There have been some issues with the Verse-O-Matic that have not been addressed.  I’m not sure at this point if it is due to changes in WP that have not been accounted for, deprecated functions in PHP (I know there are some in the script), or if it is with MySQL.  Regardless of where the issues lie, I will be releasing a fixed version to address the issues with the plugin.

However, note that this fix will be tested on and compatible with the most current version of WP (currently 2.5.1).  It is important to keep up with the changes in WordPress to make sure that your blog is secure and running smoothly.  While the fixes may work on earlier versions of WP (it has certainly been fine in the past), I cannot guarantee that it will for certain.

After much anticipation, I have finally finished Verse-O-Matic 3.4. This simple to use WordPress plugin allows you to place a random or predetermined scripture verse on your blog. Simply install, activate, load the widget and you are off and running. The easy to use administration features allow you to add and edit your list of verses and change settings to allow for random display (either daily or every page load), verse-of-the-day, or set a specific verse to display until you change it.

This version improves on the new features that were added in 3.0 and integrates the administration functions into a single file. Widget support is included, so you do not need to know any php or html to use this plugin on your blog. The major changes in this version were incorporating the admin functions into the main file, improving the admin area, and cleaning up the code.

New admin features include the ability to sort your list of verses by ID, Book of the Bible, or by Date (for verse-of-the-day use).

Get the new 3.4 version here.

I have been working on Verse-O-Matic as of late. Most of the changes to the new version will be of a back-end nature.

• Remove the wp_vom_settings table in favor of storing settings in the wp_options table and using WP’s get_option functions
• Clean up the use of the date for date specific verse display
• VOTD highlighted in admin
• Add sorting options to the admin panel verse table

Using the wp_options table to store the settings is a great improvement in this plugin. By doing that, we reduce the necessary tables for Verse-O-Matic to one just to store the verses you are using. We also eliminate using our own db queries in the plugin (at least for settings) in favor of using WP’s native functions for get_option, add_option, and update_option. This should improve the plugin’s overall performance.

The previous way that the date was used for a VOTD (Verse of the Day) tool wasn’t quite right before. To begin with, the field wasn’t available when adding a new verse, but was when editing. That doesn’t make much sense, so I fixed that. I also added a date column so if you are setting up a bunch of verses for use as VOTD verses, then you can intuitively see which ones are which. That set up another change.

More ways to sort the verse display were needed for the admin. By default, it sorted by the database ID. But what if you were using VOTD and wanted to sort by date? Or what if you wanted to sort by book of the Bible (alphabetically of course… maybe I’ll take a stab at the actual order sometime)? So I added sorting to the display table to make this easier to use.

Lastly, if you were using it for VOTD, it should have been highlighting the row that is today. I changed the css class that was used to make this stand out a little more.

I hope you find this a useful and versatile plugin! Enjoy it!

Next Steps:

In order to speed up set up beyond just the verses included as examples, I am going to release a script that will load a large number of verses for you to use. This will be for users more verses in their Verse-O-Matic, but don’t want to set them all by hand. This will be an add-on and will make for a quick setup.

For VOTD users that are not entering their own verses, I will be adding a couple of feeds. That way, all you have to do is set the feed and you are off and running.

The first release candidate is nearly complete and should be available in the next few days. In the meantime, the current version is available on the Verse-O-Matic page (which will also be getting an update).