Awesome WordPress plug-ins are built making extensive use of awesome core WordPress tools: filters and actions. My own plug-ins are no exceptions. But the fact that I’ve used the awesome power of filters and actions in my plug-ins doesn’t automatically mean that you know how to use and implement them. There are some great tutorials available on how to use WordPress actions and filters (or hooks, as they’re known collectively): Learning to use WordPress hooks from Elegant Themes The Complete […]
Continue reading “Extending WordPress Plug-ins” »Category: Web Development
Using custom template tags with WP to Twitter
Yesterday, I received a support request asking about how somebody could parse a URL out of their post title and post that as the shortened URL attached to their Tweet. They always used the same format to add the URL — <a href="http://thedomain.com">The Title</a>. Well. Not a standard use, certainly — but it is something that you can do using WP to Twitter, with a little custom code. So this is a good time to write up the custom template […]
Continue reading “Using custom template tags with WP to Twitter” »Smart Tweeting with WP to Twitter
WP to Twitter is a time-saving tool for sharing your WordPress-composed content with your Twitter followers. But creating a smart Tweet is different from authoring great content: when you’ve only got 140 characters, you’ll want to think strategically. There’s always a compromise between saving time and authoring something unique. The maximum in time savings comes from using the template tools in WP to Twitter to generate the text of every Tweet. An effective formula using your post title, your URL, […]
Continue reading “Smart Tweeting with WP to Twitter” »WP to Twitter: The next step forward
I don’t worry too much when I’m planning on adding a new feature to WP to Twitter – most people won’t notice, many won’t care, those who find it useful will be happy about it. But right now I’m thinking about removing a feature, and that is a much more sensitive issue. Specifically, I want to remove support for URL shortening. The main argument for keeping URL shortener support is to provide short URL statistics: using a tool like Bit.ly, […]
Continue reading “WP to Twitter: The next step forward” »The future of WP to Twitter
In June of 2010, Twitter will be permanently disabling basic authentication in favor of the OAuth protocol for authentication. For WordPress plugins which make use of the Twitter API, this is a change which will have significant repercussions. The specific repercussion will be that every implementation of a plugin will need to be registered with Twitter as a separate application. This means that the development of WP to Twitter will need to move in a slightly different direction. After pondering […]
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