JKL Unit Converter Plugin

I’m an American expat in South Korea so I find I’m constantly wanting to convert
between various units of measurement for different things. My family talks to me
over Skype in Fahrenheit; recipes online call for 8 ounces of something; and I always
wondered what various Korean house sizes and floor plans (pyoung) actually were in
square meters or square feet.

Well now, I’ve created just the plugin to take care of all of those kinds of
conversions. It currently includes functions for 14 different conversion formulas
(like length, weight, temperature, speed, etc), but there are plans for about 20
more! (For a full list of conversion formulas and units, see the plugin NOTES
section below.)

This plugin was inspired by Google’s Unit Converter and includes the majority of
the units listed on their website
(including some extra silly ones I’ve found and a handful of Korea specific units
of measurement).

Requires WordPress 3.5 and PHP 5.4 or later.

Special Features

• Provides varying levels of complexity for conversion lists (Basic – 6 types,
  Default – 14 types)
• Provides a default list of the most common units for each list, but also a checkbox
  to enable ALL unit types (including some obscure ones from ancient history and fiction)
• Lists values are dynamically controlled with JavaScript so that as soon as you
  change list types, the units of measurement are immediately switched (without page
  refresh)

Notes

• Multiple widgets are allowed at once (on the same Post/Page)
• Multiple shortcodes (on the same Post/Page) are disabled – multiple shortcodes
  will display only ONE form
• On Posts/Pages with a shortcode, the widget will be disabled

Planned Upcoming Features

• AJAX form submission to prevent page reload
• An Advanced List of conversion formulas – 32 types
• More conversion units supported
• Possibly allow users to select whether or not to display multiple forms in shortcodes
  and/or widgets

Translations

• English (EN) – default
• Korean (KO) – upcoming

If you want to help translate the plugin into your language, please have a look
at the .pot file which contains all definitions and may be used with a [gettext]
editor.

If you have created your own language pack, or have an update of an existing one,
you can send your [gettext .po or .mo file] to me so that I can bundle it in the
plugin.

Contact Me

If you have questions about, problems with, or suggestions for improving this
plugin, please let me know at the WordPress.org support forums

Want updates about my other WordPress plugins, themes, or tutorials? Follow me
@jekkilekki

Support

Click here to visit the forum for this plugin

Acknowledgements

This plugin uses:

• A similar list of units as those on the Google website

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this
program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth
Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA

Automatic installation

1. Log into your WordPress admin
2. Go to Plugins -> Add New
3. Search for JKL Unit Converter
4. Click Install Now
5. Activate the Plugin

Manual installation

1. Download the Plugin
2. Extract the contents of the .ZIP file
3. Upload the contents of the jkl-unit-converter directory to your /wp-content/plugins
   folder of your WordPress installation
4. Activate the Plugin from the Plugins page

Documentation

Full documentation of the Plugin and its uses can (currently) be found at its
GitHub page

1. 

   Unit Converter loaded in a Page via the shortcode

2. 

   Unit Converter Widget

Tips

As a general rule, it is always best to keep your WordPress installation and all
Themes and Plugins fully updated in order to avoid problems with this or any other
Themees or Plugins. I regularly update my site and test my Plugins and Themes with
the latest version of WordPress.

How can I change the style of the plugin to match my website?

Each element within the conversion_form contains its own unique CSS identifier,
allowing you to hook into those in your own Custom CSS stylesheet.

To easily find out which classes control which elements, simply open your site in
a modern browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer 9 or later)
and right-click on the element you wish to style. Then find Inspect in the pop-up
contextual menu.

Why don’t the lists show units immediately upon page load?

The unit lists are dynamically controlled by JavaScript (which loads at the end
of the page load). So, if your site has large images or other things that cause
the page to load more slowly than usual, this will also cause the script to load
later and delay the appearance of unit options in the select dropdowns.

Why doesn’t the Sidebar Widget also show up on a Page using the shortcode?

Simple: it’s best to not allow TWO separate instances of the Unit Converter
to run on the same page. It’s overkill. You only need one per page. The same is
true for multiple shortcodes on one page. Only ONE instance of the Unit Converter
should be used on any one Page.

Why does my Page reload every time I click the Convert button?

There is currently no AJAX functionality implemented by this plugin to maintain
the state of the Page and dynamically calculate and show the answer without a
reload. This is a planned feature for an upcoming release.

Why do I have to scroll down the Page to see my results after conversion?

Currently, the plugin doesn’t remember your page position when you submit the
conversion form, so because the form completely reloads the page, it thinks this
is the first time you’re loading, so it will load to the top of the page.

Remembering page position is a planned upcoming feature, but it will be
unnecessary if/when I implement dynamic calculations with AJAX.

Why do some of the Unit Converter fields appear out of place?

For the most part, it depends on how your Theme styles those elements. I did my
best to style the form very simply and plainly, but some elements may appear out
of place in your installation due to your Theme’s default styles. In order to fix
this, add some Custom CSS (preferrably using Jetpack’s Custom CSS feature, or
another that doesn’t require modifying the Theme or Plugin files).

See the first question above for more info on how to do create Custom CSS for the plugin.

Can you ADD / REMOVE / CHANGE features of the plugin?

Sure, I’m always open to suggestions. Let me know what you’re looking for. Feel
free to open a GitHub Issue on the plugin repository
to let me know the specific features or problems you’re having.

1.0

• Initial release