With that in mind, I always like it when a plugin simply works. When it meets or even surpasses your expectations in carrying out a singular task effectively.

Super RSS Reader is one such plugin. Check out this video for a quick overview:

As you can see, Super RSS Reader allows you to place one or more RSS feed summaries directly into any widgetized area on your blog. It has a few different options which you can set to determine how the feed is displayed – including description, description length, number of visible items, and so on. And if you are a dab hand with CSS, formatting the widget to your liking is an absolute cinch.

Super RSS Reader is not a game-changer (obviously). But it is a big improvement on the default WordPress RSS widget. So if that is something you already use (or are thinking of using), you should definitely take a look at this first.

Download Super RSS Reader here.

Tom Ewer on Google+

Custom admin icons are needed in when creating new custom post types, plugin settings and theme options pages. At the very least you will need three icons:

• two 16px icons for the admin menu, one non-colored and one colored icon for the hover state
• one 32px icon for the actual screen

What’s included in the template pack?

Inside the download you’ll find a layered PSD with all of the icons sizes you’ll need. You’ll also find code examples for quickly implementing the sprites with custom post types and plugin/theme options pages, along with a few sample sprites for the various sizes.

Refer to Matthias’ release post for more detailed recommendations for the workflow of implementing the template and code examples.

You can download the free WP Admin Icon template and code from Kremalicious.com or grab it on github. The code is licensed under the GPL and the template PSD is public domain, free to use in any personal or commercial projects. This template pack most certainly took some time to prepare, so drop by Matthias’ site to say thanks or buy him a coffee.

Sarah Gooding on Google+

Any plugin that you favorite will show up on your profile listing at profiles.wordpress.org. This is a great way to keep track of the plugins that you want to remember, use often or want to recommend to others. Check it out at the plugin repository and start adding your favorites.

Sarah Gooding on Google+

I recently interviewed Lester for ManageWP, and so had the opportunity to take a closer look at all of his plugins. One that caught my attention in particular was WP-ShowHide. It is very simple, but what it does, it does well.

The idea for WP-ShowHide came from the way in which Engadget embeds press releases within posts (here’s an example). And whilst the plugin certainly can be used to present press releases in that manner, it can also be used to embed and show/hide any form of text.

How Does It Work?

Using WP-ShowHide couldn’t be any simpler – just wrap the text you want to embed in [showhide][/showhide] tags, and readers will see the following:

If a visitor clicks on the link, the text appears seamlessly, and the link text changes accordingly:

As you can see, I am using the trusty T’Lipsum Generator for my dummy text (I’ll take any excuse to plug it).

By default, the shortcode assumes that you are embedding a press release. However, you can define a few different variables from within the shortcode to control settings:

• type – if you want to include more than one block of embedded text within a post, you need to name each one using this variable.
• more_text – use this variable to define the text that is displayed when the embedded content is hidden. Include “%s” to display a word count.
• less_text - conversely, use this variable to define the text that is displayed when the embedded content is displayed.
• hidden - define as yes/no to determine whether the embedded content is displayed or hidden (by default, it is hidden).

Here’s an example using all of the above variables:

[showhide type="podcast" more_text="Show Podcast Transcript (%s words)" less_text="Hide Podcast Transcript" hidden="yes"](Podcast Transcript)[/showhide]

And here is the end result:

That’s it! There are multiple potential applications for WP-ShowHide – how will you use it?

Download WP-ShowHide here.

Creative Commons image courtesy of Ernst Vikne

Tom Ewer on Google+

While the plugin was already loaded with features, the ability to segment audience by country is a game-changer for those who could benefit from catering to different visitors around the world in different ways. Here are a few examples of what’s possible with this new feature:

• Show a pop up only to visitors from the U.S. but no one else.
• Show a pop up to only visitors from the U.S. and Canada but no one else.
• Show one pop up to visitors from the U.S. and Canada, but show a different pop up to visitors from the U.K. and yet another pop up to visitors from Australia. Show everyone else either a completely different pop up or no pop up at all.
• Show a pop up to visitors from every country around the world except visitors from the U.S. and Canada.

Have the wheels in your head started turning yet?

Take a look at the country function in action.

Here is the complete list of upgrades and fixes in the new version:

• Added Geo IP rules to allow restriction of popover showing based on visitors country (using hostip.info’s API)
• Added IP cache so that the API isn’t hit repeatedly for the same IP address
• Added configuration option to allow the API used to be changed easily.
• Added configuration option to allow defaulting to a specific country if the API is down.
• Fixed IE bug that left dark background in place when dismissing popover.
• Fixed issue with internal referrals condition when domain mapping is active on a blog.

