As it says on the box, all of these are beta, but they shoudl work well enough...
... what we need now for you guys (as well as some testing) is ideas on how we can improve the experience, so if you want this to provide the maximum benefit to your users, now's the time to let us know how you'd like it to be improved!
As it says on the box, all of these are beta, but they shoudl work well enough...
... what we need now for you guys (as well as some testing) is ideas on how we can improve the experience, so if you want this to provide the maximum benefit to your users, now's the time to let us know how you'd like it to be improved!
Is there any conflicts if I use all of them together?
For Easy Blogging Tooltips, it would be lovely if users had the option to disable the tips from their Profile page as it might be a bit annoying for some users.
Are all of these plug-ins ready for WP3.0 or do I have to update the plugin again when there's another compatibility update?
You can definitely use them together. They're built to be used that way! I separated them into three separate plugins to get rid of the requirement for an admin area. Just upload the ones you want to /mu-plugins and you're good to go! :)
One thing to note: The Wizard won't work without Easy Blogging, but the Tooltips plugin will work independently of the others.
Great idea on giving the users the option to disable the tooltips. I'll add it to the to-do list. I may be able to get it added yet today.
The plugins haven't been tested on 3.0 yet, so you'll likely have to update when we update for 3.0. I think there were a few changes to the admin area in 3 that will conflict. However, if someone has a 3.0 test site and wants to give it a go, we'd love to hear what you find!
dslone is right, all you have to do is drop the easyblogging.php and easybloggingfiles folder into mu-plugins (same for the other two plugins) and it will auto-start.
@dslone I'll check out the IE error. Thanks for letting us know!
@Kenneth - I updated the Easy Blogging Tooltips plugin to include an on/off switch in the profile, as you suggested. Great idea!
Yep, just started a month or so ago. The Easy Blogging set are my first plugins, and there are a couple more that I'm working on that will be beta and/or released soon. James has me working on some really cool stuff :) I can't wait to see what you and the other members think about it!
Plugins work well in Safari and Chrome - but issues with FireFox. Content in easy admin format forces the content of the page to drop to the bottom. A large empty space appears at the top of page - but no error messages...
Users are encountering intense slowdowns/lags when using the easy admin dashboard, slow connectivity to none. I myself find that it works. I asked which browser one of them was using:
Chrome.
I did experience "slow loading" when picking the same page.
Is there an option for user who chose the easy blogging interface to revert back to the advanced one? If so where is it located? their profile page would be a great place for that...
but it doesn't seem to find the blogging tool tips plugin.
Could you please make it compatible? that is the easiest plugin for translations...
Especially since I can let trusted members help with the translation...
how about giving the super admin a menu where he can add tool tips for different other plugins?
i.e. for AIO SEO pack? I know you can't possibly cover all available plugins, so why not give us a menu where we can add tool tips for the plugins we have installed?
AND talking about localization, how do you feel about centralizing translations somehow? I frequently translate themes/plugins into Romanian and I wouldn't mind sharing those...
Must say, I'm pleased to see this one. I don't have a 2.9.2 test install anywhere at the moment... they're all 3.0-nightly builds, but of course... that didn't stop me from trying it out!
This is precisely the kind of "hand holding" new users need to help get started. If you're hoping to build a community or any kind of online service, it's important for your users to feel successful from the beginning. I think this plugin begins taking huge strides in that direction. As of right now, I don't see that it has any admin-area customization available, but it's still .1. I like the color scheme and the horizontal nav across the top. I think it's much more intuitive and less overwhelming. I'm not a big fan of big-ass tool tips, but that's just me. I think the tooltip should at least be smaller than the actual tab it's pointing to though. :)
FWIW, in 3.0 the "My Pages" tab doesn't show any of the previous pages for me in firefox (didn't try any other browsers yet) but everything else seems to be fine.
The easy-blogging wizard is also a fantastic idea. One suggestion would be for the admin to be able to add or subtract "steps" to provide a custom wizard for the separate needs of mu installs. For instance, if your users only have the choice of one theme or just a couple, it would be nice to direct them to the theme-specific options page immediately after they select the theme. I dunno if that's possible - but with theme options and frameworks becoming more then norm, this is an important first step for users. The new WPMU Product theme, for example, has a gorgeous set of options that I'd want all my users to get to immediately after selecting this theme.
Just some thoughts. Thanks for your work on this. And Jason, welcome to the team!
The plugin is fully internationalized, your plugin probably doesn't search for the load_textdomain() function and is expecting load_plugin_textdomain() or load_muplugin_textdomain() instead. It is also possible it is only scanning root files in mu-plugins (this one has the load_textdomain() function in a subfolder).
"Is there an option for user who chose the easy blogging interface to revert back to the advanced one? If so where is it located? their profile page would be a great place for that... "
There should be a nice big button up the top.
"how about giving the super admin a menu where he can add tool tips for different other plugins?
i.e. for AIO SEO pack? I know you can't possibly cover all available plugins, so why not give us a menu where we can add tool tips for the plugins we have installed?"
I think that's definitely worth looking in to! Not sure how feasible it would be though :/
@masonjames
Thanks for the feedback, maybe the my pages thing is a 3.0 issue? We'll take a look.
@daveaite (and others) how's the speed - I'm not sure how the plugin could be causing any loading issues?
Oh, @Ovidiu too - I think that we could definitely look into a centralized store of translations down the line... but that we need to be a bit bigger first (the effort involved in making that a success would be pretty huge I imagine!)
@ James, thats true, it might not be influenced by this plug-in. It was this plug-in that helped me decide to bring the site live, and some users experience loading issues, so its actually pretty hard to tell where the source of the lag is.
Somewhere in between logging in and going to dashboard for some users.
@Ovidiu The problem with giving a superadmin the ability to add their own tooltips is that each plugin's admin page is completely different. It would be exceedingly complicated to provide a graphical user interface for admins to choose where they want the tooltips to display, and have the tooltip displayed there reliably. I will spend some time exploring the idea, to see if there's a way to make it happen without making the plugin harder to use.
@masonjames Thanks for the welcome! Does the "My Pages" tab display previous pages in FF if you go to the page in "Advanced" mode? These plugins don't actually change anything in the way that page is built, they simply put it in the tab, and the tooltips plugin adds the tooltips via Javascript after the page loads. But, if you can see all of the pages in the advanced admin area, then something really strange is going on...
Great idea on being able to add or subtract steps for a custom wizard workflow. I'll see what I can do for that.
@Everyone - Thanks for testing! Your feedback is making these plugins even better. Keep testing, and definitely let me know what else you find! Both things you and your users like, don't like, or any bugs.
Wouldn't it be great if this plugin is integrated with Supporter and the Admins have the option to make this available to supporters only or everyone?
Since there isn't much previlages to offer to Supporters (my opinion), adding this would be a bonus! Another great reason to upgrade to Supporter. Hurray!
@Aaron: will bring up this issue with the other plugin author
@James: Just asking, I didn't dare try a beta on a live site and I haven't got a testbed right now.
@Jason: I was referring to the type of plugins that add fields/boxes to the write page/post pages, that would be a great improvement already, i.e. AIO and it seems you have overlooked the wordpress default fields of DISCUSSION and EXCERPT, I can't see a tool tip for those
@Jason What I'm noticing is that if I'm in the "advanced" or default mode and select the Edit pages menu I am directed to a page with the url of "http://example.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=page"
In Easy Mode the link is "http://example.com/wp-admin/index.php?easyadmin=on#edit-pages-php"
Dunno if it has to do with the "post_type" in the original url or not.
If I click on "My Pages" in easy admin, the picture below is an example of what I get. It knows there are pages available, but nothing is displayed.
The second screenshot is what happens when I'm on the correct "Edit Pages" are in advanced and switch to the Easy Admin.
Also, any way to get back to the easy setup wizard if you complete it and want to go back through it again? (mainly, I'm trying to do this for testing purposes, but I suppose a user may want to do this as well).
Jason, the check for current directory: if (defined('WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR') && strpos(__FILE__,WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR) === false) { //We're not in the WPMU Plugin Directory
breaks in windows servers because WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR looks different (like C:\Users\Aaron\wamp\www/wp-content/mu-plugins).
@Kenneth it does integrate with Supporter in that you get a 'Supporter Themes' and 'Supporter' tab (as well as a premium support options) but the idea is that this replaces the admin area for any user rather than just someone paying for it.
However, I'm sure that a decent dev could turn this into a stand alone plugin for supporters to activate if required.
another idea, let me hear what you think about this:
how about an option to deactivate the plugin page and different other settings for users who chose the easy blogging interface? or does that automatically happen? I can't see any settings/plugin page in the screen shot of the plugin (haven't tried it live yet)
@Ovidiu the plugins page isn't included in easy blogging as it', by definition, fairly advanced...
