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WordPress Top Plugins

Chapter 1. Plugin Basics

There is literally a plugin for almost anything you want to achieve in WordPress. A quick glance at the WordPress Plugin Directory will show you just how many options are available. Admin, Ajax, Comments, Google, Posts, Sidebar, Twitter, and Widgets are all so very well represented that finding the right one can be a full-time gig. Twitter alone has over 200 plugins dedicated to pulling, pushing, and searching through its masses of data. However, before we can auto-tweet a post, or dynamically interleave links to Amazon products, we have to comprehend how a plugin works, and more importantly, how to install and activate them on our blog.

Every plugin is written in PHP (an awesome open source programming language) and are usually accompanied by various other internet file types such as CSS, Javascript, XML, images, JSON files, and so on. Thanks to WordPress's open architecture, developers can inject their plugin's code throughout your blog without you having to touch a single line of code, unless, of course, you want to.

In this chapter, we cover the following:

Installing plugins
How plugins work
Troubleshooting plugins

Safety first

It's very much imperative to understand that plugins have the ability to affect virtually every part of your blog. If a plugin developer was feeling decidedly evil, he/she could create mayhem to your website with a few tiny lines of code. Make sure you trust the recommending source that's promoting a plugin before you install it.

I personally recommend and reference almost exclusively throughout this book http://Wordpress.org/extend/plugins, the official Wordpress.org Plugin Directory. This self-policing community often provides very valuable and detailed pros and cons for almost every plugin, with the ability to sort by popularity, rank, and date released.

Automatic plugin installation

Out of the box, WordPress comes with its own plugin app store, which allows you to search through a huge library of free plugins. To access WordPress's built-in plugin browser, click Add New under the Plugins menu. Once inside the plugin app store, you have the option to either search by keyword or name, browse by popular tags, or see the newest plugins added.

After you search or browse by a tag, you will be presented with a list of plugins that are available for you to install from WordPress's Plugin Directory. Each will list its version number (the later the version, the more stable, usually), a community rating, a more detailed description, and an Install link.

Now is a good time to remember that you are dealing with FREE software; what you are about to install will most likely offer NO guarantees or warrantees. Never forget that a plugin runs server-side code on your website, which means that a plugin can access your database(s), can read, write, and delete files, and even send e-mails from your domain.

Note

Please read the reviews and listen to what the community has to say about the plugin you are about to install.

If a plugin is rated with 1 star by a lot of the community, it would be wise to keep your distance. But if a plugin has been installed 40,000 times and has a 3+ star rating, it's fair to say that it is trustworthy.

Clicking Install on this screen will not actually install the plugin; instead, it will launch a window that provides even more details about the specific plugin.

Plugin detail

The plugin details pop-up window provides you with a deeper look into the plugin you are about to install.

The important areas to pay attention to are as follows:

The number of downloads shows how popular a plugin is.
The average rating shows you what the community thinks about the plugin.
Last Updated date tells you if the project is still being actively worked upon.
Compatible up to tells you if the plugin has been tested on your version or not. Keep in mind that a lot of plugins might not have been "tested" with your current version, but will still work.

Many times, plugins require no additional setup or configuration, while others need a bit more tooling around to get running. If the developer provided Installation instructions, make sure to look them over to ensure that you're not getting in over your head. If you are happy with what you see, click the big red Install Now button.

Downloading, unpacking, installing

If, after clicking the Install Now button, you make it through all of the steps and see Activate Plugin, you're in for a treat! Congratulations, your web host supports the Automatic Install of WordPress.

Activating the plugin

While you have installed the plugin, you aren't done yet! We still need to activate it.

Once you click Activate Plugin, WordPress will go through the process of turning the plugin on. Depending on what the plugin does, this process could include creating new database tables or setting up new folders and files.

Once activated, you still might be required to provide more information before the plugin can run properly. For example, if you're installing Alex King's Twitter Tools plugin, you'll need to provide your Twitter credentials before it can do any of its magic.

Connection Information required

If, when you click Install Now, you see the Connection Information form, like the image in the next screenshot, then we have a little more work to do before we can start installing plugins automatically. However, you still have a chance to have "Automatic Install" if your hosting-provider allows it. Follow the next few steps to see if it's still a possibility. Don't worry if the next steps fail; we will still be able to install plugins quickly, just not as quickly as the "Automatic Install".