If you haven’t yet checked out the pop up plugin, you really should. It’s packed with controls that will let you do practically anything you like. Along with controlling how, when, and where the pop up displays, the plugin lets you show a pop up (or not) based on the following conditions:

• If the visitor is logged in
• If the visitor isn’t logged in
• If the visitor has never commented
• If the visitor came from a search engine
• If the visitor came from an external link
• If the visitor came from a specific referrer
• If the visitor has already seen the pop up X-number of times
• If the visitor is on a specific URL
• If the visitor is not on a specific URL
• If the visitor is in a specific country
• If the visitor is not in a specific country

And here’s a look at the display controls.

You can download the new version on its homepage.

Photo: World map from BigStock

Joseph Foley on Google+

That’s why the team at Theme Tailors created a solution for users of the popular MarketPress plugin. FrontEnd MarketPress creates a total front end experience for stores powered by WordPress and MarketPress. It takes only one minute to install and configure.

After the plugin is installed all the store settings are easily accessible on the frontend:

Store admins can create products on the frontend:

Manage orders, products, categories, and any settings related to the store:

The best part is that when MarketPress is updated, plugin gets seamlessly updated too!

Theme Tailor’s MarketPress Frontend Plugin features include:

• 1 minute install
• Creates front end forms to manage every MarketPress setting
• Autocreate store settings page for each new store creation
• Option to disable store setting links
• Option to disable wp-admin to Sub-Store admins

Frontend shop management is especially important for MarketPress, because it’s 100% WordPress Multisite and BuddyPress compatible, allowing you to create your own network of stores similar to Etsy or Shopify where you collect a percentage of all sales. The ability to do everything on the frontend is a big selling point your potential shop owners.

This plugin dramatically changes a user’s experience with MarketPress. The Frontend MarketPress plugin is available for $47 from Theme Tailors. For a limited time our loyal WPMU.org readers can get a 30% discount. Use coupon code: wpmudev at checkout. It’s good for a week starting today, so get it while it’s hot.

Sarah Gooding on Google+

It looks like a native part of WordPress, doesn’t it? I’ve tested it and it is fully multisite-compatible if you want to activate it across your network. Please note that this does not add gravatar support to your theme – it’s just a utility for your profile page. If the user doesn’t yet have a gravatar, the plugin displays a link to create one. This is very useful for new users who may not know how to add an avatar.

Download the free AP Gravatars plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.

Sarah Gooding on Google+

The Most Commenting Visitors plugin may be able to help with that. It both gamifies your comments and rewards your commenters by displaying the visitors with the most comments in a widget. If the user has a URL, it links out to their URL.

Here’s a look at it in action.

Settings

This is an easy-to-use plugin that has a few basic settings in the widget itself. One of the nice aspects of this plugin is that it lets you set the start date for when to start counting the comments. This is good because you can, for example, restart the “contest” every month, putting new visitors on an even playing field with long-time visitors at the beginning of each month.

It also lets you exclude specific users by their email. This is nice because you wouldn’t want the site Admin, for example, to appear in the list. You can also eliminate a user who is trying to game the system by leaving many short but useless comments.

Here’s a look at the widget settings.

More Love, More Comments

This is a simple but effective idea. People love to see their numbers go up. They love it even more when in competition with others. And they love getting links to their site. This simple idea does all of those things … and, oh yeah, it will get you more comments too.

Photo: Male Comment Icon from BigStock

Joseph Foley on Google+

Sharing media on a network is especially useful if you’re using multisite to manage a number of websites that you personally own and update. Or perhaps you are managing a group of student blogs and want to make a set of allowed images, video, and audio available for use. This plugin is perfect for that. Download Network Shared Media from the WordPress plugin repository.

Sarah Gooding on Google+

Code Freeze is a new plugin you may want to consider using during your WordPress migration. It temporarily puts your WordPress site into a “read only” state so that no more updates can be made. Specifically, it restricts the following:

• Disables adding/editing/deleting new content, media, themes, etc.
• Disables installing/activating/deactivating/updating/deleting all plugins (except this one)
• Disables new comments/trackbacks on all content items
• Removes the QuickPress widget and notices to upgrade core or plugins
• Provides notice to dashboard users that any changes will be lost
• Provides generally “read only” access to the dashboard

When a user attempts to do anything in the dashboard, he’ll see a message advising that the Code Freeze is in effect and any changes made will be lost.

The Code Freeze plugin makes no changes whatsoever to the database and it has no settings. When it’s activated, it’s turned on. When you want to turn it off, simply deactivate the plugin. If you want to make sure everything is in order after migration before letting authors post, leave the plugin on until you’ve verified your site. Even if you’re not moving your site to another location you can still use this plugin as a simple short-term “lock down” for any reason.

Bookmark the Code Freeze plugin to have on standby the next time you need to put WordPress in a read-only state.

Sarah Gooding on Google+