http://wordpress.org/support/ WordPress › Support User Favorites: kasparsd en Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:08:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155758#post-691028 Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:27:45 +0000 kasparsd 691028@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>Carlos, I am using AdSense Manager my self and it does precisely all I want and need.</p> <p>Now, regarding the ad placement at the bottom - do you mean at the bottom of the articles (on homepage / individual article page) or at the bottom of page (on every page)?</p> <p>Let me know this, and I'll be able to help you out better. </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155758#post-689648 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:43:23 +0000 carlosmiller 689648@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>Actually what I have is AdSense Deluxe. Is AdSense Manager better? </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155758#post-689640 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:27:01 +0000 carlosmiller 689640@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>kasparsd,</p> <p>That totally made sense and it corrected the problem immediately.</p> <p>Can you tell me how I can place a Google Ad at the bottom of the blog?</p> <p>I do have AdSense Manager, but I'm not sure if I got it to work correctly. I have to go back and read through the instructions again.</p> <p>Thanks for your help. </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155758#post-689565 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:51:18 +0000 kasparsd 689565@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>Carlos, the problem is caused by the location of your adsense code in the theme's HTML code. They are all placed <strong>outside</strong> the sidebar wrapper (#sidebar). Thats why it is aligned right next to the main column.</p> <p>What plugin do you use for placing the ads? Or you placed them yourself inside the theme file? You should either put the adsense javascript inside the <code>sidebar.php</code> file right before the closing div tag of #sidebar wrapper or use a plugin which provides widgets -- <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/adsense-manager/">AdSense Manager</a> (<a href="http://konstruktors.com/blog/wordpress/56-updated-adsense-manager-plugin-ad-slot-ids-and-rounded-corners/">latest version here</a>), for example. </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155758#post-689558 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:34:04 +0000 carlosmiller 689558@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>If you look at the right sidebar on my blog, <a href="http://www.carlosmiller.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.carlosmiller.com</a> and scroll a little ways down, you will see that the Google AdSense ads are a little too far to the left, unlike the rest of the content I have in the sidebar.</p> <p>How can I center these ads to make them uniform with the rest of the content in the sidebar? </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155304#post-688145 Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:19:16 +0000 kasparsd 688145@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>Otto, thank you for your insight. I didn't mean to imply that that there is something wrong with your work, as I was only trying to detail my reasons for writing this plugin instead of using any of the existing solutions. Sorry if it did sound that way.</p> <p>I completely agree with you that plugin authors are doing wrong by not supplying widget output, but nobody can't blame them, because it is the nature of open source -- you either use it, improve it or create your own.</p> <p>At the same time it is obvious that plugin authors would make the world of WordPress a better place by taking that extra hour to actually create widgets for their plugin (if applicable, of course), instead of asking users to install an extra plugin.</p> <p>Taking your suggestion, I will definitely try to write a tutorial for the plugin authors to explain how easy it is to add a widget, and will provide a few templates as well. </p> <p>For me the confusing part while writing this (my first) plugin was when to use the <code>register_sidebar_widget</code> and <code>add_action</code> hooks. It took me days to figure out how to pass additional variables to the function defined at <code>register_sidebar_widget</code> without making an extra call to <code>get_option</code>.</p> <p>Now, regarding the "limitations" of this idea -- to use only one function call and not allow PHP execution.</p> <ol> <li>I think that the function hooks provided by the plugin authors should never require users to supply variables derived from the WordPress core (like <code>$post-&gt;ID</code>), as they all are available to the plugin itself. Moreover, <code>$post-&gt;ID</code> is not even available outside the post loop, which makes it more complicated for an average user. It would be much better to ask the user for a simple argument, like <code>$whichpost = &#39;this&#39;</code>, or <code>$whichpost = &#39;next&#39;</code>. The plugin should do the work of finding which post ID it is that the user wants.</li> <li>It is hard for me to image a situation when the plugin would need multiple function calls to generate the output for a widget, if written correctly. In fact, it depends only on the number of variables that the widget has to consider to generate the desired output. In WordPress, all the dynamic information is available to plugins. Information required from the user is really very minimal.