In this window, provide your Hostname, which will most likely be just your domain name. For example: icorbin.com (minus the http), your FTP username, and its password. Some installations might have FTP and SFTP for the connection type; if SFTP is available and it works when you click proceed, use it.

If your web host doesn't support this method, then we need to attack the problem without WordPress and instead use our own FTP client.

Manual installation

If you find that the Automatic Install feature isn't compatible with your web-hosting provider, then manual installation is the next best option. In this section, we will cover how to do it on both a Mac and PC.

At the highest level, manually installing a plugin will require you to connect to your web server, locate the WordPress plugins directory, and transfer a plugin that you have downloaded to your computer using either FTP or SFTP. Once you connect to your web server, you will need to locate your WordPress Plugin folder, which will most likely be in wp-content/plugins.

Manually installing a plugin with a Mac

If you do not currently have an FTP/SFTP application on your Mac, then I highly recommend Cyberduck, the best free FTP/SFTP client available for the Mac. You can download a free copy of Cyberduck from http://cyberduck.ch/.

After launching the Open Connection, located in the upper-right hand side of the Applications window, the following screenshot will ask for the specifics on connecting to your website. This information can all be usually found in your web host's control panel or the initial setup e-mail you received when you created your hosting account.

Connection Type: FTP, SFTP FTP-SSL. Which connection you should use depends on what your web-hosting provider supports. Almost all web hosts offer the less secure FTP protocol, but if you can, I would suggest connecting with SFTP (Secure FTP).
Server: the domain name or IP address of your website.
Username: your FTP account username.
Password: your FTP account password.

Click Connect.

If everything connects properly, you should see a list of files that exist on your website.

Browse to your plugin directory located at wp-content/plugins. This folder is where we will be putting any new plugin we want to install.

To save time, you can create a bookmark in Cyberduck, and save it on your desktop or Dock so you are only a click away from your plugin folder. To create a bookmark, select New Bookmark from Cyberduck's Action drop-down menu.

Transferring a plugin

Once you have downloaded the plugin to your computer, you will need to move it over to your website. To do this, we will move the plugin (most likely a .ZIP archive) to your website's FTP directory. Using Cyberduck, we will extract the ZIP file on the server. Extracting archives on the server can save significant time, as we are only uploading one file opposed to the hundreds some plugins can contain.

Now that we have the plugin's ZIP archive in the plugins directory, we need to expand it or unzip it. Cyberduck offers a super quick way for us to expand archived files like ZIP, TAR, and Gzip by right-clicking on your plugin and selecting Expand Archive.

Manually installing a plugin on Windows

For Windows users, I suggest the open source application called WinSCP—this great utility will allow you to connect to your server by FTP, SFTP, and FTP-SSL. To download WinSCP, visit http://winscp.net.

Once you have downloaded and installed WinSCP, launch the application, and you will be presented with the following screenshot:

Host Name: The domain name or IP address of your website
Port number: Leave this field as it is, as it will be set when we select a protocol in the next couple of steps
Username: Your FTP account's username
Password: Your FTP account's password

Next click Login.

If everything connects properly, you should see the following screenshot, which will contain all of the files that exist on your website, in a similar fashion that Windows Explorer does.

Most website providers keep all of the website files in a specific directory; our goal is to find this folder and proceed to wp-content/plugins. If you do not see wp-content, then look for a folder like htdocs, httpdocs, or www. Once you locate this folder, inside you should find the folders and files that make up your WordPress installation.

Once inside the plugins folder, we want to create a bookmark so that we can access this folder super quickly next time.

Keeping your plugins up-to-date

With WordPress's "automatic-updates", keeping all of your plugins up-to-date is a breeze. With a quick glance at your plugin manager, you'll know precisely which plugins need to be updated. A click on the Upgrade Automatically link performs all of the necessary actions to download, back up, and install the newest version of the plugin.

Out-of-date plugins are highlighted along with a message that says "There is a new version of Plugin Name available". In order to keep your blog running smoothly and securely, make sure that you keep your plugins up-to-date.