However, there is a 'Supporter Themes' and general 'Supporter' tab which you can use to promote extra features (such as plugins) that Supporter might offer your users.
We've also wrapped custom headers (if available) under the widgets (which we've called 'Customize design').
I admit I am very cautios right now without a test bed, so i am throwing these plugisn one by one to my users. started with the tool tips one, works a treat.
tried the wizard one next,but after the last sign-up step, the page loads only half. I am sure its an incompatibility with another plugins, so I haven't reported anything, meanwhile hunting for the culprit. Once the wizard works, I'll add easy blogging to complete the setup.
Minor bug fix for EB, but Wizard got its' own admin panel (Under Site Admin menu) with customizable wizard steps! Steps initially default to the two that were there in 0.1, but now you can add, delete, and edit the steps as needed for your site.
Note: I haven't put Wizard 0.2 through a whole lot of testing time, so if you find any bugs, let me know! I wanted to get it out to you ASAP so you could customize your wizard steps :)
I'm now looking toward bug fixing, both what's already listed in this thread, as well as any new ones posted. So if you run into anything, let me know! And, as always with bug reports, the more information you can give me, the better. What happened? What were you doing? What version of WPMU? What version of the plugin? Screenshots are fantastic (Thanks, @masonjames!)
When it comes to bug reporting, there is no such thing as too much information. Though, keep the info site related. I could do without knowing your grandmother's maiden name :)
@Jason Way to go with the quick updates! I'm stoked the admin interface was added to the wizard so quickly. I had already customized the original wizard to work for a project I had this week. When I saw the post of the new version, I figured I'd give it a shot and see what it came up with.
The admin panel looks good and provides all the abilities I was hoping for. However, it doesn't seem to be working for the other blogs. The changes are saved in the admin panel as I can go back to that page as super admin and see the changes still there, but when I have a blog go through the admin wizard they are still seeing the default options. I've tried it with blogs already in existence and newly created blogs - results are the same. Haven't had time to see why this would be happening, but this is on a test install of wp 3.0 with multi-site.
If I go ahead and try to use the wizard I get this error message "Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete."
Anyway, thought I'd give you the heads up. Also, the welcome page needs a little CSS love, but I know this is a beta and you've got your plate full! Just pointing things out cause I'm so stinkin' excited about the functions this'll provide!
I like the fact that this will integrate with the supporter plugin, however, I would like to see this plugin come into play after the new user has had the chance to visit the supporter page. For some sites, there isn't a trial period and my clients want the user to sign up as a paid member as their first action. It appears that this plugin activates and allows setup for the user even if they're not registered as a supporter yet.
two thumbs up on the wizard customization ability, will be tying this in with some hand-rolled plugins...off to play with it now...
feature suggestion: wizard integration with "supporter" plugin
- I find my users tend not to pay until they've seen the goods, plus providing the option at registration reduces my signup rate, so giving them the option at the "pick a theme" stage would be stellar. (right now, premium themes say "supporter only" in red and the preview works, but the link goes nowhere)
edit: on further reading, perhaps this is already in the roadmap?
@masonjames - Good catch. Ahh the joys of not fully testing to rush out a big change :) I fixed it, go ahead and re-download the new version. The steps should save site wide now. Let me know if that fix also fixes the Firefox redirect error message. That shouldn't happen, so hopefully it was a symptom of the bug.
If it still happens, let me know what page it's trying to go to (in the URL bar) and what page is set for that step in the wizard admin area. I think it might be a small bug in the redirect logic if it's not fixed with this update, but I can't reproduce it.
RE: Supporter integration - What exactly would you like to see in the supporter integration? The first step in the wizard becomes the supporter signup page? Or no access to the EB stuff unless they're a supporter? Or something completely different? I'm confused as to exactly what you guys are asking for there.
@ Everyone else who reported a bug/display problem. I didn't forget about you :) I wanted to get the additional functionality out there for testing while I dealt with the compatibility and non-overall-breaking bugs. Going back to work those now!
@Jason - Yep, things are saving as expected. Probably having a "save all" button on the admin page would be helpful. For instance, if I change the order of the steps by drag and dropping this order is not saved, currently, unless I actually click save on each individual tab. Also, though the first and last tabs are specific to this plugin, it'd be nice to be able to change the words that appear for the first and last step (for instance, on my current project built on 3.0 we don't use the word "blog" to describe the sites).
Also, though the admin area configuration says "Name: (For display purposes)" the "Title" is actually displayed for the breadcrumbs.
I'm not experiencing the redirect issue anymore. Dunno what caused it before, but things are good now.
As for supporter integration I think it's highly individual to the project/client needs. Some people want their users to be able to use all supporter functions for 2 weeks or a month before requiring payment, but others want to require payment from users upon first login. My thoughts are that if Supporter is not set up to give a "trial period" then the first login should redirect to the supporter payment regardless of having the easy-wizard installed or not. If Supporter DOES have a trial period enabled, then they would be able to login and immediately access the wizard.
Further integration could mean that when Supporter payment is required on first login and the user completes this task, they are automatically taken from there to the easy-admin wizard (if it's enabled).
Again, I have been toying around with this exact idea in my head for months, so I'm stoked to see an actual working example and be able to play around with it. I'm planning on turning some heads at a brief demo I have scheduled tomorrow! Should be fun!
On a "fun" customization note, I've got one other UX thing that I'm dealing with (and this is not a feature request). Because each of my users gets the same theme, the first step is actually "home page options" and my fear is that people will not realize that after uploading their own images, choosing colors, fonts and whatnot, that they have to "save" before continuing to the next step. I'm trying to incorporate the "save" function of my options page into the wizard's next step button so that it will automatically save any changes before they navigate away or alternatively pop up with a reminder to save their customizations before moving on... ahhh... fun times ;)
Heya guys, re: CSS / design on this plugin could you let us know what kind of improvements you'd like to see... please fee free to mock up how you'd like it to look and attach to this thread too.
Richie's been helping out on that front so I'll let him know about this thread too.
While testing - I noticed that two tabs had the same name "customize design". The one for choosing a theme could be changed to... well... "Choose theme/skin"
Also, according to Mullenweg, the most popular page in WP is the stats page. Could we get a tab for that or the dashboard (dashboard has summary stats and a link to stats page).
Thanks for the feedback... a nice way to add extra tabs would be cool - but probably a v2.0 I think.
Are you sure about the duplicate tab names? There definitely shouldn't be more than 1 customize design tab - the reason we chose that name was because it's much simpler than widgets and alse because we've added custom headers (if available) to it too.
Ok, just released some fixes for EB and EB Wizard, should fix everything mentioned in this thread except for things noted below:
Those of you with display/lag problems, could you give me as much information as you can? What pages are affected, what browsers (exact versions, please), and what other plugins do you have activated on your site? I fixed the problems I could reproduce, but I wasn't able to reproduce everything.
I also like the idea of adding a customization menu for the EB tabs (like we did for the Wizard) - I'll see if I can fit that in soon. I'm working on a number of other plugins that are coming into beta right now, so I'm swamped with last minute tweaks and beta bug fixes. If I can find time to get the custom tabs done before EB comes out of beta, I will, but I can't make any promises.
If you find any other bugs/problems/confusion points on these three plugins, keep letting me know!
@masonjames - if you add wizard_step=0 to the URL (as a querystring, before the # if there is one) then it will reset the wizard to the beginning. We didn't make it into a button available for users because the vast majority of them will never want to go back through the wizard, and the ones who do can still access all of the same features within the easy admin area anyhow.
You mentioned that the order wasn't saved automatically when you reorder the steps. Could you give me some details about what you're doing when they don't save? It should save the order automatically each time you reorder the steps.
Also, for your UX customization, if you create a quick mu-plugins plugin that adds some jQuery to the home page options page, you should be able to add a quick jQuery function to the click event to catch it & fire an ajax call to save the data while the button's post command moves to the next step: jQuery('.wizard_next_step').live('click',function() { ... });
And finally, for your 'My Pages' problem, I can't reproduce it at all. Would you be able to send me login details for that site so I can check it out and see if I can pinpoint it there?
@fuzu42 - Clicking the "Click here to find out how to become a supporter" link on the Premium Themes page should open a new page that displays the Supporter tab. Does yours not do that?
Just installed easy bloggin and playing around with it.
- do you hide other plugin "fields" on purpose i.e. in the write new post screen? I have faster insert active, and when switching to easy interface, the fields disappear but i.e. AIOSEO remains
- when writing new post the excerpt is also missing, again, on purpose?
