A series of atrocious bugs in the widget functionality are addressed in this strongly recommended update. I am a very messy programmer indeed. Probably because I am not a programmer? Anyway, you always learn something. The new 1.41 version of Stray Quotes is available now for downloading on the Stray Quotes page.

Stray Random Quotes helps you collect and display random quotes on your blog. It comes with a easy to use management tool, a option page and a "widget". The quotes can be recorded with source, author and optional google links, then added to the blog with a widget, customizing your sidebar, or spewed all onto a given page.

Download

» Stray Random Quotes 1.6.2
~ 1050 new downloads since August 4th, 2007

Note: the latest version of the plugin can always also be downloaded from the Wordpress Extend.

Installation & Usage

1. Upload the content of stray-quotes.zip to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.
3. Check out the options in "Settings" > "Stray Random Quotes" in the admin menu
4. Check out the management in "Manage" > "Quotes" in the admin menu
5. If you use widgets to customize the sidebar of your blog, Stray Random Quotes does come with a widget.
Just check "Design" > "Widgets" in the admin menu.
6. If you don't use the widget function, or you want random quotes to appear elsewhere other than the sidebar, use this in your theme: <?php if (function_exists('stray_random_quote')) stray_random_quote(); ?>.
7. To add a given quote instead of a random one use the following: <?php if (function_exists('stray_a_quote')) stray_a_quote(id);?>, where id is the id number of the quote as it appears on the management page.
8. To insert a random quote inside a post or a page, just write in the editor When the soul of a man is born in this country, there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.
-- James Joyce (Wordpress 2.5+ only).
9. To insert a given quote inside a post or a page, just write in the editor (Wordpress 2.5+ only), where xx is the id number of the quote as it appears on the management page.
10. To insert a list of all the quotes in a post or a page, just write in the editor If someone thinks you're great, it's not really you they think is great. And if they do a hatchet job on you, it's not really you. So the best thing to do is to protect yourself. Put on a moustache and sunglasses and stripes in your tie. Shave your head, change your name - and then keep the rest of you off the side
-- Tom Waits

When the soul of a man is born in this country, there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.
-- James Joyce

Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for
-- Mark Twain

There is an indifference that is more helpful than your blabbering about being humane, as the right hand pets some of us like Mother Teresa, and the left hand swings the sword of the tribunal against others. There is no one less open to suffering than you official humanitarians. Marsbodies that appear as the protectors of human rights.
-- Peter Handke

Life is not ugly nor beautiful, but it is original
-- Italo Svevo

My compassion has been nothing but compassion for myself, for the child I used to be - in the sense that the sight of a humiliated man reminded me the child who let anyone mortify him without complaining. Witness of a humiliation: where the witness feels exposed too.
-- Peter Handke

It is known that Freedom is indivisible. It is needed by good ones and bad ones. And even more by regular people. Like us. You can't give Freedom only to heroes. Just like you can't give a chance to get married only to Burt Reynolds.
-- Sergei Dovlatov

Books are made not like children but like pyramids, and they're just as useless! and they stay in the desert! Jackals piss at their foot and the bourgeois climb up on them.
-- Gustave Flaubert

Admit that you're living in a country entirely furnished by the previous generations: that your opinions were hired, rented were the images of your world.
-- Ingeborg Bachmann

There is no insurmountable solitude. All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song.
-- Pablo Neruda

Beauty exists only if I need it.
-- Peter Handke

A tram arrived. It had been washed during the night. The bulbs that illuminated it were sad like the lights that one forgets to turn off before falling asleep.
-- Emanuel Bove

I have a brain for everything
-- Emanuel Carnevali

This is the city self, looking from window to lighted / window / When the squares and checks of faintly yellow light / Shine at night, upon a huge dim board and slab-like tombs, / Hiding many lives. It is the city consciousness / Which sees and says: more: more and more: always more.
-- Delmore Schwartz

One has to believe oneself loved, to believe oneself unfaithful
-- Racine

Information is not knowledge.
-- Frank Zappa

( Wordpress 2.5+ only). If you use an earlier version of Wordpress, you can still use <!--wp_quotes_page--> (Wordpress 2.3- only)..

Screenshots

Your quotes are displayed in a management page, where from they can be edited or deleted, and where new quotes can be added.

The option page offers many options to customize the apperance of the quotes.

A random quote appears in the sidebar as one of the widgets.

