Genesis Featured Page Extras Plugin

Increased Flexibility for Featured Pages with Genesis

This plugin brings you a “Featured Page” widget with up to 34 options (instead of only 9)! Use it additionally to the existing original widget if you need more flexibility.

Especially useful for using own links and page teaser content on a home page or anywhere in a widget area. Fully leverages Genesis’ awesomeness. Build with webmasters, non-coders and security in mind. I have developed this plugin for my clients to fullfill their needs for their home pages on their small business sites.

Control title link for featured Page, plus Widget title link!

Set custom teaser content for page – or use page excerpt, or content (limit) via Genesis 🙂

A great helper tool for Genesis Child Themes!

Please note: The plugin requires the Genesis Theme Framework (in version 2.0 or higher), a paid premium product released by StudioPress/ Copyblogger Media LLC (via studiopress.com).

Video of Plugin’s Widget Options Walkthrough plus Demo:

original video linkby plugin developer David Decker

Benefits & Advantages

• All functionality already there in the existing “Featured Page” widget, but now you can:
• Use extra URL for widget title, or (temporarily) hide the widget title
• Use a custom image instead of “Featured Image”, integrated with Media Uploader, also external URL possible
• Optionally use the Page Byline (Genesis Post/ Page Info)
• As Page teaser content use: full page content OR content limit OR page excerpt OR own custom text/ content OR even no content at all…
• Use own URL, link target and text for “More” link
• Fully optional intro & outro text before and after widget content (there are also additional action hooks for developers available!)

General Features

• Small & lightweight plugin tool: Just activate plugin, use the widget and you’re done!
• Built with best WordPress and Genesis standards, and security in mind!
• Fully internationalized! Real-life tested and developed with international users in mind!
• Fully WPML compatible!
• Fully Multisite compatible, you can also network-enable it if ever needed (per site use is recommended).
• Tested with WordPress 3.8 branch (plus upcoming 3.9 alpha) – also in debug mode (no stuff there, ok? 🙂

Requirements

• Always recommended to run the latest versions of everything! 🙂
• WordPress version 3.6 or higher
• Genesis Framework version 2.0 or higher (Note: paid premium product at studiopress.com!)
• A Genesis child theme – both variants, XTHML and HTML5 child themes are supported

Translations: Internationalization (i18n) / Localization (L10n)

• English (default) – always included
• German (de_DE) – always included
• .pot file (genesis-featured-page-extras.pot) for translators is also always included 🙂
• Easy plugin translation platform with GlotPress tool: Translate “Genesis Featured Page Extras”…
• Your translation? – Just send it in

A plugin from deckerweb.de and GenesisThemes

Credit where credit is due: This plugin here is inspired and partly based on the work of the Genesis Developers for “Featured Page” widget, plus on the work of Johan van de Merwe for “Genesis Featured Page Extended” — but can be used alongside both of them.

Feedback

• I am open for your suggestions and feedback – Thank you for using or trying out one of my plugins!
• Drop me a line @deckerweb on Twitter
• Follow me on my Facebook page
• Or follow me on +David Decker on Google Plus 😉

This Plugin…

• …is Quality Made in Germany
• …was created with love (plus some coffee) on an Ubuntu Linux powered machine 🙂

More

• Also see my other plugins or see my WordPress.org profile page
• Tip: GenesisFinder – Find then create. Your Genesis Framework Search Engine.
• Hey, come & join the Genesis Community on Google+ 🙂

Plugin Links

• Translations (GlotPress)
• User support forums
• Code snippets archive for customizing, GitHub Gist

Donate

Enjoy using Genesis Featured Page Extras? Please consider making a small donation to support the project’s continued development.

Translations

• English – default, always included
• German (de_DE): Deutsch – immer dabei! Download auch via deckerweb.de
• For custom and update-secure language files please upload them to /wp-content/languages/genesis-featured-page-extras/ (just create this folder) – This enables you to use fully custom translations that won’t be overridden on plugin updates. Also, complete custom English wording is possible with that as well, just use a language file like genesis-featured-page-extras-en_US.mo/.po to achieve that.

