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Page Links To

The Page Links To plugin allows WordPress Pages to link to any page you would like. I recently used it on a site where the top nav bar is comprised of pages, but two of the pages - the news and resources pages - needed to have dynamic content that was pulled from posts so that the items on those pages would be easily manageable and organized (i.e. by date, author, tags, etc.).

I created two categories on the blog: News and Resources. I created two Pages: News and Resources. I then followed the directions of the plugin and did the following:

1. Scroll down to the Custom Fields.
2. Enter links_to as a key.
3. For the value, I entered the URI of the category that I wanted to link this page to as the value of the key. So for News, I clicked on the News category on the blog page to get the URI, and copied and pasted that URI into the value field.

Now, when users click on News on the nav bar, it displays the news page as it would appear in the blog. I think that this plugin is another example of how WordPress can be used as a CMS. Excellent!

Page Links To>>

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Upload+ to automatically change uploaded file names

Update June 7, 2007: Pixline has released a new version of the Upload+ plugin. Their changelog says that they added more options. You can also now download the plugin from the WordPress.org plugin page.

If you are building a site for clients based on WordPress, you want to make it as easy for them as possible to enter information without having to consider coding and other issues.

This plugin is great for those types of sites, as well as for anyone with a WordPress site who wants to have one less thing to think about. When a file is selected for uploading, this plugin changes the filename according to the following three rules:

• only lowercase;
• only alphanumeric [a-z] and digits;
• convert spaces in underscores ( _ )

Upload+>>
Plugin page on WordPress.org>>

Posted in Plugins, WordPress as CMS | 3 Comments »

Dean’s FCKEditor for WordPress plugin

From DEAN LEE:/DEV/BLOG:

FCKEditor is a full feature web based WYSIWYG html editor,the best things is that:FCKeditor is compatible with most of the internet browsers which include: IE 5.5+ (Windows), Firefox 1.0+, Mozilla 1.3+ and Netscape 7,and claims to produce clean and valid XHTML 1.0 output.

Dean’s FCKEditor for WordPress plugin(V1.2)>>

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Customize the Wordpress Login Screen in 10 Steps

Customize the login screen.

Customize the Wordpress Login Screen in 10 Steps>>

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Themed Login Plugin

Customize the login, registration, and reset password forms.

Features at a Glance

• Theme the Login, Registration, and Forgot Password Forms.
• Customize the top text of the forms
• Change the default registration email that goes to the user. NEW
• Change the default notification email that goes to the admin. NEW
• Change the default email address (wordpress@domain.com that the registration email comes from. NEW
• Send emails to a user when the administrator adds a user. This is an option that can be turned on or off. If this option is on, when an administrator adds a user then that user gets an email just as if the user had registered manually except that the administrator specifies the password. NEW

Themed Login Plugin>>

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It says a lot for Wordpress

Christian Montoya over at the Montoya Herald says he understands why many web developers use WordPress as a CMS system instead of the many other systems that are not blogging platforms, but CMS systems themselves.

All of these CMS’s have rather complicated administration interfaces, tend to be difficult to theme, and usually don’t put as much emphasis on syndicated publishing as blogging software. It’s really interesting when you think about it; after all, on a typical website you might publish a couple handfuls of static pages, whereas you might have a fresh news posting every week. Doesn’t it make sense for a platform to emphasize news/blog content over static pages? Moreover, if you are going to hand something over to a client, it’s natural to opt for something that non-technical people can use (and do every day). When I tell people “updating this site is just like updating your Livejournal/Xanga,” that’s one of the great things about Wordpress. It’s the combination of the simple admin interface and the focus on blogging (even when the end result is not a blog) that makes Wordpress ideal for most simple sites that I would build for a client.

He does point out that WordPress has its limitations, which makes sense since it’s goal is to be a good blogging platform. But he sums up with a good point:

…content management systems shouldn’t just be about offering more features and functionality for the developer, but being user-friendly for the client too.

I have started to use WordPress as a CMS system because it is relatively easy to theme and customize, and web site owners can easily update their content.

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