WordPress plugins
What we'd like to do here is collect a directory of the best Wordpress plugins for student news organizations, write a brief description as to what they're about, and list examples of places they're in use if other people have questions about the plugin. As a good rule of thumb, only add the plugin if you've used it before and recommend it. There are other places on the web for massive lists of all the plugins
CoPress base level recommendations
All-in-one SEO pack
This is the go-to plugin for making WordPress SEO friendly. Once installed, it offers a number of options including the ability to easily define the meta description and keywords for your website as well as rewriting page titles based on rules.
Feed Locations
Customize your RSS URLs (if, for instance, you wanted to use Feedburner to track analytics) without having to edit your WordPress theme. Offers a few more options than Feedsmith, including the ability to define the URL for different versions of RSS (0.92 vs. 1.0 vs. 2.0) or allowing you to track subscriptions to your comments feed.
Pros:
- Simple install
- More features/options than the Feedsmith plugin
Cons:
- Doesn't allow the user to swap out RSS feeds to category pages, tag pages, etc.
Google Analyticator
The simplest way to add Google Analytics tracking code to either the header or the footer of your website. Version 5.0 even allows you to do one-click authentication with Google such that you don't have to figure out your tracking urchin. Version 5.0 also offers a dashboard widget that puts Google Analytics on your WordPress dashboard. Additionally, it allows you to filter out certain logged in users (if you don't want to track the hits of editors or reporters).
Pros:
- Filter out logged in reporters, editors, and admins
- Access your stats from your WordPress dashboard with a dashboard widget
Related: Some themes may have the ability to add Google Analytics code, but Google Analyticator offers a more advanced feature set.
Google XML Sitemaps
Generates an XML of your sitemap such that Google can better crawl your site for changes and new content.
Subscribe to Comments
Keep your users coming back to your website by letting them subscribe to comment responses by email.
Twitter Tools
One of the most powerful tools out there for integrating Twitter with WordPress. Offers the ability to: create a daily or weekly digest post of your tweets, create a tweet on Twitter whenever you post in your blog, with a link to the blog post, post a tweet from the WP Admin screens, pass your tweets along to another service (via API hook), etc.
WP-DB-Backup
Allows you to easily back up your WordPress database. Offers the option to download this backup file manually, or will email you every week, day, or hourly.
WP Super Cache
Generates HTML files of your website at periodic intervals when enabled so that, for the sites that have a lot of traffic, the majority of visitors are served those static HTML files. Every time WordPress is required to dynamically generate a page, it takes a certain amount of memory and server resources. Caching your website will help cut down on resource drain in periods of high traffic levels
CoPress recommendations based on use case
Blog Icons
Lets you set a favicon and iPhone icons for your web site from the WordPress admin instead of trying to figure out which lines to include in the <head>
Contact Form 7
Highly flexible contact form plugin. Offers the ability to create and manage multiple forms with different types of input data.
Different Posts Per Page
By default, WordPress displays the same number of posts on archive, home, search, and category pages. This lets you customize that number on each. The type and configuration of your theme will determine whether this feature is useful or not.
Exclude Pages from Navigation
Simple way to ensure that pages don't show up in your navigation bar if your theme uses them.
Broken Link Checker
Checks to see if any of the links on your site point to 404s (blank pages). Great to make sure that your archives still work.
custom-morelink
If you use excerpts in your theme, this lets you customize the text that says: "more…" by default.
Search Unleashed
Makes the default WordPress search more powerful.
Similar Posts
Powerful widget that shows similar posts. You can configure it to only show on certain pages. Requires Post-plugin library to work.
Simple Tags
Makes managing tags and adding tags to posts much easier.
SMS text message
Allows you to send an SMS update to your community but one downside is that users can't select a category to limit the content they're interested in. Think of this more as a daily digest sort of plugin.
In use by:
WordPress Mobile Edition
Enables you to make your website mobile-friendly with a theme exclusively for those devices. As a note, installation requires you to upload the plugin folder, as well as move the default theme into your theme directory. If you get the activation error on the WordPress admin, this probably means that you missed this step.
