPress Options. I do have a couple of things for ClassicPress this week. It was a good week for me last week. I happened to stumble across some things for ClassicPress while looking up other stuff. And what I’ve got for you here, it turns out that ClassicPress has created a couple of lists over on its forum. One of them, the first one, is a list of plugins that are compatible with ClassicPress. These are WordPress plugins that still work in ClassicPress, and it’s a really good list and you will want to go check it out.

Now, of course counter to that, there is a list of plugins developed specifically for ClassicPress. And these are plugins that have been created for ClassicPress by multiple authors, CodePotent being one of the primary ones that comes to mind for me. But it’s a really good list of information and you’ll want to go check these out. It can be really helpful if you are using ClassicPress and you want to move away from plugins that might be abandoned because they want to stick with the WordPress environment. ClassicPress and WordPress are starting to deviate, and it’s going to happen over the next year I’m sure. So you’re going to have to pick a side or you can play on both sides. It’ll still basically the same code for years to come. It’s just one plugin and won’t work in the other because of changes in WordPress.

Okay, now, the other thing is the ClassicCommerce plugin. This is the fork of WooCommerce for ClassicPress is getting a life of its own. It’s now available in 12 different languages and it is a very nice plugin for ClassicPress to have that e-commerce component at the same high quality that WooCommerce is in. And if you’re looking for a niche and you want to develop in a whole new market, develop plugins for ClassicCommerce and you might be able to do some of the things like WooCommerce has done, like, corner the market. Anyway, that’s what I’ve got there in ClassicPress this week. Just a couple of little tidbits, other than that the same little bits of information; ClassicPress club news, the must-have list, and a few other on our links in the Show Notes. So go check those out, folks.

Off we go here to the WordPress plugins. Now, first I’d like to remind everyone if you’re looking for some of the latest and greatest of WordPress plugins that is  still under-talked about, it used to be front and center in WordPress. In your WordPress website when you go to Add Plugins, this used to be front and center, and that is New Plugins, Recent Released. That link is still available at wordpress.org. The link is in my Show Notes and it takes you in there and it shows you plugins that have been released within the last few weeks. And they usually have less than 10 active installs, but oftentimes you find some gems here that just haven’t been discovered yet. And you might be able to work with them and make them do what you want.

Okay, so the first one I’ve got for you here today, this one is a plugin that was sent into me. It was sent in by Angel Lemus over at Koa Digital, and it’s called Disable Admin Notices Individually. Now, this is a really cool plugin in that what it’s supposed to do is help you get rid of all those administrative notices from all the multiple plugins you have that have them. And here’s what Angel has to say about it:

This plugin allows you to disable annoying notices on the dashboard panel. You can turn off notices forever individually for themes, plugins, and WordPress itself. The Hide Admin Notices plugin adds Hide Notification Forever link for each admin notice. This method will help you disable only annoying notices from plugins and themes, but important error notifications will continue to work. The free version works well, and the paid version adds a few more options to disable ad redirects and other notifications in other areas of WordPress.

And he gives it a 4-Dragon rating. So thanks a lot, Angel. I greatly appreciate it.

But I have a small minor take on this while checking this one over. It looks like it’s a great plugin, as I said, something that will be very helpful. I haven’t tried it out but the ones I’ve tried always didn’t work very well, so hopefully, this one works well. And because it has a premium, of course, that gets it knocked down the point. But one of the things I found was really quite amusing. I tripped over to their Reviews page and I found that this plugin has its own built-in irony. And it was a 4-star review from Jose who said, “It’s really good. It just didn’t get the 5th star because of the warning to purchase the Pro version of the plugin itself kept popping up.” So how’s that? This plugin blocks all your notices except the one from the plugin itself.

Amber: Well, they can’t block the one from the plugin itself.

John:    I know.

Amber: That would just be self-defeating.

John:    But that’s irony at its finest, man, at its finest that’s irony. All right.  So anyway, I give this one a 4-dragon rating. Go check it out. It’s Disable Admin Notices Individually.