Changelog

* 1.6.2 Fixed a compatibility issue with WP 2.6 which caused the available themes to not be displayed (thanks to all the users of Stray Random Quotes who pointed this bug out!). Also updated the layout of the option and manage pages to make them more consistent with the general design of WP.
* 1.6.1 Fixed the fact that the plugin didn't really considered wordpress 2.3.x users. Now the compatibility is assured, although WP 2.3 cannot use the shortcodes (see 'installation'). Thanks to gnr for pointing the bug out! I also fixed a pretty significant bug in the first time run of the plugin, where it didn't insert a sample quote although a message said it did, and I fixed the html code of the management page, it was messed up.
* 1.6 Major update (hence the slight jump forward in numbering): First of all, it takes advantage of the new Wordpress 2.5 shortcuts API by adding three different shortcuts to easily insert quotes inside your posts. In addition, it gives you the option to link author and source of your quotes to Wikipedia (not only to Google anymore) in all the major languages. Talking about language, this plugin is now ready for translations so come forward if you're willing to translate it in your own language. Only english and italian are available so far. This version contains a bunch of minor fixes and code rewriting, and also a few new names for its functions (you shouldn't notice any difference, but check out the installation instructions).
* 1.53 Hopefully fixed a little mishap with the code that caused the "updated table" message to persist. Also a link that didn't work should be fixed. Thanks to c for pointing this bugs out. Also, I changed the name of the plugin to make it more to the point.
* 1.52 Finally managed to use "edit" and "delete" links instead of buttons in the list of quotes. Great personal achievement since I was never able to make this simple thing work. More minor fixes.
* 1.51 Minor fixes.
* 1.50 Stray Quotes refurbished in order to work under Wordpress 2.5. Apparently it now does.
* 1.48 Corrected a typo that caused the plugin to throw a fatal error when activated. Usual messing up, no comment. While I was there I adjusted the way the plugin updates and creates the new table. It should work more cleverly now (nothing noticeable though).
* 1.47 This is a minor update to the general layout of the option and management pages. Hoping everything is more readable and usable now. Also I corrected the function where the "add new" form would display the content of the last inserted quote. Now the form does not display anything. Let me know if you don't think this way it is better. Few minor potential bugs hopefully corrected as well. Please be aware that the plugin now comes with five files (three .php, one .css and one .htm) instead than a single .php (which was getting too big and cumbersome to edit). So after you upload the folder with the new files, remember to delete the single file leftover by the old version.
* 1.46 I am really but once again I must update this plugin. Few slipping lines and a inattentive copy and paste caused an atrocious bug in the last version. Instead of editing old quotes it added them as new ones. Should be fixed now. It won't happen again for at least... a while now -- I promise.
* 1.45 Sorry for the many updates. It's because now I have the time. Anyway this version fixes the general functionality of the plugin where it would do certain crucial things (like updating the table to a new version) only if the management page was opened. Now it does what it has to do no matter what page is opened or not opened. I can't believe it I haven't solved this before, but this is how it goes.
* 1.44 As requested, a new field has been added to management page. It is now possible to specify the source of the quote and, in the option page, the relative optional formatting elements. Few potential bugs fixed.
* 1.43 Added a new option to set the default visibility for new quotes. In the options page.
* 1.42 with this update Stray Quotes should discriminate more intelligently the elements that can be added to both the sidebar and the quotes page, so that the page isn't filled with non pertinent formatting. More details on the options page itself.
* 1.41 corrected a general malfunction in the widget title, where it didn't handle unicode characters and disappeared from the sidebar or the options unexpectedly. Now everything should work. Thanks to tiosolid who addressed the bug. This is a fix version with no new features, but updating is strongly recommended.
* 1.4 first release. Numbering follows version number of the "Random Quotes" zombierobot.com/wp-quotes plugin from which my plugin takes its first steps.

A new version of Plastic Tunes is out. Plastic Tunes 1.1 comes with a bare but useful management page, and a new option in your option page to prevent repeated music items to appear on the list. You can read more about it and proceed to download on the Plastic Tunes page »

I have updated Plastic Tunes to version 1.0. Minor but important changes, consult the read me file carefully if you update from the previous version. Read all about it on the Plastic Tunes page.

NOTE: Right now this plugin is discontinued because there are much better plugins out there than this one.

