WPwatercooler

EP57 – Our new favorite WordPress plugins – Oct 14 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L_qMG0mdww
Today we are talking about the latest plugins we are using in our day to day WordPress web development.

What’s a Plugin?

A plugin is architecture which allows users and developers to extend WordPress’s abilities beyond the core installation. Each plugin offers custom functions and features enabling users to tailor their sites to their specific needs. These customizations range SEO (Search Engine Optimization) enhancers to content displaying features, such as the addition of widgets and navigation bars.

Our new favorite plugins

Codepress Admin Columns: Allows you to add extra columns to admin screens – aka backend. You can tweak every post type and how it displays from the admin screen. This is highly recommended customizing your backend and have access to data you wouldn’t normally see. It’s also really fantastic for photographers.

WP Migrate DB Pro: You’re able to push and pull databases to and from your local environment and a staging or production server. It allows you to sync between a test site and live site. $39 for 2 sites. Unlimited is $99.

Brandfolder: You can go into your dashboard and access any brand assets like a logo or  a logo bug and that kind of thing and put it in the file section. It lets  you also upload fonts and if you use Google Fonts it shows you a preview of the font in the dash board. You can put in color palates so if they have a web color and print color, you can put the colors on the same color swatch. It’s totally free, but you do need to sign up for a free account.

Soliloquy: Responsive slider. Makes slide decks for presentations.

Slide Deck: makes slide decks for presentations

Forms 3rd Party Integration: Connects a form plug in, either Gravity Forms or Contact Forms 7, and connects it to a 3rd party source. If you need to post info from a form to a custom CRM, it allows you to do that. It has hooks and filters built into itself. It has a full customization panel.

Before – After Viewer: Your gallery that can show one or a list of before/after items

infoGeniuz Form Analytics for Gravity Forms:  (In the paid version) You can set up virtual pages so when they finish inputing information into a gravity form, it will trigger an event in Google Analytics that will allow you to know when someone has finished a form in jquery.

iMapper – WordPress image mapper: You can put up an image and add hot spots on the image for presentations. This is a paid plugin.

What the File: For Theme Developers. It allows you to go to any page on your blog or website that has a drop down on the admin bar that allows you to see which template files are making up the existing view. Great debugging tool.

WordPress Debug Bar: Another good plugin for developers

Video Thumbnails: It pulls in thumbnails from any url you’re using for embed codes from all the major video services. You can even make a featured image for you. WPWatercooler uses this one.

Fluid Video Embeds: Makes any any youtube and vimeo video fluid so that your video is responsive.

Simple Lightbox: Anything you have linked to the media file pops up in a nice lightbox.

Admin Post Navigation: Adds a previous and next button to your posts.

Other mentions

Media Folders: Organizes the Media Folders – no one has used this but it’s out there.

OptinMonster: It’s an AB testing plugin for sign up forms – No one has used this yet but there is interest.

Disable Comments: Allows you to turn comments off and on for posts

WP Beginner

CodeCanyon

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4 responses to “EP57 – Our new favorite WordPress plugins – Oct 14 2013

  1. Jim Walker Avatar

    Not such a fan of Fluid Video Embeds though. Really seems tailored for those wishing to present big videos on page while still presenting them nicely on smaller devices (and does this nicely).

    Try Easy FancyBox for a nice thumbnail to lightbox effect (my personal fave).

  2. Colin Avatar
    Colin

    Could you post the url’s to these plugins here. It would be really useful for those of us watching after the live event.

  3. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    Hi Guys,

    Think there is a broken download link here and can’t download via iTunes either – just don’t feel like I can move on to Ep 58 before I’ve heard Ep 57! 😉

    Thanks

    Andrew

  4. Wayne Avatar

    Looks like InfoGeniuz has closed temporarily, any suggestions for an alternative gravity forms analytics plugin?

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