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AWSOM News Announcement updated to 1.4.6, WordPress 2.7 compatible
Hi Everyone, I’ve just updated the AWSOM News Announcement plugin to be WordPress 2.7 compatible. Please replace your current Plugin Files with the new version available from the AWSOM.org website. The biggest change is the new location for Managing your News Announcements–this is now under the “Posts” section of the Admin menu. This is now true for all versions of WordPress.
Please let me know if you run into any problems with the Plugin for any version of WordPress.
Don’t Update Too Fast
This is becoming a standard cautionary statement I post now with every WordPress release: Don’t rush to upgrade to 2.7. They have made some major changes to the Plugin architecture which will cause many Plugins to break. As far as I can see, 2.7 is not a critical security update so you can afford to wait a bit and do some testing first. As has been more and more typical I hear that many people now always wait until the .1 release of WordPress (so in this case 2.7.1) before they upgrade because they expect many issues and bugs to be present. Personally I’m not a big fan of the “we need to release software by X date” method of development since it typically causes these types of problems. Things should be released when they reliably work.
Oh Well.
Anyway, If you are using AWSOM News or AWSOM Pixgallery you will have issues editing or deleting entries through the admin interface in 2.7. Once the official release is available I’ll update the Plugins to correct the issues. So if either one of these Plugins are critical to your site I again suggest you wait awhile before upgrading. You might avoid a huge hassle.
Automattic: You’ve Just Got To Stop This Crap, Now!
Ok, I have to admit something. I’ve purposely been avoiding looking at WordPress 2.7. After all of the mess that’s been characterized by the last few releases of WordPress (and by mess I mean the constant interface changes, constant Plugin structure changes) I really didn’t want any more negative opinions about the direction things are going with WordPress.
But I went and downloaded the Beta 3 version today.
Goddammit, why do you have to go and do these things Automattic? The admin interface is a damn mess now. WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PAYING TO GIVE YOU THIS BAD ADVICE ON DESIGN?????
Seriously, is the intention to make it harder and more inconvenient to administer your site? Every update to the admin interface places things in more and more difficult places. The idea that you need to scroll vertically to get to things seems to be ingrained now. Guess what guys, most laptops now are WIDESCREEN, and a large percentage of your audience is using them primarily as their main computer. Placing links across the top of the screen makes way more sense that way down a page vertically.
And changing the jargon, terminology, and placement for sections every release is a plain crappy idea. What will we be calling Manage, Design, Appearance, etc. next release guys? Or will we actually have Manage again or now keep pages and posts separate?
Sure makes it real easy for us Plugin developers to maintain compatibility between releases guys–and yes, there are reasons why people don’t update fast or ever, and they aren’t all bad reasons.
I’m really tired of this mess. While I’m obviously capable of making the changes to the code needed for these constant interface changes, It’s becoming less and less worth it to me to do it for anything but my own sites and not bother updating general release Plugins like the ones I host here.
Here’s a clue: Plugin structure is meant to be a set up to allow people to reliably make additions to your basic system that will last over time. You don’t break this idea every release arbitrarily. If so, then that’s called a new version release, not a point release (so 3.0 is okay, but 2.7 is definitely not).
This is basic stuff. Please, let’s get with the program and not keep roiling users, Plugin creators, and Theme editors constantly, it’s getting a bit old now.
Display A Random Sidebar Image From Your Gallery
I’ve been asked a few times if Pixgallery will eventually get some sidebar widgets to display images on your index page from your galleries. The answer is yes, but I’m not sure exactly when. However, for the moment, I’ve discovered a sidebar widget Plugin which might help out for some cases. The Display Random Images plugin here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/random-image-widget/ seems pretty straight forward and only requires that you give the folder path for the selection of images you want it to pick from. I may even ask the developer about a specific Pixgallery mod for it to make it even easier to use. If anyone tries this out please let me know how you like it.
“Hidden” AWSOM Plugin Features: Creating default cache and gallery folders
The AWSOM Pixgallery image gallery plugin for WordPress is designed to be an easy way for users to get a gallery of their images loaded into their site with a minimum of work and time. One of it’s “hidden” features is the ability to go in and create default folders on your web server to hold both your thumbnail images and an initial gallery folder to hold your images. When Pixgallery is first activated it will attempt to create these folders in your WordPress uploads folder (this is the same folder that holds your images that get uploaded through the image upload function when writing posts or pages). In some cases this may not work, usually due to a permissions issue on your uploads folder or wp-content folder that prevents new files/folders from being written.
In these cases Pixgallery will detect that the folder wasn’t written and present you with options to create the folders later. On the settings/options page for Pixgallery you’ll see a link at the bottom of the page to create and switch to the default cache folder. If the folder was originally created properly there will be a statement there saying that the cache folder was already created.
On the Manage Pixgallery Galleries page you’ll see a button at the top of the page that says Create Default Gallery Folder. If this folder was created properly during plugin activation there will be a statement that the default gallery has already been created and will list the gallery path.
This ability is just one of the small hidden ways that Pixgallery has been designed to make your life as website admin easier.