After adding version 1.3, I received a few notifications about the javascript. It gave errors, wasn’t compatible with most plugins and/or themes and just sucked

My decision was to update the complete javascript used with version 2.0, since that one is going to have a complete makeover. However, more and more emails came, telling about the JavaScript. The problem seems to be worse then I was thinking, so an early patch for the javascript is already available.

I removed the Prototype framework for compatibility, since most themes and plugins are using jQuery. Now the Community News plugin does too. It uses the jQuery lib that comes with WordPress itself. I hope this will improve the compatibility. Also errors which occurred in the old javascript are fixed.

Template Tags

A lot of people were asking for it, template tags for use in posts/pages. Well, here they are:

<!--fvCommunityNews:Form-->
<!--fvCommunityNews:Submissions-->

The first one will display the form, just as the widget does, but then within a page or post. The next one will display a list of submissions, as defined in the admin panel (under: Settings – Template). You can simply put these tags in your post or page, and thats all.

Uninstall Feature

While I was thinking what this plugin needs, I decided that it should have an uninstall function. Before, you could only deactivate the plugin through the wp-admin panel under plugins, but when that was done, all the data/settings still remain in your database and on your server. With this new Uninstall function you can remove all settings, and/or all data before you deactivate the plugin and remove all the plugin files.

Translatable

Before version 1.3, all text displayed on the screen, produced by this plugin was static data, you couldn’t change it. From now on the plugin uses the WordPress functions for displaying text, wich makes it possible for you to translate it and run the plugin in your own language. There are no languages included yet, but don’t hesitate to submit your own translation. I will include it in the plugin and would be very thankfull.

Custom Response Messages

Didn’t like the standard responses? You are now able to customize them so they fit for you. Go to Settings – Appearance, and modify all possible responses. Also a simple stylesheet is included to give the form a little style.

Improved Akismet

As of the previous (1.2 series) version, I included an Akismet class to fight spam. Unfortunately, this class was causing some serious problems at random servers. Because of this I searched for another solution, and found the MicroAkismet functions. These do work on blogs where the old class failed. I want to thank my friend Ivan, who made his blog availible for some tests.

Well don’t worry I am busy to create that and it is almost finished. In the mean while, I wanted to share some stuff I learned while creating this RSS feed.

The Beginning

The first thing we need is a function that actually creates the RSS feed. This function doesn’t need any parameters and it also shouldn’t return anything.

<?php
function myGreatPluginRSSFeed() {
    // Function content goes here.
}
?>

This function must create the whole feed form the beginning to the end. So, you also have to include the xml/rss header. I ripped something from the default WordPress feed that should work for any blog.

<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/">
	<channel>
		<title><?php bloginfo_rss('name'); wp_title_rss(); ?></title>
		<link><?php bloginfo_rss('url') ?></link>
		<atom:link href="<?php self_link(); ?>" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<description><?php bloginfo_rss("description") ?></description>
		<language><?php echo get_option('rss_language'); ?></language>
		<sy:updatePeriod><?php echo apply_filters( 'rss_update_period', 'hourly' ); ?></sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency><?php echo apply_filters( 'rss_update_frequency', '1' ); ?></sy:updateFrequency>
		<item>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

Now, you could see the <item> and </item> tags, that is where we are going to add our feed items. From this moment I assume that all our RSS data is located in an array like this one.

$rssItems = array(
	'item_1'=>array(
		'Title',
		'Link',
		'Author',
		'Date',
		'Description',
		'Content'
		),
	'item_2'=>array(
		'Title',
		'Link',
		'Author',
		'Date',
		'Description',
		'Content'
		)
	);

And so on. For adding the items to our feed, we simply use a foreach loop.

foreach ($rssItems as $item) {
	echo '<item>';
	echo '<title>' . $item['Title'] . '</title>';
	echo '<link>' . $item['Link'] . '</link>';
	echo '<dc:creator>' . $item['Author'] . '</dc:creator>';
	echo '<pubDate>' . mysql2date('D, d M Y H:i:s +0000', $item['Date']) . '</pubDate>';
	echo '<description>' . $item['Description'] . '</description>';
	echo '<content:encoded><![CDATA[' . $item['Content'] . ']]></content:encoded>';
	echo '</item>';
}

The mysql2date function is a WordPress function that converts our date to the format we want for our feed. The input should be the date in the following format: d-m-Y H:i:s. See php.net for more information about the date formatting.

Now we have finished our function, we have only one thing to do.

