I haven't written as many WordPress tutorials as usual lately, as I have been so busy building websites and blogs, so I thought I would take the time out to share a few WordPress codes I have developed recently for attachment page templates and specifically the image attachment page template. The attachment page template is the page that displays a single image when the images link URL is set to 'Post URL'. You can set the image's link URL when inserting a single image into a post, and also when using the gallery shortcode.

The codes in this article are mostly applicable to images inserted using the gallery shortcode as they are most useful for posts or pages that have multiple image attachments. Read more about using image and file attachments.

These template codes can be added to your WordPress theme using the attachment.php and image.php files. If these template files do not exist in your theme you can create them, or WordPress will default to using single.php or index.php to show attachments by default. (See more about template hierarchy).

If you don't want to create a seperate image.php or attachment.php template you can always edit the index.php or single.php files and wrap the attachment specific codes in the is_attachment clause like so:

if(is_attachment()){
//attachment page specific code goes here
}

These php functions are loosely based on code I found in this article: Adding text links to WordPress Gallery by Michael Fields. In this article he provides code examples of how to show previous and next thumbnail links in a WP attachment page. I also made use of this previous-next keys in array function which is infinitely useful!

My first set of functions will return text links for previous image, next image and back to gallery. The functions themselves will need to be added to your theme's functions.php file before calling them in your image.php or attachment.php files. So here we go:
Read on…

While working on a WordPress site recently I came up against a problem that had never occurred to me before. The client wanted each post excerpt on the homepage to include an image which when clicked would link to the main post (permalink) itself. The built in functions of wordpress when inserting an image allow you to link to either the 'File URL' (i.e. the full size version of the image) or to the 'Post URL' which is actually an attachment page in wordpress which displays the image, but does not include the text of the actual post itself. However, without either editing the html of each post (not an option for this client) or inserting the image without a link, and then adding the permalink to the image (too long winded) there was no simple way to create the image links in the way they wanted them.

My solution to this was to create a very basic hack which would allow them to use the 'Post URL' link when inserting images, but instead of linking to the attachment page, the link would automatically be updated to link to the post's permalink itself.

Here is the basic php function that you would need to insert into your theme's functions.php file:

function lose_attachment($content){
return preg_replace('/<a(.*?)href="(.*?)\/attachment\/(.*?)"/i', '<a$1href="$2"', $content);
}

add_filter('the_excerpt', 'lose_attachment',2);

This will remove the 'attachment/name-of-image-file' part from the URL making it link to the post's permalink itself.  I hope someone out there finds this useful!

I have recently been working on a highly versatile premium theme for WordPress which is due for release soon. As part of the project I wanted to test how the theme (and WordPress itself) could work with sites of various different genres. My intention was that the theme would be configurable enough via it's Options Menu that it could easily be styled to suit corporate sites such as recruitment, blue chip company, technology site  & product portfolio, media sites such as magazine, news, image & video gallery and also youth oriented sites such as music / band website,  games website.

The theme also features simple integration for banners and advertising,  so creating a couple of  'working example' sites was not only a good way of testing the theme's versatility but also a potential source of a few extra quid!

I had been wanting to do a games & videos website for a while, and I had built the theme's default settings around a 'corporate magazine' look & feel, so I decided the games site would be a great way to test the theme. Here is my wordpress games arcade site so far:  Zap Gamez

I decided to look around and see what articles I could find about creating a games arcade website with wordpress, or if there was a plugin that allowed you to easily insert games into your WordPress blog. I found this article by Emanuele Feronato:

• Creation of a Flash arcade site using WordPress

It describes a method of populating your WordPress blog with games via a feed from MochiAds (A source of free games for websites) using custom fields. However, for my site I wanted to be able to integrate games from various free content suppliers and host games on my own server as well as embedding games hosted by content suppliers. What I really wanted was a plugin that could embed games into posts or pages using shortcodes.

THE PLUGIN

The prototype plugin I have built includes the following features:

4 Different views:

1. Grid view - a grid of thumbnail images linking to each game (can be restricted to a single category or parent category)
2. Category view - this view includes a medium sized image and a written description of the game
3. Single page view - the page where you play the game itself
4. Featured Game view - a page with a list of featured games

Different embedding modes:

1. iFrame embedding - embed iFrame content using code provided by free games sites, or use this method to display games from your own server where an html file has been provided with the free game download.
2. Flash embedding - embed Flash content using embed codes provided by other sites, or embed flash games directly from your own site. You can even upload them easily using the wordpress 'Add Media' tool.

The beta version of the WP Game Embed plugin can be found here.

Turn your wordpress blog into a games arcade!

This beta version WordPress plugin, WP Games Embed, makes it easy to embed games into your WordPress blog by using shortcodes in your posts and pages. WP Games Embed is intended to be able to support content offered by the various free games sites out there using the codes or downloads they provide.