Amber: And the first one I have is Validator.pizza. This is a plugin for preventing disposable emails from being used when people sign up or comment on your website. Essentially, I think this is supposed to stop spammers. It works right out of the box. It’s totally free. You plug it in and let it go. It doesn’t have any settings or anything, so it just kind of goes on. And now, if you’ve upgraded your WordPress to the latest version, this hasn’t actually been tested with the newest version yet. So beware, it may not fully work, may not work. I’m not sure. It doesn’t break the site on the newest version of WordPress though, so it’s all good there. I’m not really sure how well it works. I think you kind of have to have this plugged in and running for a while in order to really be sure how long it works. It does seem to be working. I can’t really give it a full though. So I can only really rate it 4.

John:    All right. Well, a couple of quick things on that. I do notice it was updated a couple of weeks ago, and it is now tested up to 5.5 of WordPress.

Amber: Okay.

John:    So it is working. But what it does for you and, of course, you wouldn’t know whether it’s working or not unless you got some spammers to slip through. And yes, this is a great tool if you’re running a website where people can sign up. And that’s what it’s particularly focused on, is if you’re running a membership site where people can sign up or an e-commerce site where people sign up. It helps prevent people from using those throw-away email addresses from specific domain names such as .ru.something, which I see a lot of them on some of my sites. And I’ll have to try this on a couple of sites where I’m faced with this issue to see if it drops off the amount or level of people trying to spam their way into your website.

Amber: Yeah, it does seem like it would be a very useful plugin.

John:    Yeah, it can be very useful in that aspect. Okay, the next one I’ve got here for you is another plugin that was sent in to me. We didn’t get a name who sent in. It was just sent in by AWP Life Free & Premium Plugin and Theme Store from awplife.com. It is a portfolio gallery, image gallery plugin, and they sent me in their premium version to check out.

Amber: Oh, that’s cool.

John:    And I didn’t actually get in and load it to a site, but I did check out their live demo on their website. Now they do have a free version of this plugin over at wordpress.org, which you can test out to see if it’s going work for you, and then, they have their premium version. Now, it is another image gallery plugin that gives you multiple layouts, masonry layouts, and square block layouts. The one thing I did notice, and I don’t know if it’s the images they choose or if there are settings for it, but in particular, I have clients that when you set up a masonry, they want all the images to be perfectly the same size. And this didn’t seem to have that in any of the demo sites they had set up on it.

So it does look like it’s going to be pretty good. It is the premium version. It does look to be pretty good in multiple other ways and it’s equivalent to many of the portfolio filter galleries that I’ve seen out there. One you’ll want to check out if you’re looking for a gallery plugin, and there are so many of them, you just got to find one that works and settle on it. But all in all, it looks like it’s in pretty good shape. And because I got to check out the premium version, I’m going to give this one a 5-Dragon rating.

Amber: Sounds like it could be really cool. All right.  So the next one I have is called Secret Image Slide and Tune. This one was so much fun to play around with. So this one is you can either use this for a random treat or leave it for people to find on their own. What it is, is you put in a 10-digit code like an arrow up, down, down, up, kind of mixture of the code. And it pops up a picture of your choice and it slides it across the screen to whatever tune you choose. So much fun.

What I ended up doing my test with was a picture of a kitty cat going across the screen to the song, The Kitty Cat Dance. I don’t know if anyone listening remembers that. It’s pretty big when I was a kid. It’s really fun to work with, totally free. You put it in, you set it up, and let it go. I rate this at 5-Dragons.

John:    Yeah, when I saw this the first thing, I could think of was rickrolling. That’s the first thing that came to mind was rickrolling somebody.

Amber: But it’s just so fun. I mean, if you have it on your site and you just put a little note out saying, “You want a treat? Put in this code,” and then they get that.

John:    Sort of in there, hey, they are ever going to give you up? Yeah, there you go. I can’t sing very well. I know that. I sing really well when I’m drunk at karaoke. At least I think so.

Amber: Of course, you do. Everyone does.

John:    Okay.  And next one we’ve got here for you, this is another one that was sent into me. This is another one that was sent in by Angel Lemus over at Koa Digital. And this one here is called Popup Trigger. And for some reason, I looked up and saved and brought in the link, and it has disappeared for me again. Holy smokes, how many times I’ve got to find that link? At any rate, we’re just going to have to roll with it and hang on though. I got to go find it. This is just unfair to everyone. Let’s go find it.

Amber: The link keeps vanishing?

