Powerful in its simplicity but needs docs

  • My blog runs a couple of weekly features that need to retain most of the copy, categorizing, and tagging for SEO purposes. WP expects each blog entry to be “new material” and does not support the obvious solution for this need: cloning an old post to carry it forward.

    This plug-in enables this, in a way the author calls “pseudo-fork-and-replace.” Clone links and plug-ins appear in the UI. When a post needs to be cloned, just click, and it’s done.

    The author needs to document, though. The plug-in offers options to “Clone” and “Clone to Draft”–but it’s not obvious to me what the difference is. By the time I go back to my post listing, I may or may not have another clone sitting in the list.

    A simple bullet-list of each feature, explaining what it is for, and what to expect when it is invoked, would be enough.

    Recommended!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Author Matthew Boynes

    (@mboynes)

    Thanks for the review!

    The plugin only has one method of cloning, which is that it creates a new draft with identical information as the post cloned. On the difference between “clone” and “clone to a new draft”, I think you’re looking at the difference between the “Clone” in the post list, and the “Clone to a new draft” in the post edit screen. There’s no difference in functionality, just in the fact that there’s more room to work with in the post edit screen, so I could be more descriptive. Hopefully that answers that question, but if not, let me know!

    I recently recorded a demo video which you can see here: https://vimeo.com/71836300. I’m going to add this to the plugin page, and hopefully that will give people a better sense of what this does. I’m always in favor of more documentation, and I’m open to any and all suggestions!

    Thanks,
    Matt

    Thread Starter bikerbudmatt

    (@bikerbudmatt)

    That answers the question, Matt, and thanks!

    The video helps, too, because it clarifies that we’re thinking of this plug-in to solve two different problems. You are looking for a safe way to revise a post without crashing into other team members’ revs. I’m looking for a sane way to take last week’s work, including all the meta, and make a new post for this week’s work.

    Your plug-in works brilliantly for both cases.

    I can offer these tips for the “bring it forward” work flow.

    • Clone the post that will be your template for the new post.
    • In the draft of the new post, write the new headline.
    • Open the slug editor. Delete the old slug completely.
    • Save the new “blank” slug. WP will generate a slug based on your new headline.

    From that point out, you have a completely separate post, no longer a branch that can be worked back to the original.

    Does that square with your knowledge of the plug-in’s logic?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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