Fun with WP.me and Twitter Cards

I was trying to figure out why my Twitter Cards weren’t working when I was tinkering with someone else’s WordPress install.

Turns out at some point Twitter decided to follow the WP.me redirect and grab the page behind is differently.

So, now you need to whitelist your domain rather than WP.me.

To do that pop along to The Card Validator with one of your none WP.me Blog Post URL’s in hand and pop it in the validator box.

twitter_card_validation

Click request approval, fill in the little form and wack submit! It might throw an error but retest your page and all should be good!

pending

Give it a few minutes:

waiting

And Finally:

finally

A working Tweet!

Updated like so:

Barry_Carlyon_on_Twitter___Fun_with_WP_me_and_Twitter_Cards_http___t_co_WYcrgwtMgG_

Annual Report

2012inblogging-2

It’s that time of year again where WordPress posts out the Annual JetPack Stats Annual Report, and here’s my report!

Shame it only tracks Posts and not Pages, since there have been a fair few comments and views on the WordPress Plugins category of pages!

Using Zombaio with WordPress, A WordPress Plugin

Zombaio Logo

Building on my work at Your Members, specifically the Adult Payment Gateway Zombaio, I’ve finally gotten around to building a better “recommended WordPress Plugin”.
As the one on Zombaio’s site is little more than a nasty hack sitting in front of WordPress without using any WordPress functions or its Database Abstraction Layer, (it’s using Raw Database functions and is not very WordPress’y at all).

It has now been released (current version at time of writing is V1.0.4) and made available via WordPress extend called WP-Zombaio.

What does the Plugin do?

Logs

Essentially the plugin listens for ping backs for the Payment Gateway and responds accordingly, creating or deleting the user, using the details passed back from Zombaio, and logging the full result for later reference.

Installing the plugin first guides you thru a easy to use install procedure, meaning no fiddly file editing, or trying to setup and understand ZScript.

Just download, unzip, upload and activate.
Nip thru the (optional) four step quick start wizard and away, you, go!

It’s a Wizard Harry
Settings all Done

In addition to the quick setup and user create/delete, the plugin provides a few short codes and widgets, to direct the user from your site off to the Zombaio Join Form and back again.

ShortCodes and Widgets!

Guide

Included in the plugin is a guide, which describes how to setup and use all the features as well as general information about running a Membership Site and getting the most out of the plugin. Especially the Zombaio Seal, which can be a little fiddly to get the code for.

Getting the Seal Code

Security and Access Control

On top of the basic functionality, is included a method to block non members from accessing the site and providing a Splash Page/adult content warning page, meaning no need for additional plugins required to do this, saving you overhead. All guests are redirected to this page, so content is protected!

A Basic Landing Page

As well as this, included in the plugin is the ability to create a menu to show to logged out users that is different to logged in users, in case your theme doesn’t provide this.

Menus

To top it all, the plugin is designed to run your WordPress site with “Anyone can Register” disabled, meaning the only way users can join is via the Zombaio Payment Form, and this means users/members have paid for access.

What is Coming Next?

I’m currently working on a update, which includes credit purchase, and the spending of credits on access to posts/pages, (this can be configured to be timed access, for Live Broadcasts/Webcam Events, or permanent access, like a image gallery), again helpful instructions and information is included in the guide on how to setup and use these features.

(The update is currently in beta testing to a couple of users who have contacted me about the plugin, but you can always grab the SVN trunk/current build and give the current credits implementation a go! You can grab this from Extend, no guarantee that it is stable or safe to use in production/live, you can get it from the WP Zombaio Developers Tab)

Suddenly Graphs

In addition I’m adding graphs and reporting data, to supplement the Zombaio Graphs and reporting to help Admins set how their site is doing. And showing what users are spending their credits on, and how many unspent credits are in the user kitty!

During the development of the next version, to fully support credit purchase in a admin easy to setup and use method, further development time is needed to create a little form builder, as there are several options, which can be difficult to easily describe using just WordPress short code Arguments, hence this blog post is talking about the current release and not about the next release including credits!).

So I shall finish this blog post off quickly and get back to finishing off the next version!

Can I see more Screenshots?

Sure, just pop over to the WordPress Extend page, there are a few more there!

Where can I get it

You can check out the Plugin here on the site, or over on Extend.

I need Help!

If you have any suggestions, feature requests or need help setting up and using the plugin, please do not hesitate to drop me a line, and I’ll be able to give you a hand and get you up and running!