FEATURES

4 Different views:

1. Grid view - a grid of thumbnail images linking to each game (can be restricted to a single category or parent category)
2. Category view - this view includes a medium sized image and a written description of the game
3. Single page view - the page where you play the game itself
4. Featured Game view - this view is similar to category view, but allows you to pick the games yourself to create your own 'Featured Games' page.

Different embedding modes:

1. iFrame embedding - embed iFrame content using code provided by free games sites, or use this method to display games from your own server where an html file has been provided with the free game download.
2. Flash embedding - embed Flash content using embed codes provided by other sites, or embed flash games directly from your own site. You can even upload them easily using the wordpress 'Add Media' tool.

WORKING EXAMPLE

Visit Zap Gamez Arcade to see an example of the plugin in action.

INSTALLATION

1. Download the plugin from the link at the bottom of this page
2. Upload the wp-games-embed.php file to your wp-content/plugins folder.
3. Activate the plugin from the Plugins page in WordPress.

USAGE

Use shortcodes to embed games into your posts, or to create a grid of thumbnails on a page or your home page.

Embedding a game in a post:

Shortcode: [game /]

Additional attributes:

• width - the width of the game
• height - the height of the game
• src - the url of the game (html file for iframe embedding, swf file for flash embedding)
• flash - if set to true flash embedding will be used, if set to false iframe embedding will be used. (default=false)
• thumb - the url of the thumbnail image (70px x 60px)
• main - the url of the large image (appx 300px wide)
• title - the name of the game!
• description - your description including controls etc.
• featured - whether this should be formatted as a featured game. (default=false)
• game_url - only to be used in Featured mode (when featured is set to true). See  the shortcode examples below for more details.

Shortcode Example 1 (embedding game as iFrame):

[game width="640" height="480" src="http://www.example.com/games/pacman.html" thumb="http://www.mysite.com/images/pacman-small.jpg" main="http://www.mysite.com/images/pacman-medium.jpg" title="PacMan" description="This is a great game! Use the arrow keys to play." flash="false"/]

Shortcode Example 2 (embedding game as Flash):

[game width="640" height="480" src="http://www.mysite.com/games/pacman.swf" thumb="http://www.mysite.com/images/pacman-small.jpg" main="http://www.mysite.com/images/pacman-medium.jpg" title="PacMan" description="This is a great game! Use the arrow keys to play." flash="true"/]

Creating a grid of thumbnails on a page:

Shortcode: [get_latest_games /]

Additional attributes: list_category - the category id for the games you want to appear in the list.

The list_category attribute makes it possible to display the latest games under a certain category e.g. 'Arcade' or the latest games under all categories. Simply set up a main category called 'games' and then create all your games categories (action,adventure,sports, etc.)  as sub-categories.

Shortcode Example 3 (thumbnail grid):

[get_latest_games list_category="2" /]

Creating a Featured Games page:

Shortcode: [game /]
Additional atrtributes: (see above)

The important attributes for creating a features games list are 'featured' which should be set to true, and 'game_url' the url where the game can be played on your site.

Shortcode Example 4 (featured games):

[game  main="http://www.myblog.com/uploads/pacman-medium.jpg" title="PacMan" description="This is a great game! Use the arrow keys to play." featured="true" game_url= "http://www.myblog.com/games/pacman/" /]

[game  main="http://www.myblog.com/uploads/donkeykong-medium.jpg" title="Donkey Kong" description="This is a great game! Use the arrow keys to play." featured="true" game_url= "http://www.myblog.com/games/donkey-kong/" /]

DOWNLOAD THE PLUGIN

It's great that the wordpress plugins search is now working. What a massive step forward! Thanks wordpress!!

Since the plugin search was fixed it has become much more apparent how many plugins there are which are actually renamed / re-branded copies of other plugins. As plugins are released under the GPL public license there is nothing to stop these so called plugin developers from being able to do this.

This is a real problem as it is important that plugin developers who are creating original, useful plugins continue to do so. If they feel that their work is going to be taken and copied, and that they are going to end up having to share some of the credit with one of these 'plugin leeches', they may feel less inclined to make the plugin publicly available.

My suggestion is that wordpress monitor the originality of new plugins more closely when they are submitted by the developer, a good way to do this would be to allow plugin developers to 'flag' plugins which they feel are too similar to their own plugin or are a direct rip-off of their plugin.

Also, if developers have made minor changes or improvements to someone elses plugin they should be encouraged to work with the original plugin's developer to improve the existing plugin and take a share of the credit with the original developer. This will help to increase the  quality rather than quantity of plugins. A good way to implement this could be to list these offshoots or alternative versions on the original plugins page with an explanation of how they differ from the original.