</li> </ol> <p>Therefore, I think that the functionality of CFW plugin is not limited if the function hooks of the plugin it uses have been written with flexibility and usability in mind.</p> <p>Finally, I would like to explain why the option to turn off widget wrapper is valid and sound from the perspective of presentation (theme) authors and content creators (widget authors). It is important to note that this options is turned off by default, and that there are in fact two options: (1) to turn off only the title, and (2) to turn off the title and the wrapper.</p> <p>It is assumed that people wouldn't normally want to do it (therefore the defaults), but in special cases it might useful. Widgets can be used outside the sidebars, if the theme allows, and it probable that such an option may be required for more advances users/websites, while the average users may simply ignore it.</p> <p>It doesn't break the theme by default and it behaves just like the author of the theme has intended for a widget to behave. That is the most important thing. </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155304#post-688026 Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:48:47 +0000 Otto42 688026@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>It's an interesting idea, however the use is somewhat limited. Might be more useful for MU users. However, it's not entirely 'safe' by any stretch of the imagination. call_user_func_array can be exploited too. Not as simply as eval, I admit, but still...</p> <p>On the whole, I think it would be better to encourage plugin authors to actually write widgets into their plugins. Perhaps giving them a simple widget code template that they can easily plug into their plugins would be a good idea.</p> <p>Understand that I don't like the ExecPHP widget either, and I'm the one who wrote it in the first place. I think too many lazy plugin authors refer to it when telling their users how to put bits in the sidebar.</p> <p>Additional: </p> <blockquote><p><em>CFW gives you the option to remove default widget wrapper, including title (set in functions.php), which might be useful for displaying content which shouldn't resemble the typical look of a widget.</em></p></blockquote> <p>I hate, hate, hate it when widgets allow this sort of thing. It defeats the whole point of the separation of content and presentation. The "look" should be controlled by the theme and by the theme alone. Not by the widget itself. If you want a specific widget to look different, then use styling to make it look different. All widgets should have unique identifiers for them if the theme is written correctly. </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155304#post-688012 Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:27:49 +0000 kasparsd 688012@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p><a href="#post-687995">Michael</a>, yes it works differently than Otto's plugin, because of the following reasons:</p> <ol> <li>Custom Function Widgets (CFW) plugin doesn't use PHP <code>eval</code> function, but rather <code>call_user_func_array</code>. More importantly, the name of the function is being verified by <code>function_exists</code> and <code>is_callable</code>. This makes CFW much safer, and also potentially available to WordPress MU users, as the owners/admins of the MU installation most likely wouldn't prefer any PHP executed by the users, but at the same time may find the <code>call_user_func_array</code> option acceptable.</li> <li>If the function becomes unavailable (source plugin disabled or incorrect function name), the CF Widget will simply not be displayed, instead of various error message you would typically get when writing raw <code>PHP</code> inside a widget.</li> <li>CFW gives you the option to remove default widget wrapper, including title (set in <code>functions.php</code>), which might be useful for displaying content which shouldn't resemble the typical look of a widget.</li> </ol> <p>I think that these are serious improvements over the available plugins that enable similar functionality. What do you think? </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155304#post-687995 Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:51:49 +0000 MichaelH 687995@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>Would this work differently that Otto's plugin?</p> <p><a href="http://ottodestruct.com/blog/2006/04/09/fun-with-widgets/" rel="nofollow">http://ottodestruct.com/blog/2006/04/09/fun-with-widgets/</a> </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155304#post-687952 Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:18:52 +0000 kasparsd 687952@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>Hello, fellow WordPress Users and Developers!</p> <p>I have created a plugin, which allows one to <strong>create widgets out of other plugins for which the authors offer only raw PHP function hooks</strong>.</p> <p>For example, the famous <em><a href="http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/readme?project=popularity-contest">Popularity Contest</a></em> plugin by Alex King can now be used without editing your theme files.</p> <p><em>Custom Function Widgets</em> plugin doesn't use the PHP <code>eval</code> function, which means you will never get <code>function not found</code> errors, even if you disable the plugin which provides the function hook.</p> <p><strong>View screenshots and the list of features at this blog post:</strong><br /> <a href="http://konstruktors.com/blog/wordpress/101-wordpress-plugin-custom-function-widgets/"><strong>Custom Function Widgets</strong></a> </p>