WP Touch
A combination theme/plugin, will make your site iPhone friendly very quickly.
Reference (non-essential but interesting)
WPDB Profiling
WPDB Profiling allows you to examine database queries rendered against your WordPress installation. This information can be useful to locate plugins that have slow query times or do not properly cache. Recommended for installations that see moderate to heavy traffic…
WP Security Scan
Checks to see if your WordPress install has any security or permissions flaws.
Flickr Manager
Great and easy way to integrate flickr into the backend of WordPress. Comes with a widget, and an button on the write panel to easily let you add Flickr images to your posts.
KB Advanced RSS Widget
A more advanced RSS widget. Yup.
NextGEN gallery
Very powerful, javascript based, image gallery.
No Self Pings
Disables trackbacks from your site to your site.
Statpress
An analytics suite built into the backend of WordPress.
Title Case
Will act as a copy editor for your headlines. Follows AP style.
Wordpress.com Stats
An analytics suite built into the backend of WordPress.
Polldaddy Polls
Doing polls in wordpress is much easier if you use an outside service. Polldaddy to the rescue.
Redirection
If you ever change the link structure of your site, you need this plugin to keep your google juice.
Reveal Ids for WPAdmin
Convenient if you have a theme that requires you to enter the page IDs for navigation reasons.
WP-TYPOGRIFY
Maintenance Mode Plug-in
Puts your site in maintenance mode for non-logged in users. Great for when you're working on launching a site.
WP sIFR
Enables the sIFR method of allowing you to put any font you want on your site.
FLIR for wordpress
Enables the FLIR method of allowing you to put any font you want on your site.
slideshow pro to wordpress
If you like the SlideShow Pro flash slideshow viewer, you'll want this plugin.
Configuration
Pods
Powerful plugin that allows you to add complex content types to WordPress. Examples in action: Pods Showcase Forum
Live Blogging
To see this plugin in use, it's probably easiest to watch this screencast
Commenting
Seesmic
A plugin which allows video comments to blog posts (not required to have a Seesmic account).
Community
Simple:Press Forum
Super powerful forum plugin that enables you to install a community forum within your Wordpress install.
Notable features:
- Authentication system fully integrated with Wordpress. Want to offer your forum members the opportunity to post to the website? Just make them a contributor.
- SEO-friendly pretty permalinks
- Ability to associate forum topics with blog posts; keep that conversation going in the forum
- Create custom RSS feeds for statistics or subscribe to topics via email
Examples
Mobile
Tatango
Another free way way to send out SMS. This can be hooked up to go with an RSS feed. The downside is that it doesn't integrate as well with WordPress.
User management
Audit Trail
Audit Trail is a pretty amazing plugin to keep track of what's going on behind your blog. It records user actions within the blog (who's logging in and out), post and page revisions, category changes, etc.
Author Bios
Adds author bio information to the bottom of every post.
Membership Directory
Details how to use a few plugins to add real user management to your blog backend and theme.
Customize Your Community
Seems like a good way to theme your login, registration and user pages to be non-wordpress centric.
UI
Shadowbox
Pops up multimedia (photos, video, etc) in a lightbox effect. Download
Login via Lightbox
Pops up the login box so that the user doesn't have to go to a separate page to login.
Print Friendly
Offers a button that launches a third party service. Creates a very print friendly copy of your page. Very handy for those folks who still like to print news articles out. Also offers non-wordpress options.
Expanding Text
Enables a nifty javascript effect to show/hide text.
Advertising
Buy Sell Ads
This simple plugin helps you easily integrate your Buy Sell Ads zones and includes anti-AdBlock meaures to prevent AdBlock (and similar software) from blocking the advertisement.
TODO: add in the plugins listed here 13 essential WP plugins (it's a great list)
TODO: add in the plugins listed on CICM
TODO: add in the plugins listed here for theme development plugins
TODO: add in the plugins listed here for CMS style modifications