John:    Yeah, sometimes it happened with the notes here. It’s been one of those days, you know. It was a rough morning with computers. Me and computers just weren’t cooperating this morning. Here we go. Now it’s loaded. All right. Popup Trigger URL for Elementor Pro.

This is a plugin that you add in if you’re running Elementor Pro. Now, keep in mind, you’ve got to have Elementor Pro or this doesn’t work. In Elementor Pro, you can set up a popup that is triggered with a specific button in Elementor, and that’s the way it’s designed to do. But what this plugin allows you to do is it allows you to get that link and add that link anywhere on your site. You can add it to your menu, you can add it in the middle of a paragraph somewhere. So you can set that popup, so when people click it, it pops that up. And it could be a popup such as you know register for this event we have or signup for our email list, or win a prize or whatever, multiple ways to use popups. But anyway, it’s a really great plugin.

Here’s currently what Angel has to say about it:

Currently, you can trigger Elementor Pro’s popups by click only on buttons or links inside Elementor. This plugin will help you trigger your Elementor Pro popup from anywhere even outside the Elementor’s content. When looking at the popup window, you have the shortcode on the far right that adds the URL tab where you can copy the popups URL and add it to any link element, be it text, or button et cetera. Using the URL is much easier than Elementor’s method of triggering popups. This plugin is a huge time saver.

He didn’t give a rating for it. But as I said, if you’re using Elementor Pro and looking for an interesting tool to improve your popups, this may be a plugin for you to add to your site, and it allows you to add that link anywhere you want. So I give this one a 5-Dragon rating.

John:    Go check it out, Popup Trigger URL for Elementor.

Amber: I could see a lot of uses for that.

John:    Yeah.

Amber: All right. The last one I have is, it’s called Cornify for WordPress. I stumbled across this and it’s just, I had to try it out. What it is, is it’s another prank plugin. And when you plug it in and turn it on, when somebody is inactive for too long on your site, unicorns start popping up – shiny, sparkly unicorns, and also rainbows. One irritation that I found on this was that the unicorns, they start popping up within like 30 seconds. So I don’t think – it takes a little – too little amount of time before they start pranking you with it. But it is a lot of fun to watch all kinds of unicorns and stuff.

Really just you plug it in and let it go. This was initially invented for April Fool’s. So if you want to prank someone or just do something for a laugh, totally worth putting in. But I’ve rated it at 4-Dragon just because it gives too little time of inactivity before they start popping up.

John:    You know there is something in the code. You’d think they would give you a spot and a setting page to adjust it, but you could adjust it in the code. If you go on to code, you could find where the timer is for.

Amber: Okay, yeah, they don’t actually offer a settings page. That also irritates me.

John:    So you would have to adjust it in the code itself?

Amber: Yay for unicorns.

John:    Yay for unicorns. You’ve got something else to ramble on about, about your pranks one there.

Amber: Right, I wanted to mention WP Pranks. I was really excited when I found this one because it seems like a fantastic prank. It does things like turns the person’s screen upside down, makes the writing really big, makes it black and white, just random things whatever I do. But I tried it out on a couple of sites of mine and it doesn’t do anything. I don’t know why it didn’t work. It seems to be updated properly, and I don’t know.

It didn’t have any settings when I plugged it in, so I couldn’t really go and see if there was a setting issue or anything. I don’t know, if there’s someone out there who – if there’s a developer out there who has a sense of humor and you are willing to put the work into making a really fun, fantastic prank plugin kind of similar to what this one did, then do so and send me the result, please. I love pranks. They are so much fun. Also, if anyone knows of any other prank plugins out there, let me know.  I’d love to check them out.

John:    All right. Yeah, sometimes they are lots of fun. I have found quite a few over the years and they come and go. Usually start to see them around January, February, March in preparation for April Fool’s Day.

Amber: You know, it never even occurred to me that there would be a plugin for pranks.

John:    Oh yeah, there are plugins for everything. Remember the old saying in Apple when the iPhone first came out, there is an app for that?

Amber: Yeah.

John:    Well, there is a plugin for that.

Amber: I like it.

John:    There really is. That was a saying I used to use a lot in the early years of this show. Someone would ask me, and I’d say I bet there was a plugin for that, and sure enough, there was a plugin for that. Somebody has written the plugin. There’re a lot of bored coders out there.

