In WordPress 2.5, the code is cleaner, the plugin is more responsive and you can add both “real” sidebar widgets, or add “fake” ones to match the dashboard.

This plugin is currently intended for 2.5, but it also works in WordPress 2.1 – 2.3 and can work in WordPress 2.0.x if you use the Completely Wipe Dashboard option.

Installation is a breeze:

1. Download the zip file for WordPress Dashboard Editor
2. Unzip and upload dashboard.php to your wp-content/plugins/ folder.
3. Go to your dashboard. There will be a new sub-menu item.
4. Select any options you want and add any PHP or HTML code that you want to the textbox.

Code Examples:

To add a sidebar widget to your dashboard (after selecting the option from the Dashboard management page) use the code:
<?php dynamic_sidebar('admin');?>
The Admin sidebar is modified and controlled the exact same way as any other sidebar.

If you use the WP-UserOnline plugin you can use:
<?php echo useronline_page();?>

In WordPress 2.1-2.3 f you find that your new content doesn’t align nicely you can add:

1. <div style="float:left; width:460px;">
2. //
3. //Add all other content here
4. //
5. </div>

Any code that can be used in your WordPress Theme can be used in the dashboard. This means that you can have different information appear for the different user roles among other things.

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The first step is to add the following to your current theme’s index.php loop after the line that looks like <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>, but before any other code.

1. <?php $cat_temp = cat_loop();?>
2. <?php if($cat_temp && is_numeric($cat_temp)){?>
3. <?php include('loops/cat_'.$cat_temp.'.php');?>
4. <?php }else{ ?>

Then add } just before the line endwhile.

The next step is to add the following to your theme’s functions.php file (you may have to create a file with the same name):

1. function cat_loop(){
2. global $blog_id,$post, $wp_version;
3. if($wp_version >= 2.3){
4. global $object_term_cache;
5. $array = $object_term_cache[$blog_id][$post->ID]['category'];
6. }else{
7. global $category_cache;
8. $array = $category_cache[$blog_id][$post->ID];
9. }
10. while (list($cat) = each($array)) {
11. if(file_exists(dirname(__FILE__).'/loops/cat_'.$cat.'.php')){
12. return $cat;
13. }
14. }
15. }
16. Use the following to copy and paste the code.
    function cat_loop(){ global $blog_id,$post, $wp_version; if($wp_version >= 2.3){ global $object_term_cache; $array = $object_term_cache[$blog_id][$post->ID]['category']; }else{ global $category_cache; $array = $category_cache[$blog_id][$post->ID]; } while (list($cat) = each($array)) { if(file_exists(dirname(__FILE__).'/loops/cat_'.$cat.'.php')){ return $cat; } } }

This can be modified to look at author’s also. Now the only thing you have to do is to create a folder named “loops” in your theme’s folder, and then create a new file with a new “loop” — excluding the while and endwhile parts — and name it cat_xxx.php where xxx is the id of the category the loops is for.

This can be repeated for single.php, archive.php, or anywhere else a custom loop is useful. You can even use something similar for individual posts or pages.

A post may be in multiple categories, but it will only use the first custom template it finds, so make sure the post is in only one specially styled category at a time.

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One of the downsides of having a popular plugin is the amount of support requests, bug reports, and feature suggestions that come in. Well, it’s not that bad, but sometimes it’s difficult to organize what features should be added, what bugs must be tackled first, and what can just be ignored.

If you’re one of the few and the proud over at WP Extend Plugins, you have a nice tool at your disposal to keep track of all your plugin related needs. The tool, you ask? It’s the trac ticketing system over at the WordPress Plugin Repository.

From Weblog Tools Collection

For most of my wordpress plugins, like AJAXed WordPress I use SVN and the WordPress Plugin Repository to keep track of changes I make to my plugins between versions to make it easier to write the changelog, but I never considered using it for bug reports.

It would make it so much easier because I have a tendency to get bug reports and feature requests in emails, comments on the extend page, in forums, on the main plugin page, on its readme page. It gets so chaotic that stuff slips through all the time.

I’m on the verge of writing a Plugin to help me organize it all.

