Just Amazing

I wanted to post a reply before this topic becomes closed ( 1 year ), and I’ve been trying to find a way to properly thank you. Because of your review and your generosity, I’ve been developing the plugin further, and with 0.3 being wrapped up, now would probably be the best time to post a reply.

Unfortunately in this case, most of my reply has been put into my work with development of the plugin; which the changelog extends from 0.3.b9 to 0.3.6. Also given the circumstances, I would have rather “walk” in order to “talk the walk”.

I also have an aversion to plugins, and I often try to keep it to a minimal. Truth be told, prior to developing APL, I was faced with the same scenario that you faced. I feel the main feature that sets APL apart from other similar plugins, is the ability to break away from a plugin’s ( including theme’s ) hard-coded format and design.

Building onto this concept, I also have further plans in store for the future, and you are also more than welcome to review a Roadmap I have been adding to. As well as any input you may have.

During this recent Journey, I’ve been suggested multiple times to turn APL into a premium plugin. However, I CANNOT bring myself to do that, and nor do I want to associate APL with a 3rd party Premium concept out there. I’ve also talked to the WP Dev Community in depth about implementing paid support, services, and features. APL itself though, is intended to always remain a free plugin, and I also prefer not to restrict the plugin overall in any way, but I would like to open up the option for others to support extended development. One of the main focuses for development would be to release premium concepts that “save time”; relatively the same result but hassle-free.

In essence, if investing in APL ends up saving the person time and/or money, then it makes sense to support further development.

There’s a few ideas I’ve been keeping quiet about because I believe it will have profound implications to how Web Design and Development may be handled. In general I’ve always seen APL to have great potential, but in the future, APL may end up obsoleting majority of the needs for a Theme’s Featured Design; which is commonly the main offer. As well as eliminating the need for adding/modifying most of the hard-coded templating, which is also already a notable feature.

Lastly, I hope you enjoy what you have seen so far as a result, and thank you. Truly.

@ekojr Wow. You looking over my shoulder? I had just installed your plugin on a few sites when I saw your note. Making some things with Advanced Post List.

I’ll be back later with a few links with a comment.

Follows is a link to a pet project I share with a friend. A labor of love. Little over the top. And, Purple, Gold and Green is the color scheme for Mardi Gras in New Orleans so we already know it’s gaudy. Plan to refine the concept I used when and if I ever find the time. The entire front end was formatted using Advanced Post List. The data for the grid and menus is simply pulled from pages assigned to a category/taxonomy. Painless. Everything magically updates as we add new content.

[ link redacted, please do not post links in reviews ]

You’re awesome.

Showing some love from New Orleans

Mark

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by NewOrleansDude.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by Jan Dembowski.

I was really looking forward to the reply, but it looks like I didn’t get any kind of notification. Grr. So, in that regard, sorry for the late reply.

As painless as APL may seem for individuals like you and me, there’s plenty of others who find it rather difficult, and it’s usually those who have become accustomed to UI editing tools. APL also takes a different approach to the concept, and for many backend programmers, it resembles a “For Loop”.

However, 0.4 Is likely to give APL a whole new look, and a much needed one at that. Nothing has been set in stone yet, in terms of Admin Page design, but I’ve been working on separating the preset design settings into it’s own object, and it’s looking like I’ll be converting the database method for presets as well. I’m hoping this opens APL to more capabilities with preset formatting.

As mention, with preset objects, APL primarily used wp_options, and isn’t really considered optimal. Most of it was due to not having enough time, and it was a tough decision to choose between a Custom SQL and Post Data. After experimenting tho, I found much more potential in custom post types and post meta data. The biggest one would be a builtin cache system, and the way WP handles editing posts ( which means there could be revisions available to revert back to ). There’s other ideas I’ve pondered, but should probably reserve them for another time.

Glad you find my plugin very useful, and hope you look forward to some of the changes.

I am also curious what kind of Feedback you may have on the new Admin Page for 0.4.