Wordpress Plugin - FV Community News
Posted by Frank Verhoeven | Filed under Wordpress Plugins
Many blogs out there can only produce a couple articles a week while their visitors ask for loads more. It’s sometimes a good idea to add related articles from other blogs to your sidebar. Adding them manually takes lots of time we don’t have. With this new Community News plugin you allow your visitors to add articles to the sidebar. Complete with moderation panel and a settings page, you can sit back while you have full control about the look and articles that being posted.
Features
Currently, the Community News plugin has the following features:
- Widget Ready (Different form/results widget)
- 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
How To Install & Use
- Download the files
- Upload the files to /wp-content/plugins
- Activate the plugin (WP-admin > Plugins > FV Community News)
- Browse Community News > Settings to select the settings you prefer.
- 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: 1.2.3
Change log
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
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Hi Zazo,
I just added a new version (1.2.3) witch should fix a lot small bugs like the one you mentioned. If still some errors are there, don’t be afraid to tell me
Frank Verhoeven | December 3rd, 2008Did anyone manage to get versions 1.2+ to work, the last version that worked is 1.1.1.
There are several problems, loading image problem- hanged at loading, when I post news I receive email but news section is empty, when you click to browse image for uploading, upload one image and then lets say you choose not to post image, there is no way you can delete image field.
Thanks.
Zazo | December 2nd, 2008@Justin
Yes there is, check out the older comments for the solution. Also I will add tags to this plugin in the next version
@Brandon
Links are not required anymore as of version 1.2. Also images could already be uploaded (enable this through the admin panel - submissions-settings).
What do you actually mean with your last point? I think I don’t get that.
Frank Verhoeven | November 24th, 2008I have not run a full test of this plugin yet (as my site is not running to the public) but it appears like a great one. I would love to see a way for users to submit posts without links (like a commentary or guest post). Other nice to haves: let a user submit images (like on a graphic or photo site). Recognize registered users and display their name with the feed.
Brandon Pry | November 24th, 2008Hello, excellent plugin here, is there any way to add a community news section to a wordpress page?
Justin | November 22nd, 2008[...] http://www.frank-verhoeven.com/wordpress-plugin-fv-community-news/ [...]
Howto: Create A Community Link Feed for your WP | November 21st, 2008Thanks for this - great idea.
palok | November 15th, 2008I really love to try it out. This is something new
ty_hill | November 15th, 2008[...] Community News [...]
Create a RSS Feed with WordPress - Frank Verhoeven | November 14th, 2008