This plugin counts how many times a file is being downloaded from your wordpress blog and lets you display the total number of downloads on its pages. It also includes a management page with the total amounts of downloads for each file, and the possibility to reset to zero the counters if needed.
It's simple and it works.

Download latest version

» Simple Download Counter 0.8b
~ 1378 downloads since July 27 2007

Changelog

-- v. 0.8b There was a problem with the confirmation button after trying to reset a value in the table of the downloads. It went on resetting even if the user clicked 'cancel'. Now solved.
-- v. 0.8 Implemented a page in the 'Manage' submenu with a complete list of the files that are being downloaded and the number of times they have been downloaded so far. Included is the possibility to reset the counter to zero for any given file. This update includes also a number of small fixes.
-- v. 0.6 fixed the showCount function. It failed to show the number of downloads. Now it should work properly.
-- v. 0.5 first release.

Screenshots

In action on the blog

A glimpse of the management page

A glimpse of the option page

Installation & Usage

-- FTP the "download_counter" folder to your "wp-content/plugins" directory;
-- Activate the plugin;
-- Go to its option page and enter the name of the folder where you keep the files to be downloaded;
-- Change the download link to a special one that allows the plugin to count the times a file is downloaded;
-- Consult the total downloads from your database or display it on the pages of your blog.

All the instructions you need will be on the option page as soon as you activate the plugin.

Plastic Tunes is a "now-playing" plugin for wordpress that allows your blog to collect and display informations about the music you play in your media player. Artists, titles, albums and pretty much any information included in your digital music files. All goes into your database for real-time or later use, ready to be displayed on your sidebar, on a dedicated page or wherever you want. The concept of this plugin, and quite a few lines of code were originally taken from version 0.1 of the muTunes plugin, made by Ken Smith -- although Plastic Tunes grew a lot since then.

Download latest version

» Plastic Tunes version 1.4
~ 1049 new downloads since July 27th, 2007

Changelog

v. 1.4 Compatible with Wordpress 2.5, and minor fixes and redesign.

(Consult the read me file for a complete changelog.)

Features

-- Multi-User Capable
Saves to your Wordpress DB all informations from the music you listen to
-- Works with iTunes, Winamp, Foobar2000, QCD, and others
-- Flood Protection
-- Password Protection
-- Formatting easiness & flexibility
-- Widgets compatibility
-- The possibility to toggle the state of the sidebar elements according to the state of the media player
-- Automatic Google links for Artists and Albums if you need them
... and much more

For the future: If I find a satisfying way to do it, I might put back on the Amazon functionality muTunes had. I Also have one or two ideas to further amplify the flexibility of the formatting options. If I don't get bored before...

Screenshots

-- In action on the sidebar

-- a glimpse of the option page

Installation istructions (and much more)

Please consult the read me file included with the plugin. And comments, suggestions and requests are always welcome.

If you are used to link the 'previous' and 'next' posts on a wordpress blog using their own title, you have probably noticed how more often than not too long titles can cause broken lines, hence unpredictable results in terms of formatting.
As a matter of fact it is pretty typical for previous and next posts titles to claim a little too much room in any blog template, and the only workaround in wordpress so far is to replace the title of the posts with generic phrases like 'next post', 'previous post' and so on.
Now with this plugin you can use the title of the posts to link to them and still be able to fit them nicely in your template.

Download

» version 1.0
~ 632 downloads since July 27th, 2007

(Version 1.0 has been adapted to Wordpress 2.5. If you notice that the exclusion of categories is broken, it is not this plugin's fault. It's wordpress 2.5 fault. See here.)

Install

extract, upload to the plugins folder of your wordpress install, activate. See "Usage".

Features

-- limits the length of the previous and next post titles to the number of characters you want
-- where necessary, truncates the title to the last space, adding three dots
-- shows the entire title of the post in the tooltip (mysteriously wordpress never considers the tooltips of the links)
-- sets the string that conditionally will appear before the link title, only if the link title itself is present (previously in wordpress you either had to add a string outside of the 'next/previous post' tag, thus causing it to appear in the page even if the link was not present, or you had to add the string inside the link generated by wordpress, with ugly results: for example if the string was just a simple dividing character like '|')

Usage

This plugin adds two specific functions to your wordpress install: 'my_prev_post_link' and 'my_next_post_link'.
These two functions are very similar to, and support the same variables of the original wordpress tags they are meant to replace (please refer to the relative wordpress codex pages for their use), 'previous_post_link' and 'next_post_link'.
My replacement functions anyway come with two additional variables: $string_lenght and $pre_link. Not that you really needed to know how they were called.

