Tag Archives: WordPress

08.07.13
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Google Updates Forms Again

Sometime in the past few days (as near as I can tell) Google has updated Forms again.  This most recent update adds the H5F Javascript library to do required field checking.  This functionality is similar to the jQuery Validation plugin solution I included in WordPress Google Form a number of months ago.

This new validation functionality doesn’t appear in all forms, just those created after a certain date.  Existing forms do not appear to have this new functionality embedded in it.

So how do I know if I have the new functionality?  The most obvious sign is the appearance of the text “This is a required question” underneath the form element.

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It is fairly easy to make these messages go away since they are redundant with the plugin functionality.

You can add the following to your Custom CSS (form specific or global):

div.required-message {
    display: none;
}

This will hide the messages and the form reverts to looking as it did prior to Google’s latest change.

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I will likely include this CSS as part of the default CSS in the next update but I need to do a little more testing first.

08.02.13
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WordPress Google Form v0.55 released

Yesterday WordPress 3.6 was released.  The bundled version of jQuery was updated to 1.10 which broke the jQuery Columnizer plugin I use to split a form into columns.  The result was jQuery would go into an infinite loop and eventually you would have to kill the page.

Fortunately someone had already encountered this problem and provided a patch to the jQuery plugin.  I have incorporated the patch and released v0.55.  If you’re running WordPress 3.6, this is a critical release.  Older versions should continue to run correctly.

You can find v0.55 on your WordPress Dashboard or in the plugin repository.

08.01.13
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Email-Users v4.5.0-beta-1 now available

I’ve been working on Email-Users this week and have added quite a bit of functionality.  Before I release it I’d like to get a few people put an early version through its paces so if you have a chance to test it out, please do so.

This new version has a number of new features:

  • All postboxes on the admin screens now have their own CSS ID and Class so they can be styled or easily hidden.
  • Email-Users now support integration with two User “Group” plugins:  User Groups and User Access Manager.  When you set up groups in either of these plugins you will be able to select them as recipients from the Group Email and Post/Page Notification pages.
  • Selection of Custom Filters as Group Recipients is no longer a separate action – it, along wit the Group support noted above, are all presented in the same target recipient selection list.  This allows the Custom Filters to work on Post/Page Notifications as well.
  • A new action has been introduced:  mailusers_update_custom_meta_filters  This action will allow for updating meta filters dynamically just prior to their use.  This is the best way to create complex meta filters or integrate other plugins.  There is a good example in the plugin README file.
  • Chinese language support has been contributed.
  • Integration panel added to the Plugin Settings Page.
  • Updated language support files which incorporate 20+ new strings.

A few other things were cleaned up while I was tinkering with the code as well.

Email Users Beta (5795 downloads )

I have also updated the sample plugin file I use to test Custom Meta Filters.  It has the full example of the “Public Works” example.

Email Users Custom List (5834 downloads )
07.30.13
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New capabilities for Email-Users

I am finally getting around to incorporating a patch for Email-Users which adds integration with the User Groups plugin.

The way the patch was written it removed the ability to send to Groups based on standard WordPress Roles and replaced it with Groups defined by the User Groups plugin.  While this is useful for the user who submitted the patch (thank you for doing so), I don’t think it is the right way to do this sort of integration in the general case.

I don’t think eliminating the standard functionality is always a good idea so I am incorporating the patch such that being able to target groups of users through either standard WordPress roles OR via User Groups defined groups is possible.

To that end, I have always considered the way I implemented custom groups and filters sort of half finished.  While they work for sending email, they don’t work for Post and Page notifications which is a limitation.  So I have decided to revamp how I am presenting groups of users for both Email and Notifications.

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You will be able to mix and match Roles, User Groups (when the plugin is active) and Filters to target the recipients of Email and/or Notifications.  I hope to have a beta release out later today for people to test with.

07.29.13
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WordPress Google Form v0.54 released

This morning I released v0.54 of WordPress Google Form.  It has been a while since I’ve had any bug reports for the current version or the beta version.  Things appear pretty stable.