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The first step is to get WordPress to display the menu as a hierarchical list without a title. <?php wp_list_categories('sort_column=name&sort_order=asc&style=list&children=true&hierarchical=true&title_li=0'); ?>

We then wrap this WordPress code in the following so we can style it.

1. <div style="text-align:center;">
2. <ul id="menu" style="padding:0; margin:0;">
3. <?php wp_list_categories('sort_column=name&sort_order=asc&style=list&children=true&hierarchical=true&title_li=0'); ?>
4. </ul>
5. </div>

I added this to my header.php, but you can add it anywhere you want it to appear.

The CSS is fairly simple and you just need to add it to your theme’s style.css file.

1. ul#menu {
2. margin: 0;
3. padding: 0;
4. list-style: none;
5. width: 100%;
6. font-size:1.2em;
7. }
9. ul#menu li {
10. float: left;
11. padding: 0;
12. margin: 0;
13. border-right:solid 1px #fff;
14. }
16. ul#menu ul li {
17. float: none;
18. position: relative;
19. border-bottom: 1px solid #7EAED7; /* fixes gap problem in IE */
20. border-left: 1px solid #FFF;
21. z-index:1000;
22. }
24. ul#menu li ul {
25. margin: 0;
26. padding: 0;
27. display:none;
28. list-style: none;
29. position: absolute;
30. background: #9CC;
31. }
32. ul#menu ul ul{
33. margin-left: .2em;
34. position: absolute;
35. top: 0; /* if using borders, -1px to align top borders */
36. left: 100%;
37. }
39. ul#menu * a:hover, ul#menu li a:active{
40. background:#7EAED7 !important;
41. color: #FFFFFF;
42. }
44. ul#menu li a:link,
45. ul#menu li a:visited,
46. ul#menu li a:hover,
47. ul#menu li a:active{
48. display: block;
49. padding: .2em .3em;
50. text-decoration: none;
51. background: #5587B3;
52. color: #FFFFFF;
53. }
56. ul#menu ul li a:link,
57. ul#menu ul li a:visited,
58. ul#menu ul li a:hover,
59. ul#menu ul li a:active {
60. width: 8em;
61. }
62. Use the following to copy and paste the code.
    ul#menu { margin: 0; padding: 0; list-style: none; width: 100%; font-size:1.2em; } ul#menu li { float: left; padding: 0; margin: 0; border-right:solid 1px #fff; } ul#menu ul li { float: none; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid #7EAED7; /* fixes gap problem in IE */ border-left: 1px solid #FFF; z-index:1000; } ul#menu li ul { margin: 0; padding: 0; display:none; list-style: none; position: absolute; background: #9CC; } ul#menu ul ul{ margin-left: .2em; position: absolute; top: 0; /* if using borders, -1px to align top borders */ left: 100%; } ul#menu * a:hover, ul#menu li a:active{ background:#7EAED7 !important; color: #FFFFFF; } ul#menu li a:link, ul#menu li a:visited, ul#menu li a:hover, ul#menu li a:active{ display: block; padding: .2em .3em; text-decoration: none; background: #5587B3; color: #FFFFFF; } ul#menu ul li a:link, ul#menu ul li a:visited, ul#menu ul li a:hover, ul#menu ul li a:active { width: 8em; }

Of course you will need to change the colors and text sizes to ensure it blends with the rest of the theme.

Now the last step is the to make it work as a drop-down list on all browsers. This could be done in Firefox with a simple CSS declaration, but Internet Explorer doesn’t understand the :hover pseudo classes, so we mimic this in Javascript.

