Overview
I am going to request a Ping.fm developer API key to access the Ping.fm API and try to develop a simple plugin for WordPress, with which I can cross-post and notify about new blog entries to the different “social networks” I belong to, in the easiest way possible.
This is really a personal project for now, as I don’t know if I will succeed, or how good it will be; all I know is that I want to try and make it, because I need it, and it will be an excellent experience to learn from. The current alternatives found in the WordPress plugin directory are not so much of my liking. They either lack some feature, are bugged, or are not being maintained consistently. I need something that meets my own needs. So… I suppose that is a fair enough reason to try this?
While I finish documenting the project and deciding how it will work and what it will do, I will use this blog post to make a reference to it. The chosen name for the plugin is WPxPing.fm.
Features
- Cross-post your blog entries to any of your blogs in services supported by Ping.fm.
- Send status updates to any of the Ping.fm-supported micro-blogging services whenever you post a new entry in your blog.
- Take advantage of your Ping.fm post triggers.
- Choose whether to shorten your post’s URL for sharing, and which service to use (more than one alternative will be supported).
- Choose what types of content (posts, pages, links, media, etc.) to cross-post and send status updates about, and how and when to do so.
- Add your own custom messages for status updates and choose which to use under different conditions.
- Wide range of options: choose default options, and overwrite them for every new post as necessary; including custom messages.
Updates
July 10th, 2010
It’s working!
Being new to WP plugin development, I ran into a few problems when I started working on this; but now that’s all solved, and the most basic and important function of the plugin, posting status updates through Ping.FM, works just fine. Now I need to add all the options and customizations that will make this a good plugin. :3 Wish me luck!
Testing
Options Page
July 13th, 2010
Cross-posting blog entries is now working! It is a global setting for now, though, because I’ll be focusing on those first. Once I am done with the “global settings,” I’ll move onto the individual post options.
By the way, Ping.fm did not approve my application, so I have decided to leave that alone until I am truly ready to release something that is worth more than a look. :3 Apparently, they are very selective and serious about what applications to approve; they probably just want to avoid spam, and I can definitely understand that. I probably rushed this too much.
More testing!
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