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Upgrading to a new version? Read This!

Upgrading is simple! Here are the steps you should take:

1. Disable/deactivate the plugin.

2. Delete the old version of the plugin from your server. You can simply overwrite the old files if you're more comfortable with that, but deleting is more foolproof and more dangerous (and therefore, more exciting). As of 1.1.0, the ping.php file is no longer necessary, so you can safely delete that one for sure.

3. Follow the installation instructions to re-install. Basically, upload the contents of the .zip file under your /wp-content/plugins/ directory. You can also use the new plugin installer that was added in WordPress 2.7 (Admin > Plugins > Add New).

4. Activate the plugin.

5. Done! Head over to the plugin's settings page and adjust any new settings that might have been added. (Sometimes there won't be any, but it doesn't hurt to check.) Finally... for those about to ping, we salute you!

Installing a Fresh Copy

1. Extract the .zip file you downloaded to a directory under /wp-content/plugins/ (something short and sweet like pingfm or wp-pingfm will work nicely). This directory probably doesn't exist yet (unless you're upgrading), so you'll need to go ahead and create it yourself.

2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.

3. Go to WordPress Admin > Plugins > Ping.fm Settings to get your custom URL and then follow the instructions on that page to link up with your Ping.fm account. Essentially, you just want to copy and paste the given URL into your Ping.fm Custom URL settings. Feel free to change any other settings on that page (it is your blog, after all). If you need to specify a default category for incoming posts, and that category doesn't exist yet, go and create it first, and then come back and select it.

4. Head over to WordPress Admin > Design > Widgets and add the 'Ping.fm' widget to your sidebar. If you click the 'Edit' link in the activated widget, you'll be able to configure a whole slew of options to your liking. If your theme is non-widgetized, or if you just have a bias against widgets for some reason, you can use the wp_pingfm_status() template tag instead. More information about that is on the page that bears the same name.

5. Post something to your Ping.fm account and let the good times roll! If nothing shows up at first, it's probably because you haven't posted anything yet. (It seems obvious, but you'd be surprised.) Only updates made after you install the plugin will show up, and even then, only after you've told Ping.fm to post to your custom URL. And, on the Ping.fm side, be sure to check the appropriate boxes for the kinds of updates you'd like to send to your custom URL. Finally, if you don't think your status updates are showing up, make sure the widget has been added to your sidebar and that you've saved the changes.

6. Buy the developer of this plugin a pint! He's partial to Guinness, though Fat Tire, Negra Modelo, Stella Artois, and Blue Moon garnished with an orange are also acceptable.

Creating the Database Table Manually

During installation, the plugin attempts to create a new database table for you automatically. This is necessary because we need a place to store all those pings you'll soon be shooting over to the system. Sometimes, the table can't be created due to insufficient privileges on your WordPress database user account. If that's the case, you can execute the following SQL as a privileged user (be sure to substitute wp_ for the actual prefix you're using if it's different):

CREATE TABLE `wp_pingfm` (
        id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
        status text NOT NULL,
        timestamp timestamp NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
);

Using mod_rewrite for a Cleaner URL

Important! This is no longer necessary as of version 1.1.0, but it's included here for historical reasons.

So, you think the default URL generated by this plugin is long and ugly, huh? Well, I can't really blame you, and that's why I use mod_rewrite to shorten mine up a little. Teaching mod_rewrite is way, way, way outside the scope of this document, but I'll give you the code I use and you can figure out the rest on your own. Deal?

Note: I do this inside a VirtualHost, but you can probably adapt it to work with per-directory settings (.htaccess) by removing the leading slash in the search path. If what I just said doesn't make any sense at all to you, you should probably just sit down on the couch and enjoy a Coke.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/p/([A-Za-z0-9]{32})$ /wordpress/wp-content/plugins/pingfm-custom-url-status-updates/ping.php?k=$1 [L]

That'll make it possible to use a new URL that looks like this:

http://example.com/p/ae01e15d6ac3769ad5048a36e47ec32e