WordPress Plugin Central

Updated September 2, 2018

Welcome to WordPress Plugin Central! Here we will organize, review, and log any changes made to the plugins used here at Perishable Press. Our first task involves listing all of the plugins used as of May 29, 2006. Note: This list is updated with every plugin modification and is current as of the “Edited on” date in the “Post Metadata” section to the left of this post.

Update: This article is from 2006 and no longer accurate! It’s more of a snapshot than a current list.

Plugins used at Perishable Press

AddMySite
Ultimate Tag Warrior
Akismet
Authenticate
AutoMeta
BDP RSS Aggregator
BlogStats PCC
Breadcrumb Navigation XT
Category Icon
Code Auto Escape
Customizable Post Listings
Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
Download Counter
Export Blogroll
FancyTooltips
Get Recent Comments
GetWeather
Gravatars
Head META Description
Landing sites
Last Modified
Link Indication
Live Comment Preview
LiveCalendar
LMB^Box Comment Quicktags
Next/Previous Post in same Category
Feedburner Feed Replacement
Plugins Used Plugin
Popularity Contest
Random File
Sideblog
Google Sitemaps
Sociable
SRG Clean Archives
Subscribe To Comments
the_excerpt Reloaded
Theme Switcher
Top10 (Post Click-Count)
WP-ContactForm
WordPress Database Backup
WP-ShortStat

That may be too many plugins, but I really don’t care. I enjoy the functionality that each of these plugins provides. I would go so far as to insist that they, taken together, provide a certain level of synergistic functionality — making the entire set of plugins much more than the sum of its parts. But, I digress…

Plugin ChangeLog

The next phun part of the WordPress Plugin Central involves tracking changes made to any of the plugins. This “ChangeLog”, if you will, may prove worthwhile later on, if something crashes or needs referenced for some reason.

Plugins Used Plugin [ May 29th, 2006 ]

Tweaked the displayPluginsAsList function to output lists without spaces. Also changed the single quotes to escaped double quotes in the anchor. The output now triggers the Link Indication plugin and enables it to recognize the output links as such.

htakismet Plugin [ April 20th, 2006 ]

Stay away from this plugin! This plugin wreaked utter havoc and rendered several important WP options useless. This plugin has been uninstalled and deleted forever.

Private Posts Plugin [ May 03rd, 2006 ]

Caused MySQL database errors and interfered with the excellent Customizable Post Listings plugin. Uninstalled and deleted.

WP-Database Manager [ May 15th, 2006 ]

Actually, not a problem with the WP-DB plugin, but rather a quick tip when scouting for a new host/server. The plugin requires several PHP functions that some webhosts running PHP actually have disabled. This renders the plugin completely useless. The functions to look out for are passthru(), system() and exec(). Update: Unfortunately, our server administrators have recently disabled the once-enjoyed passthru() and exec() thanks to some jerk who exploited the privilege of using them. Thus, WP-Database Manager has been uninstalled.

Removed Several Plugins [ August 01st, 2006 ]

After a nasty server incident, it was high time to clean up the rubbish and tighten a few loose ends. Adhesive, WP-DB Manager, Hello Chicken, LiveSearch, and PJW WP Cache Inspect were removed en masse. On the other hand, WP-Cron was added to work with WP-DB Backup for automatically generated database backups via email. Sweet.

Plugin Tweaks for Lithium Theme [ August 01st, 2006 ]

To accomodate the bare-bones functionality of the new lightweight version of the Jupiter! theme, Lithium, the wp_head hook was replaced with wp_meta in the actual head of the Lithium theme. Thus, only necessary plugins — Autometa and Category LiveBookmarks Plus — serve data to the Lithium header. Moral of the story? Autometa (line #201) and CLB Plus (line #170) now include add_action('wp_meta', ...) in addition to the original add_action('wp_head', ...). Further, the wp_meta hook has been removed from the body of all themes.

Custom Query String [ August 21st, 2006 ]

Added is_tag as noted around lines #52 and #222. This edit is currently not needed, as the goal of customizing tag results has yet to be acheived.

WP-UserOnline [ August 28th, 2006 ]

Of the many plugins that we have installed and tweaked to our satisfaction, the WP-UserOnline plugin (as listed above) required the greatest amount of effort. Beware of this plugin if you find yourself short on time, patience, or determination. Regardless, it is now installed and functioning according to our specific requirements. To get there, we deflated the file set of five down to three: useronline.php, useronline-options.php, and useronline-js.js. The other files (useronline-widget.php and wp-useronline.php) are not necessary and, in my humble opinion, cater to laziness. Nonetheless, the code itself has also been heavily tweaked to suit our needs. Specifically, useronline.php was hacked into a more reasonable and straightforward selection of functions. See code for details. If you have questions regarding the use of this plugin, drop me a line, I would be more than happy to share of the myriad lessons learned while hammering this convoluted maze of clues into a reasonably logical presentation of plugin functionality.

