Time for a new version of the Embedder plugin before the winter holiday season kicks into high gear! Version 1.3 is probably the most significant release yet, for two reasons:
- The Manage Embeds administration page has been almost completely “ajaxified”, meaning that instead of having to wait for the whole page to refresh every time you click something, many of the functions now use the WordPress Ajax feature to communicate with the server, which makes everything work much faster than before.The coolest addition is the ability to move an embed from one group to another by dragging the embed and dropping it on a different group. Go on, give it a try!
- A new parser has been added to the Embedder plugin, which will eventually replace the WordPress shortcodes the plugin has been using to this point.The new parser (which uses the excellent NBBC BBCode Parser) completely solves the problems with nested embeds and adjacent embed tags with no workarounds necessary. It will also provide for additional features going forwards, such as the BBCode-like default attributes (e.g. [mylink=http://yahoo.com] instead of [mylike url=http://yahoo.com]) and validation of attribute values, which will be important for your blog’s security if you want to allow BBCode-like embeds in your blog comments.
The new parser is optional for now, and you can always switch back to the old parser if you have problems with it, but I would strongly recommend that you move over to the new parser as soon as you can so that you can take advantage of new features in future releases. The new parser does have a new attribute format {$attr=value} instead of %attr=value% but it will continue to support both formats for the time being, so your existing embeds will work with the new parser, with a couple of minor exceptions (see the link below).The plugin will be dropping support for the old parser, and the old attribute format in version 2.0, which is still several weeks away (at least), so you will have plenty of time to make the transition. I anticipate there will still be a couple of 1.x versions before then for bug fixes and minor improvements, and I will give you plenty of warning before 2.0 is due.
As always, please report any bugs or issues in the Embedder Support Forum, and positive feedback is always welcome too. Feel free to share your own embeds, and let us know what you are using the plugin for.
For more information on the transition to the new parser, please the New Embed Parser page in the documentation section.
Hi Mike, I have to say this upgrade isn’t successful. In the local wamp installation of wp3.02 the ajax effect is gone leaving the layout a mess. In my online lamp mutli-site installation of wp3.02, ajax works but the new parser makes all posts go whitescreen. So there must be some bugs to catch.
UPDATE: Before you do anything else, install version 1.3.1 on your test systems and let me know what happens. The Admin problems you were having are almost certainly fixed, but I don’t know about the other problem you were having. Mike
Well that’s strange. I installed 1.3 on three different blogs (including this one) and it’s all working fine for me. When I switch to the new parser on Moztools, all of the web pages with the samples on them are working fine (the only difference is that the embeds using the old nested workaround don’t work any more, as expected).
So, my first question is — are you using PHP4 on one or both of your test blogs? I’ve been trying not to use PHP5-only functions, but it is possible that one slipped through this time (I don’t currently have a PHP4-based test bed).
Also, in the admin page, can you look at the page source (Ctrl-U on Firefox) and tell me what levels of JQuery and JQueryui are being linked in the page header. They should be this:
http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js?ver=3.0.1
http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.6/jquery-ui.min.js?ver=3.0.1
but if another plugin is including other levels of JQuery/JQueryUI, that could explain the ajax problems.
The only time I have seen posts go missing was when I accidentally left and end-quote off a style-tag in an embed. As for the admin page — were you using the same browser in both cases? (And what is it?) It’s not a Javascript problem because even if you turn Javascript off, the formatting of web page looks the same as it does with Javascript on (in fact, the page should work exactly as it did in 1.2).
Since there have been no major database changes this time, then it’s one of three problems:
1. You are using PHP4
2. There is an unanticipated interaction with another plugin
3. One (or more) of your embeds is doing something I haven’t tested.
So, if you can tell me the following information, that would help me track down the problem:
1. What software stack are you using? (OS, PHP and Mysql versions, browser, etc.)
2. How many embeds are you using?
3. What happens if you disable them all and select the new parser?
4. Are they working fine with the old parser?
If you can narrow down the problem to one embed, then that would be great, and would give me somewhere to start.
One more last thing to check — go to the Plugins page (the one with the list of your installed plugins) and click the “Edit” link next to Embedder. Do you see 11 files on the right-hand side of the Edit page? If not, then the plugin did not install correctly for some reason.
Sorry to have so many questions, but without more information I simply have no way to debug your problems.
Thanks for your help.
Mike
Hmm. Running on a system with PHP4 now, and the config page is looking messed up (with lots of warnings too). Will look into the problems.
It’s possible, therefore, that upgrading to PHP5 will solve at least some of the problems you are having.
Hmm — figured out the Admin page problem — the plugin is not handling the backslashes Windows uses in path names properly which is causing the Javascript file and the CSS file not to load on that page.
Will get out a fix later today, along with a couple of other PHP4 issues I have found.
Thanks for the quick fix! Ajax problem fixed and the new parser works on local wamp installation which is a simple test wp. In the online LAMP(php5) installation old parser works fine but new parser causes white screen(even after disabling all embedders). I think it is quite possibly caused by plugin conflict because I am using 50+ plugins and many of them use ajax.
Actually, I am comfortable with the old parser so can I suggest that making the new parser a new plugin (or a pro version) and keep the old one for those who don’t want to change too much. 🙂
BTW, I am using godaddy linux webhost service
Hey Phil, thanks for the suggestion, but I can’t really change my plans that much just because one person is having a problem that might only be a one line fix to correct. 🙂
When the time comes then you will still have a choice — either stay with the last 1.x version (which suits your needs anyway) or help me debug your problem. Neither of those is a particularly bad option.
Anyway, it’s a way off yet, and I’m glad 1.3.1 is now working for you.