The first variable indicates the maximum length for the title (default is 22 characters). The second the string to be displayed before the link (only if the link itself is present).

So, you'll just have to replace '<?php next_post_link(); ?>' in your template with <?php my_next_post_link() ?>, obviously indicating between the brackets the variables you want to specify. Again, refer to the wordpress codex for usage of variables: only keep in mind that my two additional variables, $string_lenght and $pre_link, are the second last and last variable of the function.

For example, for a post entitled "post with a too darn long title to fit into my neat template", using the following tag:
<?php my_prev_post_link('%link', '&laquo; %title',false,'',25,'previous post: ') ?>
will give a result like this one:

"previous post: « post with a title too..."

Lighter Menus creates drop-down menus instead of the regular admin menus of the WordPress interface, so that you can browse items with one click and work at your blog in a much more usable environment.
Fast to load, adaptable to color schemes, Lighter Menus comes with silk icons by famfamfam, a option page, and a design that fits within the Wordpress interface taking the less room possible.
Lighter Menus it is not an entirely original plugin, its code is largely based on the Admin Drop Down Menus plugin by Ozh. Anyway, it comes with its own flavor and extra features.

Download:

Download Version 2.7.1
~ 5021 downloads from this page.

Note #1: the latest version of the plugin (and previous versions as well) can always also be downloaded from the Wordpress Repository.

Note #2: if you are using wordpress 2.3.x or earlier, you should stick to the old version of the plugin: lighter admin menu 2.3

Installation:

Extract the archive; put it into your wp-content/plugins folder and activate (deactivate and reactivate if you're upgrading).
Review the options at Design > Admin menus options.

This plugin has been tested with Firefox, Opera, Safari and IE 7.
 

-- the plugin under firefox2

-- the plugin under IE7, with the classic color scheme.

-- the plugin under Opera

-- the plugin under Safari for windows

-- the plugin option page

Translations

This version of Lighter Menus features localizations in:

* Chinese, thanks to dupola
* Japanese, thanks to ne-design
* German, thanks to Kristian Bollnow
* Chinese (Taiwan), thanks to hit1205
* Russian, thanks to rlector. Also thanks to dimox for providing his translation at the same time!
* Italian, thanks to, well, yours truly.

More are needed! If you want to translate this plugin in your language you are very welcome! In fact there are very few lines to translate. Just be aware that despite what poEdit wants you to do, you should take a moment to check the code and then translate only the items that are actually under the textdomain 'lighter-menus'. You will notice in the code that 35 or so translatable items have no textdomain indicated (they look like this: _('Dashboard'), instead of this: _('Dashboard', 'lighter-menus') ). They're in the functions "lm_icons" and "lm_build" and they are just menu items names used for reference when binding them with the respective icons or style classes. In such cases just leave the translation empty, it would be useless work to translate said items since they are not for the user to read. Your Wordpress locale takes care of those translations.

changelog:

