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So far so good with ZdMultilang
Has you are probably aware, WordPress 2.7 beta 3 is out. Even if this is not the final release and some features may change, I always test my plugins against new major releases.
So, the very good news is, ZdStatistics and ZdMultilang are both compatible with WordPress 2.7 Beta 3 and everything makes me suppose it will be fully compliant with Final Release of WordPress 2.7.
Another very good news for ZdMultilang Users is next version will soon be out and lots of new exciting features will be included. Here is a short list of features that will be released.
- Flags are not displayed for current language (they were useless in that case)
- Flags and widget are now working properly
- Easy addition of languages (through predefined lists)
- Draft status for translations !
- Import from Google Translate while translating posts/pages
- Better menus (compatible with ozh admin dropdown menu)
New translations :
- Blog title
- Blog description
- Links + description & Links categories + descriptions
How-To include tinyMCE in your WP plugin
While developping ZdMultilang’s new version, I came accross a compatibilty problem with WordPress 2.7.
In fact, to include the tinyMCE editor you won’t use the same functions between 2.6.3 and 2.7 releases. More interesting is WP2.7 will need one more function to be able to display the editor.
Most of the time you will want to include this editor when working with posts, or when you want to enable your plugin users to enter information with the Wysiwyg editor (newsletter, advanced widgets, etc…)
WordPress 2.5.x and 2.6.x
Here is how to include the editor in one of your plugin’s admin panel.
- Include this code in the admin_head hook
add_filter('admin_head','zd_multilang_tinymce'); function zd_multilang_tinymce() { wp_admin_css('thickbox'); wp_print_scripts('post'); wp_print_scripts('editor'); add_thickbox(); wp_print_scripts('media-upload'); wp_print_scripts('jquery'); wp_print_scripts('jquery-ui-core'); wp_print_scripts('jquery-ui-tabs'); } - Call the editor anywhere you need it to be displayed
the_editor($content_to_load);
What's new with ZdMultilang
It’s been a while since I made real update with ZdMultilang WordPress plugin.
One of the most problematic part of the plugin was to define languages as language codes where not known of the users. So, in order to help you define your languages, next release of zdmultilang will include a language selector which has been made using the list of languages included in WordPress.
The language selector will look like this. Clicking on a link will fill correct values, allowing you to modify them before to save.
Language Selector
Minor ZdStatistics update
Okay, after some feedback, I found a few bugs and version 2.0.1 will correct them.
Here is the change log :
- Some typos in French translation
- Better user level limit handling
- Better support for php4 (using php5 will give you some more features)
- Daily stats screen improved.
- No more css messing around with the dashboard.
IMPORTANT : As with every previous update of the plugin, you’ll have to download the GeoLiteCity.dat file. But this time, using a new option, you can locate it somewhere else on your server and it won’t get deleted each time you’ll update the plugin. Until now that was the main reason why there was so few updates. I didn’t want to bother you all with downloading this file again.
ZdStatistics version 2.0 is out
As I said last week, I worked a lot on my Worpdress ZdStatistics plugin recently, and I released last version today. It is available directly on WordPress.
Version 2.0 is a major improvement for the plugin. A Major improvement in the way that all code was re-written (or at least 99% of it).
- All charts are now using Google Vizualisation instead of OpenFlashChart. Why did I decide to do that kind of change ? Mainly because of compatibility issues and the “ajaxy” part of the chart that led to “undefined” data. – see these screenshots
- Better spam detection, using spamhaus.org (or any other provider as it’s an option). This will prevent the system to record known spammers as visitors.
- Blacklist of IPs is now much more human readable. btw, if you want to be sure it works, empty all textarea fields, then reactivate the plugin, it will reset to default values.
- Outgoing links ! Yes you’re not misunderstanding, it now records all outgoing links. Track where your readers are going while reading your blog.
- Geolocalization will now display Google maps with visible points for location visiting your blog.
- CSV Export of any page
This is probably not all improvements I made but as I said, I’ve re-written everything and can’t really remember how it was before 
Just to conclude, this is to me – and I’m trying to be as objective as possible – the BEST statistics tool you can find for WordPress.
By the way, If you like my work, don’t hesitate to donate
A Sneak Peek at ZdStatistics V2
As I already said before, ZdStatistics version 2.0 will be out next week. It is quite operationnal and less spam is caught in the statistics as well as redirections.
This simply means that statistics are much more realistics. This new version will allow more tips and tricks for spam detection thanks to the search engine included.
As for now, I’m still evaluating the possibiility to include outgoing links into the stats for version 2 (don’t worry it will come in version 2.1 if not in V2.0).
Below are some screenshots of the new features of the plugin. (more…)
ZdMultilang 1.1.1 is out
I’ve been working a lot on ZdStatistics V2 until now, Today i’ve managed to find out how to include the media bar inside the translation editor and also how to fix the editor problem.
You will now be able to add pictures directly from the editor without having to find the correct URL.
Regarding the problem with the editor load, is due to the cforms II plugin – see this support issue.
If you need the cforms II plugin and Zdmultilang at the same time, I would advise you to deactivate the WP Editor Button support in your general settings (in the cformsII panel) as shown below :
ZdStatistics Version 2 will be out next week
I’ve been off for quite a long time on Zen-Dreams and this is mainly due to the fact that I’ve been rebuilding ZdStatistics.
ZdStatistics will be available next week in version 2.0. Why next week ? Simply because I need to test it before release, so it’s been installed on this blog and depending on the results I will get until next week I will improve it as much as I can.
Here is a list of the new features and modifications :
- Changed the flash chart to Google vizualisation so that it loads faster and can be compliant with any browser with javascript support.
- Export data to CSV files so that you can process them like you want
- Check Redirections of pages – do not log them. In fact sometimes a page was counted twice because the user specified an url without the pending / and wordpress did the redirection.
- Display tabs in the admin section optionally
- Search feature !
- Better Spam detection using an anti spam provider (default is spamhaus.org)
- Now recording hits with timezone as specified in your wordpress configuration.
- Geolocalisation is now using Google Maps to display visitors (needs a Google maps API key)
- Using a calendar to choose the time period you wish to see
- Debug option for a better support
Write your own plugin for WordPress [Chapter 4]
As a reminder, this article is the fourth of a series called Write your own plugin for WordPress
1. Widgets definition
A widget is, in fact, a plugin that will allow users to display a block on their sidebar. That being said, there are only one action to use in order to create a Widget.
This action is called widgets_init – therefore you can call it like this : add_action(‘widgets_init’, function_name);
Once you have done this, you will have to register two other functions inside this function_name function only if sidebars are available with your wordpress install.
Here is some code that can do the trick :
(more…)
New version of Gravatar Recent Comment
So here is the brand new version of ZdCommentsWidget. This version only includes a minor change but makes it more efficient as a Recent comment widget.
In fact I just added the possibility to have a link to the comment instead of just having a link to the author’s website. I also removed the limit on users displayed (until now only not registered users could be displayed).
You can get the latest version here : zdcommentswidget_101