Welcome!
My name is Jessica, though I’m better known as Arwym on the Internet. FanPress is my first publicly released piece of code, and even more, plugin. I hope you’ll find it useful! Feedback is always welcome!
The Idea
I decided to make this plugin after trying –and failing– to integrate my Enthusiast3 installation with my WordPress blog. It was a pain, so then I thought it would be easier to add similar functionality with WordPress’s API, test it out with my own blog, and if it worked, release it as a plugin for the whole fanlisting community to use.
See the original blog entry where I brought this idea up for the first time. About four days after coming up with it, I had my first version of the plugin ready to be used.
Development & Features
I chose to use custom post types and taxonomies for fanlistings and fanlisting categories, respectively. The fanlisting “code” images are added via WP’s own media uploader. To display the image, however, you must set it as the entry’s “featured image.” Then, it will be automatically displayed as a link to the fanlisting’s Web site. I thought it was best to make full use of WP’s built-in features wherever possible. I hope you will find this easy enough for you, though, if you’re familiar enough with WP already, it should be.
In addition, I’ve made it super easy to display your fanlistings in your posts and pages through shortcodes. There are currently two shortcodes available, and they both accept an assortment of optional parameters to control the way they behave. Visit the Shortcodes page to see them in action; even more examples can be found at my own fanlistings collective, here.
Note: This plugin is still in its early stages, but I plan to keep it simple. No hosting of actual fanlisting sites is intended through this plugin. I repeat, this is only meant to manage and display your list of owned and joined fanlistings, wherever they may exist. Since I know that many of you fanlisting users have WordPress sites, I thought this would be a nice addition to your list of utilities.
So, What’s Next?
I plan on supporting this plugin for as long as I can. Bug fixes are the first priority, especially in these first stages of development. I want to be sure that the fanlistings will integrate just fine with any theme, as well. Right now, I’ve only tested it with Hybrid and TwentyEleven (WP’s new default theme). Suggestions on how to achieve these, if you got any, are very important. Nevertheless, there’s always the possibility of you adding custom CSS styling to achieve this.
One important feature I plan to add very soon is an options page. This page will offer you to change the default behavior of the shortcodes, and control the default CSS for the fanlisting and category lists, the fanlisting archives, and the single fanlisting info pages. This is currently hardcoded, and I want to make it completely custom.
Another idea that just occurred to me (updated on December 21, 2011), is to make it possible, within the options area, to have a default fanlisting icon, for the sake of those fanlistings that do not have their own yet. (I’ve come upon a few that are like this.)
Got any further ideas? Then, let me know about them. 
I Want to Hear You!
Please, do not hesitate to leave some feedback! Any questions, ideas, opinions, or whatever you want to tell me; please, let me know what you’re thinking! I’m very interested in it.
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I have activated the plugin but I don’t see anywhere to manage the fanlistings. I have the latest version of WP.
Hello, Jamie! Thanks for trying FanPress.
Can you tell me if you see any new menus under the “Comments” menus in your dashboard, or near it?
Also, could you tell me, what do you see when you visit the following address for your own blog: http://yourwpsite.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=fanlisting ?
Such an address should take you to the main fanlisting management page, where you see all your fanlisting posts and can edit and delete them.
I do not see any additional menus for the fanlisting post type under comments. If I go to the URL you mentioned I get the following:
Error.
I’m going to disable the rest of my plugins and just try this one and see if that matters. I DID update my permalinks and still nothing. I will let you know if its a plugin conflict!
Okay it is NOT a plugin conflict. I disabled all plugins, reactivated FanPress, updated my permalinks, and still no fanlisting management menu.
Well that was weird. I added a plugin (Revision Control) and all of the sudden, the fanlisting menu appeared. o_O
Oh my goodness, please delete all of these as you see fit. It was not revision control but the plugin “WordPress Editorial Calendar” that made the fanlisting menu show up. However, it put the link for the Calendar under that menu. If I deactivate that plugin, the fanlisting menu disappears.
Jesus Christ, that’s so weird. I had it tested on a couple of fresh installs. I wonder what’s going on. I’ll make a thorough test of the plugin in a few more installs and with different settings tomorrow. Thank you so much for the effort you’ve put in testing it for me. Now, I’ll do my best to solve this!
No problem. I hope it helps. Let me know if you figure anything out and I can try again. Looking forward to using the plugin though.
Jamie, I think I’ve fixed it! It was something quite simple, heheh. I overlooked a certain option that I was testing, and forgot to revert it to its original setting. It should work now. Thank you very much! The download is available as “version 0.15.” Let me know if you’re still experiencing problems.
Take care!
Hey there!
Thank you for a great initiative, Jessica. I have been going mad about Enthusiast poor cooperation with WordPress, and I’m happy someone has taken on the task of finding a solution for us enthusiasts out there.
I will continue to track this discussion as I seem to be having the same issue. Will also poke if I have something interesting to add myself, solution as another error.
Take care!
Hi there, Gabbi! Thanks so much for trying FanPress, and sorry that you were experiencing problems. I have found the problem, however, and a new download is available, if you’d like to try again. :3 Please let me know if you do!
And I definitely hope FanPress can serve as an alternative to enthusiasts out there. I like Enth, but compatibility with WP was always an issue for me. This is still not a full replacement for it, and will never be for those who run any fanlistings, but certainly, for those who just want to list their owned/joined fanlistings, wherever they may be, I believe this will do.
Take care!
The next step after installation, now that it should be working in the admin panel, is to see how it performs in the front end with as many different themes as possible. So far, this has only been tested in two themes, so I can’t be 100% sure that it’ll look right no matter the theme. That’s one of the main goals, but we’ll see.
Hurray! I can now see the menu, thanks to your updated version! Gonna try it immediatelly and will return to you am I experiencing issues still. Thanks alot, Jessica!
Hello, Gabbi!
Have you been able to test the plugin further? Other users have reported issues while creating the fanlistings: the URL of the fanlisting does not get saved. Did you have this problem as well?
Thank you, first of all, for attempting to fix the issue with WordPress integration for those of us like myself who are stupid about it.
Secondly, I’m having issues forcing the URI for the fanlisting to stay put after it’s typed into the text box and the fanlisting has been added. It disappears, for one reason or another, and never does get inserted into the database. :/
Hello, Faith!
I am sorry for the late reply.
If you’re still interested, would you mind giving me some more feedback on this problem? It’s been at least 2 users who have reported this problem, and I’m trying to find the source of it. It seems to work for me wherever I test it, so I’m considering this to be a plugin conflict. I need to know a few things, like which version of WordPress you’re using, and which other plugins you may have installed.
I haven’t given up on supporting and developing FanPress, so your feedback will be very valuable.
Thank you very much for testing FanPress, in the first place!
Thank you for working on this. I’ve been looking for a fanlist plugin for WordPress for a long time, and this looks promising.
Hello, Matt!
Thanks for trying the plugin. Has it worked for you? Other users have reported a problem with it, and I’m trying to fix it now.