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I’m pleased to announce that version 1.1 of Analytics360°, a great WordPress plugin from MailChimp that provides awesome Google and MailChimp analytics data and visualizations in your WordPress admin, is now available.

Download it here

This release addresses a handful of issues that were reported in version 1.0, and has been well received in testing on the Google Group. Hopefully the revisions in version 1.1 will make the plugin compatible with most server configurations.

If you do have problems, the best places to go for answers are:

• The Analytics360° Google Group
• WordPress HelpCenter, (512) 788-9236

My thanks to the MailChimp team who have been awesome to work with. My team at Crowd Favorite and I are very pleased to have been the developers for this plugin and are excited about the new release.

Enjoy!

I’ve published more documentation on Carrington, the CMS theme framework for WordPress we created and use at Crowd Favorite. These docs cover the three contexts used in Carrington, and examples of how you may want to use them:

• The General Context
• The Post Context
• The Comment Context

I’m working on a follow-up to the Carrington Q&A as well, so if you have specific questions please send them in.

I’ve published a Carrington theme framework overview article (a follow up to the Q&A) on the Carrington web site. Hopefully folks will find it useful in describing some of the approaches taken in the framework, and some of the resulting benefits.

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I received some feedback on one of our Carrington themes recently, letting me know that while we were declaring the DOCTYPE of the theme as XHTML 1.0 Transitional, it would be simple to go to XHTML 1.1 Strict based on the markup in the theme.

This didn’t surprise me, we always code to pretty strict web standard best practices at Crowd Favorite so XHTML 1.1 compatibility is generally just a matter of a tweak here or there. However, just because it’s an easy change doesn’t mean it’s a good change.

The main reason we choose to use XHTML 1.0 Transitional for our WordPress themes is simple: we have no idea what someone might decide to do with it.

It doesn’t matter if the theme validates strictly if the content doesn’t – and with all of the great tools and widgets available for WordPress, it’s pretty easy to add something that breaks your strict validation.

This is something you should consider if you’re a theme developer. Don’t just think about the code you’ve written to build the theme, think about what people using your theme will be doing with it; and make the best choice you can.

I’m very pleased to announce that Twitter Tools 2.0 is now available!

Twitter Tools is a WordPress plugin that creates a complete, two-way integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account. Version 2.0 of Twitter Tools makes the plugin extensible in the same way WordPress itself is. I’ve added hooks and filters that allow other plugins to be created for Twitter Tools and extend/change/customize the way Twitter Tools works.

I get a lot of requests for features/changes that are specific to someone’s particular needs. Unfortunately I can’t build specific features for each user into the general plugin, but now other people can build plugins for it to make things work just as they want it to.

To make sure these hooks and filters work properly, I created three plugins for Twitter Tools that provide commonly requested features:

• Bit.ly for Twitter Tools – enables shortening your URLs with Bit.ly and tracking them on your Bit.ly account.
• #hashtags for Twitter Tools – enables adding hashtags to your blog post tweets.
• Exclude Category for Twitter Tools – enables not tweeting posts in chosen categories.

Each of these plugins can to be activated individually from your Plugins page, and adds their configuration options to the Twitter Tools settings page. These should be great examples for anyone wanting to build a plugin for Twitter Tools.

Here are some ideas for other Twitter Tools plugins that I’ve seen requests for:

• Add tracking tokens to the end of blog post URLs that are sent to Twitter – this is all customizable with filters now, so it should be pretty easy.
• Support for yfrog, twitpic, etc. in the Twitter widget display – you can customize the output of the tweet to include an image if you find one present.
• Add hashtags to your blog post tweet using the WordPress tags associated with the post.
• Make links in Tweets open in a new window/tab.
• Only Tweet blog posts in a certain category.
• Ability to customize/add text to the blog post Tweet.
• Use http://example.com?p=123 style URLs for blog post permalinks.
• Changing how much of the tweet text is used for the post title (or changing it to something else entirely).
• Etc.

Hopefully we’ll see lots of interesting Twitter Tools plugins from folks who have been requesting these features. I’m very interested to see what people build.

I’ve also added some additional CSS classes to the tweet output and a commonly requested feature to customize the tweet prefix for new blog post notifications. I had resisted this in the past due to some edge cases that could cause problems, but I believe only a rare situation (annoyance, not fatal) is possible and I doubt folks will run into it – sounds like famous last words, right?

The download and more information are available on my WordPress Plugins page.

