seanklein.org » Code

Code to Widget Updated to 1.1.1

Sean Klein — Sat, 29 May 2010 05:25:47 +0000

After some discussions with coworkers and a plugin user, I realized the plugin needed a little more documentation on the template directory. I have added some absolute paths to the plugin settings screen for easier reference.

I also added a button to test and make sure that the directory is usable for the plugin. It does an AJAX request to check and see if the folder exists and is readable. After the check it displays either a smiley or an exclamation point in the input field to let you know whether it is good or not.

Again please let me know if you find issues, or have feature requests. I will try to get more updates out soon.

Code To Widget Plugin Released

Sean Klein — Tue, 25 May 2010 02:48:34 +0000

I’m very happy to announce the release of the Code To Widget WordPress plugin. The plugin reads files in a directory and automatically creates widgets to be placed in sidebars. It gives developers/designers the ability to create widgets without having to write the widget code every time.

This plugin was initially written out of frustration. About a year ago I got tired of writing widget initialization code over and over again just to create widgets. I also thought it would be cool for people who didn’t know how to write PHP as well to have an easy way to create widgets.

The first version of this plugin has support for the new PHP Class based widgets that were implemented in WordPress 2.8. Though it does technically have support for WordPress 2.8, I focused on 2.9+.

I have already had some feedback from my co-workers, so a 1.1 release should be out soon. It will have support for multiple folders, and also use native PHP functions for reading the files in the folders which should speed up rebuilding of the widgets. I also plan on adding a disable feature for widgets that might not be needed right at the moment, but could be needed in the future.

Please let me know if you have any questions/suggestions regarding the plugin. Feel free to download the plugin here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/code-to-widget/

TIL: Adding Admin Menu Pages

Sean Klein — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:29:56 +0000

When using functions like add_submenu_page etc, make sure that you add them at the admin_menu action. If you try to add them any place other than that you will get “Insufficient Privileges” errors when trying to go to the page.

NOTE: If you are in WP 2.8 WordPress allows you to run those functions at admin_init, but don’t be fooled they will break again in WP 2.8.1.

Website Launch

Sean Klein — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:08:09 +0000

I’m proud to announce the launch of my first personal web development in many years. Green Job Outsourcing Brokers was launched on Sunday (5/10).

I was contacted by Elizabeth Heid the CEO of Green Job Outsourcing Brokers to create a website where she could display jobs from her clients. Elizabeth runs an outsourcing company where businesses contact her to fill positions. She needed a basic website where she could easily add those jobs, and have her “Sub Contractors” create an account on her website and add their resumes and cover letters.

I used WordPress as a CMS for this project. WordPress along with Carrington as a base for a theme made for a great web build. For the back end I used a plugin I initially developed for Crowd Favorite, then modified so it would handle uploading more data for each user registered. Two of the meta items I included were Cover Letter and Resume as PDFs. Unfortunately I had to modify the WP Core for the user profile page to display the user information like GJOB wanted it displayed, but ultimately I believe it looked pretty good.

On the front end Carrington served as a great base for the theme. The development of the theme using Carrington made the work for GJOB much easier and better for the client. It cut down greatly on development time and kept costs down for the client.

Overall I am very happy with how this site came out. I am not a designer and very rarely get involved with the design of sites, but I designed this entire site and had fun with it. We went through many design revisions and in the middle I was very unclear as to where the site was going, but after everything the site came out great. This was a great project and I look forward to doing more like it.