Shortcodes?

Hi,

I think short codes are generally a bad idea, and I’m not going to support any particular crazy use of them, but take a look at https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/how-to-use-shortcodes-for-showing-users-achievements

Thanks Paul, fantastic!

As an aside – why do you think they are such a bad idea? Do you not think they give users a lot more flexibility for placements around the site?

Can i just ask one last thing – Is there any capability you might know of where users can get to ‘levels’ say? So they build up their karma through points but get to levels and are rewarded say with an icon or something to say they are a good site user – you get me?

Thanks a gain for getting back so quickly!

Is there any capability you might know of where users can get to ‘levels’

Not in the current version of this plugin. Eventually I’d like to add achievements-for-achievements, or achievements when you get a specific number of points.

Super busy at the moment, and the next release is focused on adding leaderboards/rankings.

Do you not think they give users a lot more flexibility for placements around the site?

Two reasons, really. One is that if you ever switch from WordPress to another system (or even to another WP-powered site), you have to continue to implement something like a shortcode to not break all your old content (i’m thinking of regular blog posts here), or do a big search/replace in the DB to strip those.

In the bigger picture, if users want to be able to insert other content into the middle of their blog posts, then WordPress should find a proper solution for that, rather than relying on shortcodes as a “solution”.
I don’t think this will be solvable until the post editor screen becomes more than just a textarea.

Thanks Paul, all well explained. Appreciate your response. And listen great plug-in – well needed! We thought of creating something like this functionality a few years back but we found Badgeville and it worked quite well although it was expensive to use.

Sorry for bothering you Paul. Is there a function i can use to find out the latest Karma figure for a particular user? – ie get_karma($user_id)? Actually is there a function set for all these sort of calls? – ie get_achievements($user_id), get_achievement($user_id, $achievment) etc etc – no need to go looking, if you tell me there is then i can search myself thanks!!!

Generally, take a look in the files called template.php, for functions intended to be used on theme templates.

Legend!

I promise you i’;ll leave you alone after this final question ?? I’m just testing here and coming across a few things as a go along.

Is there any way i could add say custom events to trigger karma? I know this would mean ingerferring with the plugin but is there any filters i could use to add my own custom triggers? I tell you what i’ve run into – i’m going to use the Disgus commenting system and i’ve just tried there and the Karma isn’t registered for that sort of comment?

Thanks again for all your help.

It’s not possible to integrate with Disqus because their WordPress plugin doesn’t have the Action hooks Achievements needs to integrate. It does fire JavaScript events, but there’s no built-in way for Achievements to listen for those.

Almost every function in Achievements has actions and filters, so easiest is to just read the code and find what you want.

Thanks Paul, that’s it! You’ve answered everything! Thanks again and well done. Looking forward to seeing new features.