Ekto gammit

About Me widget for WordPress – update

Working on 0.99 and and I decided to take the About Me widget to a level I had never intended. If you have used it before, you’re used to seeing this configuration interface:
About Me config image

I had originally intended to design a widget that would allow a user to enter a path to an image, a few lines of text and a few links. Responding to requests and with a mixture of geeky interest and since I eat my own dog food a number of revisions have crept out. A few bug fixes, a few adjustments for people with hosts that do things a bit differently…

I often get questions about styling. This can be a tough one, because it can be effected by different themes (element names, style inheritance, etc.) let alone different browsers. Often the question is as simple as “How do I change the size of the text?” (actually more complicated then it sounds if you want to use proportional sizing). I’ve been thinking about this for some time (well, at least a few minutes here and there), so I started looking around for code examples regarding image uploading and even GUI code for layout/etc. Then with a POP my head came outta my sphincter and I realized there’s already an editor/uploader in WordPress ;’)

Here’s what the current 0.99 beta config looks like:
About Me .99beta config image

It’s the TinyMCE editor all WordPress users have seen before, currently configured with a limited GUI (plenty enough to design the layout for a sidebar widget) and to force more standards-compliant code (not necessarily prettier, mind you, but valid). I’m hoping this will allow for ease-of-use with less limitations.

Also new is a aboutme.css file, especially helpful to those with more need then can be met with the GUI config.

Here is the 0.99 beta About Me Widget See original post for the released (1.0beta).

Feedback welcome!

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Posted in Computers, Things, widgets, WordPress
23 comments on “About Me widget for WordPress – update
  1. Stephen says:

    Ooohh, shiny!

    Great GUI concept. This is very similar to my attempts to build a CSS file editor into my plugin, until I realized (duh) that I could use the file editor already built-in to WordPress simply by passing a parameter in a URL.

  2. Stephen says:

    Two things:

    1) RE: your “dont submit twice” message on comments — since you’re using Ajaz, can’t you just make the sumbit button inactive while things are processing?

    2) There’s something wrong with the comment form. After submitting I get the following just above the form (though it _did_ post). I’m using Mac Firefox 2:

    Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/samdevol/public_html/wp-content/plugins/inap/get_info.php:3) in /home/samdevol/public_html/wp-content/plugins/inap/get_info.php on line 159

    Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/samdevol/public_html/wp-content/plugins/inap/get_info.php:3) in /home/samdevol/public_html/wp-content/plugins/inap/get_info.php on line 160

    Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/samdevol/public_html/wp-content/plugins/inap/get_info.php:3) in /home/samdevol/public_html/wp-content/plugins/inap/get_info.php on line 161

  3. Sam says:

    Hi Stephen: Both these were addressed in an update I did this weekend. I upgraded INAP to 2.0 which includes a ‘nap’ time when the submit button is hit (not my first choice, but it works fine here).

    I also went through the code and cleaned up a problem I think I introduced regarding the duplicate headers.

    Thanks for the heads-up!

  4. Aaron says:

    I never thought of disabling the submit button. Silly me. The nap function actually just gives the database time so when it loads the comments the new one is already there. Without it if the server is slow it will request the comments before the new comment is inserted.

  5. Andriz says:

    Dear Sam,
    I am new in the WordPress Business, but as I am a technical consultant/analyst I had no problems so far to get it running on dichterschlacht.de and andriz.org (currently offline for redesign).
    I want to offer my service to beta-test your developments.
    Well, of course only if you need some more beta-tester.
    Best regards

    Andriz

  6. Phil Scoville says:

    I was wondering if this newer verson of About me is available to download. I’d love to upgrade. Thanks.

  7. Sam says:

    Here Phil:

    http://samdevol.com/wp-content/uploads/aboutme_99beta.zip

    Don’t forget to give feedback! I’d love to get this in shape for release (not looking for perfection, just usability, really).

  8. Vincent says:

    I got it to work thanks. I did have problems with adding a URL or editing the html. Basically, when you click those buttons it pops up another window, but behind the main editing-window. And when you select it, the main window closes. Adding a URL doesn’t seem to work then, but adding a URL in the html pane does. It worked in the end, but was a bit of a hassle. Using Firefox.

  9. Sam says:

    Vincent: Hmmm. That should all be TinyMCE functions now, so I’m disappointed… The reason to use TinyMCE was to get away from any buggy code I might introduce.

    What version of WP are you using?

    Andriz: Did you receive my email?

  10. Wendy says:

    I too just installed the .99 beta but cannot get an image inserted – the same problem as Vincent – a window pops up behind another window – I am using Firefox as well – on most recent WP install (2.1.3 i think?)

  11. Sam says:

    Hi Wendy:

    Vince didn’t respond, and I’m wondering if there’s a way I could get into your site and poke around to see if I can figure out what the problem is…

    If you’re ok with that, please Contact Me

  12. Lon says:

    I’ve got the same problem as vince and wendy with the inserting of images or links. has this issue been resolved?

  13. Sam says:

    Lon: Sorry, but I have yet to get access to a site where the problem is exhibited, neither Vince or Wendy responded…

  14. Aventuryne says:

    Hi Sam,

    I got the same problems as all the other, can’t seem up place a photo.
    You got my email, write to me if you need to, if you want to poke around and stuff.

    I’m with the last version of WP, and I run firefox.
    Thanks

  15. Martin says:

    This About Me widget (version 0.99) does not like Advanced TinyMCE Editor version 0.4. About Me does not show the TinyMCE options. 😉

  16. john piercy says:

    Hi Sam ..
    Ive used your previous About Me widget for WordPress

    I updated and installed the 0.99 widget , accept when I activate it and write some text , nothing gets saved to my web page

    Ive removed and re-installed the widget but no success

    I’d like to use this widget .. but cant figure this problem out

    jp

  17. Sam says:

    Hi John, sorry I missed your comment…

    Did you try a hard refresh (ctrl-F5)? Clear your cache?

  18. jimw says:

    I seem to have fixed the path issue via the following:
    Change
    $abdir= get_bloginfo( 'siteurl' ) . '/wp-content/plugins/' . dirname(dirname(__FILE__));

    to
    $abdir= get_bloginfo( 'siteurl' ) . '/wp-content/plugins/AboutMe';

  19. mich says:

    i’ve recently updated my wordpress to 2.5.. and i dont know how to add imange. where can i find the tree-looking icon there? pls help

  20. joseph says:

    Hi I just installed 1.04 about me widget on a wpmu 2.6.3 and I could not see any tinymce editor after navigating to Design->Widgets->right side I clicked edit after adding up the about me widget. Also, there isn’t any configuration page found.

  21. 彭彭 says:

    博主的博客挺不错!
    我的博客:彭彭博客 http://www.penghui.tk
    有需要交换链接的朋友,可以联系我!

  22. Bridget2 says:

    Hi Sam great tool. How can i switch the gravatar for the real pic?
    I’d appreciate.
    Thanks
    B2

  23. Sam says:

    Not sure why the gravatar link you’re using isn’t working… May be best if you upload your image to your site, so it’s local, then link it.

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