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator [ August 30th, 2006 ]

Previous version (2.3.1) stopped working. Updated to version 2.6. Modified output code as indicated, and also modified XML-Sitemap link output. Changed Page list items to h4 blocks. Runs smooth..

BDP RSS Aggregator [ September 04th, 2006 ]

Commented out line 156 in bdp-rssfeed.php to eliminate the apparently random output of “BDPFeed could not find any items in” on pages not associated with the plugin.

AutoMeta (0.5b) [ September 04th, 2006 ]

Commented out call to technorati_tag() function on line 199 to elimate the apparently superfluous creation of hidden technorati links.

Perishable Press Theme Switcher [ September 04th, 2006 ]

Uninstalled — no longer needed. Code direct. Business Tuf.

Cypherhackz Site Stats [ September 11th, 2006 ]

Uninstalled — no longer needed.

BlogStats PCC [ September 11th, 2006 ]

Installed as replacement/upgrade for Cypherhackz Site Stats.

Stats Plugins [ October 29th, 2006 ]

Installed four new stats plugins: BAStats, Popularity Contest, Related Entries, and Top10.

BAStats [ October 29th, 2006 ]

Several error messages (e.g., div by zero, array errors, etc.) — may uninstall..

Popularity Contest [ October 29th, 2006 ]

Edited PHP source to format for proper list output; also added title attribute to links (~line #1351).

Top10 [ October 29th, 2006 ]

Replaced all instances of “mostAccessed” name for database with “wp_mostAccessed“.

Ultimate Tag Warrior [ October 31st, 2006 ]

Added the function UTW_ShowSomeRelatedPostsForCurrentPost, which is a replicate of the function UTW_ShowRelatedPostsForCurrentPost. Edited the default value of the $limit parameter within the new function, which is located at around line #44 within the file ultimate-tag-warrior.php.

WordPress XML Export [ November 6th, 2006 ]

Migrated copy of /press/ to /perish/. Plugin consists of two files: /plugins/wp-xmlmigrate.php (plugin file enabling xml export) and /admin/import/wordpress.php (non-plugin file enabling xml import).

WP-Cron [ November 19th, 2006 ]

Uninstalled the excellent WP-Cron plugin due to discontinued cron functionality on our server :(

Spam Karma 2 [ November 20th, 2006 ]

Thanks to recent wave of relentless comment spam, we finally resorted to yet another anti-spam plugin: Spam Karma 2 (hee hee hee!)..

Popularity Contest [ November 23rd, 2006 ]

Tweaked plugin (~lines #421 – 423) as per this effective hack to fix omission of view counts from the popularity equation. That is, the view counts were not registering at all. Everything seems to be working fine after the hack ;)

Landing sites [ November 27th, 2006 ]

Integrated the Landing sites plugin to help ease the burden of searchers visiting our site.

Spam Karma [ November 29th, 2006 ]

Hacked Spam Karma to ensure proper XHTML validation. Edits: sk2_javascript_plugin.php, lines 79 – 87, added two hidden divs; sk2_payload_plugin.php, lines 26 – 28, added three hidden divs.

LMB^Box Comment Quicktags [ November 29th, 2006 ]

Hacked lmbbox-comment-quicktags.php file to ensure XHTML validation (see plugin admin panel for comments).

BDP RSS Aggregator [ December 5th, 2006 ]

Upgraded BDP RSS plugin from v.0.2.2 to 0.4.10 and reconfigured.

Random File [ December 6th, 2006 ]

Installed random file during search landing view(s) configuration/enhancement. Unleashed the monkeys.

BDP RSS Aggregator [ December 11th, 2006 ]

Upgraded BDP RSS plugin from v.0.4.10 to 0.5.0 and reconfigured.

Sitemap Generator for WordPress [ December 15th, 2006 ]

Edited plugin lines 1099 – 1125 to incorporate XSLT transformations and CSS styles.

WP ShortStat [ January 2nd, 2007 ]

Upgraded to version 1.12.

WP ShortStat [ January 9th, 2007 ]

Dropped both SS tables and upgraded to version 1.12a.

BAStats [ January 9th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled BAStats and removed all related tables.

WP-UserOnline [ January 9th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled WP-UserOnline (yay!) and associated table.

WP ShortStat [ March 18th, 2007 ]

Dropped both SS tables and downgraded from v-1.12a to v-1.7h.

WP-Ozh-Click-Counter [ April 16th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled Click Counter plugin due to incompatibility on our new server.

WP XML Export [ April 16th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled wp-xmlmigrate.php plugin. Will install on an “as-needed” basis.

