Introducing the Widget Pack

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As work on the next release of Connections is winding down, now is a good time to introduce the new Widget Pack Pro Add-on that will be launching alongside the next release. This pack contains 8 of the most often requested widgets and they are:

Search — Results will be shown on the directory home page.
Category — A hierarchical list of the categories. The links will take you to that category on the directory home page.
Today’s Anniversaries — The name link will take you directly to that entry on the directory home page.
Today’s Birthdays — The name link will take you directly to that entry on the directory home page.
Upcoming Anniversaries — Anniversaries with the date. Does not show the anniversaries happening today. The name link will take you directly to that entry on the directory home page.
Upcoming Birthdays — Birthdays with the date. Does not show the birthdays happening today. The name link will take you directly to that entry on the directory home page.
Recently Added — The ten newest entries. The name link will take you directly to that entry on the directory home page.
Recently Modified — The ten most recently updated. The name link will take you directly to that entry on the directory home page.

30 Responses to Introducing the Widget Pack

David 09/24/2012

Nice works! We are currently evaluating to implement your WP plugins for our intranet use. Will the search function be integrated into the actual wordpress search?
- Steven Zahm 09/24/2012
  
  @David
  
  Sorry, no. To search Connections you will either have to have a template w/ search integrated or the widget from this widget pack.
Mitch 09/24/2012

This is excellent. I’ve been waiting for a couple of these.

On search, this will search ONLY the connections database, correct?

and will it search all of the fields based on what is marked in Settings/Search?

and it is a widget that can be used IN Addition To (not instead of) the default of any other Search widget, right?

On categories, I assume it simply opens the specific category ‘page’ as would normally be returned using the category-dropdown feature?

Lastly, I don’t see it, but weren’t you working on a ‘ratings/star’ type feature associated with the widget pack?

Thanks!
- Steven Zahm 09/24/2012
  
  @Mitch
  
  Yes, the search widget is only for searching within Connections and only the fields set within the Settings Search options. The search widget is intended to be used in addition to the regular/standard WP search. It’s not a replacement.
  Yes, the category widget will got straight to that category within Connections just like using the drop down feature in cMap.
  
  The ratings will have to come later, there’s far more demand at the moment for a way to link a WP user to a Connections entry for self/moderated maintenance. this will likely not come as a widget but “injected” in the entry card so you can quickly and individually rate entries.
  - Mitch 09/24/2012
    
    Hi Steven,
    
    I think this was meant to be a reply to my comment over in your Widgets post. You might want to move it to maintain the thread. :)
    - Steven Zahm 09/24/2012
      
      @Mitch
      Thanks!
mitchcan 10/02/2012

Bought this pack add-on, been waiting for this search option. Thanks! It looks to be perfect. I just need to change the box width and go.

The only other feature in here I might want to use right now would be Category. Two comments on it, if I may: 1) I should be able to select categories that I do/do not want represented in the list, and 2) I should be able to optionally choose not to display the number of records in each category.

I did also try the Recently Added widget and might look to use it, but I think it would be nice if those records displayed from that widget could have an option to use the permalink (without enabling it globally). I know, that’s pushing it. :)

Just my two cents. Thanks for your solid work here.
Stuart 10/05/2012

Steve,

Thanks for your great and thoughtful work!

“The ratings will have to come later, there’s far more demand at the moment for a way to link a WP user to a Connections entry for self/moderated maintenance. this will likely not come as a widget but “injected” in the entry card so you can quickly and individually rate entries.”

Will this create a user automatically after adding someone to the directory? Having those tied together would be amazing!

I’m also interested in the rating system.

Lastly when I use the search function for just names and not the entire listing?

Thanks again for your hard work!
- Stuart 10/05/2012
  
  “Lastly when I use the search function for just names and not the entire listing?”
  
  Oops…
  
  Is there a way to use the search function for just names and not the entire listing?
  - Steven Zahm 10/06/2012
    
    @Stuart
    
    Yes, on the Connections : Settings admin page under the Search tab you can define which fields that should be searched. Just keep in mind this is applied globally within Connections.
    - Stuart 10/07/2012
      
      Awesome, thanks for your response Steven.
      
      I found that if I used quotes I was able to get the desired result.
Mitch 10/10/2012

Hi Steven,

I’d like to circle back around to the thought on ‘categories’ and their display (name and number of listings). In testing I’ve found that I simply can not use the categories feature of the widget pack without the ability to hide selected categories. I use certain categories as a way to format some listings display, but that category name is not for public consumption.

This would apply to the category dropdown window as well (although I can remove that dropdown in its entirety with a =”false” in the shortcode, not preferred, but does hide the categories).

Any guidance on how to accomplish this request?

Thanks.
- Steven Zahm 10/18/2012
  
  @Mitch
  
  Sorry, I guess I missed this comment…
  
  Actually there is not a way to do this b/c I never built a way to specifically exclude categories. I started some baseline work a while back but never got around to completing it. Actually … since the categories are properly classed using CSS you could quite easily target the specific categories and hide them from display. Does that helps?
  - Mitch 10/18/2012
    
    OK, so a lot of trial and error on my part… but it seems as if I create this
    
    .cat-item.cat-item-43.cn-cat-parent {
    display: none;
    
    it properly hides that category from the widget list?
    
    But with so many places that are css related, in both the connx plugin and the cmap template, I hate to ‘guess’ the best place to put these. I’ll have about five of them. Any guidance for where to place this code?
    
    Aside from that possibility, I can’t at all figure out how to exclude those categories from the dropdown… can you point me in a direction that you were thinking with respect to that?
    