Easy plugin translation platform with GlotPress tool:Translate “Genesis Featured Page Extras”…

Note: All my plugins are internationalized/ translateable by default. This is very important for all users worldwide. So please contribute your language to the plugin to make it even more useful. For translating I recommend the awesome “Codestyling Localization” plugin and for validating the “Poedit Editor”, which works fine on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Idea Behind / Philosophy

As I needed more options for that page widget for myself for a long time, I finally build/ forked into my own new plugin. Sometimes it is really more helpful to have a few options handy then to rely only on decisions from someone…! 😉

Credits

• Thanks to all users of the plugin and all feedback that I got so far! 🙂
• Thanks to Genesis developers for the already awesome “Featured Page” widget! (GPL-2.0+)
• Thanks to Johan van de Merwe for the awesome “Genesis Featured Page Extended” widget! (GPL-2.0+)
• Thanks to Thomas Griffin for the “New Media Uploader” example plugin! (GPL-2.0+)
• Thanks to “Modern Tribe” developers for the “Image Widget” plugin! (GPL-2.0+)

Last but not least

Special Thanks go out to my family for allowing me to do such spare time projects (aka free plugins) and supporting me in every possible way!

NOTE: Only works with Genesis Framework version 2.0 or higher as the parent theme. This is a paid premium product by StudioPress/ Copyblogger Media LLC, available via studiopress.com.

Installation Steps

1. Installing alternatives:
   • via Admin Dashboard: Go to ‘Plugins > Add New’, search for “Genesis Featured Page Extras”, click “install”
   • OR via direct ZIP upload: Upload the ZIP package via ‘Plugins > Add New > Upload’ in your WP Admin
   • OR via FTP upload: Upload genesis-featured-page-extras folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Go to the “Widgets” admin page and configure this widget’s options… 🙂

Note: The “Genesis Framework” in version 2.0 or higher is required for this plugin in order to work. If you don’t own a copy it yet, this premium parent theme has to be bought. More info about that you’ll find here: http://ddwb.me/getgenesis

Requirements

• Always recommended to run the latest versions of everything! 🙂
• WordPress version 3.6 or higher
• Genesis Framework version 2.0 or higher (Note: paid premium product!)
• A Genesis child theme – both variants, XTHML and HTML5 child themes are supported

Video of Plugin’s Widget Options Walkthrough plus Demo:

original video linkby plugin developer David Decker

Own translation/wording: For custom and update-secure language files please upload them to /wp-content/languages/genesis-featured-page-extras/ (just create this folder) – This enables you to use fully custom translations that won’t be overridden on plugin updates. Also, complete custom English wording is possible with that, just use a language file like genesis-featured-page-extras-en_US.mo/.po to achieve that (for creating one see the tools on “Other Notes”).

1. 

   Genesis Featured Page Extras: the new featured page extras widget options (Click here for larger version of screenshot)

2. 

   Genesis Featured Page Extras: the plugin in action on a live site - with a HTML5 child theme... (Click here for larger version of screenshot)

3. 

   Genesis Featured Page Extras: the plugin in action on a live site - with a XHTML child theme - here without a featured image... (Click here for larger version of screenshot)

4. 

   Genesis Featured Page Extras: plugin's help tab. (Click here for larger version of screenshot)

Does this plugin replace the built-in “Featured Page” widget or third-party widgets?

NO! It is fully optional and can be used side by side with original or other third-party widgets.

Why another “Featured” (page) widget for Genesis?

I needed more options for that page widget for myself for a long time, so I finally build/ forked it. If you’re happy with the built-in widget or third-party widgets then it’s absolutely fine to use them instead! 🙂

How does the styling work?

Same as before using this plugin. The widget from this plugin uses the same CSS classes as the original Genesis widget(s). The plugin does NOT touch any child theme styles. Still, it can be neccessary to style some of the additionally included selectors, for example if you’re using one of the optional features.

This plugin does NOT enqueue any frontend or backend styles. It only provides a few additional CSS selectors in a few circumstances.

Notes for Widget & Page Title Links

• Widget title by default has no link to it, you can use the permalink of your selected page or your own URL, including the link target
• Page title by default is linked to its permalink (of selected page)
• Both titles can also be hidden if desired

Notes for *More* Link

The More link defaults to the used page’s permalink — or use your own URL, with optional link target setting

Note: link target setting is not available for the default page permalink as it cannot be tweaked in this kind of widget environment (not targetable)

Note on Character Limits

Character limits for Page Title and Content Teaser: only integer values are allowed, plus: cutoff is always after the full word not within it!

Could I disable this plugin’s Shortcode support for widgets?