- did I misunderstand the easy bloggign wizard, but shouldn't the user be redirected straight to the wizard after he logs in for the first time? if not, consider this a request :-) I'd love users to be sent straight to the wizard. after all, it'll might take them a while to find the easy interface button on top of the dashboard...
- I dismissed the easy blogging wizard, now I can't find it again!? clicking the button toggles between easy and advanced interface... of course I can append wizard_step=0 to the URL but my users won't know that :-(
- do you hide other plugin "fields" on purpose i.e. in the write new post screen? I have faster insert active, and when switching to easy interface, the fields disappear but i.e. AIOSEO remains
I'm not sure how we do it but I'd very much like ito to hide everything that is currently there, unless set otherwise by site admin or hacked.
- when writing new post the excerpt is also missing, again, on purpose?
Yeh, we deemed it unneccessary for basic blogging
- did I misunderstand the easy bloggign wizard, but shouldn't the user be redirected straight to the wizard after he logs in for the first time? if not, consider this a request :-) I'd love users to be sent straight to the wizard. after all, it'll might take them a while to find the easy interface button on top of the dashboard...
Yes, new bloggers should go straight to the wizard (as long as they select easy blogging) - did this not work for you?
I agree though, that a wizard for the regular admin interface might be a cool thing too!
- I dismissed the easy blogging wizard, now I can't find it again!? clicking the button toggles between easy and advanced interface... of course I can append wizard_step=0 to the URL but my users won't know that :-(
Also agree, it would be nice to have a link to the 'Wizard' in the top (or bottom?) it would also help with testing :) You cool with that Jason?
I really like the interface for easy blogging! Quick question:
Would it be possible to implement a very small message telling users at different levels about their capabilities when trying to utilize a tab where they don't have the ability to manipulate things?
For example, if I ascribe a user as an "author" then that person can access the post tab and develop and publish a post. If this user tries to access the "pages" or "customize design" tab then by default they are just taken to their dashboard and not given that capability, which is great! However, I fear there will be much confusion because there's not a small message explaining to them why they are not capable of utilizing these tabs. It could be as simple as "Sorry, but this function is not available to users who have been ascribed as ________. Only admins, _______, and _______ have these capabilities." Something to that effect.
Without some small message, I feel that many new users will find "easy" blogging somewhat confusing.
- did I misunderstand the easy bloggign wizard, but shouldn't the user be redirected straight to the wizard after he logs in for the first time? if not, consider this a request :-) I'd love users to be sent straight to the wizard. after all, it'll might take them a while to find the easy interface button on top of the dashboard...
Yes, new bloggers should go straight to the wizard (as long as they select easy blogging) - did this not work for you?
What do you mean as long as they select? When I did a test signup yesterday, I gave my name, email, got the activation link by mail, went to my back end, no wizard.
Where should they have selected the wizard?
@Ovidiu - When a new member logs in for the first time, they should get a page that says do you want Easy Blogging or Advanced Blogging - If they click the EB button, they should be sent to the wizard.
Do you have both Easy Blogging and the Easy Blogging Wizard installed in mu-plugins?
@David - I'll look into what it would take to put up a message RE: capabilities. Would it be even better if only the tabs they have access to show up?
I was using Levi Putna's terms and conditions plugin, which hijacks the start page when logging in for the first time and makes you agree to the T&Cs - changed to your T&C plugin now the wizard shows up.
I think the wizard could use some touches in terms of graphics, is it just me or did the wizard looks better (had nice icons in front of the steps, etc) when invoked manually from the back end?
Also shouldn't it say something along the lines of: Use our wizard to get started with your new blog step by step? Right now its just 3 links on top of the page, not sure if users will click them!?
Also is it possible to hide the other elements, i.e. the tips, the supporter stuff and the latest post from the global feed that you see in my screen shot when logging in for the first time? All I want them to do at this stage is go through with the wizard and chose easy or advanced interface, no need confusing them right from the start...
something weird happened. After posting my last post, I clicked on step one, and guess what: I am back to the same page, see here: http://screencast.com/t/Nzk3NzBiN
Next I click on step 2: same story, now on the right side, the link with the text click here to continue to step 3 is missing? http://screencast.com/t/OWRjY2ZkZWY
Also I thin the layout could be improved: users are faced with 2 buttons: View Your Blog and continue writing posts, while the 3rd choice is on top of the dashboard: Exit the quick start guide. I think they should all be presented together in one line.
This is really weird, I click the continue writing posts button which points to wp-admin/index.php see screen shot: http://screencast.com/t/YTYxNWI1Z
this is where I end up after clicking the continue writing posts button: http://screencast.com/t/YTEyZjY1NT
It seems to just continue with the wizard...
Doesn't seem logical at all and is prone to create confusion :-(
@Jason, uploaded the newest versions and things are flowing very nicely.
wizard_step=0. Good to know. Using it and it works. @Ovidiu mentions allowing regular users to go back through the wizard. I think it'll be a very small percentage of users who will need this and I'm not sure where you'd put a link to this anyway.
I'm no longer having the issue with the menu order not saving. At least, I'm unable to reproduce it. Even just re-ordering the items and then refreshing the quickstart page in a separate browser shows the re-ordering working immediately. I don't think this is an issue.
I agree with @Ovidiu that having all the fields available on the new post screen is kinda important. I'm sure that many things were intentionally pulled to make things easy (that's the point, right?) but I suppose in a perfect world the super admin would be able to define what exists on this page as well. I have a real estate site I'm working on currently that has a whole section of property details added to the new/edit post page via the theme function. Even if the user wants the easy admin interface, they'll need access to those fields, but perhaps this level of customization is best left to those with the dev chops to code it themselves? ;)
+1 for Custom Tab creation in the easy blogging plugin. That'll give us total control over the user experience! Great stuff!
Thanks for the direction on the UX jquery plugin. I agree that's probably the best way to go about it.
I am still having the "My Pages" problem where pages do not show in the easy admin. I've tested this in chrome and firefox with the same results on my mac. Must have something to do with my particular install? I've added fresh copies of both easy admin and easy wizard, but still get that results. I'd send you a login, but I'm not sure where to send it. Do we have PM capabilities in this forum?
@Ovidiu, when I created a new user/site and logged that user in for the first time, I was presented with the option of going with the easy admin, wizard, or straight to advanced. Did you not get that option?
@Ovidiu - Try downloading the latest versions of EB and Wizard, what you're seeing should be gone now.
@masonjames - Awesome, I'm glad the ajax reordering is working for you now. I'll see what I can do to set up something to allow things to display on the new post page, but you're right, it may be best left to those with dev chops to work around it themselves :) It should be fixable if you add your meta boxes through the do_meta_boxes with an order of 11 or above, as the boxes are removed at the default order, which is 10. I haven't tested that, though.
You can email me the login details at jason /at/ flurrymarketing.com and I'll go in and check things out
- any chance plugins can be stopped from outputting anything onto the first page when user first logs in?
- the next steps during the wizard, don't show the blogging tips, supporter messages, etc.
- the other output in my previous screen shots comes from wordpress, it shows the latest feed from the feed I entered under the siteadmin options page: Admin Notice Feed - can this be removed during teh wizard and maybe if the easy interface was chosen?
RE: Supporter Integration. I've been thinking about this and the easiest way to have it as part of the wizard is to simply give supporter it's own step. The "problem" is that if they skip that step they can still access their site and whatnot (with all the limitations of a non-supporter). I'd like to have a point in the process where they are forced to make a decision or go no further (It's harsh, but hey, this is a business :P). What do you guys think? Or, do you simply make the limitations of being a non-supporter so severe (no writing, uploading, etc) that they can't do anything until they pay?
@David - Done. The tabs appear based on the capabilities of the user now, download the updated file and give it a try!
@masonjames - I think it has to be a site-by-site decision. If you want to really pressure your users to upgrade, then you could remove the next step button on the supporter page via jQuery (add the jQuery to the footer) and then add two buttons on that page to make the user choose explicitly between supporter and non-supporter.
But I'm not sure how much that would raise or lower conversions. It might make sales go up a ton, or hurt you in the long run, depending on your audience. I don't know your site's market well enough to know how they'd react.
I don't offer a trial period of supporter. they sign up, and see al the nice plugins/themes/other benefits and if they want, well they sign up for supporter. if not, well, they are free to stay non-supporters.
so always forcing them would not be a good general decision for everyone using this plugin.
Would it be possible to make this the ONLY way for people to edit their blog, meaning they don't get access to the advanced version, only the simplified version as an option? Essentially just getting rid of hte top wordpress bar and the button that says go to advanced version.
