Article Directory WordPress Plugin
As you know, WordPress is the universal platform, that may be used not only for blog creating, but also for other web-site types.
Once me and my friend have created WordPress build for the article directory, but this build have one essential shortcoming.
To deduce the list of categories on the main page I had to edit source files of WordPress engine. But it has deprived of possibility to use WordPress as the article directory at release of new versions, because changing of the source codes each time is not reasonable decision.
The idea of creation of universal and convenient instrument for realisation on WordPress the catalogue of articles did not leave me. As a result I have created a plugin Article Directory.
The primary task of this plugin is deduce on the main page (or any another) the structured list of categories, which can be easily customized with CSS, how it’s made now on Articlesss.com web-site. In addition, with the plugin implemented several changes in the administrative interface that using it was more rational and convenient for both authors and for the administrator.
Plugin features
Standard optional features for categories list:
- Amount of articles in parent and child categories.
- Category description in link title.
- Showing the empty categories.
- Using hierarchy for subcategories.
- Exclude selected categories.
Special features:
- Simple and handy design using CSS. The structure of categories is the multilevel list which can be altered easily with CSS, as you need. The parent category have the <div> container to mark it out with CSS as a parent.
- Support WordPress starting from version 2.3 and above.
- Parent category is showing amount of articles in subcategories. The character also include the number of articles in this parent category.
- Ability to display the specified amount of child categories (2nd level).
- Ability to display categories on specified amount of columns.
- Ability to hide all subcategories.
- Ability to exclude the child categories articles from the parent categories archive pages.
- Ability to add icons for parent categories using CSS.
- Ability to get article source code.
Admin interface options:
- Ability to show warning to author, if not selected any category or if selected more than one category.
- Ability to hide unnecessary blocks from the “Write/Edit Post” page, if this is not the site administrator. It is “Comments & Pings”, “Excerpt”, “Password Protect” and other blocks. I.e. actually there is only a form of adding the article and the button to send it to moderation.
- Ability to specify the height of the categories block on “Write/Edit Post” page.
- Ability to put the “Terms of article publication” on “Write/Edit Post” page.
Installation
Installation of Article Directory plugin is a simple:
- Copy the article-directory folder in WordPress plugins directory (…\wp-content\plugins\).
- Copy the categories.css file in directory with your theme.
- Activate the plugin through admin interface.
- Add the following code in the index.php (or another file) of your theme:
<?php if (function_exists('article_directory')) article_directory(); ?> - Add the following code in the style.css:
@import 'categories.css';
That’s all.
Attention: if you are using a plugin simultaneously with Article Directory WordPress Theme, miss 2-nd, 4-th and 5-th items of installation, because this code is already there by default.
Customization
There are two things, that you can customize:
- If it is necessary, you should customize a categories.css file under the site design.
- Customize options on “Settings → Article Directory” page.
The plugin also lets you to display the list with the links to categories RSS feeds. To do this, you must:
- Create a new page template.
- Add the following code:
<?php $rssfeeds=true; ?>
<?php if (function_exists('article_directory')) article_directory(); ?> - Create a new page in the admin interface and select the created template.
How to add icons for parent categories
It’s doing using CSS. You need to add the styles for icons in categories.css or in style.css file (both located in a folder of your theme).
Styles should be like this:
#cat-23 {background: url(i/icon.gif) 4px 3px no-repeat}
Here the digit 23 means, what this icon will be added in the 2nd column for the 3rd parent category from the top. Accordingly, it is necessary to create as many of such styles, how many you have parent categories, and specify the corresponding number for each icon.
i/icon.gif – this is the path to an icon file, beginning from a folder with your theme.
4px – icon shift value from the left of the parent category block.
3px – icon shift value from the top of the parent category block.
Download
Article Directory WordPress Plugin
Version: 0.9.9 | Last updated: 2009-9-27
Donation
If you enjoy this plugin, you can thank me and leave a small donation.
FAQ related to Article Directory theme and plugin
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How can I have the outside background (grey stripes) and the border like on this site? How to add a logo in the header before the site title? How can I change the width of the sidebars? How to place a banner in header? Etc.
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Sory, I can’t help you with such a questions. Please read and study CSS manuals or find a freelancer that make this things for you.
-
I have installed your theme “Article Directory”, but I don’t see the “Register” link on my site.
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You need to activate the “Membership (Anyone can register)” option on the “General Settings” page of admin area.
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When I make a page it does not show up in the menu where the “Home” link is located.