  • Added internationalization support for jQuery Validation messages.
  • New language support files.
  • New jQuery Validation based custom validation option.
  • Fixed problem with escaped characters ending up in Google spreadsheet.
  • Moved transport control out of debug module and into core code so it can be a permanent setting for some server environments.
  • Fixed PHP warning messages which happen with Logging Enabled when some of the server variables don’t exist.
  • Fixed bug with Form Submission Log setting stickiness.
  • Added an optional CAPTCHA message which will appear below the CAPTCHA input when set.
07.23.13
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WordPress Google Form v0.54-beta-7 now available

I have just posted what I hope is the final beta release of WordPress Google Form v0.54.  This latest beta release fixes a couple of minor issues, notably the lack of stickiness on the Form Submission Log setting and adds one new feature.  You can now define a CAPTCHA message to appear below the CAPTCHA input box.  These two screen shots show the information on the Plugin Settings page and the result when the form is rendered.  The message is placed in a DIV which has the class “wpgform-captcha-description” so it can be styled as needed.

Google Forms Beta (8997 downloads )

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07.15.13
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WordPress Google Form v0.54-beta-6 now available

I have a posted a new beta version of WordPress Google Form.  This version (v.054-beta-6) fixes a problem reported today which happens when Logging is enabled on certain servers.  This update will now test for the variables it wants to track before trying to use them.

This update also includes an enhancement with respect to HTTP API Transports.  Previously the plugin allowed control of the various transport options in debug mode.  Recently I found a case where it made sense to disable one of the transports on a permanent basis so I have pulled that functionality out of the debug module and moved it into the plugin core.

Google Forms Beta (8997 downloads )
06.27.13
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WordPress Google Form v0.54-beta-4 now available

This evening I posted a new beta release (#4) of WordPress Google Form v0.54.  This beta release addresses a problem where values with escape characters and/or other encoded characters end up in the response spreadsheet.

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As you can see in the image above, the values are escaped until the final entry.  This fix needs some testing to make sure it doesn’t break anything, please try it out and let me know how you make out.

Google Forms Beta (8997 downloads )
06.27.13
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Theme Experiments with TwentyTen and Git

I am doing some experiments with the TwentyTen theme and Git.  Up until very recently I have never used Git, I’ve done all of my version control with Subversion.  With Git gaining in popularity, I see more and more WordPress projects using it.  I figured I ought to educate myself.

I recently picked up the O’Reilly Version Control with Git book.  On a recent trip to Phoenix and back I read through a fair amount of it.  I have found that nothing forces you to learn how to do or use something like having a real problem to solve.  You can take training classes, read books, attend lectures, etc. but you’ll never really learn until you have to actually have to apply the material to solve a real problem.

It was like that for me with Git.  While I’ve used Subversion for quite a while, I was having a tough time getting my arms around the concepts of forks, pushes, pulls, etc.  For all practical purposes, I still am but I am getting there.

I like the idea of child themes.  I have no desire to completely reinvent the wheel.  The  guys who put out WordPress are smart and clever and have done some nice themes that work well.  In particular, I like TwentyTen as a parent theme and have done a couple child themes from it.  I find myself using some of the same ideas and plugins across these theme projects so what I’d really like is a core child theme that I can adapt or build from that contains all of the things I like and have figured out already.

So while reading up on Git I envisioned being able to use it to build a base theme that I could adapt to several others very quickly.  If I made a change it would propagate out to the other themes that are based on the base theme.  At least that is the theory.  I am still not sure if it will work like that or not but I’ve decided to try.

For the past day or so I’ve assembled a TwentyTen child theme I am calling TwentyTen-ACME.  Why ACME?  Because it is a pretty generic name.  ACME was the company that provided everything to Wile E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons.  ACME is the definition of generic!

So now that I have my base theme pretty much done, I am going to build a derivative from it for a project I am doing for our middle school.  Shortly there after I am going update my LEGO theme which is based on Sandbox and is long overdue for an update.  I am hoping that as I need to push changes back to the base theme I will be able to flow them back out to the others quickly.  We’ll see.