Also, what if I want to hide a couple of tabs like "Manage Themes" from my users? Possible?
OK, a couple more thoughts. I'm still tinkering...
The latest version of easy-admin has a version check commented out of frame.php. When I uncomment these lines the pages and edit-pages tabs both work flawlessly! Yea!! :D
Also, I discovered how to use the add_meta boxes for posts/pages so that they show even on easy admin. The important part is to set the context to 'advanced'. If they are set to 'normal' they will be removed. Setting the priority to 'high' doesn't seem to do the trick - the metabox will still be hidden from view.
@ohmra (@Jason)
Would it be possible to make this the ONLY way for people to edit their blog, meaning they don't get access to the advanced version, only the simplified version as an option? Essentially just getting rid of hte top wordpress bar and the button that says go to advanced version.
I was thinking about something similar to this. Here's my thought: If easy-admin-wizard is installed I think it should supersede (bonus word for 4AM) the "start.php" page from easy-admin. In other words, easy-admin should check for the wizard and if the wizard is installed, go straight to the welcome.php page. This page will present and appropriate welcome and then go right into the wizard and, eventually, the easy-admin and options for advanced interface.
For experienced users, it'll mean one more click of skipping the wizard and going onto the advanced interface if they desire, but I have to think that will be the exception. Mainly, people will want to use the wizard followed by the easy-admin or advanced. What do you think?
This also makes things a little more streamlined for those of us who want to make the supporter page part of the wizard steps - a new user won't be able (even accidentally) to skip the supporter option by going straight to the advanced admin.
OK, that's it for now. Thanks again for letting us get in there and really mess with this thing. Excited by the progress!
@masonjames - Awesome! I added those lines when I found the problem on your blog, but I don't have a 3.0 test blog set up, and didn't want to ask you to do testing for me before I did any initial testing at all :) But I'm glad you found the commented out lines and they worked for you. Any other issues with 3.0 that you're seeing?
@everyone - What do the rest of you think about Ohmra and masonjames's suggestions? Thoughts? Ideas? Questions?
Wow, this is so bad ass. Thanks so much for the great suite of plugins. Got a plugin conflict with wordpress admin bar improved (puts the wordpress like admin bar at the top across wpmu). In the Easy Admin Area the wordpress admin bar is duplicated right below the Easy Admin menus (see attached). I know this might not be your issue but if you could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.
The admin bar is called by the wp_footer function.
@ohmra in terms of making this the default interface / adding or removing tabs my thinking at the moment is that that would be a good addition to a 2.0 version of this plugin... and in the meantime I'm hopeful that it shouldn't be too hard to hack to do that.
@masonjames
If easy-admin-wizard is installed I think it should supersede (bonus word for 4AM) the "start.php" page from easy-admin. In other words, easy-admin should check for the wizard and if the wizard is installed, go straight to the welcome.php page. This page will present and appropriate welcome and then go right into the wizard and, eventually, the easy-admin and options for advanced interface.
Not too sure I agree there, on Edublogs (for example) I'm keen to offer users the option basically select if they want to go easy or advanced and then hit the wizard if they choose easy... how many experienced users (bar us, testing out our sites :) will be creating stacks of blogs anyway?
@omgitsrfb is that Vipers admin bar? If so I'm keen to fix that one up asap cos we're looking at using it on Edublogs shortly :)
@David Payne - wouldn't the tooltip be the same size as the icons moreorless :) And they already have tooltipness if you hover over them?
@James, yes. well it's Vipers admin bar improved. The 'improved' is a fork of Vipers that allows users to see the admin bar even when they are not logged in (virtually giving them a login toolbar). You can see it at outloudblogs.com if you'd like.
Let me know when you've get it all fixed up. Thanks.
@james. oh yay! i figured something out and can contribute instead of always asking questions. I fixed this by setting the default to 0 on line 117 in wordpress-admin-bar-improved.php. This way the user can override if they wish to, but I would also like to know how to keep it from showing up twice if they choose to enact the toolbar in the admin area along with the easy admin functions of easy blogging.
Yeh, clearly there's a problem with stuff showing up twice.. I wonder if it'll be exactly the same for other plugins... ideally nothing should really interfere with the header part of easy blogging.
@masonjames - Thanks for the catch, it's fixed and will be in the next update.
RE: Viper's admin bar - The same thing will happen for any plugin, because the way I'm removing stuff like that (the header, the BP admin bar, etc) is via CSS or directly removing the hook that displays it. It has to be done for every individual plugin, unfortunately, but I'll add Viper's plugin to the list.
I have found that the easiest way to get a new user to go straight into the easy-blogging wizard is to comment out the first_login function in easy_blogging.php Of course, this is only to avoid the extra step of the start.php. Merely a personal preference.
*EDIT* The following is not accurate as I was using a modified version of supporter-framework.php that was causing the error. I fixed it.
<strike>What I'm still trying to make happen is adding the supporter signup page as a step in the wizard.
If I add a step linking to "wp-admin/supporter.php" it creates an infinite redirect loop in firefox and chrome. Got any ideas on how to get around that?</strike>
Thanks again. This plugin has so much potential and can obviously modified to suit many different needs!
It may be a good idea to make the Tooltips so that they don't have transparency, most of the tooltips aren't very legible because the transparency ..... screenshot included.
I installed the easy blogging suite on a WP MU 3 installation. I find the easy blogging tool tips plugin is preventing users from attaching images to new posts. The image upload pop-up window only contains a sub-set of it's options with no gallery, url or media tabs and you need to click the upload button to force the image to upload. When uploaded the user navigates away from the post and the image edit is lost. Quick Press on the dashboard is not effected.
I understand that work is being done on this plug-in to make it WP3 compatible. Is there an estimate of when it may be complete? Some feed back would really be appreciated. :)
I love the plugin but there are a few errors running under WP3. I would also like to know when it may be complete. The themes and "customise design" tabs are not working at the moment, and sometimes the sidebar and title are displayed in the tabs frame as well as outside the frame.
Responses (85)
Member — 7th May 2010 #
Very cool!
Is there any conflicts if I use all of them together?
For Easy Blogging Tooltips, it would be lovely if users had the option to disable the tips from their Profile page as it might be a bit annoying for some users.
Are all of these plug-ins ready for WP3.0 or do I have to update the plugin again when there's another compatibility update?
Thanks.
Developer — 7th May 2010 #
You can definitely use them together. They're built to be used that way! I separated them into three separate plugins to get rid of the requirement for an admin area. Just upload the ones you want to /mu-plugins and you're good to go! :)
One thing to note: The Wizard won't work without Easy Blogging, but the Tooltips plugin will work independently of the others.
Great idea on giving the users the option to disable the tooltips. I'll add it to the to-do list. I may be able to get it added yet today.
The plugins haven't been tested on 3.0 yet, so you'll likely have to update when we update for 3.0. I think there were a few changes to the admin area in 3 that will conflict. However, if someone has a 3.0 test site and wants to give it a go, we'd love to hear what you find!
Lead Developer — 7th May 2010 #
Ya, definatley not quite ready for 3.0.
Member — 7th May 2010 #
I'm trying to install this, but I'm not quite sure where everything goes...
Member — 7th May 2010 #
Much like Greg, I cant determine where these files goes. I've attempted several different ways to no avail.
Member — 8th May 2010 #
I dropped easyblogging.php and the entire folder easybloggingfiles into mu-plugins and it worked for me.
I should say it seemed OK and smooth in firefox but very buggy in IE and showed Message: 'undefined' jquery error
Developer — 8th May 2010 #
dslone is right, all you have to do is drop the easyblogging.php and easybloggingfiles folder into mu-plugins (same for the other two plugins) and it will auto-start.
@dslone I'll check out the IE error. Thanks for letting us know!
@Kenneth - I updated the Easy Blogging Tooltips plugin to include an on/off switch in the profile, as you suggested. Great idea!
Founder & CEO — 8th May 2010 #
Yeh, can you guys make sure you share as many details as you can for any browser compatibility issues please :)
We'll also work on making it 3.0 compatible now too.
Member — 8th May 2010 #
Thanks Jason!
Quite strange I've never saw you in the Forums before and also that you have just 4 posts posted.
Are you a new developer to WPMU Dev?
Developer — 8th May 2010 #
Yep, just started a month or so ago. The Easy Blogging set are my first plugins, and there are a couple more that I'm working on that will be beta and/or released soon. James has me working on some really cool stuff :) I can't wait to see what you and the other members think about it!
Member — 9th May 2010 #
Plugins work well in Safari and Chrome - but issues with FireFox. Content in easy admin format forces the content of the page to drop to the bottom. A large empty space appears at the top of page - but no error messages...
