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:
- Download the plugin from the WordPress Plugin Repository.
- Extract the files and place the entire ‘subscription-options’ folder in your wp_content/plugins directory.
- Go to your ‘Installed Plugins’ panel and activate ‘Subscription Options’.
- You are now ready to use the widget.
Usage instructions:
- Go to your ‘Appearance > Widgets’ panel and select the widget area you wish for the plugin to appear in.
- 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.
- Hit ‘Done’ then ‘Save Changes’. Test the appearance and perhaps change the size of the icons as necessary
The Widget Options Panel:
Example Configurations:
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 with twelve options
V 0.7 – upgraded to pass XHTML 1.0 Transitional validation
Future Versions:
V 0.8 – 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:
Can you tell me where in the html I can resize the the frame that is showing up around the icons? you can see my problem @ http://www.frugalmomblog.com
Hi Allison,
The icons look great on your site. Did you solve the issue?
May I ask you to check them in another browser?
I'm worried that your theme might add a border to hyperlinked images in
Internet Explorer.
Let me know,
Tom
2010/1/26 Disqus <>
Hi James,
Welcome to Digital Cortex.
You can center your icons by adjusting their CSS properties in your
stylesheet.
The selectors to use are img.rss_icon, img.mail_icon, img.twitter_icon, and
img.facebook_icon,
I'd begin with something like *img.rss_icon, img.mail_icon,
img.twitter_icon, img.facebook_icon {margin:0px 10px;}* and go from there.
Let me know how you get on.
Yours,
Tom
2010/1/25 Disqus <>
can we add it in our sidebar.php manually?
Hey this is a really cool app, i sent u a small donation !! one question, how can i change some code so i can have the email icon just force it to open a new email msg.
Hi Robert,
Just enter this code – mailto:you@mail.com
That will do it!
Tom
sweet , ,Done !! one other where in the code do i change the text so that when you hover the mouse over the button (it pops up and says subscribe via twitter, i want to change that wording. thanks
I've downloaded the plug-in and moved the folder but am still not seeing the plug-in in my installed plug-in list. Is this because I am running wordpress on my own domain name?
Hi, I've installed it ok – but I don't know what to type in to each of the url's.
eg what do I type in under RSS Feed Url?
Regards
BOB Hamill – (good looking plugin)
Hi Bob,
What is your blog's address please?
Are you on Twitter? Facebook?
Tom
Hi Tom
Web address – http://www.rjhhealthydiets.com
I am not on Twitter or Facebook yet – do I need to be?
Regards
BOB Hamill
RJH Information Systems
Tel: 01333 421296 / 07885498945
The information in this e-mail is confidential between the sender and the
addressee, may be privileged, and should not be communicated in any way to
any person other than the addressee.
If you are not the individual or organisation to whom this e-mail is
addressed, please inform the sender immediately and delete the message from
your computer.
Bob,
You don't need to be, but I question whether you'll get full use of the
plugin.
I also notice you've successfully found your RSS feed URL – so you're in
business now.
Good luck!
Tom
Hey.
Just felt the need to comment on how grateful I am for your plugin. Saved me a big headache, as Im not technical but wanted these features for traffic generation and user retention/subscription.
Just again to say thanks, this plugin totally rocks.
Nick
Hi, thanks for the great Subscription Options Plugin. I'm having a little difficulty when I test the Email option and specifically the NewsGator Outlook Edition. As I go through the process of subscribing (testing on 2 computers), it creates a URL that starts http://http:/
The first Outlook related message shows the URL as feed:http://feeds.feedburner.com/RatcliffeLearning
The next step shows http://http:/feeds.feedburner.com/RatcliffeLear...
Settings seem fine in the plugin and at the Feedburner account. The URL is http://RatcliffeLearning.com.
Do you see anything obvious that I am missing?
Thanks…Tony
Hi Tony,
I apologise for the delayed response.
Sounds like you're struggling because you need to activate 'Email
Subscriptions' under your FeedBurner's 'Publicize' tab.
Then you'll find your email service url on that page. It'll look something
like http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?ur...
Let me know how it goes,
Tom
Thanks, Tom. It definitely loks like problems with my FeedBurner settings. I have tried to activate email, but it is not liking the feed and the site URL. I will investigate further when I have a chance.
The plugin works well, but I get a ton of xhtml errors relating to this plugin when I validate my site's XHTML.
Tom, Thanks for this widget – a beautiful and elegant piece of work.
We use this in colour 12 (black) in 90×90 format to give a good clear way to subscribe. I have one change I'd like to make to it – how would I go about creating a rollover? For example, I would like to have the facebook icon change from coulour 12 to 4 on hover.
