WP-Members Milestones
With the release of 2.2 this week, WP-Members achieved a couple of milestones. First, we had our biggest (and also third biggest) number of daily downloads this week. 246 downloads in a single day is the biggest we’ve had since we released version 2.1.1 on WordPress.org. Unfortunately, I didn’t track downloads prior to moving the plugin to WordPress.
Our other milestone is that WP-Members has now had over 12,000 downloads since moving to WordPress.org. That certainly doesn’t make it the world’s most popular plugin, but I think it’s cool. We are on track to see it cross the 13,000 mark before we reach the 1 year anniversary of moving to WordPress.org.
Thanks to the users of the plugin for making this happen!
Shameless plug: This plugin has been an ongoing project of mine since 2006 when there were no other membership plugins. I haven’t kept track of the time, but well over 1000 hours have gone into its development. Supporting my site’s sponsors or making a donation help defray the costs of hosting this site and ongoing plugin development (go here and hit the donate button). Also, services are available for customization (and references are available on customization projects I have done). Feel free to contact me for customization requests or other freelance work.
8/10/2010 Update: We’ve passed the 13,000 mark already with about 6 weeks to go until the anniversary of moving this plugin over to wordpress.org. I think that we will likely pass the 15,000 mark by then. Also, thanks for helping make this plugin more popular! WP-Members has been moving up the charts of the most popular plugins on wordpress.org and we are now on page 17 if you look under popular plugins in wordpress.org and on page 11 if you are looking at popular plugins through your admin panel. This puts us around #247. That is out of a current 10,666 plugins available through WP. #247 out of 10,666? I can live with that 
WP-Members 2.2.1 bug fix release
This is an important fix for users that upgraded to WP-Members 2.2.0. If you recently upgraded WP-Members to 2.2.0, make sure you do this additional upgrade. This upgrade can be done directly from the WP admin panel.
This fix includes two important updates:
- This use of nonces for the admin panel
- A bug in the password update function
WP-Members 2.2 released
I have completed the WP-Members 2.2 upgrade and released it via WordPress SVN. You can download a copy of it from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-members/.
Alternatively, you can get it directly from the WP admin panel by selecting “Add New” from the plugin menu and entering the search term WP-Members.
If you are an existing user of the plugin, you can upgrade via the admin panel as well. However, if you have done any customization to the code of the plugin, you should probably test the upgrade in a testing environment (actually, this is a good habit to be in for any plugin). If your customizations revolve around changing which registration fields are required or whether posts are blocked/unblocked by default, you should have no problem with the upgrade – you’ll just need to make sure that you have updated your settings appropriately.
As discussed here, this version better enables users to customize their installation and use of the WP-Members plugin.
WP-Members 2.2 update
I am currently working on some significant upgrades to the WP-Members plugin. This will be the biggest change since I made the change from 1.8 to 2.0. Version 2.0 brought in a whole new (and I think – better) approach to the plugin and its purpose. 2.2 will usher in some changes that takes it to the next level.
Most of the changes are on the admin side in terms of customization and they come directly from user requests. The two biggest requests are:
- The ability to change which registration fields are required
- The ability to change whether posts are blocked by default
The new admin features in 2.2 will give the admin the ability to pick which fields display in the registration form and also the ability to set which of those are required. This will include all of the WP native fields as well as the contact info fields that WP-Members currently uses.
I have found that some users want to simply use the plugin to integrate the login and registration features into their site, but not really block the content based on login. This can be done in earlier versions but requires some code changes. Although these are not hard to make, I wanted to make it even easier for those that don’t like to touch code. The ability to block posts and pages by default will now be managed in the admin panel. Admins will still have the ability to assign individual posts or pages to be blocked or unblocked, this just changes the default setting.
Another upgrade includes the ability to customize the error and dialog messages that the plugin delivers during the registration and update process. For example, all blocked posts put the following message above the login and registration forms:
Content is restricted to site members. Site membership is free, register below. If you are an existing user, please login.
Perhaps you’d like that to read:
Dude, my content is so awesome that I don’t give it out to just anyone. You need to register first. (Of course, if you are already a registered user, by all means – login below.)
You’ll now be able to change these dialogs within the admin panel. However, if you want to customize the look for better theme integration, you’ll still need to know some CSS. There is just no way around that. I have tried to keep the style as generic as possible so as to blend with most themes as best we can out of the box, but there are going to be times that some CSS customization needs to be done.
These changes are a reflection of the vast change in the WordPress community over the past few years where we have seen the shift from users that are code monkeys and like to tweak their blog code to a less “hands on” audience. That’s not a bad thing. It has definitely broadened the audience of WordPress – A LOT. And that’s a good thing. It has forced plugin developers to really think about fully functional admin capabilities geared toward a “hands off the code” approach.
Like I said, this is the biggest change to the plugin since the 2.0 release and I think it’s a great upgrade. Most of the heavy lifting is complete at this point, and I’m mostly bug testing now. I also am testing some various upgrade scenarios so that existing users are minimally impacted by any changes. If all goes well, 2.2 should be released after this weekend.
Plugins tested in WordPress 3.0
I have completed testing of my plugins with WordPress 3.0. Both WP-Members and Verse-O-Matic are fully compatible with WP 3.0.
There are some upgrades I am working on for both of these, although I’m not sure when I’ll get them done.
Also, on a side note, it has been difficult to provide support for the WP-Members plugin lately as there has been a great deal of confusion regarding which plugin is being discussed. Starting around 2008, a number of commercial developers decided (either intentionally or unintentionally – I have no idea) to hijack the name WP-Members for their own use. There are now a few iterations of this.
Since I released WP-Members in 2006 (the free plugin available through the WP plugin repository), several other “commercial” plugins have been released with similar names, WP Member (at least 2 of these), WP Member Site, and, most frustratingly, WP-Members (although not my freely available plugin).
Naturally, when someone comes to wordpress.org for support, it is assumed that they are speaking of the free, open source version that is available at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-members/. The really frustrating part is when these people are upset because they can’t get any response from the company’s support, or they are having problems – it then get confused with “The Original” WP-Members.
These commercial developers could save everyone a lot of confusion by changing the name to something dissimilar. “The Original” WP-Members will remain a free plugin. I do provide consulting and customization services, but the core plugin will remain free.
In the Commercial vs. Free plugin debate, I fall on the side of support in allowing the commercial community to exist. I know there is debate whether that is compatible with GNU licensing since WP is free. I believe that is can certainly be consistent with the license. I just want these guys to put some thought into their product branding and avoid conflicting with other developers.
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