Of course, it’s possible! Just add the following constant to your child theme’s functions.php file or to a functionality plugin:

/** Genesis Featured Page Extras: Remove Widgets Shortcode Support */ add_filter( 'gfpe_filter_widget_shortcodes', '__return_false' ); 

Some webmasters could need this for security reasons regarding their stuff members or for whatever other reasons… :).

Note: Other plugins could still (independently from my plugin) enable shortcode support within (text) widgets or anywhere else.

Final note: I DON’T recommend to add customization code snippets to your child theme’s functions.php file! Please use a functionality plugin or an MU-plugin instead! This way you can also use this better for Multisite environments. In general you are not abusing the functions.php for plugin-specific stuff and you are then also more independent from child theme changes etc. If you don’t know how to create such a plugin yourself just use one of my recommended ‘Code Snippets’ plugins. Read & bookmark these Sites:

• “What is a functionality plugin and how to create one?” – blog post by WPCandy
• “Creating a custom functions plugin for end users” – blog post by Justin Tadlock
• DON’T hack your functions.php file: Resource One – Resource Two(both by Thomas Griffin Media)
• “Code Snippets” plugin by Shea Bunge – also network wide!
• “Code With WP Code Snippets” plugin by Thomas Griffin – Note: Plugin currently in development at GitHub.
• “Toolbox Modules” plugin by Sergej Müller – see also his plugin instructions.

All the custom & branding stuff codes above can also be found as a Gist on GitHub: https://gist.github.com/deckerweb/8511594 (you can also add your questions/ feedback there 🙂

How can I use the advantages of this plugin for multilingual sites?

(1) In general: You may use it for “global” widgets.

(2) Usage with the “WPML” plugin:
Widgets can be translated with their “String Translation” component – this is much easier than adding complex footer credits logic for a lot of languages to your functions.php…

You can now also place the “Language Switcher Widget” at the bottom of your site :).

You can use the awesome “Widget Logic” plugin (or similar ones) and add additional paramaters, mostly conditional stuff like is_home() in conjunction with is_language( 'de' ) etc. This way widget usage on a per-language basis is possible. Or you place in the WPML language codes like ICL_LANGUAGE_CODE == 'de' for German language. Fore more info on that see their blog post: http://wpml.org/2011/03/howto-display-different-widgets-per-language/

With the following language detection code you are now able to make conditional statements, in the same way other WordPress conditional functions work, like is_single(), is_home() etc.:

/** * WPML: Conditional Switching Languages * * @author David Decker - DECKERWEB * @link http://twitter.com/deckerweb * * @global mixed $sitepress */ function is_language( $current_lang ) { global $sitepress; if ( $current_lang == $sitepress->get_current_language() ) { return true; } } 

Note: Be careful with the function name ‘is_language’ – this only works if there’s no other function in your install with that name! If it’s already taken (very rare case though), then just add a prefix like my_custom_is_language().

–> You now can use conditionals like that:

if ( is_language( 'de' ) ) { // do something for German language... } elseif ( is_language( 'es' ) ) { // do something for Spanish language... } 

1.2.0 (2014-02-21)

• NEW: Added more built-in image sizes to the image size selection field (“medium”, “large”, “full”) – this could come in handy if the full size (original image size) is needed somewhere (for wider slider areas etc.).
• NEW: Added new option to optinally disable the link for the featured image.
• NEW: If using a custom more link you can now add an additional CSS class to the <a> HTML tag (additional to the default more-link).
• NEW: Added basic widget display options, especially handy to hide the widget output from non-logged in users and such…
• UPDATE: Improved gracefully dying of (active) plugin if no Genesis active.
• UPDATE: Some code improvements, plus: widget options form in admin now as extra file include to save on performance.
• UPDATE: Updated German translations and also the .pot file for all translators.

1.1.1 (2014-02-02)

• UPDATE: Fixed loading of admin JavaScript only on the Widgets admin page.

1.1.0 (2014-01-27)

• NEW: Allow Widget Title also to be linked to the selected page’s permalink.
• NEW: Allow for the page title to be not linked.
• UPDATE: Updated & improved media uploader script to pass unique widget instance – props to Nicholas Diego for pointing out!
• UPDATE: Minor code and readme adjustments :).
• UPDATE: Updated German translations and also the .pot file for all translators.

1.0.0 (2014-01-20)

• Initial release