1. <script type="text/javascript">
2. /*<![CDATA[*/
4. var mbA,mbT,mbTf,mbSf;
5. var mbR = [];
7. function mbSet(m) {
8. if (document.getElementById&&document.createElement) {
9. var m=document.getElementById(m);
10. mbR[mbR.length] = m;
11. var i;
13. e=m.getElementsByTagName('a');
14. if (!mbTf) mbTf=new Function('mbHT();');
15. if (!mbSf) mbSf=new Function('mbS(this);');
16. for (i=0;i<e.length;i++) {
17. e[i].onmouseout=e[i].onblur=mbTf;
18. e[i].onmouseover=e[i].onfocus=mbSf;
19. }
21. m=m.getElementsByTagName('ul');
22. for (i=0;i<m.length;i++) {
23. mbH(mbL(m[i]));
24. }
25. }}
27. function mbHA() {
28. if (mbA) {
29. while (mbA) mbH(mbA);
30. mbHE('block');
31. }
32. }
34. function mbHT() {
35. if (!mbT) mbT=setTimeout('mbHA();', 0);
36. }
38. function mbTC() {
39. if (mbT) {
40. clearTimeout(mbT);
41. mbT=null;
42. }
43. }
45. function mbS(m) {
46. mbTC();
47. if (mbA) while (mbA&&m!=mbA&&mbP(m)!=mbA) mbH(mbA);
48. else mbHE('none');
50. if (mbM(m)) {
51. mbSH(m,'block');
52. mbA=m;
53. }
54. }
56. function mbH(m) {
57. if (m==mbA) mbA=mbP(m);
58. mbSH(m,'none');
59. mbT=null;
60. }
62. function mbL(m) {
63. while (m && m.tagName != 'A') m = m.previousSibling;
64. return m;
65. }
67. function mbM(l) {
68. while (l && l.tagName != 'UL') l = l.nextSibling;
69. return l;
70. }
72. function mbP(m) {
73. var p = m.parentNode.parentNode;
74. if (p.tagName == 'UL') {
75. var i = 0;
76. while (i <mbR.length) {
77. if (mbR[i] == p) return null;
78. i++;
79. }
80. } else {
81. return null;
82. }
83. return mbL(p);
84. }
86. function mbSH(m,v) {
87. m.className=v;
88. mbM(m).style.display=v;
89. }
91. function mbHE(v) {
92. mbHEV(v,document.getElementsByTagName('select'));
93. }
95. function mbHEV(v,e) {
96. for (var i=0;i<e.length;i++) e[i].style.display=v;
97. }
98. /*]]>*/
99. </script>
100. Use the following to copy and paste the code.
     <script type="text/javascript"> /*<![CDATA[*/ var mbA,mbT,mbTf,mbSf; var mbR = []; function mbSet(m) { if (document.getElementById&&document.createElement) { var m=document.getElementById(m); mbR[mbR.length] = m; var i; e=m.getElementsByTagName('a'); if (!mbTf) mbTf=new Function('mbHT();'); if (!mbSf) mbSf=new Function('mbS(this);'); for (i=0;i<e.length;i++) { e[i].onmouseout=e[i].onblur=mbTf; e[i].onmouseover=e[i].onfocus=mbSf; } m=m.getElementsByTagName('ul'); for (i=0;i<m.length;i++) { mbH(mbL(m[i])); } }} function mbHA() { if (mbA) { while (mbA) mbH(mbA); mbHE('block'); } } function mbHT() { if (!mbT) mbT=setTimeout('mbHA();', 0); } function mbTC() { if (mbT) { clearTimeout(mbT); mbT=null; } } function mbS(m) { mbTC(); if (mbA) while (mbA&&m!=mbA&&mbP(m)!=mbA) mbH(mbA); else mbHE('none'); if (mbM(m)) { mbSH(m,'block'); mbA=m; } } function mbH(m) { if (m==mbA) mbA=mbP(m); mbSH(m,'none'); mbT=null; } function mbL(m) { while (m && m.tagName != 'A') m = m.previousSibling; return m; } function mbM(l) { while (l && l.tagName != 'UL') l = l.nextSibling; return l; } function mbP(m) { var p = m.parentNode.parentNode; if (p.tagName == 'UL') { var i = 0; while (i <mbR.length) { if (mbR[i] == p) return null; i++; } } else { return null; } return mbL(p); } function mbSH(m,v) { m.className=v; mbM(m).style.display=v; } function mbHE(v) { mbHEV(v,document.getElementsByTagName('select')); } function mbHEV(v,e) { for (var i=0;i<e.length;i++) e[i].style.display=v; } /*]]>*/ </script>

A couple notes on the previous code.

