First step:  read the shortcode API reference in WordPress Codex. I had a difficult time figuring out exactly where to place the “add_shortcode” function call.

Second step:  Place the “add_shortcode(‘shortcut name’, ‘shortcut function’);” to the same place you put your add_action and add_filter calls — I’m basing this off the excellent tutorial I found — “How to Write a WordPress Plug-in“:

//add actions
add_action('admin_menu', 'DevloungePluginSeries_ap');
add_action('wp_head', array(&$dl_pluginSeries, 'addHeaderCode'), 1);
add_action('activate_devlounge-plugin-series/devlounge-plugin-series.php',  array(&$dl_pluginSeries, 'init'));

//Filters
add_filter('the_content', array(&$dl_pluginSeries, 'addContent'),1);
add_filter('get_comment_author', array(&$dl_pluginSeries, 'authorUpperCase'));

//Shortcodes
add_shortcode('shortcodename', array(&$dl_pluginSeries, 'function'));

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So I decided I was going to write my first plug-in for WordPress about a week ago. I felt it would be a good addition to WordPress users. It’s currently in development now so I’m not going to specify just what it is quite yet.

Having danced around and around the WordPress Codex, I wasn’t getting very far. Issue number one is: I’m not a PHP devleoper – yet! However, I got a long way very fast by reading through this tutorial by Ronald Huereca. I’ll give an update soon, when my plug-in is released.

If you’re struggling with the WordPress APIs, and want more insight to developing a plug-in for WordPress, check this out:

How to Write a WordPress Plugin

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Photo Essence of Lynnwood, Washington needed a new, dynamic Web site to compete with regional professional photographers. The client had few requests:

1. Keep the site elegant
2. integrate a slideshow feature on the landing page
3. integrate a Flash gallery browser
4. provide a way to automatically update his photo galleries.

I decided to choose the WordPress platform because I was impressed with the ease of implementation and breadth of features for this framework. I was pretty sure I would be able to exceed the customer’s expectations by providing additional features with minimum development time.

One example of this is the Shadowbox JS plug-in, enabling visually engaging photo galleries that are easily customizable. See it in action on the site: http://www.photo-ess.com/blog/?page_id=42

I convinced Photo Essence that including a blog would be a great way to get higher rankings on search engines. As the site accumulates more and more content, that content is getting indexed by search engines, and thus, more and more views by potential customers. Blogging is so easy now and there are many applications out there to write and publish blogs including Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Live Writer, or even e-mail to post a blog.

Lastly, I developed tools to enable the client to quickly and easily update galleries with one or two mouse clicks. I wrote a small C# application which uses Photoshop APIs (OK, this is getting technical…) to take his high-resolution photographs and resize them, create thumbnail images in a specific size used in the WordPress photo galleries, save them in .jpg format, and finally, FTP the finished pictures to photo-ess.com. I’m going to write another blog soon on the C# application and PhotoShop scripting features. It’s really pretty awesome.

Below are some screenshots, but please visit the live site: www.photo-ess.com.

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So this is my first attempt at designing a template for WordPress. It didn’t take long to develop after reading the template articles on the WordPress Codex site. I’m hoping I can swap out background images with little trouble. There will probably be some tweeking to the styles for links and hovers, plus font colors to align the color scheme. I’d love to hear comments on the theme. What do you think?

The background image is a photo of the Oregon coast taken at Seaside, Oregon.

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Connect With Customers.
Communicate Your Mission.
Grow Your Business.

Weblash.net is web design, development, and graphic design, (continue reading…)

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