Since I don’t consider my blog anonymous or ‘seekrit’ I grabbed a text widget and started adding an “About Me’ to my sidebar. After trying to get things aligned, formatted, and adding a few links I started thinking a widget might be nice for this. I had not seen anything like this around, so here it is, my first widget.
“*Fixed in 0.96: Align didn’t work in some themes.”
Here are some installation instructions:
- Click the download link below to get the latest version
- Drop the AboutMe folder into your wp-content/plugins folder
- Go to your Administration:Plugins page and activate the About Me Widget
To configure:
- Go to Presentation:Widgets
- Move (drag and drop) the widget to where you would like it in your active sidebar
- Click on the config button for the About Me widget (little notepad icon thingy on the right)
- Enter the title you want visitors to see on the sidebar
- Click in the editor window and start designing your own widget!!!
Put together a generic ‘about me’ design:
- Select the image icon above the editor (looks like a tree)
- Enter the URL (path) to the image (relative is fine, e.g.; /wp-content/uploads/portrait.jpg)
- Enter Image Description, Title
- Select the appearance tab and use the pull-down menu to apply an alignment class
- Click the Update button
- Back in the editor now, type some text (a blurb about yourself or your site)
- Hi-lite the text and use the pull-down styles menu to apply alignment class/style
- Add some links, if you wish, then repeat #7 to the link/anchor text
- Close the config window when you’re finished and hit the Save Changes button
This widget is working in current versions of WordPress (2.8+). Please note link to the WP Plugin Directory below…
Here is a current working version: About Me Widget Thanks to John BouAntoun!
*Fixed in v0.91: Cannot select left or right alignment. *Added: Configurable titles for image and links. Thanks Steen.
*Fixed in v0.92: Image ‘alt’ and ‘title’ attributes working now.
*Changed in v0.93: “blurb” respects newlines. Thanks Andy Skelton.
*Fixed in 0.94: Overlapping text issue with default admin theme. Thanks Aaron Brazell. *Added: Configurable font color.
*Added in 0.95: Function getimagesize() added to maintain xhtml validity and page speed.
*Fixed in 0.96: Align didn’t work in some themes. Thanks JR Rozko.
*Fixed in 0.97: Took out the clear that was breaking some themes/sidebars.
*Fixed in 0.98: A solution for people on Dreamhost (and others with hosts using safe_mode/curl). This solution does not use a curl wrapper, but falls back to a relative path. It will require the user to place the image in /wp-content/uploads/. Thanks to Martin Cleaver who generously gave me a temp site at Dreamhost for testing!
*Re-design for 1.0beta: Uses WordPress’ built-in TinyMCE editor for layout/design, produces valid XHTML 1.0 Strict (though this can be broken ;’), designed and tested in WordPress 2.2.1.
*Fixed in 1.01: Bad path to the Image plugin (gave a 404-Not Found), dialed in lineheight – 09/02/07
*Fixed in 1.02: If auto-installed from wordpress.org, TinyMCE would have no buttons (plugin directory name no longer hard-coded). Thanks to guybrush – 09/14/07
-1.03: Sync’ing with http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/about-me-widget/
-1.04: ditto above
Previous non-TinyMCE version (stable): About Me Widget v0.98
As of 11/16/07 there have been over 14,300 downloads of the About Me Widget. wow.
Feedback appreciated!
Hi Sam,
I’m new at wordpress, but spent most of yesterday trying to work with your about me widget without much success. I can see it on the website but can’t modify it from your default settings that say “Who the hell are you” and the like. When I go into admin-presentations, there is nothing that lets me config the specs. I tried going into the code and replacing the words but that did not make any changes. Any ideas?
Hi Mica:
Make sure you are not seeing a cached page… Disable wp-cache (if you’re using it) and clear the cache in your browser.
Only other thing I can think of is some people forget to hit ‘Save’ after closing the config window?
I cleared the cache…that didn’t work. The problem (I think) is that I don’t even see a config window. I it supposed to be under the presentation panel? The only way I could figure to make changes was to alter the code itself using the plugin editor…but that didn’t seem to work (I know nothing about code – I just substituted my name for “who the hell are you” – didn’t work). Thanks for any help you can give me!
The problem (I think) is that I don�t even see a config window.
Sounds like a bad install…
Start a new topic here: http://samdevol.com/wp-content/myforums/viewforum.php?id=3
This isn’t the place for troubleshooting, it’s too clumsy, really 😉
looks great!
unless I align it to anything other than center, in which case the text is on the same line as the picture and it ain’t pretty..
Thanks, Sam, for the nice plugin. I’m using the Kubrick default theme now but would like to use another one if I can figure out how to get it to recognize sidebar widgets. Any hints there? Thanks again for the great plugin. I’m using it.
