If you follow this blog, you know how much I love the taxonomy system in WordPress. You especially know how much I love the new automated taxonomy system in version 2.8 of WordPress.
So, it only seems right that I introduce my first taxonomy-based plugin: Series.
Series allows you to string together posts by using the built-in taxonomy system in WordPress. I’ve packaged several extra goodies with this plugin such as widgets, shortcodes, and template tags to allow you to easily control how display data on your blog.
Right now, the plugin is still in its early stages, but I hope with the help of your ideas and feedback, it’ll become even greater.
Features of the Series plugin
Series extends the current taxonomy system by creating a new taxonomy called “series.” Here’s the current feature list:
- Series: List Posts widget
Allows you to lists posts from a specific series and order them how you like. - Series: Related Posts widget
Lists posts related to the current post on single-post views (not displayed otherwise). - Shortcodes
Shortcodes to use within the post editor to display series-related things. - Template tags
Template tags to show things like a series RSS feed and to check whether a post is within a given series (and more, of course). - Automation
Much of the process is completely automated using WordPress 2.8′s new taxonomy system. - taxonomy-series.php templates
Example series archive templates for use with the WordPress Default theme and the Hybrid theme.
Here’s a screenshot of the available widgets for use:
Screenshot of the Series plugin widgets
Download the Series plugin
This plugin will only work with WordPress 2.8+. If you’re using an older version, you’ll have to wait until you’ve updated. I just wanted to go ahead and get the initial release out.
If you have ideas on how to make this a better plugin, feel free to share them.
- Version: 0.1
- Requires: WordPress 2.8+
- Support: Support forums
- Download (from WP.org)
Instructions on how to use the plugin are in the plugin’s readme.html file, which is included within the plugin download.
Please don’t use my contact page or the comments section below to ask support questions. Use my support forums at Theme Hybrid, which is where I handle all support questions for my WordPress projects.
Hi, Justin:
Are you using this cool plugin on this blog? If so, which of the widgets on your sidebar has it.
Also one of your sidebar widgets entitled “Must Read”, what plugin is that?
Justin,
This is great, and a real boost especially for video producers using WP. The online video/WP community has been waiting for an easy way to display their series video posts!
Thanks!
when someone gets a working example public, I’d love to see how it looks.
Looks like you have one upped Yoast who also just released a taxonomy plugin… but i’ll ask you the same thing I asked him.
What about custom hierarchical taxonomies?
Justin, this sounds fabulous! I can’t wait to take it for a test drive!
I just moved my site from Typepad to WordPress last week, using Hybrid News as the theme. One of the major things I do on the site involves trade show coverage twice a year, with of course a series of posts over the course of the event. This sounds perfect for being able to direct people to all of the coverage from the event.
I guess this is question for WP devs and Matt. He is using taxonomy’s in his blog and Community Tags Plugin, and promised in his new years resolutions to; “make it easier to do an amazing photoblog with WP”.
Hierarchical taxonomies would do just that
Missy — Nope, I’m not using the plugin on this blog. Once I upgrade to WordPress 2.8, I will be.
The Must Read widget I’m using is a part of the Hybrid theme, but it can also be download in plugin form: Widgets Reloaded
Adam W. Warner — I’m just glad I finally have something I can use to display series of posts with. I’ve got a lot of updating to do on this site.
Carl Hancock — Yeah, Yoast stole my other taxonomy plugin idea.
I’ll probably still end up releasing mine, but I guess I’ll have to step it up a notch.
What about them?
Nancy Nally — Definitely. I think that’d be an awesome use of the plugin.
So the hierarchical taxonomies aren’t possible right now, or at least without major work? Bummer. Would be so handy.
I completely missed the point of this plugin the first time, my mistake for scanning the article. It isn’t the same as the Yoast plugin. Downloading it now to check it out and play around with it.
Deleted by administrator. This comment added nothing to the discussion.
Justin,
Does this only work with new posts? I have created a series, then edited five posts to include this series taxonomy tag, then activated the series list widget, but it’s showing no posts in this series.
If this only works on new posts, do you know of any tricks I might try to apply these series taxonomy tags to pre-existing posts? I would imagine I won’t be the only one wanting to do this…
Same thing happened to me. I activated the plugin, added the series list post widget and then added an existing post to a series. The widget still says there are no posts but I edit the post and it has that series in the series write panel.
@ Carl,
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one, hopefully it will make troubleshooting easier. Also, I am running WP 2.8 Beta1, not svn.
Adam W. Warner and Carl Hancock — Yeah, it works fine when adding series to older posts. I just tested a few myself. Always make sure you’re using the latest from trunk when your testing these type of things.
This is exiting, I can’t wait to give it a whirl in 2.8. As a matter of fact I’ll grab a copy and play with it on my local server running 2.8 RC 1.
Would love to see how it integrates into themes other than Hybrid.