Download Counter [ April 16th, 2007 ]

Installed and configured the excellent Download Counter plugin as replacement for Click Counter plugin. Looking forward to the release of the next update, which will hopefully fix the mysterious “Bad Link” warning message, which appears in the WP-Admin even when everything is working fine. Hmmm…

MyStatus [ April 16th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled the MyStatus plugin in an effort to boost performance.

Random Banner [ April 16th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled the Random Banner plugin, replaced with preexisting Random File plugin.

WP-Cache nosymlink [ April 16th, 2007 ]

Incorporated the WP-Cache nosymlink plugin with caching disabled by default (enabled only for emergencies).

Feedburner Feed Replacement [ April 24th, 2007 ]

Installed the Feedburner Feed Replacement plugin. All feed traffic now routed thru Feedburner. Also enabled Feedburner hotlink (i.e., image) access via htaccess.

Get Recent Comments [ April 24th, 2007 ]

Installed the Get Recent Comments plugin.

WP-Cache nosymlink [ April 24th, 2007 ]

Edited line #69 in wp-cache-phase1.php from this:

if (preg_match("/^wordpress|^comment_author_email_/", $key)) {

..to this:

if (preg_match("/^wordpress|^wptheme|^comment_author_email_/", $key)) {

This hack enables the plugin to detect and honor cookies from the wp-theme-switcher plugin, thus enabling users to maintain their theme-preferences during periods of wp-cache activation. Works for preexisting cookies.

Spam Karma 2 and Bad Behavior [ May 26th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled Spam Karma 2 (+3 database tables) and Bad Behavior (+1 database table).

Category LiveBookmarks Plus and Head MetaData Plus [ May 26th, 2007 ]

Disabled Category LiveBookmarks Plus and Head MetaData Plus (left online for testing, et al).

Random Post [ May 26th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled Random Post. Not needed as random post functionality already present in Customize Post plugin.

Related Posts [ May 26th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled Related Posts plugin as similar functionality is already present in UTW plugin.

Custom Query String [ May 26th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled CQS plugin. Replaced CQS functionality with custom archive templates.

WP-Cache nosymlink [ May 26th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled WP-Cache nosymlink and supporting files. Nice plugin but really not needed at this point.

Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter [ May 26th, 2007 ]

Uninstalled Ang’s Feed Copyrighter. Replaced with the customized functionality of Monzilla’s Authenticate plugin.

Authenticate Alpha (not yet public) [ May 27th, 2007 ]

Created and installed the Authenticate plugin to replace/upgrade post/feed authentication process.

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator [ May 27th, 2007 ]

File edit (dd-sitemap-gen.php, line #1151): changed this:

return ($content_array[0] . ddsg_create_sitemap() . $content_array[1]);

..to this:

return ('<div id="sitemap">' . ddsg_create_sitemap() . '</div>');

This is a fix in response to the core edits made in functions-formatting.php resolving inherently incorrect HTML comment handling.

Top 10 (Post Click-Counter Plugin) [ May 29th, 2007 ]

At Perishable Press, the Top 10 plugin is used strictly as a post click-counter. This functionality is built into the plugin and requires only a call to the function: show_post_count(), as described in the plugin comments. The other primary function tracks the ten most popular posts and requires this code setup within the loop:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<?php if($id > 0) { add_count($id); } // Display Post View Count (Top10) plugin ?>

Currently, the top ten functionality is not used on this site.

Google Sitemaps [ June 18th, 2007 ]

Just a note that this plugin has been modified greatly — customized comments, sitemap.xsl styling, etc. Save a copy and dig in before the next upgrade.

BDP RSS Aggregator [ July 11th, 2007 ]

For new Optimized theme, changed “bdp-rssfeed.php” (lines #26 – 27):

array_push($this->preserveTagsList, 'b');
array_push($this->preserveTagsList, 'strong');

..to this:

array_push($this->preserveTagsList, 'small');
array_push($this->preserveTagsList, 'span');

..and also changed “bdp-rss-aggregator.php” (lines #617 – 619):

echo "[<a href='$link' ";
if($llaunchnew == 'Y') echo "target='_blank' "; 
echo ">Link</a>]";

..to this:

echo "</p><h5 class=\"nav-link\"><a href='$link' ";
if($llaunchnew == 'Y') echo "target='_blank' ";
echo "title=\"Continue with this article\">More..</a></h5>";

Sitemap Generator [ July 11th, 2007 ]

Just a note: several edits have been made to this file for the sake of formatting, etc. For example, check at line #1105 for personal branding and copyright information.

The Excerpt Reloaded [ July 11th, 2007 ]

Edited the-excerpt-reloaded.php lines ~#102–116 as posted here.

Other Notes..

Finally, we are looking for a decent “password-protected categories” plugin for WP 2+. Mad props and much respect to anyone able to help out with this. Our searches turned up a few plugins that were similar to what we are looking for, but failed to fit the bill (for one reason or another)..

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Fullstack Developer. Book Author. Teacher. Human Being.