A Quick Note

Before I continue, I want to note that I am in no way shape or form in business with or getting paid at all by snipplr or anyone else for this post. I just found Snipplr to be a cool application and decided to share some things with you all /end disclaimer

What does Snipplr do?

A simple look at the about page will answer that question for you:

With Snipplr you can keep all of your frequently used code snippets in one place that's accessible from any computer. You can share your code with other visitors and use what they post, too. Did we mention that Snipplr works with TextMate? Yeah, we rock.

Notable Features

• Tons of programming languages to choose from, all with slightly different syntax highlighting.
• The ability to add the original URL you found the snippet (if one exsists), you can also add the original author and any comments about the source code. Giving credit where it's due FTW!
• Ability to tag and favorite any snippet you wish for easy organization.
• Features integrate into TextMate. Furthermore, there are quite a few applications Snipplr integrates with.
• Ability to download a backup copy of all of your snippets. I thought this was an especially cool feature.
• Add others to your 'watchlist', which is other peoples snippets that interest you (much like Twitter, if you find someones snippets to be awesome, you can follow and keep track of them). By the way, you guys can follow me on snipplr anytime
• An API key and available API. In addition, a Snipplr WordPress plugin that we will be using later in this article

Hopefully, the above features will convince you to give Snipplr a look. Let's move on and get to displaying code snippets on our blog using the Snipplr plugin.

Download the plugin

The first thing you will need to do is download the WordPress Snipplr plugin, which will allow you to display any snippet you want, anywhere on your blog using WordPress short codes.

Grab your API key

Next, you will need to grab your API key on the settings page. You will need to register an account to receive an API key, which should take all of 3 seconds or so. Navigate to the bottom of the settings page and copy your API key to your clipboard.

Add a snippet

Add whatever code it is you are wanting to display on your blog by clicking new snippet. Fill in the appropriate fields and click 'Post'. Now you can forever go back to that snippet if you need quick access to it or have any issues with your blog. Moving on...

Activate the plugin

After installing the plugin, activate the plugin and go to the Snipplr configuration page in your admin panel. Paste in your API key and set your Snipplr preferences.

Using the shortcode

We're nearly there. Now when you go to write a new post, use the snipplr shortcode [ snippet = id ] without spaces and replace id with the snippets ID number. You can find the snippet ID number in the URL of the snippet you wish to share.

Example below

Below you will find an example of the Snipplr plugin in use. The snippet is getting pulled from my Snipplr account and displayed according to the settings I have set for the plugin.

GPC Magic Quotes Runtime Stripping
Posted by DrewDouglass on July 11th, 2009
All credit for this code goes to the all mighty Fou-Lou of codingforums.com (link given).

Check out the functions links!

I didn't even notice this until I was previewing this post, but if you hover over the functions in the above code, you will see that they all link to the functions in the php manual! That's a very user friendly feature of this plugin.

Follow me on Snipplr!

Feel free to follow me on Snipplr. If you're already on, leave your Snipplr link in the comments and I'll try to keep you on my watch list if I find it interesting. Have fun and use it responsibly, always give credit where it is due!

Features of the Envato Recent Items Plugin

In short, the plugin allows you to easily show and style your recent items from Envato, from any market place (FlashDen, ThemeForest, AudioJungle, GraphicRiver etc). The plugin comes with the following features as of version 1.0:

• Thumbnails of item are shown and also link to your item.
• Any number of items can be shown, depending on your preference.
• You can choose to display the price of each item if you wish, the price does not display by default.
• The title, thumbnail, and link are all wrapped in custom classes so you can easily style however you desire.
• You can now add a referrer ID (username) in case you want to take part of the referral program.

How to use and install

1. Upload envato_recent_items folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.
3. Place

   <?php echo envato_recent_items('collis', 'themeforest', 5, true, $ref='collis'); ?>

   in your template file(s) where you wish the items to be displayed.

• The first argument is your username and is required.
• The second argument is the marketplace and is required.
• The third argument is the number of items to display and is required.
• The fourth argument is wether or not to show the price and is not required. Defaults to false.
• The fifth argument is your referral id (your username) and is not required. Defaults to null.

Now, you may be wondering, why not just have the referral id be the same as the username? Good question. I wanted to keep this plugin as flexible as possible, and there may be cases when the items you are displaying (maybe a buddy or a co workers) would not be the same as your username.

Screenshots

Below is a screenshot of the plugin without any styling, also note that the price here is being shown, which is off by default:

Below is an excellent use of the plugin by The Molitor:

Download the Plugin!

You can download the plugin from the WordPress plugin index. If you have any questions, please be sure to read the FAQ and installation instr unctions on the plugin homepage. Any suggestions or comments are always welcome, enjoy!

Donate

If you have found this plugin to be helpful, I ask you to consider making a donation of any amount. Donations keep me motivated and allow me to continue to build and enhance WordPress plugins. Any donations are greatly appreciated!

