Wordpress

tWPtter Plugin

Please leave feedback and suggestions for this plugin on my blog.

The new Wordpress micro-blogging plugin is now available...

Micro-blogging

tWPtter (pronounced t-WHIP-ter) is a micro-blogging plugin for Wordpress.

'twps'

tWPtter allows you to publish short posts (known as twps), text snippets, facts and blurts on a widget or page within your blog.

Links

tWPtter twps (micro-posts) can be upto 150 characters long and optionally contain a link to a website, article or blog post.

Tags

tWPtter supports Wordpress tags by allowing you to associate a single tag with a twp. This will then provide a link to all posts within your blog that carry the same tag.

Post by email

To make micro-blogging even easier, you can post to tWPtter on the move and when away from your computer via any email enabled device.

Administration

A number of options are given:

• You can select the heading for your tWPtter page or widget.
• You can select the number of twps to display.
• You can decide upon the way in which the twps will be ordered - by title, post date or randomly.

Demonstration

See it in action on mwnch in the right sidebar with the heading Seasonal & Local

Installation

Installation is simple, following the tried and tested Wordpress plugin installation method:

• Unzip then upload into your `/wp-content/plugins/` directory. The full path will be `/wp-content/plugins/twptter`
• Activate 'tWPtter' through the 'Plugins' page on your WordPress blog.
• Click the 'tWPptter microblogging' link on the 'Settings' page from the main admin menu and start 'twping'

To write new twps on your blog

• Go to 'tWPptter microblogging' from the 'Settings' page on the main admin menu.
• Go to the Your new twp block and enter your twp text and optionally an anchor and URL for any other page you wish to link to.
• Press the 'Update Options' button to add your twp.

To delete twps from your blog

• Go to 'tWPptter microblogging' from the 'Settings' page on the main admin menu.
• Go to the Your twps section and tick the text box next to the twps that you wish to delete.
• Press the 'Update Options' button to delete the selected twps.

Post by email

You can add twps from any email enabled device. To do this you will need to use the Wordpress post using email functionality.

• Go to the Wordpress.com page Blog by Email and follow Step 1 and Step 2.
• You must then tell tWPtter which email address you'll be using to post to tWPtter, this is the email address that you will use to send emails to the "secret" address created in Step 1. We'll call this your posting email address. Go to the 'Users' page on the main admin menu of your blog.
• It is recommended that you create a new user called twptter or something similar. So do that and ensure that you enter the posting email address into the 'Contact Info' 'E-mail' field of the new user.
• You now need to tell tWPtter all about this, so go to the 'tWPptter microblogging' option on the 'Settings' page off the main admin menu.
• Enter the Wordpress Username of the user with which you've associated the posting email address into the field 'the user ID of the author associated with emailed twps'.
• Press the 'Update Options' button to save.

You will then need to decide how you wish to publish you email twps. Read through Step 3 of Blog by Email for the options.

• Easy Option = manually refreshing - simply access the page http://www.yourblogurl.com/wp-mail.php and your emails will be processed.
• Best Option = CRON jobs - this is for those blogs hosted on a (L)UNIX platform. Simply create a CRON job to wget http://www.yourblogurl.com/wp-mail.php periodically. For example,
  
  55 * * * * wget http://www.mwnch.co.uk/wp-mail.php
  Will process emails once every hour at 55 minutes past the hour. Read more at the beginners guide to CRON.
  

Deployment

Or ... How do I display my twps?

• You can deploy as a Widget using the standard Wordpress functionality.
• To deploy tWPtter as a new page in your blog:
• Copy the file page_twptter.php from the tWPtter install directory to your page template directory.
• Create a new page in Wordpress.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the Write Page screen and under Page Template select tWPtter
• Publish your new tWPtter page as normal.

With queries, questions or suggestions, mail me at:

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