Customizing / Hacking Admin, specifically “Write a new post” functionality

  • lg901b

    (@lg901b)


    17 years, 4 months ago

    I’ve been developing a site for about a month now, first time using wordpress. I’m quite happy with wordpress generally, and the site is about ready for launch. I’m basically just the developer so when the site is launched in a couple of weeks, others are going to maintain it, write articles and so on. I’m going to start working on further developing the site, both by incorporating more functionality but also and more importantly, at lest in my opinion, making it easier for the writers to do their job.

    My main focus will be the “Write a new post” admin site. I’ve got some key issues with the default way this is in wordpress 2.7, and thus big plans for customizing it too my needs. I want to add fields and image uploading capabilities which makes it extremely easy for the user and where the “system” does the hard work. So just to give you an idea of what i’m thinking I’ll list up roughly how i want the page to look:

    1. Title (Both on front page and article page)
    2. Upload main image (used for image on front page as well as large main image when reading full article.) + perhaps cropping possibilities (sciccors??)
    3. Excerpt / Preface text (Shown on frontpage)
    4. Main article text (Using WYSIWYG editor…)
    5. Upload extra images (just chose a file and write image text)

    The advantage here is images, the users just uploades, then my system resize and place them. The main image will cover all the width above the article. The extra ones will all be placed on the right side in a standard size. This will make it extremely easy for the user, and I’m pretty confident I can style the articles to look pretty professional using this layout. An example of how this may look can be seen on this site:
    http://innsida.no/article/20090112/SPORT/534391801/1019

    So finally to the point. I have experience in programming and I’ve made my own theme and layout as well as several hacks into plugins for the site as it is today. However I need some guidance where and how to start on this project I’m now undertaking.

    First of all can all this be done by writing a plugin. I.e. can a plugin change/replace the “Write a post” admin page? Or do I additionaly need to “hack” core files or something to make this happen?

    Is there any litterature / tutorials I should read to be able to do this.

    Are there plugins that replace admin functionality in a simmilar way I can study?

    All help is appreciated.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • mrmist

    (@mrmist)

    17 years, 4 months ago

    This may be something that you could discuss on the wp-hackers mailing list, as it would probably require some fairly hefty customisation.

    dwords

    (@dwords)

    17 years, 4 months ago

    I maybe missing something, but I don’t see what the big hack is. Most of what you mentioned is in WP out-of-the-box. Image Uploading is already a major part of WP 2.7, and they’ve talked about continuing to improve the default behavior in WP 2.8.

    Also in WP 2.7, the feature to disable any sections of Write Post that you do not like, and to move the order of them around. You want the excerpt box higher on the Write Post page? Drag it up there. You want “Trackbacks” hidden? Go into Screen Options and hide Trackbacks. It is highly customizable out-of-the-box.

    If you wish to add fields: the default way is the Custom Fields area that’s already there. If you want to make it nicer looking fields and more obvious for your Authors, try a plugin like Custom Fields Templates.
    http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/custom-field-template/

    If you want to go deeper, which it sounds like you’re saying you do, try the Pods plugin. It is made for customizing the Write Post area.
    http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/pods/

    For your idea of 1 or more images associated with each post, simply use Custom Fields, out-of-the-box or in conjunction with either plugin I mentioned. For example you might make the custom fields:

    KEY="Big frontpage image 500x500"
VALUE="http://photobucket.com/username/bigpicture500.jpg"

KEY="Small frontpage image 100x100"
VALUE="http://photobucket.com/username/small-100.jpg"

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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