Member — 9th May 2010 #
Users are encountering intense slowdowns/lags when using the easy admin dashboard, slow connectivity to none. I myself find that it works. I asked which browser one of them was using:
Chrome.
I did experience "slow loading" when picking the same page.
Member — 9th May 2010 #
Okay, so not all users are experiencing the same lag issue, but I've encountered 3 people so far (out of 19 sites). Just started MU Sites
Member — 9th May 2010 #
Is there an option for user who chose the easy blogging interface to revert back to the advanced one? If so where is it located? their profile page would be a great place for that...
Member — 9th May 2010 #
how about localization? I tried to translate the blogging tool tips plugin with this plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/codestyling-localization/
but it doesn't seem to find the blogging tool tips plugin.
Could you please make it compatible? that is the easiest plugin for translations...
Especially since I can let trusted members help with the translation...
Member — 9th May 2010 #
also here is another improvement suggestion:
how about giving the super admin a menu where he can add tool tips for different other plugins?
i.e. for AIO SEO pack? I know you can't possibly cover all available plugins, so why not give us a menu where we can add tool tips for the plugins we have installed?
AND talking about localization, how do you feel about centralizing translations somehow? I frequently translate themes/plugins into Romanian and I wouldn't mind sharing those...
Sales & Support Lead — 9th May 2010 #
Must say, I'm pleased to see this one. I don't have a 2.9.2 test install anywhere at the moment... they're all 3.0-nightly builds, but of course... that didn't stop me from trying it out!
This is exactly the kind of thing I've been thinking about and working on for my own projects. I even mentioned some ideas on an earlier post here:
http://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic/will-it-be-possible-to-transition-from-supporter-to-membership
This is precisely the kind of "hand holding" new users need to help get started. If you're hoping to build a community or any kind of online service, it's important for your users to feel successful from the beginning. I think this plugin begins taking huge strides in that direction. As of right now, I don't see that it has any admin-area customization available, but it's still .1. I like the color scheme and the horizontal nav across the top. I think it's much more intuitive and less overwhelming. I'm not a big fan of big-ass tool tips, but that's just me. I think the tooltip should at least be smaller than the actual tab it's pointing to though. :)
FWIW, in 3.0 the "My Pages" tab doesn't show any of the previous pages for me in firefox (didn't try any other browsers yet) but everything else seems to be fine.
The easy-blogging wizard is also a fantastic idea. One suggestion would be for the admin to be able to add or subtract "steps" to provide a custom wizard for the separate needs of mu installs. For instance, if your users only have the choice of one theme or just a couple, it would be nice to direct them to the theme-specific options page immediately after they select the theme. I dunno if that's possible - but with theme options and frameworks becoming more then norm, this is an important first step for users. The new WPMU Product theme, for example, has a gorgeous set of options that I'd want all my users to get to immediately after selecting this theme.
Just some thoughts. Thanks for your work on this. And Jason, welcome to the team!
Lead Developer — 9th May 2010 #
@ovidiu on localization:
The plugin is fully internationalized, your plugin probably doesn't search for the load_textdomain() function and is expecting load_plugin_textdomain() or load_muplugin_textdomain() instead. It is also possible it is only scanning root files in mu-plugins (this one has the load_textdomain() function in a subfolder).
You should take these up with that plugin author.
Founder & CEO — 9th May 2010 #
@ovidiu
"Is there an option for user who chose the easy blogging interface to revert back to the advanced one? If so where is it located? their profile page would be a great place for that... "
There should be a nice big button up the top.
"how about giving the super admin a menu where he can add tool tips for different other plugins?
i.e. for AIO SEO pack? I know you can't possibly cover all available plugins, so why not give us a menu where we can add tool tips for the plugins we have installed?"
I think that's definitely worth looking in to! Not sure how feasible it would be though :/
@masonjames
Thanks for the feedback, maybe the my pages thing is a 3.0 issue? We'll take a look.
@daveaite (and others) how's the speed - I'm not sure how the plugin could be causing any loading issues?
Founder & CEO — 9th May 2010 #
Oh, @Ovidiu too - I think that we could definitely look into a centralized store of translations down the line... but that we need to be a bit bigger first (the effort involved in making that a success would be pretty huge I imagine!)
Member — 10th May 2010 #
@ James, thats true, it might not be influenced by this plug-in. It was this plug-in that helped me decide to bring the site live, and some users experience loading issues, so its actually pretty hard to tell where the source of the lag is.
Somewhere in between logging in and going to dashboard for some users.
Developer — 10th May 2010 #
@Ovidiu The problem with giving a superadmin the ability to add their own tooltips is that each plugin's admin page is completely different. It would be exceedingly complicated to provide a graphical user interface for admins to choose where they want the tooltips to display, and have the tooltip displayed there reliably. I will spend some time exploring the idea, to see if there's a way to make it happen without making the plugin harder to use.
@masonjames Thanks for the welcome! Does the "My Pages" tab display previous pages in FF if you go to the page in "Advanced" mode? These plugins don't actually change anything in the way that page is built, they simply put it in the tab, and the tooltips plugin adds the tooltips via Javascript after the page loads. But, if you can see all of the pages in the advanced admin area, then something really strange is going on...
Great idea on being able to add or subtract steps for a custom wizard workflow. I'll see what I can do for that.
@Everyone - Thanks for testing! Your feedback is making these plugins even better. Keep testing, and definitely let me know what else you find! Both things you and your users like, don't like, or any bugs.
Member — 10th May 2010 #
Wouldn't it be great if this plugin is integrated with Supporter and the Admins have the option to make this available to supporters only or everyone?
Since there isn't much previlages to offer to Supporters (my opinion), adding this would be a bonus! Another great reason to upgrade to Supporter. Hurray!
Member — 10th May 2010 #
@Aaron: will bring up this issue with the other plugin author
@James: Just asking, I didn't dare try a beta on a live site and I haven't got a testbed right now.
@Jason: I was referring to the type of plugins that add fields/boxes to the write page/post pages, that would be a great improvement already, i.e. AIO and it seems you have overlooked the wordpress default fields of DISCUSSION and EXCERPT, I can't see a tool tip for those
Sales & Support Lead — 10th May 2010 #
@Jason What I'm noticing is that if I'm in the "advanced" or default mode and select the Edit pages menu I am directed to a page with the url of "http://example.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=page"
In Easy Mode the link is "http://example.com/wp-admin/index.php?easyadmin=on#edit-pages-php"
Dunno if it has to do with the "post_type" in the original url or not.
If I click on "My Pages" in easy admin, the picture below is an example of what I get. It knows there are pages available, but nothing is displayed.
The second screenshot is what happens when I'm on the correct "Edit Pages" are in advanced and switch to the Easy Admin.
Sales & Support Lead — 10th May 2010 #
Also, any way to get back to the easy setup wizard if you complete it and want to go back through it again? (mainly, I'm trying to do this for testing purposes, but I suppose a user may want to do this as well).
Lead Developer — 10th May 2010 #
Jason, the check for current directory:
if (defined('WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR') && strpos(__FILE__,WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR) === false) { //We're not in the WPMU Plugin Directorybreaks in windows servers because WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR looks different (like C:\Users\Aaron\wamp\www/wp-content/mu-plugins).
Founder & CEO — 10th May 2010 #
@Kenneth it does integrate with Supporter in that you get a 'Supporter Themes' and 'Supporter' tab (as well as a premium support options) but the idea is that this replaces the admin area for any user rather than just someone paying for it.
However, I'm sure that a decent dev could turn this into a stand alone plugin for supporters to activate if required.
Member — 11th May 2010 #
Runs smoothly, and LOTS of positive feedback from users.
Thank You!
CentOS 5, WPMU 2.9.2, php 5.1.6, MySql 5.1.46, eAccelerator on, Gears on/off, FF/Safari/Chrome/IE
Member — 11th May 2010 #
another idea, let me hear what you think about this:
how about an option to deactivate the plugin page and different other settings for users who chose the easy blogging interface? or does that automatically happen? I can't see any settings/plugin page in the screen shot of the plugin (haven't tried it live yet)
Founder & CEO — 12th May 2010 #
Glad to hear about nice feedback :)
@Ovidiu the plugins page isn't included in easy blogging as it', by definition, fairly advanced...
However, there is a 'Supporter Themes' and general 'Supporter' tab which you can use to promote extra features (such as plugins) that Supporter might offer your users.
We've also wrapped custom headers (if available) under the widgets (which we've called 'Customize design').
Have a play :) I'm interested in how you find it!
