UPDATE 27-Aug-2006: The table creation bug in the first beta has been fixed, thanks to the keen eye of Francesco Ferrucci. My apologies for including such an obvious bug, and for my 2 week absence (I’ve been on vacation).
UPDATE 4-Sep-2006: Some minor changes (now at beta3) for compatibility with MySQL 3.23, Semiologic and Chip’s tag cloud widget.
So over the past week, I’ve been working towards my promise (made only a scant 7+ months ago) of delivering a 2.0 version of “Jerome’s Keywords”. I’m glad to announce that most of the rewriting and debugging are done so there’s a beta of the 2.0 version for you to try out.
Before you do, a few caveats:
- It’s strictly WordPress 2.0+, older versions of WP aren’t supported.
- Tags are now stored in a dedicated table for performance reasons, so you need “create table” access on your database.
What’s new:
- Fixes a whole bunch of minor bugs introduced by WP2.0 (suggested keywords, including categories, etc.).
- Adds tag management features from LightPress.
- Adds an option page to make tag display setup easier.
- Including meta keywords in your header is now a one-click option; no template code required.
- Nicer template tag functions for posts and tag clouds (and no parameters required if you use the option page).
- Random tag cloud sort feature.
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Between bouts of testing LightPress and customizing a fork of the WordPress admin interface, I found some time to work on that old favourite, Jerome’s Keywords. The latest version of this keywords + tagging plugin features some bug fixes and a few tweaks:
- Fixed the nefarious uksort() bug (which should never have seen the light of day)
- Fixed a minor bug in the tag cosmos scaling
- The local keyword search now includes results for tagged pages
- You can now generate Flickr- and del.icio.us-style links in your cosmos or top-X lists by using
%flickr% and %delicious% respectively. I’ll post an example shortly on the cosmos howto page.
Thanks to everyone who provided feedback about the above, especially to Denis de Bernardy who suggested fixes to the first three items.
After finishing this update, I think it’s time for some serious refactoring of the plugin code. It has grown very organically — perhaps too much even — thanks to all of the suggestions I’ve received. The time is right to finally add an administration page. I’d like to aim for simpler WP template tags, with most of the customization done within the admin interface. If you’re lucky, maybe you won’t have to use any template tags at all. mailliw has also sent me some intriguing ideas that would really push the tagging aspect to a new level. The next update should be a big one (barring any new bugs), so please hold tight.
I’ve just released a new version my keywords plugin for WordPress. Jerome’s Keywords version 1.5 finalizes the new tag cosmos and most-used keywords list functionality. Some minor bugs and annoyances have been fixed along the way too.
By far the most time-consuming part was revising the documentation. The plugin page now includes more “how-to” information and includes most of the tips and sample files scattered throughout earlier comment threads. Drop by the plugin page and check it out.
Known Issues & Future Plans
- The duplicate keywords issue reported by theanomaly has yet to be resolved (or duplicated).
- Add a “relevant posts” feature that returns posts with a high number of similar keywords.
- Enhance the edit page to suggest relevant keywords used in the past.
- Automatically parse post links tagged with “rel” and add their tag to the keyword list.
Just a quick note to announce the latest release of the “Jerome’s Keywords” plugin for WordPress 1.5. The new version fixes a few (minor) bugs and adds some requested features. The coolest part is that I’ve hooked it into WordPress’ rewrite rules code, which means that .htaccess rules can be updated automatically. This also fixes problems seen when using the index.php/%blah% style of permalinks.
The short list:
- Improved permalink handling for tag searches.
- Automatic
.htaccess rule generation.
the_keywords() now accepts parameters for formatting if you want to get fancy.- Fixed XHTML validation bug and handling of tags containing forward slashes (
/ ).
- Temporary workaround for conflicts with the mini-posts plugin.
Thanks to everyone who sent me feedback, found bugs and suggested new features. Keep ‘em coming! The only request that didn’t make this release was adding an options page — I’m still not decided on that one. Also, a special award for bravery goes to Dave Metzener for beta testing the new permalink/rewrite code.
At the prodding of “rg”, I’ve updated my keywords plugin to improve keyword searches. Previously, post keywords — or tags — were simply linked to the WordPress search function. This is fine if your tags show up in the body of your post, but for photos and other odd content this isn’t necessarily the case. So now the plugin creates its own search results from posts that use similar tags. The results page can even use its own template if you’re so inclined.
I always wanted it to work this way but hadn’t sorted out all of the WordPress filters/actions to make it happen until now. You can give the plugin a try on this site, or download it and try it on your own. Get tagging!
I didn’t understand their appeal at first, but now I’m hooked on Technorati’s new tags. So much so that I’ve added tag support to the keywords plug-in I just finished. (more...)