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

Version 1.1
Version 1.2

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 !

Share and Enjoy:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Wordpress Plugins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

61 Responses to “Wordpress Plugin - FV Community News”

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, 2008
Did 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
Hello, 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, 2008
Thanks for this - great idea.
palok | November 15th, 2008
I 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