If you have any trouble with this, please contact the WordPress HelpCenter (512-788-9236) or you can try the WP Support Forums.

I’ve written up 1500 words on what the Carrington CMS theme framework for WordPress is and isn’t. It’s the first of a few different overview and tutorial articles on Carrington that we hope to release in the near future.

Hopefully this and the follow-up articles will help folks understand the what, why and benefits of Carrington.

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I’ve got a new version of Twitter Tools ready to go, but wanted to do a quick release candidate to get some wider testing before doing the general 2.0 release.

This has some new features, including bit.ly support, option to exclude tweeting blog posts in certain categories, hashtags and the ability to customize the tweet prefix on new blog post tweets.

You can download the release candidate here.

Please let me know if you run into any issues with this version, thanks!

Shawn (one of our talented developers at Crowd Favorite) has created some great tools for WordPress developers that use BBEdit and TextMate. The TextMate bundle has been out for a little while, but he now has a functional port of it to a BBEdit clipping set as well.¹

The TextMate Bundle provides nice, handy auto-complete functionality (with code hints) for core WordPress functions within TextMate. The BBEdit Clipping Set does the same thing for BBEdit users. Of course, there is full support for the Carrington CMS theme framework as well. This should be really handy for both plugin developers and theme authors.

These are open source and hosted on Github, so any enhancements, etc. from the community are welcome.

I can’t wait to do some more coding and see how best to use the new clippings.

1. The TextMate version is more tested and mature, but with some encouragement I think he’ll polish up the BBEdit version as well. [back]

MailChimp has released a great new WordPress plugin: Analytics360°. This plugin creates a reporting dashboard for your MailChimp and Google Analytics right within your WordPress admin interface.

Take a look at the post about the plugin on MailChimp’s blog, which includes a very cool video.

It’s pretty slick, and useful – though I may be biased since my team and I at Crowd Favorite were lucky enough to build the plugin. I don’t log into my Google Analytics account that often, but I’m in my WordPress admin daily. With this plugin, I’ll probably be keeping a little closer eye on my stats.

I can’t imagine how useful this would be if I also did email campaigns with MailChimp. Having a visual display of web site visitor data integrated with mailings and blog posts is hot! The plugin uses APIs and MailChimp and Google Analytics to gather data, then uses that data to build the visualizations in the plugin. With the excellent APIs at both services, we can do all of this without needing to store your credentials for the services, making everything that much more secure.

Check it out, you (obviously) need either a Google Analytics account or a MailChimp account to bring in the data from that service, and it will work if you have either/or.

If you have questions, need support or need to report a bug or plugin conflict, please use the form here (per the FAQ).

Here’s a nice little one-trick pony WordPress plugin: Drafts Dropdown. It literally just adds quick access to your drafts via a dropdown area.

Click…

and…

There you have it. A small convenience to be sure, but a convenience nonetheless.

Of note to other plugin developers, the code I created to place the tab and drawer in the WordPress admin is well abstracted in this plugin. It’s all done with hooks, etc. so you can take it and use it in your own plugin quite easily. I also submitted the code to core, so hopefully this sort of feature will be easier in a future release of WordPress.

The download and more information are available on my WordPress Plugins page.

If you have any trouble with this, please contact the WordPress HelpCenter (512-788-9236) or you can try the WP Support Forums.

I’ve updated my Link Harvest WordPress plugin to be compatible with WordPress 2.7.x. Link Harvest is a plugin that enables you to mine the link data from the content of your blog/web site and generate a links list/blogroll from it. You can see mine here.

Notable changes in this version:

• Compatibility with WordPress 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 (need to test 2.8, but it should work).
• Switched to jQuery instead of Prototype for the AJAX stuff.

The download and more information are available on my WordPress Plugins page.

If you have any trouble with this, please contact the WordPress HelpCenter or you can try the WP Support Forums.

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We’ve released Carrington Blog version 2.0, a significant update to our advanced end-user blog theme (built on the Carrington theme framework).

Major changes since 1.x include:

• Support for threaded comments.
• Customizable colors with preview.
• Customizable header images (select from your media gallery.
• Lightbox display for galleries.
• Integration of “attachment” display into the core framework.
• A variety of other enhancements and improvements.

Check it out - hope you like it.

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In WordPress 2.7.1 (and probably previous versions), the admin page that allows for theme activation has some behavior that you might find sub-optimal in certain conditions.