Learn by tinkering

Seeing how a developer handles a specific problem, how he/she then tries to break it, and then fixes it, is good way to learn how to program in PHP. Moreover, thanks to WordPress's built-in fail-safes—breaking a plugin will, most likely, not break your website.

WordPress plugin API

WordPress's plugin API at http://codex.Wordpress.org/Plugin_API contains all of the WordPress-specific tags, functions, and insights in to making and modifying plugins.

PHP references

As mentioned before, each plugin is written in PHP, which means that a plugin has access to every PHP function that exists—all 700 of them. To learn more about PHP and all of the cool stuff that you can do with it, head over to the PHP manual at http://php.net.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets is a standard language for defining the look and feel of text and other elements on a web page. CSS is what you will use to "style" a plugin beyond its original design. You can learn more about CSS from any of these great resources at http://delicious.com/popular/css.

JavaScript

JavaScript is another very popular programming language that runs on your browser—opposed to the server-side nature of PHP. JavaScript allows you to make changes to virtually any part of your website without having to tinker with PHP. For more information about JavaScript, check out http://delicious.com/popular/javascript.

Key benefits

Learn WordPress plugin basics for both Macs and PCs

Focuses exclusively on 100% free and open plugins

Screenshots for each plugin

Organized by complexity to install and manage

Search Terms for automatic installation of plugins

Instructions on configuring and setting up the more complex plugins

Description

Bloggers, authors, coders, photographers, moms, dads, big companies, small companies, and even kids use WordPress to manifest their personas online. WordPress is used in every market, in every country, and continues to grow everyday. This explosive growth and international open source love affair was ignited the day WordPress announced the simple idea of a 'plugin'A WordPress plugin is a collection of files (PHP, javascript, css) that creates a small feature or modification to your WordPress blog. WordPress Top Plugins will teach you to add these plugins to an already built base WordPress site, and customize them where applicable.This book will walk you through finding and installing the best plugins for generating and sharing content, for building communities and reader base, and for generating real advertising revenue.There is literally a plugin for almost anything you want to achieve in WordPress.This book will show you how plugins work, and more importantly, how to install and activate them on your blog without you having to touch a single line of code, unless of course, you want to.Content is king, and it’s pretty hard to generate. This book will cover some of the best plugins available on WordPress to generate unique and dynamic content.Once you have your blog loaded chock full of juicy content, you will learn how to turn your blog in to an overnight sensation by helping your readers to share it, using tools to retweet, post on Facebook, and so on.This book will teach you how to build a community with one single killer plugin, namely, BuddyPress—the best community building plugin available for WordPress.Once you are through with plugin basics, content, and building a community, this book will show you how to generate revenue! It will cover the top plugins for turning your blog into a money making machine!This book will also cover plugins focused on tweaking and perfecting your blog’s overall look and feel, and functionality.Nothing helps build a powerful online blog brand than a horde of talented writers to contribute their ideas and content – as well as their social network. This book will cover a bunch of plugins that will make working with multiple authors easy, efficient, and effective.Last but not the least, it will cover the best plugins for ensuring that your blog is secure, the database is running optimally, and in the case of an emergency, you have a full backup copy of your blog.While most plugins in this book are focused on a blog’s frontend, this book will also cover some great 'non-public' facing plugins that make our lives so much easier and make your WordPress site a productive powerhouse.

Who is this book for?

Regardless of whether this is your first time working with WordPress, or you’re a seasoned WordPress coding ninja, WordPress Top Plugins will walk you through finding and installing the best plugins for generating and sharing content, building communities and reader base, and generating real advertising revenue.

What you will learn

Install, manage, and edit plugins automatically and manually for both Macs and PCs

Create new blog posts from RSS feeds and pull external content from any website

Create rich and engaging photo galleries

Embed video from YouTube, Google, Vimeo, and more

Embed Google Maps with custom markers

Make your blog mobile by sending notifications to users mobile phones, by letting users pick their theme, inserting dynamic content in to posts and pages, and so on

Learn the basics of starting an online community with BuddyPress plugin

Leverage other Social Networks to drive traffic

Generate Revenue by collecting donations with PayPal, including Amazon related products on a post, working with Google AdSense, selling digital goods with your own shopping cart, invoicing clients, and selling ad space on your site.