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You need to specify the ID’s of these pages in the
header.phpfile. Instruction about this written on the Article Directory theme page. -
Is there a way we can place all submitted articles under moderation instead of being published straight away?
-
You need to install the Role Manager plugin. You can see a capabilities that are enabled on this site – look at the screenshot.
-
Is there a simple way to quickly add the categories (instead of adding it one by one)?
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You can use the Post Corrector plugin for this.
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How do I get my recent article posts to display like you have your “Recent Articles” in your first Sidebar?
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If widgets are not used in this sidebar, the “Recent Articles” will be shown.
-
Is there a version of Article Directory theme just for a regular blog?
-
Yes, you can get it here – ADSimple WordPress theme.
Version history
Version 0.9.9 (09.27.09)
- Fixed bug: subcategories disappeared if selected option “Sort categories list by your choice”.
Version 0.9.8 (06.22.09)
- Added option “Forbid publication in parent categories?”.
Version 0.9.7 (03.07.09)
- Improved block of article source code.
Version 0.9.6 (01.25.09)
- Added new feature: ability to get source code of article.
Version 0.9.5 (01.04.09)
- Now it’s possible to sort a list of categories by your choice. This will require the My Category Order plugin.
- Plugin now works on WordPress 2.3 or higher (versions 2.1 and 2.2 are excluded).
- Removed feature on redirects your on home page when clicking on the link “Exit” because this feature is built into WordPress 2.7.
Version 0.9.4 (11.29.08)
- Changed the method of reading WordPress version. Therefore, the plugin now works correctly even if you use it simultaneously with third-party plugins replacing WordPress version.
Version 0.9.3 (10.05.08)
- Fixed data base error: SELECT SUM(count) FROM wp_term_taxonomy WHERE taxonomy = 'category' AND parent =
- Added French localization. Thanks to Le blogueur masqué.
Version 0.9.2 (08.19.08)
- Changes related to hiding unnecessary blocks from the authors.
Version 0.9.1 (07.25.08)
- Fixed the bug, when articles with the statuses “Draft” and “Pending Review” were available to view.
Version 0.9 (07.19.08)
- If not all subcategories is displayed according to options, the symbol “…” will be added after the list of subcategories.
- Ability to add icons for parent categories. To do this, read the instructions above in the article.
- Removed restrictions of functions in the administrative interface created by plugin for users up to the editor level.
- The error, when at entering on a comments page in administrative interface the message “Restricted area” was deduced to all users, regardless of status, is corrected.
- The message about the necessity to update WordPress is hidden from the authors.
- By pressing the “Logout” link the user is redirecting to the home page of the site.
Version 0.8.1 (06.28.08)
- Now it is possible to insert the “Terms of article publication” before the article edit form on “Write/Edit Post” page (terms are not shown for the administrator).
- Since not yet found a way to show for author on “Comments” page only his comments, access to this page is closed for him.
- The footer of admin interface is hidden from author as not the necessary element.
- In the top block of Dashboard is hidden some site statistic info from the author. If you also want to delete all the widgets from the Dashboard, I recommend you to use Dashboard Widget Manager plugin.
Version 0.8 beta (06.13.08)
- All the options transferred to the admin interface.
- Possibility of translation of a plugin on other languages.
- Functions of following plugins are integrated:
Therefore, if you are using any of this plugins, they must be removed.
- On “Manage Posts” page the author sees now only own articles.
- On “Manage Comments” page the author does not see now such data, as e-mail and the IP-address of commentators.
Version 0.7 (05.22.08)
- Added ability to display the specified amount of child categories (2nd level).
Version 0.6 (04.22.08)
- Fixed incorrect counting the number of articles in parent categories in case they contain subchild categories.
Version 0.5 (04.11.08)
- Added ability to output the additional list with links to categories RSS-feeds.
- Made some changes in categories.css file for this page.
Version 0.4 (02.29.08)
- Added ability to disable the output of subcategories.
- Now it is possible of exception of selected categories/subcategories.
Version 0.3 (01.23.08)
- Added ability to disable the “No categories” output messages, if the category does not contain subcategories.
Version 0.2 (01.19.08)
- Added automatic sorting of parent categories.
- There is a possibility to display the list of categories by columns.
- Updated categories.css file.
Version 0.1 (01.07.08)
- First release.
Hi, Nice Plugin.
I do have a couple of issues with it however. When I activate it my top level categories give the oops sorry no posts page, when in fact there are sub categories with posts.
