Plugins
When used here, a plugin (but not to be confused with a widget or an extension) is essentially a computer program that interacts with a host application – like a web browser or an email client, to provide a certain, usually very specific, function “on demand,” like clicking it with your mouse. Applications support plugins for many reasons. Some of the main reasons include the incompatibility of software licenses, bragging rights, making money, and for maybe something bigger than life yet undisclosed or discovered.
They are everywhere, with some being truly outstanding, easy to install, well documented and supported, and others, well, a disaster guaranteed to crash your site, browser, mood, or all. At this writing, WordPress alone has 4,742 (and counting) in their plugin directory.
The goal of this page is to present the good ones, the ones we actually use either on our site, or recommend and implement for others. So, without further ado, check out:
From the developer; 23Systems Web Development: “Lightbox Plus” is a plugin that implements Lightbox JS by Lokesh Dhakar. Lightbox Plus is used to create overlay display images on the webpage and to automatically add the correct overlay links to images. Lightbox Plus permits users to view larger versions of images without having to leave the current page, and is also able to display simple slideshows. The use of the dark or light background, which dims the page over which the image has been overlaid, also serves to highlight the image being viewed. Lightbox Plus captures the image title for display in the overlay.”
To the “image title” thing. The software uses the image caption features from WordPress for this function, and see the developer’s site for more on that if needed. I usually “name” my pics before I save and use them, so, while nice, I do not use WP for this feature. Also, on the “backend,” you can easily edit/set a few features such as percentage enlargements, opacity, etc., to your liking.
Click the pic below, or any on this site, to see Lightbox Plus in action. Make sure to note, where applicable (where there is more than one image on a page) you can go back and forth (previous/next navigation with pics enumerated) among images. To “get out” of the enlarged image, simply click anywhere on the seemingly “dead” grayed-out area of the page. Very cool plugin, nicely done.
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From the developer; Vladimir Prelovac, self-confessed “WorpPress Professional, SEO Consultant, and Website Optimization Fanatic,” (he is good, I could not have said it better):
“WP Wall is a ‘Wall’ widget that appears in your blog’s side bar. Readers can add a quick comment about the blog as a whole, and the comment will appear in the sidebar immediately (without reloading the page).
All comments are internally handled by WordPress so that means you have normal comment moderation, SPAM protection and new comment notification.
WP Wall is fully customizable with a CSS file and included graphics.
WP Wall features:
- Global commenting ‘Wall’
- Comments are handled entirely by WordPress
- RSS Feed for the Wall
- Smilies
- Instant delete for admin
- Navigation through pages
- Interactive Wall: It can automatically refresh turning into a chat”
This is nice, well done, Vlad! Like most all widgets, you can name it whatever you please, and you will see mine is “Hit the Wall.” Plenty of settings to tweak this thing to your satisfaction, like; max word counts, number of comments to show, registered user only, etc. To his credit, Vladimir is never satisfied with his work, and it’s not unusual to see “fixes” and updates often. Getting on his e-mailing list is a good idea.
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