The Basics

The first thing we need to do is create a new folder, I will call mine 'tiny_tweet'. Next, inside the directory, create a file named 'tiny_tweet.php'. Inside tiny_tweet.php we need to put some basic comments at the top to let WordPress properly recognize our plugin. So far our plugin looks like this:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Tiny Tweet
Plugin URI: http://dev-tips.com
Description: Allows users to tweet the current page with a tinyurl of the page in the tweet.
Author: Drew Douglass
Version: 1.0
Author URI: http://dev-tips.com
*/
?>

Defining our function

Now we need to setup the function that will do all of the work for us. We want to make sure that the function does not already exists, so we will put this check into place.

if(!function_exists('dd_tiny_tweet_init')){

function dd_tiny_tweet_init($content){

  }
}

Twitter and TinyURL

Lastly, we need to setup our variables and create the TinyURL of the current article so that we can put a link to the page when the user sends the page to their Twitter status. Lets look at the final code and then discuss it.

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Tiny Tweet
Plugin URI: http://dev-tips.com
Description: Allows users to tweet the current page with a tinyurl of the page in the tweet.
Author: Drew Douglass
Version: 1.0
Author URI: http://dev-tips.com
*/
if(!function_exists('dd_tiny_tweet_init')){

function dd_tiny_tweet_init($content){
	//Thanks to http://briancray.com for the one line $tiny_tweet_url solution.
	$tiny_tweet_url = file_get_contents('http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url=' . urlencode('http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']  . '/' . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']));
	$tiny_tweet_title = get_the_title();
	$tiny_tweet_title = substr($tiny_tweet_title, 0,100);
	$tiny_tweet_title .='...';
	$tiny_tweet_status_url = 'http://twitter.com/home?status=Currently reading "'.$tiny_tweet_title."\" ".$tiny_tweet_url;
	if(is_single()){
	$content .=  '<div class=\'tiny_tweet\'>Enjoy this post? <a href=\''.$tiny_tweet_status_url.'\'>The give it a tweet!</a></div>';
	}
	return $content;
  }
  add_filter('the_content', 'dd_tiny_tweet_init');
}
?>

Most of the variables should explain themselves, but lets walk through some of the important steps in our function.

• First, we store the TinyURL url of the page inside a variable for later use. Please note that the technique to get the TinyURL was brought to my attention by my friend and Dev-Tips author Brian Cray in his post titled 'Generate TinyURLS with one line of php'. It is also important to note our server needs to support file_get_contents. If you host doesn't, tell them to get with the times!
• Next up we get the title of the current post and grab the first 100 characters of that title (to leave room for the link in the status).
• Moving on we store the status Twitter link in a variable with the appropriate message in the status query.
• Lastly, we check if the current page is a single article, if it is we append the twitter link to the bottom of the content with a custom div class (so it may be styled).

Now, when the user goes to read an individual article, they willl see 'Enjoy this post? Then give it a tweet!'. Upon clicking the link, they will be brought to twitter with their status already filled out. Now, they simply press the 'Update' button, and voila!

Demo Screenshots

Below is the default, unstyled link and text produced:

Below is what the user will see once they click the link. For those of you that will inevitably type the tinyurl in the screenshot below into your browser, that is a free hosing account I have setup for WordPress development and plugin testing

It isn't the most complex Twitter plugin, but it works just like it should and gets the job done. Feel free to use this plugin if you like. We will be making some final changes to it and will officially release it for download shortly in a new blog post.

Features

Upon clicking the 'Publish' or 'Update post/page' button, a simple Javascript box confirms that you wish to publish the current content. You may cancel the publishing and go back and continue editing.

• Extremely small file size, less than 1.7 KB total.
• Simple to use, just activate and your done.
• Saves you from accidental posting.
• Works on any 'Publish' button, including pages, posts, and quickpress.
• Tested and Compatible with WordPress 2.7+

Screenshot

Installation and Usage

If you have never used a WordPress Plugin, you may consider reading the introduction to plugins on the WordPress Codex.

• Upload the 'areyousure' folder to 'wp-content/plugins/' directory on your server.
• Go to the plugins link in the WordPress sidebar in your WordPress admin panel.
• Find the plugin and click activate.
• Your done!

Download

WP Version:Tested and working up to WP 2.9+
Current Version: 1.0
Download: Are You Sure? (786) - 1.67 KB
GitHub URL: http://github.com/DrewDouglass/Are-You-Sure-
GitHub Clone: git://github.com/DrewDouglass/Are-You-Sure-.git

Buy Me Some Chinese Food?

If you enjoy this plugin and have found it helpful, I encourage you to consider making a donation of any amount. Donations keep me motivated and help cover a tiny percent of the time and costs that go into developing plugins for the WordPress Community

Feedback and Requests

We'd love to hear any feedback or requests you might have, let us know in the comments below! If you need support you can shoot us an email via our contact page. If you enjoy WordPress and WordPress plugins, you might also enjoy our article titled 'Use the twitter API to create a wordpress plugin'.