AWSOM News Announcement has been updated to version 1.5.5 and is available for download from the AWSOM.org website and the WordPress.org plugin repository. This minor update fixes an issue with the plugin when used with an SSL configured WordPress site. While it’s suggested to update to this version, if you are not using an SSL WordPress site then there are no major changes that would affect your usage so an upgrade is optional.

I’ve recently made some small updates to both the AWSOM Archive plugin and the AWSOM News Announcement plugins.

The change for Archive is to remove the notice to check the Harknell.com forums for support (they no longer exist and are now hosted here at AWSOM.org). The change for News Announcement is the same as Archive, but with the addition of the proper handling for SSL Administration enabled websites. So now the front end editing links will now stay within the realm of SSL.

Minor updates for now, but once I start making these types of changes you can tell I’m back in the mood for adding new features :)

I have added an update for AWSOM PixGallery, for version 4.7.0, to the PixGallery Product page. This version has all of the features of the previous 2 beta releases, as well as some new small bugfixes and text updates.

For those of you that prefer the WordPress.org auto-update feature, the new version will be live in their system sometime over the next day or so.

As usual, please contact me if you discover any bugs or issues.

I’ve posted a 2nd Beta version of AWSOM Pixgallery 4.7.0 up on the site for download, get it here.

This version has the new “Share This” integration and “Universal Image Text” option, with some other small changes.

I’m not going to be able to do a “real” release of 4.7.0 for about 2 weeks, so I wanted to get a version out there for you guys to test in the meantime. For the most part I think this will be it for new features in this version. I have some point release plans for 4.7, which will follow over the next few weeks to add some small stuff and any necessary bug fixes.

I’ve added a few new features to the upcoming AWSOM PixGallery 4.7.0 release:

1) Share This integration. If you are using the “Share This” plugin for WordPress you can now switch on this option to have your images and galleries have their own unique Share This Link generated. If you aren’t using that plugin, this option simply presents a “permalink” link which the user can easily cut and paste themselves (yes, this basically is the same as the URL bar, but for people who use Chrome or otherwise don’t like to operate using that area it makes it easier for them to understand what to link to….)

2) “Universal Image Text”. This option, editable from the “PixGallery Image Captions” admin page, allow you to set text that will automatically be displayed for all of your images when they are viewed individually. So copyright statements or other text can be set here and you don’t need to bother adding a specific caption to each image to add this text.

These features are now running on AWSOM.org, so check out the PixGallery page to look at the example galleries to see these and the other new features in action.

I’m pretty near to saying “code freeze” on this version of PixGallery, but I might slip one or two small things in at the last minute. Even so, I’m hoping to get this version out the door by the end of next week.