I’d like to Donate

Cool! I put a quick an easy PayPal button on the local WP Zombaio Page for you!

My CV and some other Updates

Just a quick post to say hello.

I’ve updated my CV and tidied it up a little.
So any feedback on it would be useful! (Drop Me a Line rather than a Comment please)
Link in the SideBar on the right!

I should really write on my blog some more, but not a lot to write about of late.
JetPack Extras is doing OK, but JetPack core decided to implement the main feature I added, that being Pinterest but, Extras has evolved, it still of course has the ability to control button placement and has the extra Twitter Via/Related options, and the ability to share the WP.me shortened URL, makes a nice Twitter Card, embedding a short Preview of the Post with the Tweet, (check this Meta Tweet for an example) works with any wp.me url you share on Twitter by the way!

Most useful, mainly updated to keep up with JetPack core and use the new shiny hooks they have.
You can check it out on extend. Feedback/request are always Welcome!

Made a couple of tweaks and updates to the Blog in the background, added a better 404 page and updated the .htaccess rules, I have all subdomains pointing to the here, (unless their is a separate to show), so its a good idea to redirect non sites to here, rather than duplicating the content.
Also tweaked the Root .htaccess to have a Error Document (404) since it was just standard Apache Error, bit nasty, but now better, LOLCATS TO THE RESCUE! 😀

Heres a extract of the rules, if you find it useful/handy:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^barrycarlyon.co.uk  
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://barrycarlyon.co.uk/%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
ErrorDocument 404 http://barrycarlyon.co.uk/wordpress/404-2/
ErrorDocument 403 http://barrycarlyon.co.uk/wordpress/404-2/

Next thing to do, is probably update and replace the MineCraft Server Site probably using Twitter Bootstrap as a new basis. It’s now a whitelisted server for Armchair Heroes or on Facebook, but of late I’ve been getting my MineCraft fix playing over at PhantomCraft, like a lot of open Servers I tend to get robbed/cleaned out and griefed a lot, but then again I am a little close to spawn. It’s a fun server to play on and the regulars are quite nice.

Hopefully moving further away when I get a chance to play some more, thinks are pretty busy at the moment between Magento fun at Day Job and Freshers Fun at the Union.

Then I really should get the Portfolio page on the Blog fixed up to showcase what I’ve done before, since I am a Freelance Web Developer (you got any work going or want a quote for? (Drop me a line)

So a couple more weeks and we’ll be back to the usual grind.
Hopefully I will have more to write about soon!

Extra Jetpack!

So recently I’ve been mucking about with JetPack, for various bits and pieces.

Mainly the first thing done is just to make the sharing buttons appear above and below a post.

But from browsing the JetPack Support Forum over on extend I thought I’d make my changes available.

So, attached to this post, is my modified version of JetPack 1.4.2.

Which includes the following additions:

  • Ability to control button placement, above, below, or both of the post content
  • A Pinterest PinIt Button as requested on the forum, it will attempt to use the Post/Page Featured Image as the Image to Pin
  • Additional Twitter button elements/arguments, for recommended Twitter account following (via and related)
  • Ability to turn on/off the DNT Twitter button mode: see the docs, about what this is and does
  • Hope you find it useful.

    If using JetPack 1.6.1 use the Extend Version
    [download#4] Pre JetPack 1.6
    [download#3]

    Feedback and requests in the comments please 😀 or hit me up on Twitter: @BarryCarlyon

    (On a side note, I need to fix some theme glitches on here, hence a double featured image on the home page….)

    Update: Make sure your theme is using a recent version of jQuery. As otherwise the [+ Share] won’t pop up (for extra hidden sharing buttons)

    Update: Created a new Plugin, that doesn’t replace JetPack, it extends and runs as a separate plugin.
    So more Core JetPack update friendly. Upload and activate like a normal plugin.
    Includes a suggestion from @SkipTweets Option to use the WP.me link instead of the permalink for Twitter Sharing

    Update: The plugin is now available on extend!

    Update: JetPack Core has now updated to 1.6.1 which adds a Pinterest Button to Core. They also updated the entire ShareDaddy plugin. It looks like they are adding Twitter Via Support to.
    I’ve just released a Maintenance Fix as if you Update JetPack, it WhitePages, due to conflicting Pinterest Buttons.

    Update: Check out the Special Plugin Page