    Thanks.
    - Steven Zahm 10/18/2012
      
      @Mitch
      
      I think I would enter the CSS in the theme’s custom CSS area if it has one or at the end of the cn-user.css file. The risky thing there is that it’ll be overwritten during a plugin upgrade. Another option would to be to use the Custom CSS Manager plugin, which is probably the safest bet.
      
      Trying to hide categories in the drop down is possible, however since the drop down is built dynamically the id’s have really no relationship to anything other than the order they are presented in. So this would work:
      
      #selQ4B_chzn_o_XX { display: none; }
      #selQ4B_chzn_o_XX { display: none; }
      
      The XX would equal the position in the list. As you may have guessed, add a new category the position in the list changes, so now the XX does not relate to the category that it had.
      - Mitch 10/19/2012
        
        So we’re getting closer. I found what your were referencing, and placed the code. However, upon each reload of the page the ‘Q4B’ portion of the code changes. I did this three times, it was like that dog chasing after its tail. :) After every refresh, that code changed. ‘6IB’ ‘4YA’ ‘5AL’ etc etc… Crazy.
        
        I could add display:none to the element in ‘Inspect Element’ and see that it DID disappear from the dropdown, but once I saved in css (either in the plugin or the cn-user file), and refreshed the page, it changed. Any thoughts?
      - Steven Zahm 10/19/2012
        
        @Mitch
        
        I never noticed that before … mostly because I never needed to look that closely. There is a way to select these w/ CSS3, however it’ll only work with modern browsers. So there would still be a percentage that would still be able to see those categories. I guess there is no option until I build this in the core.

Mitch 10/18/2012

Hi Steven,

This is a great add-on for the price. Some additional Q’s:

1) I’ve looked and looked, but can’t find where (file) I’d change the placeholder value in:

Could you please point the way?

2) Any thought on tracking search terms? The plugin I was using until I bought Widget Pack tracks terms in 7, 30, forever, day increments.

3) Any feedback on the categories Q from last week, above?

Thanks.

Steven Zahm 10/18/2012

@Mitch

1.) Placeholder value? Sorry, I’m not following.
2.) Tracking terms entered by users? Actually, never crossed my mind, but I see a huge potential need for that. Which plugin were you using?
3.) Just replied … sorry I missed it.

Mitch 10/18/2012

1) Just want to tweak the default name in the search box from “Search” to something else. I can change it when looking at ‘Inspect Element’ (it’s called ‘value placeholder’= “Search”) but can’t figure out where the real file is?

2) Glad to bring it up then. :) It’s a great feature. I was using Relevanssi. Super plugin. Excellent customization options. I continue to use it for ‘regular’ site search (posts, etc…), but wanted Connections specific search. Now I can have both. :)

3) No worries, know you’re busy. Based on your reply, I’ll see if I can figure it out.

Thanks.

Steven Zahm 10/18/2012

@Mitch

For 1., drop this function in the theme’s functions.php file:

function mitch_gettext_search( $translated_text , $text , $domain ) {
 
	if ( $domain == 'connections' && $translated_text == 'Search' ) {
		$translated_text = 'My Search';
	}
 
	return $translated_text;
}

Just change the ‘My Search’ to what ever you want.

Cheri 11/15/2012

Hi Steven,

I purchased all the templates and plugins. I’ve got the widget pack plugin installed and activated. Now what? Having trouble finding how I add these features to my pages. Is there documentation for this?

Cheri
- Steven Zahm 11/15/2012
  
  @Cheri
  
  All the widgets can be found on the Appearance : Widgets admin page. This is the same page where all the other widget exist and you can choose which sidebar to put the widgets on. I hope that helps.
  - Cheri 11/15/2012
    
    Thanks…I guess I was just making more difficult than it needed to be.
    
    Here is another question. I’m putting myself in a couple of times to get to test things before I import my list.
    
    Only my first entry is showing the “Contact Information” (Read More)
    
    Why is that?
    
    Here is a screen shot:
    http://awesomescreenshot.com/003mjgj2b
    - Steven Zahm 11/15/2012
      
      @Cheri
      
      For the read more link to show more than about 55 words need to be in the bio.
      - Cheri 11/16/2012
        
        Steven,
        That makes sense. Now I’m seeing that when I click on Contact Information (which originally said “Read More”) that it actually opens up the other version of the “card” so that the phone, email, etc. show up. So, even when there is more to read, the link doesn’t expand it.
        
        Here is what I’d like ideally:
        
        Default version of the “cards” shows the alternate view with actual contact information rather than the bio.
        
        Then there would be a link at the bottom, in the Read More/Contact Information spot that said “Job Description that would open the bio version of the card fully expanded.
        
        The arrow on the upper right of the card would also toggle between the two versions.
        
        I’m assuming there’s a way to “tweak” the php to accomplish this. I love this plugin and am trying to configure it so it works well for our company intranet phone list.
        
        thanks!
      - Steven Zahm 11/18/2012
        
        @Cheri
        
        Yes, you could edit the template.php file and simply move the functions that call the entry details to the sections of the template you want them in. The function names are very descriptive so this shouldn’t be too difficult of a change. Hope that helps.
Cheri 11/19/2012

Thanks Steven. I’ll see what I can make happen there.
Cheri 11/29/2012

Hi again Steven,

I’m digging in to this again and trying to figure out which template.php file to use. I’m using the Excerpt 1.0.1 template. Could you tell me the file path to this file?

Thanks!
- Steven Zahm 12/03/2012
  
  @Cheri
  
  The path to the Excerpt template will be ../wp-content/connections_templates