WordPress Plugins
I like to tinker with WordPress, the blogging platform that hosts this blog, and sometimes that means making little plugins that improve the user experience.
Here are the plugins I’ve put together so far. Note that these are not widgets so you will have to copy and paste code into your theme’s template. If you have never done this before, it may be best to pass on these because I’m not offering support for any of the plugins (except the JapanSoc Soc It! one). They were made for my own use, but you are welcome to try them yourself.
Recent Posts In Category – Download recent_posts_in_category.zip v.1.0 (1.83KB) [Only for WordPress 2.3 and later]
This little plugin returns a list of recent posts from a specified category. This might come in useful if you want to draw attention to posts from a particular category.
If Older Than – Download if_older_than.zip v.1.1 (1.55KB)
If you are looking for a simple way to determine the age of a WordPress post or page, this plugin will do the job. I made it so that I could put advertisements on old posts but not on more recent ones. All you need to do is copy and paste an “if” statement from the read me file, and then put your ad code, banners, pictures, whatever you wish, under each condition.
Here is an example showing a list of top commentators in the right hand sidebar of a recent post, but a Google Adsense banner ad in the same place on an older post:
JapanSoc Voting Button – Read More or download japansoc_v0.2.zip (1.94KB)
If you blog about Japan and use a self-hosted installation of WordPress, this plugin will interest you. Have your readers submit and vote your posts to the Japan-related social bookmarking website, and get more visitors in return. More info at the above link.
Most Commented Posts – Download most_commented_posts.zip v.1.1 (1.87KB)
This plugin will return a list of posts with the most comments.
Random Posts – Download random_posts.zip v.1.0 (1.75KB)
This plugin will return a list of random posts from your site.
Random Message – Download random_message.zip v.1.0 (1.91KB)
This is one of my favorites. Every time you refresh the page, you get a random message. The number of messages you can create is unlimited, and you can even include links and images within each message.