All right.  Well, this show here is currently brought to you by…

            Are you tired of the same old webhosting? Not having the resources you need to run your website properly? Having a lack of control? Then you need JohnOverall.com webhosting, providing you with all the resources you need to smoothly run your WordPress website or ClassicPress website. With strict limits on the number of clients allowed per server, JohnOverall.com provides high-quality fast server performance. Visit JohnOverall.com for webhosting that won’t slow you down.

John:    Absolutely, high-quality webhosting, save you time and money, but you better strike while the iron is hot. I have limited spaces left on my last server. I’m not bringing another server online. I like to stay a small company and provide the highest quality possible to people.

All right. Contests, well, we don’t have any contests currently. The last one finished out with a congratulations off to Chris I believe who won it. So thank you very much for entering it. And we do have more contests coming as soon as we can get them into the bag.

So closing out this episode, the plugins I covered were Popup Trigger URL for Elementor Pro, which I gave a 5 to, Portfolio Gallery – Image Gallery Plugin – Premium, which I gave a 5 to, and Disable Admin Notices Individually, which was given a 4.

Amber: And I covered Validator.pizza, which I gave a 4 to, Secret Image Slide and Tune, which I gave a 5 to, and Cornify for WordPress, which I gave a 4 to.

John:    All right. And a couple of quick reminders and some begging at the end. No meetup is planned at the moment, but you can keep tabs on this over at wppluginsatoz.com/meetup. I’m really trying to see if I can squeeze one in for September but may not be enough time. My life is just a little too insane at the moment.

If you would like to be interviewed on the show, and you don’t even have to be a developer, if you just got something that’s really good to say to the WordPress community, reach out to me. I’ll get you on the show for an interview. I’m looking for lots of interesting cool people I can interview for the show. You can reach out at wppluginsatoz.com/interview.

You want to find more about me and my insanity and what my life is tied up to, go check out therougestavern.com and see what I’ve been up to out in the wild. Mostly, lately, it’s all been at the oasis.

Okay. And I’ve never been overly good at asking for help for anything, but I have been working to change that in the last couple of years. And particularly, what I’m asking for right now is some help from you, the producers, out there. One of the things we need that really seems to be a big hit with all of you producers out there is the contest.

And these contests do require some time. We have to reach out to developers that have premier plugins, get them to submit a license key to us. We have to produce the contest, get it up, promote it, tell people about it, get people to come in, check out the contest, sign up for it, select the winner, notify them. Then we have to get that key, get it to the winner, and you know, make sure we’ve got everything talking about. There’s a fair bit of work that goes into it. Not a lot, but a fair bit, and usually, it cuts into the time I need to do the work that I use to make me money, which making the money allows me the time to produce this show, and also time to go away for the weekends.

And I’ve learned a few years ago that working seven days a week just burns you out. And you can only do that so long, and you usually only do that when you are in your late 20s, your 30s, and your early 40s. You get about a decade where you can burn yourself out. And after that, you’ve got to either be well-situated or learn how to dial it back and work four or five days a week.

Anyway, if any of you producers out there want to help out in this aspect, I’ll hook you up with all the information you need to contact developers and get these contests set up and promote them. That would be a great way to contribute to the WP Plugins A-Z show. So think about it, we greatly appreciate it. Okay, anything last – last words?

Amber: Not that I can think of, no.

John:    All right. Well, that’s it. We’re going to call it a wrap, and I’m going to take my tequila shot, oh, tequila man needs his hat. There we go, tequila man and his hat. Okay, one tequila shooter down the hatch, and we will let my girl take us on out of here.

Reminders for the show: All show notes can be found at wppluginsatoz.com, and while you’re there, subscribe to the newsletter for more useful information delivered directly to your inbox. WP Plugins A-Z is a show that offers honest and unbiased reviews of plugins created by developers because you support the show. Help keep the show honest and unbiased by going to wppluginsatoz.com/donate and set the donation level that fits your budget.

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John can also be reached at his website, JohnOverall.com, or email him directly at john@wppro.ca. Thanks for joining us and have a great day.

Thanks for listening to the show. This show is copyright by JohnOverall.com. So until next time, have yourselves a good morning, good afternoon, or a good evening, wherever you happen to be out there on the globe today.