The WordPress Flattr Widget that I posted earlier today, is now listed here in the WordPress Plugin Directory and has a new name “Flattr Shortcode Widget”. This change in name was made to stop confusion between the official Flattr Widget and this one. This newer version contains some bug fixes so it will be worth updating!

Click here to go to the download page.
Change Log
0.1.2
*Widget name changed from “Flattr Widget” to “Flattr Shortcode Widget”
0.1.1
*Major updates to readme.txt
*Added to WordPress Plugin Directory
*Bug that interfered default size of widget for official plugin has been corrected
Bugs
Please report bugs in the comments
Known Bugs

• Automatic update does not work
• Description is a required variable

Features
If there are any features you would like then please request them in the comments
Features in development

• Configuration page with custom default settings
• Graphical shortcode generator
• Add a unique ID system so that multiple Flattrs can be used for the same URL

Popularity: 15% [?]

Two days ago, the most outrageous thing to happen to me while on twitter happened! I was locked away in TwitJail for 13 hours! I am often in TwitJail and usually just accept it as it usually lasts no longer than 1 hour but to be stopped from tweeting for 13 hours is ridiculous! I am an avid twitterer and (as I have blogged before) I feel it penalises me for using their service!

I am not sure what happened but it must have been a glitch that managed to get me locked away for that long but that cant be right. I thought about it and came to this conclusion about the situation. I was in TwitJail for 13 hours, however if you look at the time I got out, it was 00:00 GMT (midnight). This then makes me think that twitter thinks I was over the daily status update limit (and not just the hourly one) but in that day I had only sent 277 tweets (to be confirmed) which again begs the question as why I was in TwitJail for so long!

I am not 100% sure how TwitJail is run at the moment but i dont think it is run fairly. There are two ways I feel twitJail could be run that would be fair on Twitter’s users:

There should also be a way of monitoring how close you are to twitjail; if they had this then users would be able to control and moderate themselves and would also have no right to moan like I am doing now!

I have no problem with the concept of TwitJail but it needs to be run properly!

Popularity: 7% [?]

At the moment I am currently trying to improve the standard of this blog. As a result I am going through and consolidating. I am reducing the amount of categories I have, and will then have to go through every post, recategorising and also tagging. I also hope to make sure that all the pages are finished and that the site is easier to navigate.

For these changes to happen it will take some time and there may be periods of short downtime (but hopefully not) and the blog may become a bit unorganised (with regards to categories). Not everything can happen all at once and the improvements will slowly develop. You may also find that pages might not be finished and half written while work is being one to them.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Here it is, my first ever plug-in for WordPress. Please note that this is a very early release beta and there may be bug and there will be improvements to be made.

Click here to Download Version 0.1
Description
This is a widget that allows you to quickly and easily create a flttr widget within posts and pages using a simple shortcode. The advantage of having a shortcode is that it can be customised for every use. The short code has lots of customisability and can be used in a very basic way or with more advanced features.

The way the widget works is that within a post or page you include the shortcode and then that shortcode will generate all the javascript needed to embed the widget. That means you don’t need any knowledge of coding or js. As opposed to the official Flattr Widget, you do not need to embed a php function to get the widget or have it included in every post. You can call the shortcode from within a post or page and the most important thing is that you have the option to customise the widget every time! This does not mean that the official Flattr Widget does not have its place, and I actually recommend using both in conjunction!

This means that you can insert widgets that will Flattr pages other than the one you are on (for example some external content) and it will also allow you to set the Flattr User ID per widget meaning you can have multiple widgets for multiple people, or allow blogs that have multiple authors to add a Flattr widget that will flattr them (rather than the site) for their content.
How to Use
There are a few ways that the Widget can be used going up in complexity.
Super Simple (Requires official Flattr Plugin)

There are various ways that the Flattr Widget can be used. The most simple is to just include the code in the image on the right anywhere in a post. Using this will require that you have the official Flattr Widget installed and have set your Flattr UID on that (an independent setting will come in a later version).