Promote your authors, track an author’s performance, and share Google Adsense revenue with your authors

Protect your website from common hacking practices by eliminating comment spam, and also by creating backup of your database and entire blog

Make your WordPress Administration beautiful and usable by keeping track of visitors’ activities, accessing links to your Admin from your blogs frontend, adding powerful CMS-like features, and so on

Customize your blog s appearance by using customization plugins

What do you get with Print?

Instant access to your digital copy whilst your Print order is Shipped

Paperback book shipped to your preferred address

Redeem a companion digital copy on all Print orders

Access this title in our online reader with advanced features

DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want

Frequently bought together

$48.99

Social Media for Wordpress: Build Communities, Engage Members and Promote Your Site

$26.99

$43.99

Total $ 119.97

Robert Morris Mar 03, 2011

Presumably many others are also in circumstances comparable with mine: I am working with people who have been retained to help improve my WordPress website and I need to understand the technical nomenclature, the interdependence of components, and other "basics." Hence the importance to me of having volumes such as this one to fill in my information/understanding gaps.As is also true of other Packt publications in its "WordPress" series, notably Heather R. Wallace's WordPress 3 Site Blueprints, Tessa Blakeley Silver`s WordPress 3.0 jQuery, and Brandon Corbin's WordPress Top Plug Ins, Silver again provides about as much information, insights, and advice that I need to in order to work effectively with my website team. Our shared objective: To co-create professional (i.e. "commercial strength") themes.My high regard for this volume and rating of it are explained by the fact that I have learned a great deal about:o WordPress plugin basics for both Macs and PCso About those that focus exclusively on 100% free and open pluginso Screenshots for each plugin that are organized by complexity to install and manageo Search Terms for automatic installation of pluginso Instructions on configuring and setting up the more complex pluginso The eBook available as PDF and ePub downloads and also on PacktLib ([...])You can obtain even more information about this book by visiting [...]In another review, I will share what I learned from Tessa Baker Silver's Word Press Theme Design, a volume that provides a complete guide to creating professional WordPress themes.

Amazon Verified review

Prabhu Ram Jun 14, 2012

I am starting with WordPress development. Apart from the basic setup, WP offers a sea of plugins which is positive and also quite nightmare. The book gives a good hold on the plugins that can be used to extend WP, and also is well categorized. Even if one does not chooses the author's recommended plugins, the book serves as a good pathfinder to knowledge oneself on the possible plugins that are available in WP store house. Very good for newbies to know what to expect out of WP plugin database.However, I am giving 4 star, I am not sure how much the author has used them personally, and if faced any issues that are likely to occur.

Mark Polino Jul 26, 2014

I've got a couple of fully functioning WordPress sites so I'm always looking for ways to make them better, easier, and simpler to administer. I got Wordpress Top Plugins for free via Packt Publishing and I dove in looking for stuff.An inherent problem with a book like this is that it ages quickly. New Wordpress versions come out regularly and plugins sometimes don't get updated or are abandoned all together. With that in mind, I went into this book looking for ideas. If could find the specific plugin recommended, great, if not, and the functionality of the plugin still interested me, I at least had a starting point.With that in mind, I was really pleased with Wordpress Top Plugins. Some were well known items that I was already using, but there were plenty of interesting gems. I came away with more than a dozen plugins to at least look at.The book is well organized and the reason why each plug in is suggested is included. If you're looking for ideas, Wordpress Top Plugins is a great place to start.

Chen Sun Jan 31, 2011

Overpriced and unclear as to degree of author's experience in use. This book is essentially a cataloging of and commentaries on approximately 50 Wordpress plugins. Content is what I would expect on someone's website. I purchased this because I expected a book author would provide in depth analysis and true expertise. This book just doesn't feel like the author has done sufficient reviews of competitive plugins and even feels like he hasn't thoroughly used many of the plugins reviewed much. If the title claims these are Wordpress's Top Plugins, I expect a book to be more than reviewing some high star ratings plugins on Wordpress.org.Probably worth about $20.

WordPress Top Plugins: Find and install the best plugins for generating and sharing content, building communities and generating revenue

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