Today I was setting up a site and wholesale replaced the default ‘wp-content/themes’ directory with a ‘wp-content/themes’ directory checked out of our SVN. This removed the default theme (Kubrick) and left only the theme I was working on for the site.

For some reason, the theme admin page did not show any themes - it took me about 20 minutes to trace the code to figure out what was going on.

The wp-admin/themes.php file has code at line 139 that checks to see if more than one theme is present:

if ( 1 < $theme_total ) {

If more than 1 theme is found, then the grid of themes is shown so that you can choose between them. However, in my situation I had deleted all other themes leaving just 1 theme but had not yet activated that theme. With this edge case, no theme is active, and there is no way to select the 1 theme that is in the ‘wp-content/themes’ directory.

A workaround is to change that code to:

if ( 1 <= $theme_total ) {

or to upload another theme. Then you can select the theme you need, and you’re good to go.

I’ve opened a bug for this here, so I’m sure this will be fixed in the near future. Hopefully this information will be helpful to someone else who runs into this situation in the interim.

UPDATE: I did search Trac, but apparently not well enough. Original bug here for those wanting to review.

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I’m very pleased to announce that WordPress HelpCenter is now open for business.

WordPress HelpCenter is a real-time support center for all things WordPress. We can answer simple questions about how to create categories and tags, how to use your links list, or we can help you install and/or troubleshoot themes, plugins, etc. and answer questions about your WordPress.com blog. We can also make little modifications and tweaks to plugins and/or themes (change your colors, fonts, header images, etc.) as desired. Best of all, we have real developers answering the phone when you call - you can get answers, right now!

If WordPress HelpCenter can take care of your needs in under 3 minutes, the call is FREE! We’ve set the service pricing low and we’ve created a price list for most commonly requested items. Every item on the standard price list is under $20.

My company, Crowd Favorite, is a partner in WordPress HelpCenter. My development team and I are on-call to the WordPress HelpCenter staff to answer tough technical questions as needed and to generally provide support and expertise as the service grows. We’re committed to providing top-notch service and friendly support.

I’ve seen a growing need for this service both personally and professionally over my years of involvement with WordPress.

• I have a number of WordPress plugins that I’ve released, however I do not have time to provide end-user support for them. Though I wish I could, I don’t have time to answer the many simple questions people email me each day. Now I have a place I trust to send these people to get answers. They can get the answers they need without me being a bottleneck.
• At Crowd Favorite we build complex sites using WordPress as a CMS. We include help pages in the WordPress admin area for the site manager that covers how to use custom features we’ve built and provide training on how to use them. However, it’s not uncommon for our clients to have multiple authors and editors on the site, and they often have a variety of WordPress related questions. As a development shop, Crowd Favorite isn’t set up to handle these types of intermittent tech support questions. Now they can pick up the phone, call WordPress HelpCenter, and get immediate answers.
• Forums and mailing lists are wonderful. They are a wealth of information and public archives that are great community support. However, they can also feel unfriendly and intimidating to people who are less experienced with them. When I need a quick answer I’d rather pick up a phone and call someone than write up an email or forum post, then wait for someone else to answer it. WordPress HelpCenter doesn’t replace mailing lists and forums, but it provides an option for those would would prefer friendly phone or email support.
• The WordPress community has a number of great developers and designers that create fantastic plugins and themes. Having spoken with many of them, I feel comfortable saying that they prefer coding and designing to providing support to people who are using those plugins and themes. If you are such a developer or a designer, perhaps sending your users to WordPress HelpCenter will be a good option for you.

Most of my work in the WordPress community over the years has been more technically oriented (building plugins, themes, etc.). I’m excited to be launching a service that is less developer oriented and instead is aimed at helping the many people who use WordPress every day. I think this is going to be an invaluable service for the end-user WordPress community.

Next time you need a WordPress answer, try calling WordPress HelpCenter: (512) 788-9236. Let me know what your experience is like.

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We’ve released a new Carrington theme: Carrington Text.

This is a rather minimal theme, with all styling done in CSS applied to text and spacing. It’s a nice compliment to the Carrington Blog theme (full 2.0 release coming soon) - and is likely to be seen as “more hackable” than the Blog theme for folks who wish to do so.

We’ve also started making changes to the Carrington web site, highlighting the theme downloads and the framework separately on the home page. I’m going to try to get more documentation about the framework posted there as well - right now you really have to dig in to see all the benefits, and I’d like to make that easier.

We’ve got a couple more Carrington themes in the hopper, hopefully we’ll have time to get them finished and released before too long.

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