@ Justin and Jay,
I have now upgraded to WP 2.8-RC1 and it’s working exactly as advertised. Go here to see how I’m displaying the “Power of Video” series of posts on top of the right sidebar.
Thanks for the example Adam. I’m disappointed there aren’t thumbnails. Is that just how you enabled it, or thumbnails just aren’t in the cards?
This Series plugin makes a lot of sense for people posting video, but without thumbnails…it’s definitely not as attractive.
No, unfortunately thumbnails aren’t included, but I know that Justin has included this in his Query Posts Widget plugin, so maybe, just maybe, that feature could make it into the Series plugin???
…fingers crossed…:)
The Frosty — Let me know how it works out for you. It should work great regardless of theme.
Adam W. Warner — Cool. It’s nice to see it working on another site.
Jay dedman — I’m not exactly sure what this plugin has to do with thumbnails. Maybe you don’t understand what this plugin does. Read through the post again, and if you have any questions about what this plugin is for, just ask.
Sorry for the confusion Justin. Your plugin was posted to a Videoblogging group that obviously views the world through a different lens.
When we read about a “Series” plugin, there was excitement that a videoblogger could post different “video series” on his sidebar. There’s a real need for this.
But for this to work effectively, we’d need to be able to show the thumbnail for each video in the series. Adam pointed out the possible solution.
Charles Iliya Krempeaux was building some cool plugins that did a lot of smart things with video, but he’s since dropped off: http://changelog.ca/project/VideoPress
Anyway…your work is great. As videobloggers, we’re always asking people to allow the thumbnails to be exposed!
@ Justin,
What Jay is referencing is the use case I had in mind when asking about including the get_the_image capability being included in the Series plugin. An example of usage (sort of) can be seen here. If you scroll down and look under the “Recent Videos” heading. This is being displayed by the Recent Videos plugin, one of the VideoPress plugins referenced above.
The thought is that a video maker could create a Series using your plugin, and display the post thumbs in that series similarly to what is seen using the Recent Videos plugin.
jay dedman and Adam W. Warner — That’s something you’ll be able to do with the Query Posts widget, but it’s a bit outside of the scope of this plugin. While it can’t be done with Query Posts at the moment, I do plan on adding support for custom taxonomies with it.
Right now, it’s too specific a use to warrant being added to this plugin rather than being something that’s custom coded.
Using the Query Posts Widget plugin sounds like a valid alternative. I’ll be sure and stay tuned for the custom taxonomies updates, then write up a specific example use case for video series output.
Thanks Justin, you’re a true gentleman, and of course, a scholar!
Fair enough. You got to make things that are useful to you.
I know Yoast is developing a plugin for this as well. I am curious how the two compare. Unfortunately, I am going to be hanging back from upgrading any of my blogs to 2.8 until I know that the plugin kinks are worked out. I don’t feel like going through the dance of finding what works and what doesn’t.
Todd — Yoast is not developing a plugin for this. The two plugins are entirely different. They both use the WordPress taxonomy API, but that’s pretty much it.
Would you consider including a migration tool for Darren Ethier’s Organize Series plugin at some point? I’m kind of over-committed to it (one series has 120 posts!) but would otherwise be eager to switch to a series plugin undergoing active maintenance and development.
Thanks in any case for all your work.
This is just great I am going to install it.
Wow !! This a a really nice plugin.
Will definetly try it out.
Not knowing about the existence of the taxonomy in Wordpress, I used complex process of linking posts with mostly tags and coding. Now it will be way easier with taxonomy (learned by your posts !!) and with that plugin.
I’m sure gonna install it !
Thanks a lot Justin.
Cool! Great news for the video+wordpres community! And thanx Adam for this wonderful his wonderful example.
@Justin: Can you add a screenshot of the widgets in use on the blog in addition to the screenshots you have of their admin usage? Just a thought…
Very nice plugin – very appropriate for my blog. No problem developing series, but cannot get the related post series to work. I probably do not understand the proper input – could someone provide a step by step instruction on that widget?
Thanks in advance
I just discovered your blog and must say it’s exciting. Tons of great WP stuff here. Bookmarked !!
I just installed the latest version of WP and will report back about the features of this plug-in. Great posts by the way.
Dave — Sure, I’ll look into it. I can’t make any promises at this point because I don’t know how feasible it is. But, I’ll definitely see what I can do.
wordpress lovers — Thanks. Let me know how it works out for you.
Francois — You’re welcome. Taxonomies open up so many more possibilities and make some things much easier.
Rofikul Islam Shahin — I hadn’t thought of using it for a video blog, but it’s interesting to see how you all are using for these type of things.
Mike Schinkel — The widgets just output a standard unordered list, which would look vastly different depending on the theme. But, I suppose I could add some screenshots at some point.
Csaba — Thanks. I’m glad you enjoy it.
Shan — Let me know how well it works for you and if you have any ideas on how to improve it.
hi thanks for the information…nice plugin. I just discovered nice plugin for my blog. it is exciting.
