[Plugin: WP RSS Multi Importer] Usage in templates

Hi
A) I’ll working on getting the code to work on a template file…in principle it’s just putting the shortcode there, but I think there is a better solution.

B) You could go into the main php file and change way the data is presented right now. In an update, I’ll provide some templates so you can choose how the data is rendered.

C) Right now, the feeds are generally cached…next week I’m pushing a performance improvement and it will be more obvious where the feeds are cached.

Allen

Hi,

Thank you very much. I got the plugin to work in my template files using the do_shortcode() function. A few suggestions for your consideration:

A) The number of entries per feed should be a parameter passed to the plugin for each instance rather than a single number for every feed. It would be good for different feeds to have different numbers of items set on each category.

B) In the admin section, it would be better to convert the excerpt length, feed entries and entries per page to a textbox rather than a drop down which is too restrictive. eg I wanted to have 3 entries from a feed but that number is not among the choices.

C) It would be much more flexible to allow users to create their own templates using shortcodes for the various elements of the feed (title, excerpt, etc). That would allow styling of individual elements (eg the title) and precise placement of the thumbnail image.

D) Sometimes I like to skip some items in a feed. An offset parameter would be good.

E) I would love to be able to set the size of the thumbnails and have the plugin default to the maximum thumbnail size in the feed if my chosen number is too large.

Many thanks again.

(NOTE: The Disqus system on your site did not work for me).

P/S – When I used the widget in a sidebar, the thumbnails were not showing whereas in a template they did. Is this deliberate?

First, yes, the widget doesn’t pull in the images (some images are so large they would break the site).

Second, I’ll make a parameter to over-ride the entries per feed, but this will be at the level of a category – not a specific feed – unless you assign a specific feed to one category.

Third, I’ll add the 3 entries – it’s not actually a good idea to take a number in a text box as people make errors, throw in letters, etc, and break the system. There are fancy ways around this, but using a dropdown is fail-safe.

Your other suggestions are good and I’ll see what I can do in future updates. Thanks again.

Allen

ok..I added a parameter (thisfeed) which can be used to limit the number of entries per feed. Also, there is a parameter (maximgwidth) that you can set for the size of the images, assuming you check off the box that says you want to resize images – this parameter will override the default width of 150. These will be available in the next update.

Wow! Thank you very much for your response. Looking forward to the new release.

As I indicated above, setting the number of entries per feed on the category page would be one option. Is this what you plan to do since it is not clear form your last post?

I would also suggest that in the drop down choices for the feed entries, you put 1,2,3,4,5,10,15,20. For the excerpt length, I suggest you add 20 and 30 as the smallest number 50 currently available is a little big.

Keep up the great work.

thisfeed is a parameter you can put in the shortcode (as in thisfeed=”10″)..I’m also adding 20 and 30 to excerpt length.

I marking this as resolved.