Member — 12th May 2010 #
thx James,
I admit I am very cautios right now without a test bed, so i am throwing these plugisn one by one to my users. started with the tool tips one, works a treat.
tried the wizard one next,but after the last sign-up step, the page loads only half. I am sure its an incompatibility with another plugins, so I haven't reported anything, meanwhile hunting for the culprit. Once the wizard works, I'll add easy blogging to complete the setup.
Lead Developer — 12th May 2010 #
I think the wizard requires Easy Blogging to be installed.
Developer — 13th May 2010 #
Just updated EB & EB Wizard.
Minor bug fix for EB, but Wizard got its' own admin panel (Under Site Admin menu) with customizable wizard steps! Steps initially default to the two that were there in 0.1, but now you can add, delete, and edit the steps as needed for your site.
Note: I haven't put Wizard 0.2 through a whole lot of testing time, so if you find any bugs, let me know! I wanted to get it out to you ASAP so you could customize your wizard steps :)
I'm now looking toward bug fixing, both what's already listed in this thread, as well as any new ones posted. So if you run into anything, let me know! And, as always with bug reports, the more information you can give me, the better. What happened? What were you doing? What version of WPMU? What version of the plugin? Screenshots are fantastic (Thanks, @masonjames!)
When it comes to bug reporting, there is no such thing as too much information. Though, keep the info site related. I could do without knowing your grandmother's maiden name :)
Developer — 13th May 2010 #
@Ovidiu Yeah, Wizard needs EB, it references EB functions a few times.
Sales & Support Lead — 13th May 2010 #
@Jason Way to go with the quick updates! I'm stoked the admin interface was added to the wizard so quickly. I had already customized the original wizard to work for a project I had this week. When I saw the post of the new version, I figured I'd give it a shot and see what it came up with.
The admin panel looks good and provides all the abilities I was hoping for. However, it doesn't seem to be working for the other blogs. The changes are saved in the admin panel as I can go back to that page as super admin and see the changes still there, but when I have a blog go through the admin wizard they are still seeing the default options. I've tried it with blogs already in existence and newly created blogs - results are the same. Haven't had time to see why this would be happening, but this is on a test install of wp 3.0 with multi-site.
If I go ahead and try to use the wizard I get this error message "Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete."
Anyway, thought I'd give you the heads up. Also, the welcome page needs a little CSS love, but I know this is a beta and you've got your plate full! Just pointing things out cause I'm so stinkin' excited about the functions this'll provide!
I like the fact that this will integrate with the supporter plugin, however, I would like to see this plugin come into play after the new user has had the chance to visit the supporter page. For some sites, there isn't a trial period and my clients want the user to sign up as a paid member as their first action. It appears that this plugin activates and allows setup for the user even if they're not registered as a supporter yet.
Member — 13th May 2010 #
two thumbs up on the wizard customization ability, will be tying this in with some hand-rolled plugins...off to play with it now...
feature suggestion: wizard integration with "supporter" plugin
- I find my users tend not to pay until they've seen the goods, plus providing the option at registration reduces my signup rate, so giving them the option at the "pick a theme" stage would be stellar. (right now, premium themes say "supporter only" in red and the preview works, but the link goes nowhere)
edit: on further reading, perhaps this is already in the roadmap?
Developer — 13th May 2010 #
@masonjames - Good catch. Ahh the joys of not fully testing to rush out a big change :) I fixed it, go ahead and re-download the new version. The steps should save site wide now. Let me know if that fix also fixes the Firefox redirect error message. That shouldn't happen, so hopefully it was a symptom of the bug.
If it still happens, let me know what page it's trying to go to (in the URL bar) and what page is set for that step in the wizard admin area. I think it might be a small bug in the redirect logic if it's not fixed with this update, but I can't reproduce it.
RE: Supporter integration - What exactly would you like to see in the supporter integration? The first step in the wizard becomes the supporter signup page? Or no access to the EB stuff unless they're a supporter? Or something completely different? I'm confused as to exactly what you guys are asking for there.
@ Everyone else who reported a bug/display problem. I didn't forget about you :) I wanted to get the additional functionality out there for testing while I dealt with the compatibility and non-overall-breaking bugs. Going back to work those now!
Sales & Support Lead — 13th May 2010 #
@Jason - Yep, things are saving as expected. Probably having a "save all" button on the admin page would be helpful. For instance, if I change the order of the steps by drag and dropping this order is not saved, currently, unless I actually click save on each individual tab. Also, though the first and last tabs are specific to this plugin, it'd be nice to be able to change the words that appear for the first and last step (for instance, on my current project built on 3.0 we don't use the word "blog" to describe the sites).
Also, though the admin area configuration says "Name: (For display purposes)" the "Title" is actually displayed for the breadcrumbs.
I'm not experiencing the redirect issue anymore. Dunno what caused it before, but things are good now.
As for supporter integration I think it's highly individual to the project/client needs. Some people want their users to be able to use all supporter functions for 2 weeks or a month before requiring payment, but others want to require payment from users upon first login. My thoughts are that if Supporter is not set up to give a "trial period" then the first login should redirect to the supporter payment regardless of having the easy-wizard installed or not. If Supporter DOES have a trial period enabled, then they would be able to login and immediately access the wizard.
Further integration could mean that when Supporter payment is required on first login and the user completes this task, they are automatically taken from there to the easy-admin wizard (if it's enabled).
Again, I have been toying around with this exact idea in my head for months, so I'm stoked to see an actual working example and be able to play around with it. I'm planning on turning some heads at a brief demo I have scheduled tomorrow! Should be fun!
On a "fun" customization note, I've got one other UX thing that I'm dealing with (and this is not a feature request). Because each of my users gets the same theme, the first step is actually "home page options" and my fear is that people will not realize that after uploading their own images, choosing colors, fonts and whatnot, that they have to "save" before continuing to the next step. I'm trying to incorporate the "save" function of my options page into the wizard's next step button so that it will automatically save any changes before they navigate away or alternatively pop up with a reminder to save their customizations before moving on... ahhh... fun times ;)
Founder & CEO — 13th May 2010 #
Heya guys, re: CSS / design on this plugin could you let us know what kind of improvements you'd like to see... please fee free to mock up how you'd like it to look and attach to this thread too.
Richie's been helping out on that front so I'll let him know about this thread too.
Member — 16th May 2010 #
Love it!
While testing - I noticed that two tabs had the same name "customize design". The one for choosing a theme could be changed to... well... "Choose theme/skin"
Also, according to Mullenweg, the most popular page in WP is the stats page. Could we get a tab for that or the dashboard (dashboard has summary stats and a link to stats page).
Great plug-in!
Founder & CEO — 16th May 2010 #
Thanks for the feedback... a nice way to add extra tabs would be cool - but probably a v2.0 I think.
Are you sure about the duplicate tab names? There definitely shouldn't be more than 1 customize design tab - the reason we chose that name was because it's much simpler than widgets and alse because we've added custom headers (if available) to it too.
Keep the feedback coming :)
Developer — 17th May 2010 #
Ok, just released some fixes for EB and EB Wizard, should fix everything mentioned in this thread except for things noted below:
Those of you with display/lag problems, could you give me as much information as you can? What pages are affected, what browsers (exact versions, please), and what other plugins do you have activated on your site? I fixed the problems I could reproduce, but I wasn't able to reproduce everything.
I also like the idea of adding a customization menu for the EB tabs (like we did for the Wizard) - I'll see if I can fit that in soon. I'm working on a number of other plugins that are coming into beta right now, so I'm swamped with last minute tweaks and beta bug fixes. If I can find time to get the custom tabs done before EB comes out of beta, I will, but I can't make any promises.
If you find any other bugs/problems/confusion points on these three plugins, keep letting me know!
@masonjames - if you add wizard_step=0 to the URL (as a querystring, before the # if there is one) then it will reset the wizard to the beginning. We didn't make it into a button available for users because the vast majority of them will never want to go back through the wizard, and the ones who do can still access all of the same features within the easy admin area anyhow.
You mentioned that the order wasn't saved automatically when you reorder the steps. Could you give me some details about what you're doing when they don't save? It should save the order automatically each time you reorder the steps.
Also, for your UX customization, if you create a quick mu-plugins plugin that adds some jQuery to the home page options page, you should be able to add a quick jQuery function to the click event to catch it & fire an ajax call to save the data while the button's post command moves to the next step: jQuery('.wizard_next_step').live('click',function() { ... });
And finally, for your 'My Pages' problem, I can't reproduce it at all. Would you be able to send me login details for that site so I can check it out and see if I can pinpoint it there?