I haven’t tried your new plugin yet Justin but what would make it a “must have” for me is this…
The new head meta for rel=”next” etc presumes that everyone has a date-based blog. In a series of articles the default rel links make sites less accessible to those who rely on that information for navigation.
In a series of articles, the next article would be the next one in the series, which is not necessarily the next post on the next date. The link rel=”prev” would be to the previous article in the series. link rel=”start” would be the first article in a series.
This is actually how those meta links are supposed to be used and how users reading a series would expect the rel links to be used. If your plugin included the ability to filter the default rel links so that series posts were returned in the header navigation this would be a huge benefit to the WordPress community.
Elpie — That’s a good idea. I hadn’t even thought of doing that. It’s now on my to-do list. Of course, this is assuming that WordPress has a filter hook for this, which it probably does.
I’m a new comer in using wordpress, but somehow I’ve already love it since it is supported by many useful plugins, and I think it is included your series plugin. I will use your plugin once I upgrade to Wordpress 2.8, and I will let you know about it.
By the way I like the simplicity of your theme, and it has score 100 of 100 based on SEO Design analyzer by Raven-SEO-Tools.com.
Really great job for the widgets!
But When I see it, I wonder why you don’t factorize on the level above for create a “multi-series” plugin ?
“series” is just another taxon(omy?). A plugin who manage the taxons(omies?) will be perfect. With your work, you just have to create an admin page for manage it, and replace and factorize some functions.
Thanks !
Keiy — Well, welcome to the world of WordPress. Tell me how the plugin works for you once you upgrade.
Xorax — I’m not sure what you mean by “factorize.”
No, series is not just another taxonomy. It’s a taxonomy with a specific purpose, and the plugin makes it easier to do things within the scope of what a series taxonomy should be used for.
Can this plugin be used to create a periodical magazine with specific set of posts or articles appearing together as a weekly issue such that they can be accessed from a sidebar widget as issue no.1, 2 etc.
S.K
hey justin, is it possible to build a navigation menu listing the taxonomies and its hierarchy?
S.K. — Yes; the plugin was created for the purpose of creating series of posts. However, you’d still have to do a lot of customizing of your theme to do what you want. The plugin just lets you tie together data.
alvin — The series taxonomy isn’t hierarchical, so you can’t create a menu like that. But, you can create a menu listing the terms of the taxonomy.
thanks so much for this fantastic plugin!
I had been using another – now defunct – plugin in the past and wasn’t sure how I would replace it, so huge thanks
sorry, but i treid to install it to my WP 2.8.1 and failed…then i read the readme.html and it worked!
Hey Justin,
Just installed the Series plugin. I think I found a bug(?).
The Series taxonomy page (admin interface) text indicates “Tags” rather than “Series”:
Page title: “Tags”
Section Headings: “Popular tags”, “Add New Tag”
Form Headings: “Tag Name”, “Tag Slug”
Form Submit: “Add Tag”
Wasn’t sure whether I should comment this here, or on your Hybrid support forum (it’s not really a support question).
Shortcodes it’s my favorite plugin for wordpress.
Thank you for this useful list.
Hi,
Thx for posting this plugin, i love to go through your posts and you really have nice hacks for wordpress. I am trying to use this plugin on blogger..As chip stated i also see the same bug
The Series taxonomy page (admin interface) text indicates “Tags” rather than “Series”:
Page title: “Tags”
Section Headings: “Popular tags”, “Add New Tag”
Form Headings: “Tag Name”, “Tag Slug”
Form Submit: “Add Tag”
so, after reading a lot in this great blog, maybe i have to switch from joomla to wordpress…seems there are lot´s of cool plugins…wordpress looks for me more and more “en vogue”
Thanks for sharing this useful plugin. I will wait for more in the future.
I think wordpress is really of value. I don’t like comparing wordpress and joomla. But, I love both to be honest.
thanks so much for this great tutorial and instruction, great for helping with my project. greetings from berlin. m.
hi, justin nice blog. your wp plugins is great. thanks for share.
At the beginning i had doubt about wordpress and its flexibility but after 3 years of use, I am greatly satisfied. Joomla made me become mad sometimes. So, my choice is done.
Series seems to to a good job. I will also try this plugin in my next wordpress installation.
Good post, thank you Justin. I will try to use series to make the grouping of my articles easier and more comfortable for my users!
Justin, this plugin is great. I ran into a tiny problem: my taxonomy archive kept returning a 404 error. I edited the plugin to flush the rewrite rules after creating the taxonomy, and everything worked as expected:
Are you supporting this plugin anymore? I use it and like it and notice it is not featured on your home page.
Why did you stop development on this plugin? It’s the top rated series plugin for WordPress, but it hasn’t been tested with 3.x…
Development of this plugin hasn’t stopped. Many people are using it with WordPress 3.0+ just fine.
How is this plugin different and/or better than Organize Series? I’m not sure which one to use.