There are several plugin and theme updates in store for you all today. I’ve been working tirelessly over the past couple of weeks, tweaking things here and there, trying to nail down all of the finer details.

Most of them have been pretty fun to work on. Of course, there were a few rough patches along the way.

I’m happy to say that that I’m finished with these updates because it’ll give me time to work on a few new projects. One is a news-style child theme for Hybrid. Another is one of the coolest WordPress widgets you’ve ever seen, and I’ll be looking for beta testers of this very soon.

Get the Image

This has been one of my favorite plugins because I’ve essentially been building it for nearly two years. For those of you unfamiliar with it, here are a few features.

• Pulls images by custom field.
• If no custom field images, grabs an image attachment.
• If no attachments, it scans the post for images.
• Ability to set a fallback image if no images are found.
• Great for adding thumbnails and feature images in themes.
• Uses WordPress functions without a lot of bloat.

Get the Image was updated a few weeks back, but there was a minor bug preventing a couple of features from working correctly, so I went ahead and squashed it. The default image and image scan features are now working in version 0.3.1.

• Version 0.3.1
• Get the Image plugin page
• Download

Cleaner Gallery

Cleaner Gallery gives you valid XHTML WordPress image galleries and integrates with many different Lightbox-type scripts.

I know many of you have been patiently awaiting an update of this plugin to take advantage of WordPress 2.7′s new gallery features. Since I made you wait so long, I added loads more features to this plugin. There’s no need to worry about touching code again. Cleaner Gallery now has a spiffy new plugin settings page that gives you much more control.

• Version 0.5
• Cleaner Gallery plugin page
• Download

Widgets Reloaded

Widgets Reloaded turns most of your default WordPress widgets into powerful toys. You can use each an unlimited number of times. Plus, each widget has many extra options you can set that let you control how your widget content is displayed.

This was mostly a feature update. I believe there was only one bug with it, but it was minor. I made the settings easier to understand and added a new Authors widget.

• Version 0.1.1
• Widgets Reloaded plugin page
• Download

JavaScript Logic

JavaScript Logic allows you to conditionally control when JavaScript is loaded on your site. There’s not much point in loading a script on every page of your site when you only need it on a handful. This plugin helps you take care of that.

This one is finally coming out of beta. I’ve also added a new meta box on the Write Post/Page screen that gives you much more control. You can load JavaScript on individual posts/pages without the need to go back to the plugin settings page. You can input it when you’re writing.

• Version 0.1
• JavaScript Logic plugin page
• Download

List Subpages

This is an update to the first plugin I created. It’s actually the plugin’s first update. It has sat dormant on this site for nearly two years. I’ve used it the entire time, and it has served me well. It was badly in need of an update though. I’ve even added a new shortcode for it.

Basically, this plugin will allow you to list any page’s subpages and show a description with each. It’s pretty simple, but it was the first plugin I ever wrote.

• Version 0.2
• List Subpages plugin page
• Download

The Hybrid theme and its child themes

Hybrid was recently updated to version 0.4. Along with it, I updated three of its child themes: Leviathan, Old School, and Skeleton.

I’ve added several new widget sections to this release. I can see many great child themes in the near future. The next, as mentioned above, will be a news-style child theme. After that, I’m looking at releasing an album-/photoblog-type theme.

• Hybrid
• Leviathan
• Old School
• Skeleton

Enjoy the plugin and theme updates

I’ve had a lot of fun with these releases, but I’m ready to work on some new stuff. Let me know if you run across any bugs, and I’ll try to fix them as soon as possible.

Make sure to stay updated with this blog because I’ve got a neat plugin/widget release in the near future that I need some people to beta test. I’ll give you a hint — it’s a plugin that will essentially allow you to completely widgetize your entire WordPress theme.

If you have support questions for any of the themes or plugins listed above, please don’t ask in the comments below or by email. Go to my support forums at Theme Hybrid, which is where I handle support for all my themes and plugins.