1. To activate it, change your theme’s <body> tag to <body onload=”mbSet(‘menu’);>
2. It was not written by me, but I’ve been using it for a long time and don’t remember where I got it.
3. It can occasionally create a JavaScript error, and I’ve intended to rewrite it for a long time, but it usually works fine.

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The Simple Tags has been around for a long time, but now it works perfectly with WordPress tagging. What does it do? Most everything you could want (I could retype the list, but I’m going to borrow it straight from the Simple Tags website):

• type-ahead input tags
• auto suggestion of tags
• tags management (rename, delete, amalgamate, search and add tags, edit tags ID)
• List of non tagged contents
• Edit mass tags
• Possibility to tag pages (not only posts) and include them inside the tags results
• Related content since common tags
• Possibility to add related posts inside RSS
• Dynamic Tag Clouds with colors with Widgets
• Tags inside your header’s blog
• Embedded tags ([tags]tag1, tag2[/tags]) for retro compatibility

I use a lot of Plugins and write a lot of Plugins, so the fact that I even use one usually means it is really well made or very useful, but this one is one of the very few that I thought was good enough to promote. Remember, if you have a favorite Plugin, do the author a favor and mention it once or twice.

Oh and what would be really nice is if it had a feature that would suggest related keywords based on the text (there used to be a Yahoo API that did this.) Wink Wink.

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Or specifically for the tags:

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The easiest way to get a non-fatal wp_die() error (an error that shouldn’t cause the entire application to stop) is when submitting comments: non-fatal errors occur whenever someone posts too quickly or submits a duplicate comment, so this can be a problem when creating an AJAX app to submit comments (I ran into this problem with INAP.)

Since AJAX makes the entire submit process very quick, so it is easy to trigger the “Posting too quickly” error if the user make short comments, and when this happens an entire page –complete with CSS and headers– is returned as the AJAX response. Originally, I detected this by updating the element and then doing doing a regex test on it. If it was an error, I would use another Regex to strip out the error message and update the element again, but because of the CSS, if the same user triggered an error multiple times (eg testing to see if they could submit the comment yet) there would be a momentary flash. I fixed this problem by updating a variable instead of going straight to the element, but it still required using client-side code to process it.

The Setup:
Some data is posted through AJAX to the server-side script. This script then calls a function (submit_data) which then passes on the data to WordPress. (There is of course PHP and JavaScript that isn’t shown here.)

The Original Function:

1. function submit_form(){
2. global $wpdb, $post,$id;
3. require_once('../../../../wp-comments-post.php');
4. echo 'Comment submitted';
5. }

The original function just includes the WordPress file that processes the comments. If the Comment is a success WordPress doesn’t output any data and the “Comment submitted” message is echo’d. However if there is an error, the error message is outputted and the die() is called before the echo occurs.

The new function that traps the error:

1. function submit_form(){
2. global $wpdb, $post,$id;
3. ob_start("nodie");
4. require_once('../../../../wp-comments-post.php');
5. ob_end_clean();
6. echo 'Comment submitted';
7. }
9. function nodie($error){
10. return $error;
11. }

Now we have added the lines line 3 and line 5, plus a new function nodie(). The ob_start callback function (the string we pass to it) is only called if that specific ob_start() is supposed to output text. This only happens two times: when ob_end_flush() is called or if something inside the ob_start function outputs texts and then a die() is called. When the callback function is called the contents of the output buffer is passed as a string and a string should be returned.

In our function we use ob_end_clean() instead of ob_end_flush() which means the contents of the output buffer is destroyed, not echo’d, so the only time the call back function is called is when, you guessed it, we have an error and WordPress die()’s inside the ob_start().

Now the nodie() function doesn’t do anything, but with a little RegEX magic it will return just the error string. Because submitting comments only returns a single error we can just look for the <p>, but if multiple errors may be returned you may want to look for a <ul> also.