@fuzu42 - Clicking the "Click here to find out how to become a supporter" link on the Premium Themes page should open a new page that displays the Supporter tab. Does yours not do that?
Member — 17th May 2010 #
Just installed easy bloggin and playing around with it.
- do you hide other plugin "fields" on purpose i.e. in the write new post screen? I have faster insert active, and when switching to easy interface, the fields disappear but i.e. AIOSEO remains
- when writing new post the excerpt is also missing, again, on purpose?
- did I misunderstand the easy bloggign wizard, but shouldn't the user be redirected straight to the wizard after he logs in for the first time? if not, consider this a request :-) I'd love users to be sent straight to the wizard. after all, it'll might take them a while to find the easy interface button on top of the dashboard...
- I dismissed the easy blogging wizard, now I can't find it again!? clicking the button toggles between easy and advanced interface... of course I can append wizard_step=0 to the URL but my users won't know that :-(
Founder & CEO — 18th May 2010 #
Heya,
Thanksfor the feedback :)
I'm not sure how we do it but I'd very much like ito to hide everything that is currently there, unless set otherwise by site admin or hacked.
Yeh, we deemed it unneccessary for basic blogging
Yes, new bloggers should go straight to the wizard (as long as they select easy blogging) - did this not work for you?
I agree though, that a wizard for the regular admin interface might be a cool thing too!
Also agree, it would be nice to have a link to the 'Wizard' in the top (or bottom?) it would also help with testing :) You cool with that Jason?
Member — 18th May 2010 #
I really like the interface for easy blogging! Quick question:
Would it be possible to implement a very small message telling users at different levels about their capabilities when trying to utilize a tab where they don't have the ability to manipulate things?
For example, if I ascribe a user as an "author" then that person can access the post tab and develop and publish a post. If this user tries to access the "pages" or "customize design" tab then by default they are just taken to their dashboard and not given that capability, which is great! However, I fear there will be much confusion because there's not a small message explaining to them why they are not capable of utilizing these tabs. It could be as simple as "Sorry, but this function is not available to users who have been ascribed as ________. Only admins, _______, and _______ have these capabilities." Something to that effect.
Without some small message, I feel that many new users will find "easy" blogging somewhat confusing.
Let me know what you guys think!
Member — 18th May 2010 #
What do you mean as long as they select? When I did a test signup yesterday, I gave my name, email, got the activation link by mail, went to my back end, no wizard.
Where should they have selected the wizard?
Developer — 18th May 2010 #
@Ovidiu - When a new member logs in for the first time, they should get a page that says do you want Easy Blogging or Advanced Blogging - If they click the EB button, they should be sent to the wizard.
Do you have both Easy Blogging and the Easy Blogging Wizard installed in mu-plugins?
@David - I'll look into what it would take to put up a message RE: capabilities. Would it be even better if only the tabs they have access to show up?
Member — 18th May 2010 #
@Jason:
I was using Levi Putna's terms and conditions plugin, which hijacks the start page when logging in for the first time and makes you agree to the T&Cs - changed to your T&C plugin now the wizard shows up.
It looks like this: http://screencast.com/t/NDIwNjY4
I think the wizard could use some touches in terms of graphics, is it just me or did the wizard looks better (had nice icons in front of the steps, etc) when invoked manually from the back end?
Also shouldn't it say something along the lines of: Use our wizard to get started with your new blog step by step? Right now its just 3 links on top of the page, not sure if users will click them!?
Also is it possible to hide the other elements, i.e. the tips, the supporter stuff and the latest post from the global feed that you see in my screen shot when logging in for the first time? All I want them to do at this stage is go through with the wizard and chose easy or advanced interface, no need confusing them right from the start...
Member — 18th May 2010 #
@Jason:
something weird happened. After posting my last post, I clicked on step one, and guess what: I am back to the same page, see here: http://screencast.com/t/Nzk3NzBiN
Next I click on step 2: same story, now on the right side, the link with the text click here to continue to step 3 is missing? http://screencast.com/t/OWRjY2ZkZWY
Step three is weird too, and it has the supporter, tips and latest post output back again !? http://screencast.com/t/MzJiNWQ1N2
Also I thin the layout could be improved: users are faced with 2 buttons: View Your Blog and continue writing posts, while the 3rd choice is on top of the dashboard: Exit the quick start guide. I think they should all be presented together in one line.
Member — 18th May 2010 #
This is really weird, I click the continue writing posts button which points to wp-admin/index.php see screen shot: http://screencast.com/t/YTYxNWI1Z
this is where I end up after clicking the continue writing posts button: http://screencast.com/t/YTEyZjY1NT
It seems to just continue with the wizard...
Doesn't seem logical at all and is prone to create confusion :-(
Sales & Support Lead — 18th May 2010 #
@Jason, uploaded the newest versions and things are flowing very nicely.
wizard_step=0. Good to know. Using it and it works. @Ovidiu mentions allowing regular users to go back through the wizard. I think it'll be a very small percentage of users who will need this and I'm not sure where you'd put a link to this anyway.
I'm no longer having the issue with the menu order not saving. At least, I'm unable to reproduce it. Even just re-ordering the items and then refreshing the quickstart page in a separate browser shows the re-ordering working immediately. I don't think this is an issue.
I agree with @Ovidiu that having all the fields available on the new post screen is kinda important. I'm sure that many things were intentionally pulled to make things easy (that's the point, right?) but I suppose in a perfect world the super admin would be able to define what exists on this page as well. I have a real estate site I'm working on currently that has a whole section of property details added to the new/edit post page via the theme function. Even if the user wants the easy admin interface, they'll need access to those fields, but perhaps this level of customization is best left to those with the dev chops to code it themselves? ;)
+1 for Custom Tab creation in the easy blogging plugin. That'll give us total control over the user experience! Great stuff!
Thanks for the direction on the UX jquery plugin. I agree that's probably the best way to go about it.
I am still having the "My Pages" problem where pages do not show in the easy admin. I've tested this in chrome and firefox with the same results on my mac. Must have something to do with my particular install? I've added fresh copies of both easy admin and easy wizard, but still get that results. I'd send you a login, but I'm not sure where to send it. Do we have PM capabilities in this forum?
@Ovidiu, when I created a new user/site and logged that user in for the first time, I was presented with the option of going with the easy admin, wizard, or straight to advanced. Did you not get that option?
Developer — 18th May 2010 #
@Ovidiu - Try downloading the latest versions of EB and Wizard, what you're seeing should be gone now.
@masonjames - Awesome, I'm glad the ajax reordering is working for you now. I'll see what I can do to set up something to allow things to display on the new post page, but you're right, it may be best left to those with dev chops to work around it themselves :) It should be fixable if you add your meta boxes through the do_meta_boxes with an order of 11 or above, as the boxes are removed at the default order, which is 10. I haven't tested that, though.
You can email me the login details at jason /at/ flurrymarketing.com and I'll go in and check things out
Member — 18th May 2010 #
ok, updated and testing new version now.
- any chance plugins can be stopped from outputting anything onto the first page when user first logs in?
- the next steps during the wizard, don't show the blogging tips, supporter messages, etc.
- the other output in my previous screen shots comes from wordpress, it shows the latest feed from the feed I entered under the siteadmin options page: Admin Notice Feed - can this be removed during teh wizard and maybe if the easy interface was chosen?
Founder & CEO — 18th May 2010 #
Yeh, making the wizard really really clean would be excellent :)
BTW thanks for all the feedback guys!!!
Member — 19th May 2010 #
@Jason I think it would definitely be better to just not have the tabs appear. That way there wouldn't even be a reason to be confused!
Sales & Support Lead — 19th May 2010 #
RE: Supporter Integration. I've been thinking about this and the easiest way to have it as part of the wizard is to simply give supporter it's own step. The "problem" is that if they skip that step they can still access their site and whatnot (with all the limitations of a non-supporter). I'd like to have a point in the process where they are forced to make a decision or go no further (It's harsh, but hey, this is a business :P). What do you guys think? Or, do you simply make the limitations of being a non-supporter so severe (no writing, uploading, etc) that they can't do anything until they pay?
Thoughts? I'm just thinking out loud here.
Sales & Support Lead — 19th May 2010 #
bummer you can't add an attachment from "edit post".
Anyway, here's a pic of what I was referring to above.
Developer — 19th May 2010 #
@David - Done. The tabs appear based on the capabilities of the user now, download the updated file and give it a try!
@masonjames - I think it has to be a site-by-site decision. If you want to really pressure your users to upgrade, then you could remove the next step button on the supporter page via jQuery (add the jQuery to the footer) and then add two buttons on that page to make the user choose explicitly between supporter and non-supporter.