* 2.7.1 This version fixes a couple of minor problems given by the new WP 2.6: the press-this page, that didn't work (thanks to Robert for pointing this bug out), and the notification bubble of the plugins menu, which wasn't considered. This version also includes a Russian translation, thanks to rlector.
* 2.7 This version includes Chinese-Taiwan translation. Thanks to hit1205 for the effort! hit1205 also heroically helped to fix the "no howdy" feature for Wordpress Chinese. Thanks man! This version also implements a new feature, asked for by Callum on the blog: the ability to optionally show the comment bubble even if there is nothing to moderate. You're welcome, man! :) I also cleaned a little the appearance of the above mentioned bubble, it should look less ugly now.
And with this I'm really done. An almost round number, 2.7 is really going to be the last update for a while.
* 2.6.9 A leftover "blah" of some testing I had done in the past was still in the output. It's a miracle it didn't show up in a worse way. A big thank you to Shobba for poiting this out and apologies for yet another bugfix update... I also fixed something with the deactivator... Anyway, I am amazed, there's always something to fix.
* 2.6.8 This version includes a Japanese translation, thanks to ne-design, and a German translation, thanks to Kristian Bollnow. Much obliged to both of them! I also managed to have the "no howdy" option working with Wordpress in Japanese (still no luck with the Chinese version, I need a guru of regex to understand this), and fixed a problem with menu icons when running with Wordpress in Japanese (thanks to ne-design for pointing it out). Also, I made the regular menu link color a little brighter, and cleaned the code here and there. I think this will be the last update for a while so let's hope everything is fine with it.
* 2.6.7 This version includes Chinese translation! A million thanks go to dupola for the effort. Also: I fixed a pretty ugly bug that broke the effect of different color of the side menu with local version; I changed the aspect of the option page to make it more similar to the regular Wordpress 2.5 option pages; I fixed the removal of 'Help' and 'Forums' links, where local versions of Wordpress that personalized those links would broke the function; I added the option to remove the 'Howdy', too, although this feature does not work in the Chinese version. While I was there I also redid the italian translation of the plugin, it was horrible. Now it is just a little less horrible. I can't believe how much the IT lexicon sounds ugly in italian. Finally, once again thanks to dupola who made me notice a couple of oversights, including that the link to the plugin home page was mysteriously all scrambled. All should be fixed now. All things considered, I'd say this update is recommended too.
* 2.6.6 Corrected a serious bug that prevented the new 2.5.1 media uploader to work with Lighter Menus. Now everything should work out fine. Also fixed the comment awaiting moderation message that incorrectly showed up with 0 comments to moderate. Recommended.
* 2.6.5 This version revamped almost entirely the most part of the code... It already was in a way, but this plugin is basically now an adaptation of the current Ozh's Admin Drop Down Menus plugin. Anyway, my plugin required many hours of extra work to implement new features including an option page (now with more options), more consistent colors and adaptation to color schemes (also custom ones), an uninstaller etc. This update also fixes a lot of bugs and potential bugs compared to version 2.6.1, and also imports from Ozh a number of great features like WPMU support, the ability to optionally display the original submenu, and the wrapping of the main menu within smaller windows. Useless to say how much I am grateful to the man.
* 2.6.1 This version adds an easy to use uninstaller to optionally remove every trace of Lighter Menus upon deactivation. This feature can be found in the Design > Lighter Menus page. You won't notice, but this version also moves all the options in only one record in the database to occupy less space. Okay, there were only two records before, but still. IMPORTANT: because of the modified options, you are advised to deactivate and reactivate the plugin upon upgrading. Also in this version there are few small fixes. I always find small things to fix, I can't say why.
* 2.6 Fixed a bug with Safari not adjusting the width of the menus correctly and other minor fixes.
* 2.5.9 This version prepared Lighter Menus for localization. Do come forward if you're willing to translate this plugin in your language, there are very few lines to translate. Only italian and default english are available so far (please check the "Technical note for Translators" in the readme.txt). Also, I slightly changed the name of the plugin, I hated the old name, I hope you'll understand.
* 2.5.8 Fixed a issue with other plugins adding extra long menu entries. Now menus widen and narrow at ease. Thanks to Karl for pointing out this.
* 2.5.7 Added a nifty option page where you can toggle a couple of customizations, like menu icons. For your convenience, the necessary files of the plugin now consist in just one file "lighteradminmenus.php", and the "images" folder. All the css files are now integrated and can be removed from the plugin folder after the upgrade. Small fixes as much as you want.
* 2.5.6 Tried to distinguish chromatically the elements of the menu accordingly to Wordpress 2.5, sliding them to the right in the main menu. Maybe a good idea, maybe not. Let me know.
* 2.5.5 I never realized Wordpress 2.5 had two color schemes (thanks tonchi!). Lighter admin menus now adapts to this, quite beautifully I must say. Also very important fix: the menu now gives feedback when editing posts and pages (it failed to before).
* 2.5.4 fixed the awaiting comments alert and other minor glitches. Cleaned the code a good deal. Recommended.
* 2.5.3 slight redesign to favor smooth corners in the menus.
* 2.5.2 small fixes (thanks to Robert!) and a slight redesign favoring the "tab" effect. Also FF 2 and IE 7 look more alike now.
* 2.5.1 small fixes
* 2.5 redesigned to fit into wordpress 2.5.
* 2.3 trying to fix a function that breaks translations of wordpress. We'll see.
* 2.2 actually the first version of this plugin. It should be alpha something. But because I haven't changed a line of php code in it, it is only fair that the version number should depend on the plugin I used as the base for this