WP-SNAP! WordPress Plugin
What Is WP-SNAP!?
WP-SNAP! (WordPress System for Navigating Alphabetized Posts) creates an alphabetical listing of post titles on a Category or Page template file. Navigation through the listings WP-SNAP! generates is accomplished using the alphabet itself. (For example, if a site visitor clicked on the letter D, any post titles that began with that letter would be showcased.) WP-SNAP! will work on any Wordpress 2.1.x or higher site, but is particularly useful managing glossaries, indexes, reviews, or directories. Since it is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s a screenshot of WP-SNAP! in action:
WP-SNAP! offers three different navigational styles and integration with both custom permalinks and the Wordpress loop. Plugin options can be managed both site-wide and on the template itself with results either restricted to one category or broadened to include child categories as well. The clever web developer should have no problem seamlessly integrating WP-SNAP! into their latest project. Options have also been added to allow the customization of css class names and the appearance of html mark-up.
How To Configure WP-SNAP!
- Click on the link to the right to download the WP-SNAP! WordPress Plugin, extract it and upload it to your WordPress Plugins folder on your site.
- Activate the Plugin from the WordPress Administration Plugins tab.
- Edit the category templates your Theme uses, such as category.php, and add the following code above the start of the Wordpress Loop:
<?php if (function_exists('wp_snap')) { echo wp_snap(); } ?> - Copy the CSS example below and paste it into your WordPress Theme stylesheet (you can style it better later).
- Upload the files and refresh the category page on your WordPress blog to see it in action.
- For further customization, go to the Plugins > WP-SNAP! panel and change the alphabetical structure to something different and click Update Options. You may also change the categories to be displayed and the menu navigational structure by passing variables as a query-string to the plugin like so:
<?php if (function_exists('wp_snap')) { echo wp_snap('arguments'); ?>There are currently four possible arguments: Category (’cat’), Include Category Children (’child’), Navigational Menu Style (’menu’), and First Load (’firstload’). Category must equal a category number from your WordPress installation, Include Category Children must equal true or false as to whether to include child categories (the default value is false), Navigational Menu Style must equal a number between 1 and 3 (corresponding with the three navigational styles offered in the admin options panel), and First Load must equal ALL, NONE or RECENT and will affect how WP-SNAP! displays posts/tags when it is first called on a template. Note that if RECENT is selected, the number of recent posts/tags to display can be controlled from the admin options page. For instance, to create a navigational menu for all posts in category 15, including child categories, using the default menu navigational style, and displaying recent posts on first load, WP-SNAP! would be called like this:
<?php if (function_exists('wp_snap')) { echo wp_snap('cat=15&child=true&firstload=recent'); } ?>To create a navigational menu for the current category, excluding child categories and using navigational menu style 3, WP-SNAP! would be called like this:
<?php if (function_exists('wp_snap')) { echo wp_snap('menu=3'); } ?>To create a navigational menu for all categories, using default navigational menu style, WP-SNAP! would be called like this:
<?php if (function_exists('wp_snap')) { echo wp_snap('cat=all'); } ?> - Test it out and enjoy!
Note: For the Plugin to work, you must have access to edit your WordPress Theme files. You must also have a category.php template file in your WordPress Theme. If you do not, you can create one following the instructions on the WordPress Codex for creating a category template file.
CSS Styling
It should be noted that this plugin does not inject any css styling information, so it is up to the user to add the appropriate class information to the Wordpress Theme css stylesheet. Here is some sample code to get you started:
ol.snap_nav {
display: inline;
float: left;
clear: both;
list-style: none;
}
ol.snap_nav li {
display: block;
float: left;
padding: 0 2px 10px 0;
}
ol.snap_nav li a {
font-weight: bold
}
ol.snap_nav li.snap_selected a {
cursor: text;
}
ol.snap_titles {
clear: both;
display: block;
border: 0;
list-style: none;
}
Feedback
This plugin thrives on user feedback. Praise, ideas, and bug reports are all welcome. Use the comment form below to let me know what you think. Please keep in mind that I am not paid to work on this plugin and that delays between updates can and will occur. Please do not post questions about when the next update will be released. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but your comment will be deleted. If there is a significant delay between releases, I try to post a timeframe of when the next update can be expected.
Thank You
My thanks to Lorelle VanFossen for reviewing my plugin and allowing me to reuse her instructions on this page.
