Hey there! Want to talk about my book or maybe you need me for something?...
Hey there! Want to talk about my book or maybe you need me for something?...
Choc Chip EU Cookie WordPress Plugin
I AM THE LAW!! OK, so contrary to Judge Dredd’s self belief, I am not the law. In fact, I know bugger all about the law, other than –
- you shouldn’t nick stuff.
- If you run through an old peoples home wearing nothing but a papier mache vikings helmet, there are certain figures of authority who will ‘want a word’.
The other tiny thing I know is, a law was passed last year (though it didnt really come into effect until this year) stating that websites must warn visitors if there are cookies lurking. Known as the ‘EU Cookie Directive’, its a ridiculous law but don’t get me started because we’ll be here all day and it will inevitably end up with me upsetting someone and heading towards the nearest octogenarian’s residence in an unconvincing, home-made hat.
What’s it all about?
The EU cookie directive may not be the most welcome law but, as Voltaire said ‘in order to be free we must all be slaves to the law’. I’m not sure how true that is either, but in any case it has caused me to sit down and write this WordPress plugin to make abiding by the rules that bit easier.
What does this Choc Chip thing do?
It gives your visitors the option to opt in to any third party applications such as Google Analytics or Ad Sense and doesnt show it until. The Choc Chip Cookie Plugin then leaves a cookie of its own to remember them next time. The cookie willl expire after one year. There are a few options with this little badger to help you comply with the EU cookie directive and also pimp it up to suit your website.
Choc Chip Cookie EU Cookie Plugin Widget
This plugin comes with an opt-in widget for your sidebar. Anything added to the Choc Chip EU Cookie Plugin widget is opt in. So if you insert your Adsense code here it will only show if the visitor has accepted cookies. Cool uh?!
Options
Button Bar Text
Edit the warning text as shown on the button bar. Try something like ‘Hey you, you are browsing my website so you are having cookies’. OK maybe not qute that but something similar.
Cookie Information Page
Create a page that contains your cookie information such as what cookies are and what you use them for. Select your cookie information page from the list and this will link to the ‘More info’ button on the button bar.
Opt in header code
Third party applications such as Google Analytics leave a cookie in order to be able to track your visitors. The EU Cookie Directive wants you to warn people of this and even have them ‘opt in’ so you shouldnt track them unless they agree to it. Any text/code that you enter in the ‘opt in header code’ field will only be activated once the ‘allow’ button has been clicked. Any text/code in this field will be placed just above the </head> tag.
Comment Form Warning
WordPress leaves a cookie when a comment is left (to save the form information so it doesnt have to be filled in next time) so give your visitors a warning and let them whats going down. Try something like ‘By leaving a comment you are agreeing to have a new friend in the same shape as a cookie popped onto your hard drive’.
Appearance
Bar Position
Select the position for your button bar
Background Colour
Change the background of your button bar by entering the name of the colour or if youre a smarty pants you can enter a hex value.
Text Colour
Change the main text colour on the button bar by entering the name of the colour, now try to be sensible as ‘off white’ aint gonna cut the mustard sonny Jim.
Accept Button Text Colour
Have a guess what this does? Thats right it changes the accept button text colour. Pop your favourite colour in the box.
Accept Button Background Colour
Make that button stand out with a smashing background colour.
Accept Button Border Colour
Thats right you can even change the colour of the border of the button. Your visitors will be sad to see it disappear when they click the button.
More Info Button Text Colour
We’ve moved on to the next button so make this one just as important as the last one as it points to important information
More Info Button Background Colour
Make it shine man, make it shine
More Info Button Border Colour
Come on this is the last colour change so make it count
Now dont forget to press save after you make any changes.
Disclaimer
I am not a lawyer nor am I, nor have I ever been a policeman so my knowledge of the law is pretty limited. And to top it all off I once got into trouble for stealing sweets from my local shop, my mum was not happy and I got grounded for quite some time. But I’ve grown both mentally and physically since then. Anyway I digress, if you get into trouble for not abiding by the EU cookie law even after using this plugin, I accept no responsibility. You are welcome to use this plugin but it comes with no guarantees as to its compliance of the law. If you are in any doubt you should seek real legal advice.
Download the WordPress Plugin
If you are happy with all the above nonsense then give this little gem a try – DOWNLOAD
Download the Super Duper Choc Chip EU Cookie Plugin from the WordPress Repository
If you have something to say about this plugin then please do leave me a comment, hey who knows we could be friends. Right?!