You can see what I mean here http://www.aquaculturetalk.com/category/species/
Issue 2- I have a featured post which is featured at the top of the page. This takes on the content of the first post of an archives page for some reason.
You can see what i mean here.
http://www.aquaculturetalk.com/category/species/sea-cucumber/
The post at the top with the fish should alwasy say “become an author”
I would love to use this plugin in my knowledge base section, but it looks like these issues will prevent that. Any ideas?
PS. I can always just remove the featured post from my archives page, so that issue is not a big worry, but I do need to make sure that my top level categories contain posts from the sub cats.
Thanks for the help.
Dimox,
yea this is one of the things that really is a bit frustrating about wp – LOTS of work from lots of people gets ditched by the constant update incompatibilities – I hope (probably rather dream) the wp team will have a more steady core running sometime.
I appreciate your effort very much and hope this is not too much work though…
Cheers
pete
@mike – just deactivate the option “Exclude the child categories articles from the parent categories pages?”.
I must have some really bad luck. I did click no for that option and it still shows up the same way.
Should I add each article to both the child and parent category in the post editor?
Nevermind, somehow it kicked into gear when I submitted a test post, or maybe it just needed a minute.
Thanks for a great plugin.
Hello,
This plugin is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much.
I am not really good with CSS (actually, I”me really bad) but I managed to arrange things a little. At this point, there is a few things I can’t find and was wonderring if you could help me with that:
1) There is a space (margin) at the left of the directory, I can’t find how to align the directory to the right like my blogroll.
2) There is some kind of a tabulation before the child category. I like the way it is on your website so I would like to move the child category to the left.
3) and finaly, what call the color of the main categories? I can change the color of the child but can’t figure what to do for the main categories.
Here is my site in case someone else know what to do: http://www.petzinesupply.com/
Best regards,
Patrice
Hi,
I finally managed fix my 3rd problem. Thats great.
and about my 1st problem, I actually want to align the directory to the left (not the right). What I want is the directory to look like my blogroll and link just bellow. That would be awesome!
Thanks again
@patrice, you need some changes in
categories.css:1. replace:
#categories .column {
float: left;
width: 130px;
margin-right: 5px;
}
with:
#categories .column {
float: left;
width: 160px;
margin-right: 6px;
padding: 0;
}
2. replace:
#categories li ul {margin: 2px 0 10px;
}
with:
#categories li ul {
margin: 2px 0 10px;
padding: 0;
}
3. replace:
#categories li li {
font-size: 1em;
background: url(http://www.petzinesupply.com/wp-content/themes/langit/Langit/images/tag_blue.gif) 9px 7px no-repeat;
padding: 0 0 0 19px;
}
with:
#categories li li {
font-size: 1em;
background: url(http://www.petzinesupply.com/wp-content/themes/langit/Langit/images/tag_blue.gif) 3px 4px no-repeat;
padding: 0 0 0 15px;
}
That’s awesome! Thank you so much!!!!
Your plugin is just great. Maybe a little difficult to addapt for dum guys like me but it’s still a great plugin
Thanks lot!
is it support SEO?
@AMnom, I don’t understand your question.
AMnom – All the articles in this plugin are actually Wordpress posts. You can use any of the Wordpress SEO plugins for your articles.
Kelly Ling
How do I get the articles ordered by title?
j :)
Hi,
I’m not sure if this is a re-post or if my first post got filtered out as spam. Anyway, I put the code into my index.php file and the categories showed up in the footer. I left it that way so you could look at it. Let me know what I should do. I am using Wordpress and Thesis.
Thanks,
Chris
@Jill – when you in category just select “Sort by title”.
@Chris – you put code in the wrong place. Learn the structure of WordPress templates.
I followed your directions word for word. I copy and pasted the code into the index.php page in my FTP client. I realize that it showed up in the footer. I’m not a total moron. Just to check, I pulled it out of the index.php and put it in the footer.php and it looks just the same. I have a feeling that it has something to do with the Thesis theme more than wordpress.
Here is the code:
Main Index Template (index.php)
How can that be in the wrong place?
Hi. This plugin is the BEST! thank you so much!
But I want to know how I put a logo in header and change the font and size of the name of my directory, like you did here in header.
answer me please. thanks
Is there a way to display items listed as Category X on Page X so we can show a description of the category?
Having it in the title doesn’t work.
jill
I like the plugin. Is there a way to add a user registration to this? i would like users who want to write here be able to ask to register.
Is anybody good enough with this to make it work in a custom theme i have? I am lacking in knowledge about css and php but would gladly pay to get this plugin working with my theme.