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).
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 HarrySettings 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!
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!
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: 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.
So popped open my emails on January 1st to find an email from JetPack. JetPack being a collection of plugins from WordPress to install on Self hosted blogs, that among other things includes a stat tracker.
The email in question was something that JetPack had automatically generated as an Annual Report on views of my blog.
Quite an interesting read, and I’m not really surprised that my some of my most popular posts are from 2010, really just means I need to blog more. (Hence really the reason for writing a blog entry about it, since I do aim to post more now)
But the most interesting thing of all, is the little Fireworks jQuery plugin, which WordPress have also released as open source for others to use and play with. Included on the review page includes a nice little stats/current plugin output to show you how effective/how well its all running.
My Google Chrome is currently scoring 4%, but my iPad safari clocks in at 30% (but then I do have a lot of tabs open right now).
It’s a nice way to review your blog from the year, so it you are running JetPack, its worth a read.
But it is really just a bit of a sales gimmick when you get to the bottom and see what WordPress has planned.
Looks like its going a bit more Tumblr-y. We shall see
