[Plugin: Testimonials Widget] Version 2.0 Rewrite Suggestions Request

  • Plugin Contributor Michael Cannon

    (@comprock)


    12 years, 2 months ago

    Howdy folks,

    I’m heading offline for the next few weeks and will be working on personal software projects. One of which is the the long-awaited Testimonials Widget rewrite. I’m looking to you for ideas on how to make it better.

    Besides the current feature set, I’m looking to add the following

    * Custom post-type and tag conversion
    * Auto-migration from old to new format
    * Updated jQuery for rotations
    * More display options like ordering
    * Images
    * Gravatar
    * Custom CSS

    What else do you want to see? Do you think custom HTML layout templates are needed?

    Your thoughts and requests are very welcome.

    Thank you,

    Michael

    https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/testimonials-widget/

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 25 total)

  • Sounds awesome Michael! Looking forward to the updates.

    Ah that sounds fantastic!
    looking forward to the update.

    Plugin Contributor Michael Cannon

    (@comprock)

    Revised TODO

    • Main Goals
    • Custom post-type and tag conversion
    • Auto-migration from old to new format
    • Public > Published
    • Not public > Private
    • Images
    • Minimum user level to manage testimonials
    • More display options like ordering
    • Settings
    • Height
    • Ordering – random, id ASC, id DESC
    • Default fields – name, URL, email, company
  • Ideas
    • Categories – product, project, service
    • Custom CSS
    • Custom fields
    • Fields to show
    • Name
    • URL
    • Email
    • Company
    • Image
    • Testimonial
    • Date
    • Category
    • Gravatar
    • Global options page
    • No nl2br when content is already using HTML
    • Widget options inherit from global
    • Updated jQuery for rotations

    Comments? Suggestions? Needs? No worries?

All sounds great! I would love to see a fluid height option, so that the div would expand and contract with longer / shorter quotes. Don’t know if that is feasible, but it would make the sidebar look much neater with no blank space or cut off quotes ??

Plugin Contributor Michael Cannon

(@comprock)

Great idea, I’ve added it to the list.

First and foremost, excellent plugin. I hope you continue to support this as there are a ton of old and outdated testimonial/random text/quote/review WP plugins in the repository. This is one of the best if not the best one available.

Along with being able to add images and HTML code to the testimonial section I would like to see the ability to add tags to the system and then select from a pool of tags contained in a drop down list when adding a new testimonial or reassigning a tag to an existing category.

Your plugin’s “tags” would essentially work similar to how “categories” are handled in the Random Text plugin: https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/randomtext/

…which I used to use before migrating to your solution. Essentially this saves having to type the exactsame category names over and over again when adding new testimonials or using the testimonial widget.

O, and yes… pagination when when using the shortcode would be great.

Plugin Contributor Michael Cannon

(@comprock)

From the lovely Florence Italy countryside, the 2.0 rewrite has gotten off to a great start. I really am liking the results so far. Already so far there’s…

* Admin bar New > Testimonial
* Authors and lower can manage their own testimonials
* Categories – product, project, service
* Custom columns list view
* Custom fields metabox
* Custom post-type and tag conversion
* Default fields – source, email, company, URL
* Editors and higher can manage all testimonials
* Gravatar
* HTML content allowed
* Images
* Localization
* Reference shortcode column
* Shortcode options validation
* WP_Query for get_testimonials()

I haven’t gotten to implementing the widget aspect yet, but I figure within a few days Testimonials Widget will be ready for a new release.

I really appreciate all of the kind words and suggestions you’ve offered. Some of the ideas are remaining just that at this point to ensure the basics are solid for the 2.0 release. That means some things like pagination aren’t happening. Also, I’m waiting to see what kind of feedback comes out before pressing further on the development aspects.

Ciao!

PS @neffect You’ve got your tags and categories wish!

Wow. Amazing. Thanks! Looking forward to the next release. I also saw that you requested funding for implementing pagination with the shortcode.

Do you have a place where people can donate? Pagination would be awesome, especially if it just hooked into WP’s native pagination feature for standard WP page breaks.

Also, I think it’d be nice to easily change (via backend settings) the hyphen before the author name and comma after the author name, using any character you like or no character at all, or a bullet-sized image. These current characters are hard coded in the PHP.

Great work!

Plugin Contributor Michael Cannon

(@comprock)

@neffect, you’re welcome. I enjoy coding and been wanting to rewrite TW for a long time.

Donations are through https://typo3vagabond.com/about-typo3-vagabond/donate/.

However, while I’ll get to pagination, it’s been requested often enough, I think there’s plenty left to do with the 2.0 rewrite so it can get released early next week as it is. Therefore, figure on pagination as a 2.1 feature.

The hyphen is now controlled through CSS. See .testimonialswidget_testimonial cite:before in https://plugins.svn.www.ads-software.com/testimonials-widget/branches/2.0/testimonials-widget.css. The funky char in SVN is supposed to be an emdash.

Development progress can be followed at https://plugins.svn.www.ads-software.com/testimonials-widget/branches/2.0/.

Cheers!

That makes sense about the pagination feature request.

I’ve also successfully altered the comma via the CSS but am having trouble with addressing the hyphen, but I’ll create a separate thread for that.

I’ll see about sending some “duckets” your way! ??

Plugin Contributor Michael Cannon

(@comprock)

@neffect, the rewrite doesn’t have the em-dash in the source code anymore, it’s handled via CSS.

I’ve gotten my main goals except for old testimonials migration and caching completed. As such, you can try out https://plugins.svn.www.ads-software.com/testimonials-widget/branches/2.0/ and let me know what you think so far.

I’ll try to finish things up tonight and tomorrow while in Florence.

Ciao!

Plugin Contributor Michael Cannon

(@comprock)

2.0.0 is released

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/testimonials-widget/

Thanks for all of the help and such. Ciao from Florence, Italy.

Plugin Contributor Michael Cannon

(@comprock)

Now that 2.0 is released, what further enhancements would you like to see completed?

Unscheduled ideas are…
* Caching
* Centralized defaults – share widgets and shortcode options
* CSV import
* Custom CSS
* Custom templating
* Disable post password
* During migration
* Pull out images and attach correctly
* Set category
* Fields to show
* Category
* Date
* Tags
* Global options page
* Number of refresh interations
* Widget options inherit from global
* Minimum height removal for widgets
* Move CSS to footer? – https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/plugin-testimonials-widget-html-validation
* Next/Back buttons or click to advance – https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/plugin-testimonials-widget-how-to-add-nextback-buttons-or-clickthrough
* Pagination when using shortcode
* Scrolling text – https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/plugin-testimonials-widget-scroll-for-a-single-but-long-testimonial
* Testimonial manual ordering
* Translate with WPML

If you’re liking what’s happening, please consider donating via https://typo3vagabond.com/about-typo3-vagabond/donate/.

再見！

axwax

(@axwax)

Hi Michael,
first of all great plugin!

My main wish for this plugin would be a more robust user capability management, as user levels have been deprecated since WordPress 3, and hardcoding user levels (as is currently the case) means any custom changes get overwritten with the next plugin update.

There is a great tutorial by Justin Tadlock on how to best set up capabilities for custom post types here https://justintadlock.com/archives/2010/07/10/meta-capabilities-for-custom-post-types

While I’m by no means an expert on the subject I’m also happy to have a look at this aspect myself if you’d prefer – perhaps using github, so we don’t tread on each others’ toes? Let me know!

Cheers,
Axel

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 25 total)
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