Change Log
- 06.2008.10 Version 0.8.5
- Added international language file support
- Changed the method for passing data to the plugin
- Tracked down bugs
- 06.2008.08 Version 0.8.4
- Made the plugin compatible with Wordpress’s new tagging system
- Corrected problem with listing recent posts
- 04.2008.03 Version 0.8.3
- Fixed a small — but significant — typo
- Moved the administrative submenu to plugins.php
- Added the ability to display All/None/Recent posts on first load
- 12.2007.02 Version 0.8.1
- Fixed incompatibility with PHP 4
- 11.2007.28 Version 0.8
- Added support for fancy URLs
- 10.2007.04 Version 0.7.3
- Fixed error with Wordpress 2.3 database call
- 09.2007.28 Version 0.7.2
- Made database call compatible with Wordpress 2.3
- 06.2007.02 Version 0.7.1
- Fixed error with database call
- 05.2007.30 Version 0.7
- Fixed issue preventing the display of more than 10 posts
- Fixed issue with sorting uppercase/lowercase post titles
- Restored ability to pass a category to the plugin
- Added ability to include category children in returned results
- Added ability to display all categories
- Added ability to change navigation style when calling the plugin
- Added support for Gengo (hopefully)
- 05.2007.12 Version 0.6.2
- Restored the ability to exclude first words from being alphabetized
- Cleaned-up some instructional text in the options menu
- 01.2007.21 Version 0.6.1
- Fixed a minor error with the $wp_snap_category variable
- 01.2007.20 Version 0.6
- Rebuilt the entire plugin to be better, stronger, faster
- Changed how results are displayed; plugin now plays well with the Wordpress loop
- Removed option to pass a category number directly to the plugin, making it incompatible with Pages (feature to return if requested)
- Added nonce protection to the admin options panel
- Added option to group posts beginning with a number under ‘#’
- Fixed unencoded ampersands
- 09.2006.20 Version 0.5.4
- Updated WP-SNAP! to ignore posts with post-dated timestamps
- 08.2006.02 Version 0.5.3
- Fixed an error that affected certain navigational menu styles
- 08.2006.01 Version 0.5.2
- Updated alphabetization to accomodate accent marks; still needs refinement
- Fixed a logic error with the post title sort loop
- 06.2006.07 Version 0.5.1
- Squashed some bugs in the new ignore filter
- 06.2006.06 Version 0.5
- Words can now be filtered from the alphabetization process from the WP-SNAP! admin options menu
- 06.2006.01 Version 0.4
- Added ‘#’ to catch category entries beginning with non-alphanumeric characters
- Tweaked the code here and there
- Fixed the WP-SNAP! plugin url on the admin options page
- 05.2006.13 Version 0.3.1
- Fixed the url structure of the navigation when used on a Page
- Added ‘apply_filters’ to the post excerpt
- 05.2006.08 Version 0.3
- Plugin no longer displays excerpts for password protected posts, if the viewer is unauthorized
- If there is no excerpt for a post and excerpts are turned on, plugin now creates an excerpt from the post content
- Fixed a typo
- 03.2006.29 Version 0.2
- Added the ability to pass a category number directly to the plugin, making WP-SNAP compatible with Pages
- 03.2006.29 Version 0.1
- Initial Release
Tags: navigation, plugin, WordPress
Comments
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Frequently Asked Questions
-
When will the next version of your plugin be released?
As soon as I find the time, I will update the plugin and release a new version. I understand how frustrating it can be to be so close to having the perfect Wordpress installation only to be held up by a plugin that just needs a little more work to be exactly what’s needed. However, please remember that I am not paid write this plugin and that, like you, I have a family and responsibilities that extend far beyond this little piece of code. I really appreciate your enthusiasm, but if you wish to reap the benefits of my freely given labor, then you must be satisfied with doing so on my timetable. Otherwise, if you simply cannot wait, you are more than welcome to modify and extend the capabilities of my plugin yourself.
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Why do the results WP-SNAP! returns look funky? Why is it numbering every item?
A web page is composed of two parts: a document containing HTML code and a document containing styling code (known as a Cascading Style Sheet, or CSS for short). Because WordPress templates can look so drastically different from one another, I have intentionally avoided injecting any CSS information into WP-SNAP! However, I have included several ID selectors (that can even be modified from within wp-admin) that should allow you to style WP-SNAP! to look however you’d like. Those numbered lists? You can turn them off. I do ask that you try to refrain from asking me CSS related questions — while I would love to help you, my time is limited. If you would like to learn more about CSS, I suggest visiting A List Apart or Vitamin.
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I tried using your plugin, but it just won’t work. What am I doing wrong?
Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to troubleshoot every installation of this plugin. However, if you believe you have discovered a bug, I encourage you to post a comment to my website and I will reply as soon as I can. I do request that you be as specific as possible when asking for assistance. Please provide a detailed account of the steps you took that resulted in the error you encountered so that I can try to reproduce it and more quickly deduce how to fix it.
Yeah Baby! It’s working great now. Thanks Nathan!
ken
August 9th, 2006 at 5:36 am
Hi Nathan!
Is there a way to show all the titles of the category by default, and only after clicking certain letter filtering them?
Also I’ve seen talks about anchor system here, do you have plans to implement it?
August 13th, 2006 at 3:43 am
Ken — Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad it’s working now!
Broadcaster — Both features on my to-do list. Both are near the top of the list. However, I cannot give an estimate as to when I will get to these features. Thanks for giving me your feedback, though. It helps to know what people want to see implemented next.
August 13th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
[...] Nathan Olsen for WP-Snap!. [...]