Other than that just fill your timeline with my jibber jabber on Twitter. Follow @senoir
Aye Aye Frame – A WordPress plugin
WordPress is such an awesome tool that it even strips some HTML, such as iframes, as a security measure. Unfortunately sometimes we need to use iframes so Aye Aye Frame gives you back that freedom with the use of a shortcode [ayeframe]. For more information on WordPress short codes check the WordPress Codex
Usage
To use Aye Aye Frame simply insert the url or code you would like to appear in your iframe between these shortcode tags
Download the plugin
Download the plugin from the WordPress community – Aye Aye Frame
[ayeframe]YOUR URL HERE[/ayeframe]
The code or url you insert between the shortcode tags is the equivalent of the ‘src’ section of the iframe code.
Customise your Aye Aye Frame
As with normal iframes, extra parameters can be added to customise the size, borders and other elements. Any, all or none of these parametres may be used. A full list of these parameters is available in the Aye Aye Frame menu after plugin installation.
Extra parameters
- ‘width’ = Takes a number to customise the width of the iframe. Default = 250
- ‘height’ = Takes a number to customise the height of the iframe. Default = 250
- ‘frameborder’ = Specifies whether to add a border to the iframe (0 = no, 1 = yes). Default = 0
- ‘marginheight’ = Specifies the top and bottom margins of an iframe. Default = 0
- ‘marginwidth’ = Specifies the left and right margins of an iframe. Default = 0
- ‘name’ = Specifies the name of the iframe. Default = No default
- ‘scrolling’ = Specifies whether or not to display scrollbars in an iframe (yes, no, auto). Default = auto
- ‘id’= Specifies the id of your iframe. No default
- ‘class’ = Specifies the class name of your iframe. Default = No default
- ‘title’ = Specifies the title of your iframe. No default
Example usage of extra parameters
[ayeframe width=500 height=500 frameborder=1 marginheight=5 marginwidth=5 name=myFrameName scrolling=0 id=myFrameID class=myFrameClass title=myFrameTitle]http://www.myframeurl[/ayeframe]
Any questions?
Aye Aye Frame was created just for fun (thats right, FUN!) by Christian Senior at UTC Web Design but if you have any questions or suggestions you are welcome to get in touch using the contact information on the website.
Simple Custo Taxo – A WordPress Plugin
I have recently been working on a few e-commerce websites which required the products to be listed under different categories but also needed to be searchable on both criteria. So to solve this little issue, in walked WordPress and its cool ‘custom taxonomies’.
What are WordPress custom taxonomies?
In short, ‘taxonomy’ means to categorise or group things together. So everytime you create a post in WordPress and put it into a category, thats taxonomy.
You can read more about WordPress taxonomies on the WordPress Codex site
Custom taxonomies are an extra way of categorising your WordPress posts. So you can add extra grouping for your posts. I have found it handy on e-commerce sites where products needed to ‘grouped’ in sizes and ‘colours’ but everytime I wanted to create this extra categorising of products I had to recall the function in the functions.php file and and then add code into the sidebar etc etc etc. So I have created a simple WordPress plugin that does it for you.
What does Simple-Custo-Taxo do?
Simple-Custo-taxo (Simple Custom Taxonomy) is a simple (as the name suggests) plugin that adds an extra taxonomy option for your posts and can be added to your site by adding the widget to your sidebar.
Simply create categories in the ‘custom categories’ section that will now appear in your Posts main menu and add posts to that category as you normally would. The widget then creates an unordered list of your custom taxonomies. Simple.
Hey if your a WordPress user give it a try, and let me know if it was useful.
Installation and instructions
Simple-Custo-taxo (Simple Custom Taxonomy) is a simple (as the name suggests) plugin that adds an extra taxonomy option for your products and can be added to your site by adding the widget to your sidebar.
Simply create categories in the ‘custom categories’ section that will now appear in your Posts main menu and add posts to that category as you normally would. The widget then creates an unordered list of your custom taxonomies. Simple.
Download the plugin
First you need to download the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository and extract it from its .zip shell.
Installation
To install the plugin manually:
- Extract the contents of the archive (zip file)
- Upload the folder and its contents to your ‘/wp-content/plugins’ folder
- Activate the plugin through the Plugins section in your WordPress admin panel
Usage
Once activated you will see a new menu option appear in your ‘Posts’ main menu called ‘Custom Categories’. Add custom categories as you normally would.
Go to the ‘widgets’ in the Appearance menu. Add the ‘Simple Custom Taxonomy’ widget to your sidebar. *Please note – your theme must be widget ready to use this plugin.
Enjoy your new plugin