Giles: In the forum there’s instructions on alignment issues, or you could try the beta here (Link removed, see post)
SEEV: Most themes mention whether they are widget compatible… Only other way to tell is check the functions.php or sidebar.php file that comes with the theme and look for an entry similar to:
if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar('Main Sidebar') )i also experienced the alignment issue so i tried the .99 version, however, when i click the button to add an image the secondary window that appears is not fronted…
this means that i have to click on it in order to specify a path to the desired picture which, unfortunately, closes the main AboutMe window as a result…
even so, the text info seems to be remembered, but the image isn’t added to the sidebar…
any suggestions?
fyi: it show up in the admin panel as 1.0 beta
-t
ps: thanks for the useful widget
Strange… Sounds like it could be an issue with TinyMCE and your browser. Are you using any pop-up blockers?
the built-in firefox one, yes, but should that matter when it’s a js window which does appear after all?
also, i didn’t realize i needed to install TinyMCE � could that be the issue?
the windows do appear at the same time, by the way, but the image selector window is just underneath the parent AboutMe window…
thanks,
-t
TinyMCE is included with WordPress. It is the editor used when editing posts in the admin area of WordPress.
I know there was an issue with Firefox and TinyMCE when a user had a lot of ‘status’ info/icons along the bottom bar of Firefox, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.
I need more information, I’ll try to set some time aside for testing…
Hi i download and use it but the editor is not good 🙁
in own about me is a pop up and when u want to switch to html in editor another window got open i think if u want to use editor it’s better to use simple and light editor like htmlarea.
another think is please wide the width of the window!
other things looks like good
and Thanks for your work
thanks a lot � let me know if you need any more info from me…
-t
Hey I downloaded the AboutMe Widget .99 Beta and I tried on WP Version 2.1.2 having troubles with the editor.. All I see is “Design your own widget below,” and blank. Is there any kind of editor to this? I know you mentioned about TinyMCE but I have no idea what that is. I’m also having trouble with the default editor in wordpress so I’m using HTML to post…
Kevin: .99 uses the default editor (which is TinyMCE). So if you default editor’s not working, then .99 won’t work.
Until you figure out why that’s not working, you could try .98
I’ve had some luck with About Me .98 except that it won’t set the image size when configuring the widget (the page code just shows ‘width=”px” height=”px”‘ for the dimensions). Any ideas? Otherwise it works well. thanks
Just a very big THNX!! I’m trying to create a weglog for my father-in-law and this was one of his wishes. While I wrecked my brains how to get this into all tis scary php, my search was succesfull cause I found this fanatstic widget. You made somebody very happy today, two somebodies actually. Thanks!
Andy: Have you tried relative paths?
http://samdevol.com/wp-content/myforums/viewtopic.php?id=22
Sas: You are welcome!
Hi. I installed the beta version on Wp 2.1.3 under widgets just like you said and nothing is showing up in the plug-ins??? anna
this is a nice widget. I’ve tried it in my test site. I’m hoping we can edit the image size, I’m looking forward to that in your next version. 😉
Hi – I have a question for you – I tried widgets and my sidebar is not coming out right – so I am going back to code. Is there a simple code for the sidebar that I can out in to do what your great widget does?
Thank you for any help you can be.
Thank you for sharing this widget.
~ Diane Clancy
http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog
I didnt understand 1.0-beta, so I kept 0.98, which is just fine.
Some issues:
– 1.0-beta does not take use the data already entered in the previous version. It starts up blank, no idea what to type in 🙁
– Trying to include an image: click on select image and I get a window with my blog and an error, instead of the file-select dialog for either my machine of the blog 🙁
Lets just say that 0.98 is nice for now 🙂
(EDIT-Sam: I’ll see about handling upgrades more gracefully: Thanks rd. As to your image problems, you haven’t shared enough information)
I have been wanting to add an “about me” for quite some time. I had no problem using your widget. Thanks for making it easy.
Toni: Wait! You commented to thank me AND you didn’t have any problems???
Where is that calendar, I need to write this one down…
😉 You’re welcome!
Hello,
I love the widget! It’s cool.
I’d like to ask if it’s possible to use several “About Me” widgets on the same WordPress…
Thanks for time.
Hi Kenzo:
The answer is no: I never took into consideration those with a legitimate Multiple Personality Disorder…
Thanks for your soon reply. I need this option for a magazine website. I want that my client could make changes at the sitebars from the admin panel (for now my solution was with text widgets, but we need something more powerful like youre “about me”.) Do you know any ways or other widgets to help me? I’ll really appreciate this.
Thanks again.
Kenzo:
For the moment, the only suggestion I have is to use a php widget like the Samsarin PHP Widget…
In the meantime I’ll look at adding the ability of having multiple instances of ‘About Me’.
Thank you. Thanks a lot!
Good luck in your job.
I have a problem!
help please
I was trying to set up the wigdet and for some reason the default setting is gone! I cannot login the adm control pannel ( the link has disappeared!)
Amir: From here it looks like your sidebar is choking on the [slideshow…] command so nothing after that is being loaded (including the meta link to your admin/login).
You can always add wp-admin (or wp-login.php) to the url and that will bring your admin/login up.
Hey, I was configuring the about me widget, but when I try to add an image I get an error. It seems the widget is looking for AboutMe/mce/advimage/image.html, but the actual path has about-me-widget instead of AboutMe.
The entry box doesn’t seem to parse image tags, either, so I’m not sure what to do.
Rabbi:
I apologize for the late response: I should be able to address it with a patch, but a quick fix would be to change the directory name from “about-me-widget” to “AboutMe” (without the quotes).
mce not working with FF 2.0.0.9
please fix the css
As a widget, this works very nicely. For various reasons, I’m not using widgets right now. Is there a I could add to my sidebar, instead?
Thanks.