August 26th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
He Nathan! The plugin sounds amazing, but I cant seem to get it working the way I want to… I only want it to sort my get_archive(), and dont want the whole menu structure with letters as options… could you help me out a bit? Thanx!
August 28th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Baster —
Um, my plugin is “the whole menu structure with letters as options.” If I were to take that away, there wouldn’t be much left. It sounds like you just need to learn how to write a mysql query to retrieve the data you need. The kind volunteers over at the Wordpress Support Forums should be able to help you out with that. Good luck.
August 28th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Hey Nathan and All,
I would like to do the following - my items have the form of (example) - “HD DVD - media for high definition video”. An in that title, I’d like to have HD DVD as bold. And if i put bold tag into the title it therefore sorts it as if it starts from “
August 28th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Broadcaster —
Go to the admin menu for WP-SNAP! in your Wordpress admin control panels (under “Options”) and add <b> to the section at the bottom titled, “Ignore During Alphabetizing.”
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:59 pm
This is fabulous. A couple of pointers, though.
I highly recommend you change the listing of the use of the wp_snap() tag to include the conditional function which checks to see if the plugin is enabled. Without it, it borks the page badly.
<?php if (function_exists('wp_snap')){ echo wp_snap(); } ?>
Placement of the tag is critical. If it is placed within another plugin or conditional tag sequence, it won’t work as it may break the other’s code or bork itself. For those having problems with this, move the wp_snap() php code around on the page. It must be within the WordPress Loop, but try it in different places on your category template file to find the “right place”.
I also vote strongly for no numbers as an option in the alphabet listing. Or a 1-10 and then ABCD…. as an option to group all numbers together.
For those using the WordPress Codex Custom Category Page Example, this plugin works brilliantly with it. You just have to make sure it goes in a non-sensitive coding area within the layout.
This is brilliant. Thank you so much!
September 3rd, 2006 at 2:49 pm
One last little nitpick. I see you are using the pages for handling the comments on your posts. Can you make that a little bigger or stand out a little more as it is hard to see and blends in with the comments. Part of helping support such a great plugin is making it easier for people to find the help they need within the comments.
You’ve got a winner here, and I’ll be writing about it soon. Hang on. ;-)
September 3rd, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Lorelle —
Thank you for your feedback. Sorry for your issues navigating my comments, with 110 comments on this plugin and counting, I had to take action to cut the page length down. My site is still under serious construction there are still some navigational issues to work out. If only I had more free time!
Numbers only appear if you have a post title that begins with a number. But having a 1-10 option as well isn’t a bad idea. I may need to eventually make that whole thing a little more modular, but all of that (again) takes time.
I love feedback though. It really helps me understand the needs of my users. Thanks a lot!
September 3rd, 2006 at 4:50 pm
this plugin is the shiznit!
i used it for my archives or music posts. ace!
September 5th, 2006 at 1:36 am
[...] WP-SNAP! WordPress Plugin is the “WordPress System for Navigating Alphabetized Posts” in a SNAP! Literally. [...]
September 9th, 2006 at 1:49 am
hey I just noticed one thing, I often write posts and change the timestamp for the future so even though it’s published it won’t show on the Loop yet. However, with this plugin, people can see it through the archives. Anyway we can fix this?
September 20th, 2006 at 6:01 am
jerrysoer —
Nice catch! And an easy one to correct. I’ve updated the plugin, let me know if you have any further problems.
September 20th, 2006 at 9:40 am
I love this plugin! One wish…is for some way to easily pick which category you would like to browse. My website has 4 very distinct categories and if there was some checkbox to search all cateogories, or just the individual categories…it would be a godsend. Thanks for this awesome plugin.
September 23rd, 2006 at 12:28 pm
This is a huge help to me - it’s *almost* doing just what I need. Is there a way of displaying the whole post (including date, time, metadata, etc.) rather than just a title+exerpt, though? That would make my mission complete!
Thanks for a great plugin.
October 19th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Ki — I somehow missed your comment, sorry for not replying sooner. One of the items on my to-do list is to add the ability to include child categories in a listing. If that was implemented, it would be easy for you to write your own little PHP script to do just what you mentioned.
Hmm. I really need to find some time to update this plugin.
Skelf — Check your email. Let’s talk further. I think I can help you hack the plugin to get the results you want.
October 19th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
If you could get this to list category titles instead of post titles you would be a God. Awesome plugin!
October 20th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
I couldn’t make it show all posts in a page so i made this small change in lines 439-447 so now calling
would result in a general alphabetized index of all posts.Very good plugin anyway, many thx
// Database query$grz_query = "SELECT `post_title`, `post_content`, `post_excerpt`, `ID`, `post_password`, `post_date_gmt` FROM $wpdb->posts, $wpdb->post2cat WHERE `post_id` = `ID` AND `post_status` = 'publish'";
if ($wp_snap_cat == '0') {
} elseif (!empty($wp_snap_cat)) {
$grz_query .= "AND `category_id` = '" . $wp_snap_cat . "'";
}
$wp_snap_posttitles = $wpdb->get_results($grz_query);
October 24th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
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