Miniblog Plugin for WordPress 1.5

Filed in: WordPress on March 25, 2005 at 4:28 am

After a few days in the making and a dangerously short testing time, I’ve decided to release version 0.1 of it to the public to help me test it and get all the kinks out.

Miniblog is a plugin that should hopefully solve most problems with asides (at least that I needed). It’s actually easy to use as anything from a small link blog to a block of site code or something. I made it for my asides section (on the right side of the index) but found that I could use it for maintaining page lists and what-not from admin panel. Nifty, no?

No Longer Supported

I regret to inform those of you looking for help with this or any of my other plugins, that they will no longer be updated or supported. Sorry, but I just don’t have an interest in programming anymore.

New! Thomas Cort Joe has taken it upon himself to keep this plugin alive. Kudos to him! Go to Joe’s Miniblog page.

Downloads

For up-to-the-second updates, check out the Miniblog Subversion.

Changelog

  • (April 20, 2005) 0.5
    • After a (much too) long time, I think I’ve found the root of the bug problems. My own slash removing and adding code was problably it :\ If it’s not, I’m stumped. If there are still problems, please leave a comment with lots of details.
    • Added a new parameter to the display functions. It’s added into the plugin in a way that doesn’t require any code to be changed. The new paramater adds the ability for you to be able to control rather or not you want your entry’s content (text) run through the_content’s filters.
    • Also, I am dedicated version 0.5.* as a bug fixing release. I don’t want to progress any in major features until I can get all of these bugs sqaushed.
  • (April 04, 2005) 0.4
    • Rewrote the core pretty much byte for byte. This should improve the organization, readability, and expandibility.
    • Fixed a very scary security hole that I didn’t see last time I was looking for holes. Download 0.4 or I will not feel your pain when you get exploited.
    • Should’ve (*crosses fingers*) fixed the category bugs described below. Please test it for me. My install (default Strayhorn) works fine with it now. Apparently, is_plugin_page() isn’t as smart as I thought, so I had to detect if it was Miniblog’s page or not via basename(__FILE__);.
  • (March 28, 2005) 0.3
    • Added a new beginner-friendly function that works much like WordPress default listing functions. Hopefully this won’t scare away those people afraid of advanced foreach loops and such. Check the documentation for more information.
    • Fixed some spelling errors and sloppy things in the code and documentation.
    • Added support for Coldforged’s Spelling Checker.
  • (March 28, 2005) 0.2.9
    • RSS feed pages can now show a custom title and description.
    • Fixed a bug that would create invalid RSS markup. Now titles and things are trimmed. If any invalid RSS documents are generated, please leave a comment here and I will try to squash the bug.
    • Patched a potential security risk (please upgrade - it could be harmful if you don’t).
    • Added more documentation and examples to the miniblog_create_rss_url() function.
  • (March 27, 2005) 0.2.8 Various bug fixes and support for Mudbomb’s WYSIWYG editor.
  • (March 26, 2005) 0.2.1 Fixed a bug involving searches that had no wildcards returning entries as if they contained wildcards.
  • (March 26, 2005) 0.2 Changes
    • RSS output is now supported! For an explanation and an example, see the documentation.
    • No more errors if your blog term returns no results. It now returns an empty array.
    • You can now enter wildcards (%) in your blog identifier term field when using the miniblog_return_entries() function. This allows for more versatility in calling entries.
  • (March 25, 2005) 0.1.5 A few minor changes in this one:
    • Quicktags are now working! Just as I thought, it was a tiny oversight.
    • Fixed some spelling errors and example mismatches in the documentation.
    • Added a system to help the plugin play nice with Staticize Reloaded (or any other caching system that comes down the line). If you want another caching plugin added, please leave a comment.
    • I think one of the users (mario; below) had a plugin installed that clashed with mine. Minor changes have been made to try and reduce the possibility of this happening in the future.
  • (March 25, 2005) 0.1.1 An entry’s post text is now filtered and retains the same look and feel of normal posts. Quicktags were removed until I can figure out how to get them working.
  • (March 25, 2005) 0.1 Initial release.

To install the plugin, simply drop it into your plugins directory. All other documentation can be found in Write : Miniblog menu.

Todo List

  • RSS feed ability
  • Perhaps a comment system that uses popups?
  • Beginner-friendly means of outputting entry data. One example is Scott Reilly’s method of formatting entry data. This method would be optimal for most beginning users.
  • Single pages for asides. I’m not sure if this is possible, but if I can find a way to do it, then cool. Another possibility for this is to open the single aside in a customizable popup window via javascript or something. This would just require global access to part of the plugin. I also have to find out if this approach is possible :)
    Thinking about it more, I think this is very possible. I could use the existing archives.php and single.php templates to display information by just changing the array name to correlate with the post variables…that is only if they are edittable. Something to try when I get home.
  • Fix the errors that are caused when the returning functions returns and empty array that kills the foreach loop.
  • Add customizable titles to the RSS feed pages.
  • Add support for RunPHP and Spelling Checker.

note: this list is simply a reminder of what to do or some ideas of what I could do. It is by no means a definitive list of what’s going in.

If you find any bugs or wish to request any features, leave a comment here or a reply in the Miniblog Post at the WordPress support forum.