Settings will be automatically set as stated:

• The button type will be set to large
• The User ID (as mentioned above) will be set to that which is set up in the official plugin
• The title will be set to the Page/Post title
• The description will be set to the Page/Post excerpt
• The category will be set to text
• The language will be set to English
• Tags will not be set
• The url will be set to the Page/Post’s permalink
• The thing will not be hidden from listings on flattr.com

In a future build, some of these default settings will be customisable.
Simple

Simple is the most simple way of using my Flattr Widget if you do not have/want to install the official Flattr Plugin. It is also what you would use if you have multiple bloggers blogging on the same blog and each want to earn their own Flattry. To use this option, use the code shown in the image on the left replacing {uid} with your Flattr User ID. The only difference between this simple option and the super simple option is that you are defining your Flattr User ID independently.

Settings will be automatically set as stated:

• The button type will be set to large
• The User ID will be set to whatever you have defined as {UID} in the shortcode
• The title will be set to the Page/Post title
• The description will be set to the Page/Post excerpt
• The category will be set to text
• The language will be set to English
• Tags will not be set
• The url will be set to the Page/Post’s permalink
• The thing will not be hidden from listings on flattr.com

In a future build, some of these default settings will be customisable.
Advanced… but still pretty simple!
Finally, there is the advanced option. You can use the advanced shortscode shown bellow. All variables are optional (defaults will be used if left blank). If, for example, you wanted the default url you could exclude all ” url=’{uid}’ ” and the default would be used. Leaving a variable empty will also result in the default being used but it is probably best practise to remove variables you are not going to be using. Note that if you do not set {uid} you do not need the final “”

To use edit the shortcode you should change the parameter values (indicated with curly brackets surrounding them). The parameters are:

• btn – This is the type of button you would like to display. To get the compact button use ‘compact’ otherwise the default (large) button is displayed.
• uid – This is your personal user id. If not defined, it will be set to that which is set up in the official plugin providing that is set up and installed, otherwise the widget will fail!
• tle – This is the title of the thing you want to submit. This is typically the title of your blog entry or software name. If undefined the title of your Post/Page will be used.
• dsc – This is the full excerpt of the content. Some blog text or information about your song you’ve written or so forth. If undefined excerpt title of your Post/Page will be used.
• cat – This is the flattr category the content belongs to. You can choose between the following: text, images, video, audio, software, rest. If undefined text will be used.
• lng – Language of the submitted thing. List of available languages. If undefined Enlgish (en_gb) will be used.
• tag - This is the tags of the thing, to help people finding your content easier on the Flattr website. If you want to use multiple tags, separate using a normal comma (,) sign. If undefined no tags will be used.
• url – This is the URL of the thing, if this is not always the same on your site. Maybe you have multiple domains with the same content. This is to lock the content to always be recognized as the same content for Flattr. If undefined the permalink of your Post/Page will be used.
• hide – Use this to hide the thing from listings on flattr.com. The value ‘true’ or ‘t’ will hide the thing. If undefined the the thing will be shown on listings on flattr.com.

Download
Click here to Download Version 0.1
Flattr Me
If you use my plugin, you can show your appreciation by flattring me:
Bugs
Please report bugs in the comments
Known Bugs

• Can affect the size of some of the widgets created using the official plugin (change some from large to compact)

Features
If there are any features you would like then please request them in the comments
Features in development

• Configuration page with custom default settings
• Graphical shortcode generator

Popularity: 56% [?]

That’s right, I have made my first WordPress plugin and I must say, it wasn’t too hard at all! Sure, what I have made is very basic but making plugins seems simple enough so you might want to expect a few more! I will be posting a blog with the link to download the new plugin that is designed to make on-the-fly integration between your WordPress pages and posts even easier. UPDATE: Plugin now posted!

Currently the plugin will be hosted here, on my servers but I am currently trying to get it onto the WordPress Plugin Directory. Since this is my first plugin I am not 100% sure about what is happening with that but from what I can tell, I am just waiting for my plugin to be approved as it is listed as a request and the svn directory has not been created for me.

Popularity: 10% [?]