But I'm not sure how much that would raise or lower conversions. It might make sales go up a ton, or hurt you in the long run, depending on your audience. I don't know your site's market well enough to know how they'd react.
Member — 19th May 2010 #
just to chime in my 2 cents:
I don't offer a trial period of supporter. they sign up, and see al the nice plugins/themes/other benefits and if they want, well they sign up for supporter. if not, well, they are free to stay non-supporters.
so always forcing them would not be a good general decision for everyone using this plugin.
Member — 19th May 2010 #
Thanks Jason!
That was fast! I can't wait to get home and give it a try. I'll keep you updated.
Dave
Member — 20th May 2010 #
Nice stuff, I like it :)
Would it be possible to make this the ONLY way for people to edit their blog, meaning they don't get access to the advanced version, only the simplified version as an option? Essentially just getting rid of hte top wordpress bar and the button that says go to advanced version.
Also, what if I want to hide a couple of tabs like "Manage Themes" from my users? Possible?
Sales & Support Lead — 20th May 2010 #
@Jason
OK, a couple more thoughts. I'm still tinkering...
The latest version of easy-admin has a version check commented out of frame.php. When I uncomment these lines the pages and edit-pages tabs both work flawlessly! Yea!! :D
Also, I discovered how to use the add_meta boxes for posts/pages so that they show even on easy admin. The important part is to set the context to 'advanced'. If they are set to 'normal' they will be removed. Setting the priority to 'high' doesn't seem to do the trick - the metabox will still be hidden from view.
@ohmra (@Jason)
I was thinking about something similar to this. Here's my thought: If easy-admin-wizard is installed I think it should supersede (bonus word for 4AM) the "start.php" page from easy-admin. In other words, easy-admin should check for the wizard and if the wizard is installed, go straight to the welcome.php page. This page will present and appropriate welcome and then go right into the wizard and, eventually, the easy-admin and options for advanced interface.
For experienced users, it'll mean one more click of skipping the wizard and going onto the advanced interface if they desire, but I have to think that will be the exception. Mainly, people will want to use the wizard followed by the easy-admin or advanced. What do you think?
This also makes things a little more streamlined for those of us who want to make the supporter page part of the wizard steps - a new user won't be able (even accidentally) to skip the supporter option by going straight to the advanced admin.
OK, that's it for now. Thanks again for letting us get in there and really mess with this thing. Excited by the progress!
Developer — 20th May 2010 #
@masonjames - Awesome! I added those lines when I found the problem on your blog, but I don't have a 3.0 test blog set up, and didn't want to ask you to do testing for me before I did any initial testing at all :) But I'm glad you found the commented out lines and they worked for you. Any other issues with 3.0 that you're seeing?
@everyone - What do the rest of you think about Ohmra and masonjames's suggestions? Thoughts? Ideas? Questions?
Sales & Support Lead — 20th May 2010 #
@Jason,
Quick note as I'm headed out:
In easy_blogging.php, line 71 reads:
$this->thispluginurl = WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR . '/' . dirname(plugin_basename(__FILE__)).'/';
I'm thinking it should be:
$this->thispluginpath = WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR . '/' . dirname(plugin_basename(__FILE__)).'/';
I don't think it's used by the plugin at this point anyway, but you know how I like to be "helpful".
:D
Member — 20th May 2010 #
@Jason
Is there any way we can get a tooltip next to the small icons that allow users to upload media?
Member — 20th May 2010 #
Wow, this is so bad ass. Thanks so much for the great suite of plugins. Got a plugin conflict with wordpress admin bar improved (puts the wordpress like admin bar at the top across wpmu). In the Easy Admin Area the wordpress admin bar is duplicated right below the Easy Admin menus (see attached). I know this might not be your issue but if you could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.
The admin bar is called by the wp_footer function.
Thanks.
Founder & CEO — 20th May 2010 #
@ohmra in terms of making this the default interface / adding or removing tabs my thinking at the moment is that that would be a good addition to a 2.0 version of this plugin... and in the meantime I'm hopeful that it shouldn't be too hard to hack to do that.
@masonjames
Not too sure I agree there, on Edublogs (for example) I'm keen to offer users the option basically select if they want to go easy or advanced and then hit the wizard if they choose easy... how many experienced users (bar us, testing out our sites :) will be creating stacks of blogs anyway?
@omgitsrfb is that Vipers admin bar? If so I'm keen to fix that one up asap cos we're looking at using it on Edublogs shortly :)
@David Payne - wouldn't the tooltip be the same size as the icons moreorless :) And they already have tooltipness if you hover over them?
Member — 21st May 2010 #
@James, yes. well it's Vipers admin bar improved. The 'improved' is a fork of Vipers that allows users to see the admin bar even when they are not logged in (virtually giving them a login toolbar). You can see it at outloudblogs.com if you'd like.
Let me know when you've get it all fixed up. Thanks.
Member — 21st May 2010 #
@james. oh yay! i figured something out and can contribute instead of always asking questions. I fixed this by setting the default to 0 on line 117 in wordpress-admin-bar-improved.php. This way the user can override if they wish to, but I would also like to know how to keep it from showing up twice if they choose to enact the toolbar in the admin area along with the easy admin functions of easy blogging.
Founder & CEO — 21st May 2010 #
Too cool, thanks for the info.
Yeh, clearly there's a problem with stuff showing up twice.. I wonder if it'll be exactly the same for other plugins... ideally nothing should really interfere with the header part of easy blogging.
Developer — 21st May 2010 #
@masonjames - Thanks for the catch, it's fixed and will be in the next update.
RE: Viper's admin bar - The same thing will happen for any plugin, because the way I'm removing stuff like that (the header, the BP admin bar, etc) is via CSS or directly removing the hook that displays it. It has to be done for every individual plugin, unfortunately, but I'll add Viper's plugin to the list.
Member — 21st May 2010 #
@jason - thx. i know that's a pain to do it for each plugin. Please let us know when Viper's plugin is compatible.
Sales & Support Lead — 21st May 2010 #
I have found that the easiest way to get a new user to go straight into the easy-blogging wizard is to comment out the first_login function in easy_blogging.php Of course, this is only to avoid the extra step of the start.php. Merely a personal preference.
*EDIT* The following is not accurate as I was using a modified version of supporter-framework.php that was causing the error. I fixed it.
<strike>What I'm still trying to make happen is adding the supporter signup page as a step in the wizard.
If I add a step linking to "wp-admin/supporter.php" it creates an infinite redirect loop in firefox and chrome. Got any ideas on how to get around that?</strike>
Thanks again. This plugin has so much potential and can obviously modified to suit many different needs!
Member — 29th May 2010 #
something weird happened: I visited the back end of a blog as a site admin, chose easy interface and see what happened? how can this be?
Developer — 1st June 2010 #
@Ovidiu - What version of WP are you using? Are there any plugins activated that change the design or CSS at all?
Member — 2nd June 2010 #
wpmu 2.9.2
- no design changing plugins active, at least not for the back end
I don't know why the thing got so confused, might have been cause I visited another blog's back end as a site admin?
Member — 15th June 2010 #
It may be a good idea to make the Tooltips so that they don't have transparency, most of the tooltips aren't very legible because the transparency ..... screenshot included.
Founder & CEO — 16th June 2010 #
Cool, we're doing some redesign work on it now so we'll consider that, thanks for the feedback.
Member — 16th June 2010 #
Excellent plugins. All working on mine (quick test only) in Chrome and FF. Love it. Well done.
Lifetime member! — 28th June 2010 #
Discovering and installing this one
great !
BUUUUUUUT :
How about localization of easyblogging tabs ? The language file does not helps, shall I hardcode messages in admin_area.php ? ?
Member — 28th June 2010 #
Hi there,
I installed the easy blogging suite on a WP MU 3 installation. I find the easy blogging tool tips plugin is preventing users from attaching images to new posts. The image upload pop-up window only contains a sub-set of it's options with no gallery, url or media tabs and you need to click the upload button to force the image to upload. When uploaded the user navigates away from the post and the image edit is lost. Quick Press on the dashboard is not effected.
Anybody else finding the same behavior?
Thanks,
Steve
Member — 28th June 2010 #
I am having the same problem. Also the theme selection function is also not working!
Member — 2nd July 2010 #
I understand that work is being done on this plug-in to make it WP3 compatible. Is there an estimate of when it may be complete? Some feed back would really be appreciated. :)
Member — 5th July 2010 #
I love the plugin but there are a few errors running under WP3. I would also like to know when it may be complete. The themes and "customise design" tabs are not working at the moment, and sometimes the sidebar and title are displayed in the tabs frame as well as outside the frame.
Thanks :D
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