Adding the RSS Feed to WordPress

To add the feed, we could use one simple function, build-in in WordPress since version 2.1.0. This is the add_feed function. This function has two parameters.

• $feedname; The name of your feed.
• $function; The function that creates the feed. (The one we created above)

So lets say we name our feed: ‘guestbook’, then we should call the add_feed function this way:

<?php
// Add our new RSS feed.
add_feed('guestbook', 'myGreatPluginRSSFeed');
?>

Now our feed is added and working! One thing you might be asking yourself is: Where could I find my feed? Well, that’s simple.
If you are using permalinks on your blog (could be checked this way: $wp_rewrite->using_permalinks()), then your feed is located at: http://your.website.com/[feedname].
If you don’t use permalinks, your feed is located at: http://your.website.com/?feed=[feedname].

Done!

After all our hard work, we have created one beautiful RSS 2.0 feed, working with WordPress. Any questions? Please leave a comment.

Join the 2.0 beta now!

Features

Currently, the Community News plugin has the following features:

• Widget Ready (Different form/results widget)
• Tags for use in posts/pages
• AJAX Form Handling
• Multi-Language Support
• Moderation panel (with email option) – Make sure you approve the right articles
• Edit Submissions
• `My Submissions` Page
• Customizable templates
• Captcha Spam protection (on/off)
• Akismet Spam protection (API key required)
• Build-in RSS 2.0 Feed
• Image Uploading
• Settings
• Uninstall Page
• Configurable Responses

How To Install & Use

1. Download the files
2. Upload the files to /wp-content/plugins
3. Activate the plugin (WP-admin > Plugins > FV Community News)
4. Browse Community News > Settings to select the settings you prefer.
5. Go to Design > Widgets to add the Community News widgets to your sidebar.

You can also show your Community News plugin on a static page. You can do that by placing the following codes on a page that does support PHP:

Add Form

<?php if (function_exists('fvCommunityNewsForm'))

    fvCommunityNewsForm(); ?>

Latest Submissions

<?php if (function_exists('fvCommunityNewsGetSubmissions'))
    echo fvCommunityNewsGetSubmissions(Number, Template); ?>

• Number – Insert number of items you would like to show here
• Template – Structure per item. You can use these tags:
  
  • %submission_author%
  • %submission_author_email%
  • %submission_title%
  • %submission_url%
  • %submission_description%
  • %submission_date%
  • %submission_image%

By default the Template is: ‘<li><h3><a href="%submission_url%" title="%submission_title%">%submission_title%</a></h3><p>%submission_description%</p><small>%submission_date%</small></li>‘. <ul> </ul> tags are automatically added.

Example

Take a look at the sidebar, you could see the plugin in action right there. Also my friend uses Community News on his blog, so you can see a working example on DivitoDesign.

The FV Community News settings page.

Bugs & Questions

If you find any bug in the latest version of this plugin, I hope you’d be so kind to tell me about it. This will only improve the plugin, which is better for the users! When you have anything else to say (appreciated!), please comment!

Plugin Info

AUTHOR: Frank Verhoeven
AUTHOR URL: http://www.frank-verhoeven.com/
WORDPRESS VERSION: 2.5+
TESTED UP TO: 2.7
CURRENT VERSION: 1.3.1

Change log

Version 1.1
Version 1.2
Version 1.3

Download

DOWNLOAD: FV Community News

Donate

Like this plugin? Please consider making a small donation.

Or help promoting it by adding a link to this page, definitely appreciated !

I searched the whole source code of this great piece of blogging software, and not on one single line I found even one session. Also the session_start() function is not called, but I still needed my sessions to work .

So I started searching Google for a fix of my problem. I found a lot of people asking the same question: “Why don’t sessions work in WordPress?” Finally I found a solution to fix this little issue and guess what, it is a simple one.

The Solution

The only thing you have to do is call session_start(); before any output is send to the client. Now you might think: Nice, but what happens when I upgrade my WordPress installation to the latest version? Well, yes, your changes will be lost. That is the reason why we first should think of where to add these changes..

Normally upgrading your installation will replace all files, except one. Yes, it is the wp-config.php file. And even better, there isn’t send any output to a client yet, when this file is loaded.

So, we add the next lines of code to our wp-config.php file:

// Make the use of sessions possible.
>if (!session_id())
session_start();

And sessions are enabled on your blog!
I think the best place to add these lines is at the top of the config file, so immediately after the php starting tag (<?php).

I hope this will help you out when facing the same problem.