The Subscription Options Plugin

subscription-options

Description of this WordPress Plugin:

The most common ways for people to subscribe to a blog and its content are through RSS, Email and Twitter. Facebook pages are increasing in usage too.
This plugin places the above icons in a widget area and lets users enter their own feed or page URLs and colour options. It’s really simple but there’s lots of power under the hood.

Plugin features:

  • Offers an attractive range of subscription options for your readers using familiar-looking icons.
  • Intuitive interface for editing options, including your feed/page URLs, widget title and icon sizes.
  • Independent handling across multiple widget instances, using WordPress 2.8’s new widget_class coolness.
  • NEW in Version 0.6 – the ability to select between 12 colours.

Step-by-step installation instructions:

  1. Download the plugin from the WordPress Plugin Repository.
  2. Extract the files and place the entire ’subscription-options’ folder in your wp_content/plugins directory.
  3. Go to your ‘Installed Plugins’ panel and activate ‘Subscription Options’.
  4. You are now ready to use the widget.

Usage instructions:

  1. Go to your ‘Appearance > Widgets’ panel and select the widget area you wish for the plugin to appear in.
  2. Enter the following details:
    • Widget Title
    • RSS Feed URL & Colour ID
    • Email Service URL & Colour ID
    • Twitter Stream URL & Colour ID
    • Facebook Page URL & Colour ID
    • Size of Feed Icons
      Please note that you don’t need to use all the icons – just don’t enter a URL if you don’t want an icon to show up.
  3. Hit ‘Done’ then ‘Save Changes’. Test the appearance and perhaps change the size of the icons as necessary

The Widget Options Panel:

Example Configurations:

subscription-option-icon-themes

Version History:

V 0.1.0 was the first iteration of what I promise will be a participatory experience
V 0.1.5 – added css classes for users to hook into and edit through their css sheets
V 0.2 – added user-defined header size and target of users’ clicks
V 0.3 – updated icons to scale up to higher sizes without dithering
V 0.4 – switched to WP 2.8’s widget_class functionality to really crank it up
V 0.5 – inclusion of a new subscription icon for Facebook, by popular demand
V 0.6 – implemented an icon colour changer

Future Versions:

V 0.7 – more subscription icons based on user feedback

Frequently Asked Questions:

Where do I put the widget?

You can place it wherever you like as long as it is within a pre-defined widget area. I haven’t worked out how to let people place the widget wherever they like. Let me know if you can help on my contact page though.

Can I style the widget in my own way?

Yes of course, it’s WordPress! You can use your stylesheet.css to override your theme’s default widget settings by using the following CSS classes:

  • img.rss_icon – The RSS feed icon
  • img.mail_icon – The email service icon
  • img.twitter_icon – The twitter icon
  • img.facebook_icon – The facebook icon

Please note that the icons’ sizes will still need to be set from within the widget admin panel. CSS doesn’t let you override that that.

Where can I find more help and support?

Just email me from my contact page, or leave a comment below. I’ll be happy to help where possible.

How can I support this plugin’s development?

Thank you so much for asking. Please click below to donate a small sum to this plugin’s developer:

  • I appreciate this widget. It is making rolling out a blog a lot quicker for me.

    A couple of suggestions:

    There needs to be some more div elements in the output so that the images can be positioned better. You can go to my site to see what I did when I edited your plugin. Also, I would suggest making the classes and element output more compliant with most widgets.

    my other suggestion is that it would be great if some additional text/link could be defined in the widget and output under the images. Right under the images I want to add text that says "What is this subscription thingy?" that is a link to a page I have written about subscribing to the site. That would be great ....

    Oh, one more suggestion: what about skipping the email icon and making it text field so that people can input their email directly? or maybe making it an option to use either the image or text field?

    thanks for the widget! Funny, I think the simplest ideas tend to make my life the easiest.
  • Hello Bill,

    Thank you for the feedback! The widget looks great on your blog.

    I have made a note to give the widget it's own CSS stylesheet in the next release, allowing blog administrators who are comfortable with the process to style the plugin to their heart's content.

    I will consider creating a free-text box underneath the icons, but I'm concerned that it would take away from the minimalist look and feel. I'll definitely implement this idea if it's in demand though.

    As for your final suggestion, I feel that placing an email-submission box would certainly overcomplicate what I hope will always be a simple plugin for anyone who wants to show off their subscription options in an eye-catching way.

    Anyway Bill, stay tuned and I'm sure this plugin will improve with time, especially if I keep getting great suggestions like yours.

    Tom
  • Tom, thanks for the response. Just one note: I wasn't suggesting that we need a style sheet, just wrap the images in a div, throw some classes on each of the images, and make note of the class names in documentation. I think too many developers are creating their own style sheets, all of which gets called every time a page loads. I think people can write their own styles and put them in styles.css.

    One other thing I don't think I was clear about. Widgets have a default output that gives them id and class names, so I was suggesting that you wrap your widget like most others in something like this:


    ....


    thanks again!
  • Hi Bill,
    I've made a few changes - the widget is alot more classy now!
    You can now use your stylesheet.css to override your theme's default widget settings by using the following CSS classes:

    div.suboptions_widget > The widget container
    h3.suboptions_widget > The widget title
    img.rss_icon > The RSS feed icon
    img.mail_icon > The email service icon
    img.twitter_icon > The twitter icon

    Please note that the icons' sizes will still need to be set from within the widget admin panel. CSS doesn't let you override that that.

    Best,
    Tom
  • something is wrong with your comments. it says I can use code, but then what I put in there got stripped. Here it is:


    ....
  • Hmm - still doesn't appear to be working. I will look into why.
    Can you email me your suggestion instead?
  • Hi Bill,

    All of the codes work perfectly for me, so I suggest that if you'd like to send me your suggestion via email, I can share it with everyone here.

    Best,
    Tom
  • errrrrrrr .... convert the code to asci!!

    <div id="sub-options" class="widget widget_suboptions"><h3> ...
  • Nice plugin. I implimented it yesterday, and it's working great so far.

    You also might want to consider changing the color of the email icon. It's become the default color of social sharing icons, and could lead to some confusion.
  • Hi Matt,

    Thanks for the good feedback.
    If a colour change is something that a few more people want, I shall look into doing so.

    Otherwise, I am planning some new icons for a further release, so stay tuned.
    Best,
    Tom
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