1. function nodie($error){
2. preg_match('@<p>(.*?)</p>@', $error,$errs);
3. return $errs[1];
4. }

A couple final notes. Inside the nodie function anything that is outputted will not be returned (eg no echo’s or print_r’s), but you can call other functions and return their output as a string, so you can create an entire error handling application. Alao, WordPress adds a header to the wp_die() page of text/html if this is inappropriate for your application you can block this by adding the following lines to your function that could cause the error.

1. Global $wp_actions;
2. $wp_actions[] = 'admin_head';

It is rather hackish, but it works. You then can set the header you need in your callback function.

Of course this technique can be used on a larger scale to completely transform the wp_die page, but in the process, it will require that you trap all content in output buffering, and this method can be used with any other PHP program that you don’t have direct control over.

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INAP 3.0 is now truly modular with a main Javascript/PHP core that other features hook into to function. This core is easily extensible and the new structure of a main project with many smaller projects will make bugfixes and upgrades less painful, and will allow the user to upgrade the plugin section by section as most changes in the modules won’t effect the core.

For the users:

1. INAP 3.0 will make upgrades far less painful. With each section managing its own options there won’t be the constant changes to the way little things work.
2. Features will flow more freely, and individual sections will reach maturity faster.
   Individual modules can be deleted without effecting the rest of the plugin. his will help speed up your WP.
3. Most bugs and irritants in the current version of INAP have been removed including the entire reload of the comments section when a comment is posted, the extra text added to links has been minimized, the built in effects have been improved, and the entire plugin is faster and easy to use.

For the developers:

1. INAP 3.0 core now works off of advanced PHP/Javascript/XML and can easily be extended with custom modules.
2. The new license is less restrictive that the previous versions.
3. INAP 3.0 provides a framework that other plugins can hook into to harness its maturity and the hundreds of hours that have gone in to its development.
4. Global variables have been almost entirely eliminated from both the Javascript and PHP—INAP 3.0 will play nice.
5. The Javascript core is entirely independent of the AJAX library used which means that any AJAX library (jQuery, Prototype, Mootools, etc) can be used and and INAP 3.0 will function just as well. Adding new libraries is no harder than adding a couple lines of code.
6. A few well placed actions and template files can make any theme compatible.

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Good Things:

1. I like the new post status “Pending Review” and the ability to sort posts by status. Somone posted pictures here.
2. Tags are looking good..
3. A UTW tag importer is built in; of course, I realized this only after I created one.
4. The “categories” database tables have been retired and everything is tag based (categories are a type of tag similar to the ways pages are just a form of post). I’m almost giddy at the possibilities.
5. Major features of INAP still work. Pheww.
6. Not finished yet, but hopefully, searches organized by relevance instead of date will also be released.

Bad things (that will probably be fixed soon):

1. It seems you can’t add child categories in the July 28 Trunk, but I assume this will be fixed.
2. No “Manage Tags” page yet.

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Download Multi-plugin

Installation is as simple as renaming the file to .php, uploading it to your server, activating it, and adding some script to the textbox (for example, I use the following code to remove the nofollow attribute from comments.)

1. <?php
2. add_filter('get_comment_author_link', 'aoi_follow');
3. add_filter('comment_text', 'aoi_follow');
4. function aoi_follow($link){
5. return preg_replace('/(<a.*?rel[^>]*)nofollow(.*?)/','${1}${2}',$link);
6. }
8. ?>

You can also use the following to add the trailing slash back onto feeds, categories, pages, etc. in WordPress 2.2+.

1. <?php
2. add_filter('user_trailingslashit', 'aoi_slashit',10,2);
3. function aoi_slashit($string, $type=''){
4. if($type == 'page' || $type == 'category'|| $type == 'month'|| $type == 'day'|| $type == 'paged'|| $type == 'feed'){
5. return trailingslashit($string);
6. }else{
7. return $string;
8. }
9. }
10. ?>
11. Use the following to copy and paste the code.
    <?php add_filter('user_trailingslashit', 'aoi_slashit',10,2); function aoi_slashit($string, $type=''){ if($type == 'page' || $type == 'category'|| $type == 'month'|| $type == 'day'|| $type == 'paged'|| $type == 'feed'){ return trailingslashit($string); }else{ return $string; } } ?>

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