Archives for December 2010

WP-Members new feature release update

1.1.11 Update: WP-Members 2.4.0 beta release 4 has been released and is available here. Be sure to read the release notes before using. Also – there is a .pot file for translators. If you are working on a translation, be sure to let me know.

Well, I think I have reached a point where I am going to close the development version of WP-Members to new features for this cycle. I’ve got a few things that I am still working on that I will put off to a future upgrade – they’re not that big a deal for now. In the meantime, I think we’ve got a pretty good release package that I need to start testing. Also, I need to get it out to the potential translators as we will be adding localization this time around.

I haven’t made a final decision, but I think this release will be 3.0. There are enough changes this time around to launch us to a completely new version (at least, I think so). This version will support a series of add-on modules that I am working on, the first of which is a time based trial/subscription cycle. Also, this version will be easier to customize once complete. There are some kinks to work out on that end yet, but once that’s worked out, you’ll be able to manage a customization file rather than hacking the plugin. This should make upgrading easier for those that work in customizations. I know there are quite a few developers that use this for clients and thus put in little customizations here and there (mostly with display/look-and-feel). This should make your life easier and encourage upgrading to the latest version.

I know I’ve mentioned some of the other features for this release before, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat in case I missed something. The new version includes:

reCAPTCHA for initial registration
Agree to Terms of Service (TOS) field (This will have it’s own link of a popup of the TOS text you define. Also, I’ve added it in such a way that if you already have users, if you add the TOS to the registration, any existing users will need to agree to the TOS before updating their registration info. Currently, this does not include an option to force existing users to agree before logging in again, just before updating their registration info.)
Shortcode to create the “Members Area” and “Registration” pages. (This will still support the legacy <!–members-area–> and <!–reg-area–> as well, but I may eventually deprecate those. Development of the shortcode will progress in new versions to give greater flexibility with these pages.)
Contextual help in the admin pages – any admin pages that have settings or features for WP-Members will now have contextual help in the WP admin help pull-down (that nifty little pull-down at the upper right of the WP admin, for those of you who haven’t noticed it before).
Custom user management under the “Users” menu in the admin – this allows for the bulk management of users as well as the addition of a user export feature (exports any selected users as a CSV file).
The email process now includes a backlink to the page the user registered on (as well as the original link to the site). This should be helpful for those that use moderated registration so the user can find their way back to the content that got them to register in the first place.
The IP of the user is now captured at registration. Some plugin users have requested this as they keep a “ban” list. It may also help in the future for user data management.
Improvement of the activation process for moderated registrations has been added to avoid the admin from activating themselves and thus resetting their password and locking them out. I have to admit no one asked for this feature so I must be the only one that has accidentally done this 😉 (or at least I’m the only one admitting to it)
Added a code toggle in the install file to force a clean install of all settings. While you should use caution when doing this, it should make custom installs a bit easier.
Improved the uninstall process to make sure we clean up all options.
Added the stripslashes bug fix
Fixed the sidebar bug from 2.3.x
Changed the registration process to not add usermeta for unused custom fields (although WP does do this with its own fields).

All of this in the 2.4.0 beta release 4 which will be uploaded sometime tonight. It will be available for public use on 1.1.11 (I wanted to work that date in somewhere) by going to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-members/download/ and selecting 2.4.0. Double check the main file header or the plugin admin page to make sure you have public beta version 4.

While I only try to release stable versions into the wild, remember this is beta software. If you use it in a production environment, you do so at your own peril. I will have a notes.txt file included that will outline the use of any new features. While priority support is for translators and financial supporters of the plugin, if you notice a bug please let me know.

Update on WP-Members New Feature Release

By Chad Butler 3 Comments

I have been working feverishly on some new features for the WP-Members plugin. (Read my initial announcement.)

I am getting close to having a true release candidate ready, but will probably allow for some additional beta testing. This release is going to (HOPEFULLY) be a launchpad for a verion 3.0 release which will take the plugin to the next level. But until then, here are some of the new features that are completed and will included in the upcoming feature release:

New Features:

reCAPTCHA option for registration
Shortcode for members area and register pages
Contextual help in WP admin panels
Custom admin panel for bulk user management: user export, activation, etc.

Code Improvement:

Cleaned email process to include link back to the page a user registered on
Capture user’s IP at registration

Bug Fixes:

added stripslashes to dialogs
Fixed sidebar bug
changed registration, update, and admin update to not write unused custom fields to the DB (WP actually does do this with its own fields)

I have also safemdonline.com completed the framework for an add-on module that will allow for time-based user expiration (both trials and subscription periods). The support framework will be included in the new release so that the add-on can be plugged in later. I have not decided if this will be released as a premium add-on or not… Honestly, I am leading towards making it a premium product. If I do go that direction, I will make allowances for those that have financially supported this project to receive this free of charge.

Other things in the pipeline include adding an agree to Terms of Service checkbox option for the registration, easier field customization, ability to tag notes to user data, and a few other things. As always, feel free to make suggestions. Most of the current list of upgrades was the result of suggestions from users. You never know, your suggestion may make it in to the next release.

Plugin for WP Plugin Developers: Show Current Screen Object

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

You are working on your fancy new WordPress Plugin and you want to incorporate some nifty hooks into the menu system, or you are trying to add some contextual help without overriding the existing help text. How can you find the id of the page to hook into?

Wonder no more. I’ve written a simple plugin to help you.

On the admin side, WordPress uses an object to store information about the current screen you are on. This includes the id, the action, the parent file, and some other miscellaneous and sundry items. This is information a plugin developer needs to hook into, but, as good as the WordPress Codex is, sometimes it can be hard to find certain things, especially if you are tapping in to an area that there just hasn’t been a lot of outside development. For me, this came while trying to add contextual help in the WP admin areas for my plugin WP-Members.

I wanted to add to the existing contextual help (that little help menu that pulls down from the WP admin header) for admin panels that WP-Members used, such as its own plugin page, but also the post and page edit screens, some of the settings screens, etc. For this, I needed “screen_id” of the screen/panel to pass to the filter for contextual help. Maybe I just wasn’t looking in the right place, but it seem that there really isn’t any documentation in the codex on this.

The screen_id is in a global array called $current_screen. So I figured I could dump the contents of the array on the screen to find the ids I needed. Enter the plugin. I did this as a plugin so I could turn it on and off as needed. It basically gets the value of $current_screen and uses print_r to dump the values. With the plugin I was able to add a little css so it would display in a box at the upper right of each admin screen. That way, as I browsed through the panels I wanted to hook into, I could get the screen info to apply to the filter.

[ Get the script ]