I have tried doing this by substituting the icon for a transparent png and creating a sliding background image in the css that moves to the colour icon on rollover but this breaks the layout or fails completely.
It would be great if there's an elegant way to achieve this, any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks for this widget, it looks great and works brilliantly.
Ok – I'll see if I can amend any of these in the next version. Thanks Jay!
Hi Simon,
That is praise indeed – thank you!
Nobody has asked for this yet, and to be honest I'm not sure it'd be easy to
provide you with an elegant solution right now. For the record, a sliding
background is probably the very best way, as it means the user will see the
effect immediately, but I'd need to rewrite the whole plugin to give this to
you. Sorry man, but perhaps in a future version?
I suggest you develop a solution using a simple html widget, using my icons
as a base. Please post your code here as a way to help others out too.
Yours,
Tom
No worries Nick.
Happy blogging.
Thanks Tom, I'll let you know how it goes,
S
Those icons are totally awesome!! I love what you've done. I'll make reference to these in the next release as an example of great customisation. Nice one.
Great plugin! For some reason it doesn't work on a single post page. I am using version 0.6.2 with wordpress version 2.8.6. Any ideas? Thanks!
Yes – you need to pick your colours!
Just go to your widget options and add one of the 12 colour codes alongside
each of your URLs. You'll see what I mean when you get there.
Yours,
Tom
Tom – I did pick the colours and still no icons on the single post page. Check it out – nothing under “Subscribe” at the top right:
http://takesunset.com/2010/04/15063-rayneta-dr-...
Any ideas? Thanks!!
Hi again,
Please can you check for me that you're hitting save when you add your
number codes?
If it still doesn't work for you then I suggest deleting the plugin and
reinstalling it – that'll clear your server's cache.
Tom
Tom – Just deleted and reinstalled and no dice. Any other ideas?
Tom – Just deleted and reinstalled and no dice. Still not showing up on single post page. Any ideas? Thanks!
Great plugin to use. I liked this specifically because it prevents from the headache of manually copy pasting code for icons images, URLs and doing the associated formatting for providing readers with those subscription options. I also found this plugin to be very friendly for extending eg adding new icons or services. Shared my thoughts for a very simple example on my blog @ http://www.inficone.com/technology/customize-su.... Thanks once again.
I have no clue why this isn't working, and am really sorry to disappoint.
May I suggest that you try to hand-code a sidebar HTML widget that uses these icons? That way you'd at least be able to show off their bright colours.
Thank you for a great plugin. We are using it on our main site @ http://fspressonline.org. We will be using it on our other sites as well as it is easy to configure and looks good on the page.
Tucker, it is my absolute pleasure!
Hi Scarlett, is this all sorted now?
Your blog seems to have a sidebar packed full of widgets! This one would look great right at the top
Hi Jaszy,
This piece of CSS should help:
img.rss_icon {
margin-left:20px;
}
Drop that into your theme's stylesheet and adjust the 20px value to suit.
Yours,
Tom
Hi Tom! I love this widget!!! Thanks so much for taking the time to help make life easier on this end.
I do have one question… Is there a way to center the icons on my widget sidebar (rather than have them all default to align left)? I'm a bit of a novice at WordPress but am savvy with HTML and some CSS. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Hi Dave, I've answered that question for a lot of people now.
Take a look through the other comments, and good luck!
Love your widget! Any plans to create a LinkedIn icon?
Does it work with WP 3.0?
As a feature request, please consider adding 'subscribe to comments' and include linkedin icon. Thanks.
Thanks for the good feedback.
If a colour change is something that a few more people want, I shall look into doing so.
hello, does your plugin work with WP 3.0
It sure does! I need to update the readme files to say so, but you're good
to go.
Hi Punit, yep, it sure does. Update to reflect this fact coming soon, just gotta get some new features in first!
Hi Cathy,
That's actually the number one request for a new icon, so I may include this in the next release. Not sure how it's quite a 'subscription option' though, if you see my problem?
Tom
I used the CSS code to center but it's not working on my theme. After trying all kinds of code, here I am to ask your help. If you can take a look and give me some tips: joekutchera.com/blog – thanks.
Hi John,
You're right. Something weird about your theme is stopping your sidebar
images from taking on new style properties.
The solution is to be really really specific by adding info about the #div
you want to make a change to, like this:
*
*
*#suboptions-widget-3* .rss_icon {
margin-left:30px;
}
That'll do the trick.
Yours,
Tom
Thanks – that *did* do the trick!
John
Hi Tom,
the plugin is very nice and easy to implement. No more suggestions since I note you are maintaining it updated and current.
Regards,
Claudio
Hmm… did you fix this yet Tony?