WordPress Plugin: Authenticate

Posted on June 29, 2008 in WordPress by Jeff Starr

[ Icon for Authenticate ] Authenticate is a free WordPress plugin that enables universal and/or targeted inclusion of custom content for both feeds and posts. Ideal for adding copyright information, distribution policy, thank-you messages, custom links, special offers, and much more. Custom content may be added to any location within posts or feeds — before, after, or even within post content. This highly flexible content-addition plugin works great on all 2+ versions of WordPress (i.e., 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5+).

Usage examples include:

Selective display of targeted advertisements
Invite readers to take advantage of special offers
Add a copyright message or feed distribution policy
Include universal footer content for all feed content
Include universal footer content for all single-view posts
Improve the brand awareness of your site by adding a custom site logo
Add custom messages targeting site visitors, feed subscribers, or both
Send unique “thank-you” messages to subscribers and visitors
Spice things up by displaying a periodically updated thumbnail or banner image
Selectively include links and other information for a targeted collection of posts
Implement a plagiarism-detection string in all of your content for easy identification
Anything! This plugin provides an easy, versatile way to add custom footer content

The Authenticate admin options screen makes it easy to specify a versatile portfolio of customized secondary content:

Include custom text/(X)HTML content for all single-view posts
Include custom text/(X)HTML content for all feed-view posts
Include custom text/(X)HTML content for any number of targeted single-view posts
Include custom text/(X)HTML content for any number of targeted feed-view posts
Include custom text/(X)HTML content for ALL targeted single-view AND feed-view posts
Include custom text/(X)HTML content anywhere within specified feeds or posts

Any combination of these configurations is easily facilitated via the Authenticate admin options screen:

Click image for full-size view of the Authenticate Admin screen

Installation

To install Authenticate, follow these easy steps:

Download and unzip Authenticate.zip (two files: plugin & readme)
Upload authenticate.php to /wp-content/plugins/
Activate the Authenticate plugin via the WordPress plugins admin screen
Navigate to the Authenticate options screen and configure your preferences
Each custom message option is fully explained in the Authenticate options screen

Implementation

Complete usage instructions are included in the Authenticate options screen next to each custom-message field. Here is how to implement the different types of custom messages:

custom message for all single-view posts — specify custom content in the corresponding options field; content will automatically be added to all single-view posts.
custom message for all feed-view posts — specify custom content in the corresponding options field; content will automatically be added to all feed-view posts.
custom message for all specified single-view posts — specify custom content and add  to any location with any post or series of posts.
custom message for all specified feed-view posts — specify custom content and add  to any location with any post or series of posts.
custom message for all specified single-view AND feed-view posts — specify custom content and add  to any location with any post or series of posts.

Usage Example

Authenticate was originally developed for my own purposes here at Perishable Press. After integrating some new functionality and improved features, I decided to release the plugin for general consumption. To see an example of Authenticate in use, check out the footer of any post on the site (see source code for more details). I use Authenticate to easily include a plagiarism-detection string that is used to track and validate syndicated and distributed content. Further, the plagiarism string is quietly converted to a custom “Authentic” logo using a CSS image-replacement method. One of the benefits of using the Authenticate plugin to achieve this is that it will be simple to update the footer information with a few mouse clicks.

Download

Download Authenticate
[ current version 1.0 • 4KB zip download • works with WordPress 1.5 - 2.5+ • 1227 downloads ]

9 Responses

Troy says:

June 30th, 2008 at 4:06 am

Your plugin sounds pretty cool.

But the name is kind of misleading. “Authenticate” typically means something completely different: letting users login and recognizing them.

Your plugin seems to do something completely different.

I recommend you pick a different name
Perishable says:

June 30th, 2008 at 7:33 am

Hi Troy, thanks for the comment, however, if you do your homework, you will learn quickly that the term “authenticate”, based upon the word “authentic”, inherently conveys a variety of meanings. I hate to quote a dictionary, but Merriam-Websters is more than helpful in this situation:

au·then·tic

1) worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact

2) conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features

3) made or done the same way as an original

4) not false or imitation

5) ranging upward from the keynote

6) true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character

Now, with those definitions in mind, jump back to my plugin for a moment. What does it do? As stated in the first paragraph, “Authenticate is a free WordPress plugin that enables universal and/or targeted inclusion of custom content for both feeds and posts.” Looking at the second definition, “conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features,” we see a perfect semantic fit. The Authenticate plugin adds subsequent content to posts and feeds such that it “conforms” or “gels” with the original content. For similar reasons, the name of the plugin also fits well with the third definition. Then, to see how Authenticate works on yet another level, consider the fourth definition, “not false or imitation”. Returning again to my article, you will notice that one of the plugin’s listed usage examples is “Implement a plagiarism-detection string in all of your content for easy identification.” Without belaboring the obvious parallels in this third correlation, suffice it to say that, all things considered, the name of the Authenticate plugin is an excellent choice because it works on multiple levels. And, if I had the audacity, I would explain how Authenticate even fits well with the sixth given definition, “true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.”

Having said all of that, I am delighted that you find my plugin “pretty cool,” but I am going to have to stick with the originally chosen name for the Authenticate plugin — it’s just too ideal to pass up! In my humble opinion ;)
Regards,
Jeff
Mike says:

August 8th, 2008 at 9:15 am

LOL. Nice retort.
perishable says:

August 8th, 2008 at 10:32 am

Yeah, I got a little carried away on that one..
Matth says:

April 6th, 2011 at 9:35 am

Is there a version of this that works with WP3.1?
Jeff Starr says:

April 6th, 2011 at 10:18 am

It should work with WP 3, I just haven’t had time to test and update the post.
Ken says:

October 22nd, 2011 at 3:38 pm

Hi Jeff,
Did you know there is an “Authenticate” plugin on WordPress.org? And if you install your plugin, WP will tell you there’s an update available. And if you chose update, your Authenticate is removed and replaced by the one WP.org has..

Ken
Ken says:

October 22nd, 2011 at 3:45 pm

I tried Authenticate, but it’s way nifty… It doesn’t do what I hoped.
I have a site that has multiple content authors.
I’m trying to find a way to add the author’s name to a feed excerpt so that after (or before) the date it will include “Posted by: XYZ”

Do I have to edit a WP core file? Is there a way to do it as a function so that I can put the function in a child theme function.php file and avoid update problems?

Thanks!
Ken
Jeff Starr says:

October 23rd, 2011 at 11:45 am

Hi Ken,

Yep, knew about it and even discussed it in detail in this comment thread. Thought about renaming it, and still might, but for now the easiest way to avoid conflicts is to change the version number to something crazy high, like 99999.99 or something so WP won’t do the auto-update.