Instructions for use

Getting the Most out of the Wolfe Candy Tag Cloud Generator

Introduction
The Tag Cloud generator creates a tag cloud at the point in a page or post that it is required using short code.

Settings can be set using short-code arguments. If provided then these will also override any default settings so that a tag cloud can be altered on a post by post or page by page basis.

Settings
The following are the default settings that influence how a tag cloud is created and displayed. These settings can be overridden by passing short-code arguments or POST URL arguments.

Shortcode
Use [tag-cloud] to show a tag cloud using default settings, short-code args, POST or GET URL args e.g. https://.....page.php?[arg]=xxxx.

Use [tag-cloud [arg1]="xxxxxxxx" [arg2]="xxxxxxxx"] to use short-code args.

• style_box_color="LightGrey" : specify as text or hex
• style_border_color="darkblue" : specify as text or hex
• style_border_width="1px" : specify as pixels
• style_box_width="75%" : specify as % to allow for mobile themes
• style_box_padding="2px" : specify as pixels
• style_font_color="#4F5AA1" : must be in hex if it needs to be randomised or shaded
• style_min_font_size="10"
• style_max_font_size="35" : Increasing this will make the text larger, decreasing will make it smaller
• style_set_font="Arial" : set a font for all tags or else they will be randomly selected between “Arial”, “Arial Narrow”, “Times”, “Helvetica”, “Calibri”, “Verdana”, “Courier”, “Candara”, “Geneva”, “Optima”, “Cambria”, “Garamond”, “Didot”, “Perpetua”, “Copper Plate”. NB: defaults to “Arial” if font specified is not supported by the browser.
• style_random="true" : randomise with italics and bold text
• style_shade_spread="25" : if “random shade” is true then this is the random rgb value spread of the shading – this only works if color is specified in hex format
• style_shade_random="true" : randomise the text shade/tints
• style_color_random="true" : choose random base color
• style_multi_random="true" : choose random base color each time
• style_tag_separator="     " : the characters that divide each tab
• list_random="true" : list in a random order or in the array order
• list_vertical="true" : include vertical text
• list_use_ratings="false" : use ratings in an array to specify size (false = random)
• list_max="100" : max number of tags to be displayed
• return_url="current" : URL of return page for links – blank for no link, “current” if return to current page
• tag_list_mode="" : specify the taxonomy to use. The default is “post_tag” but can be set for any taxonomy.

  WordPress Developers
  The tag cloud is a class that is initiated using $tag_cloud = new WlfC_TagCloud;. The args listed in the shortcode above are available $tag_cloud->;[arg]. In addition to these, the following are available programmatically:

• $tag_cloud->SetDefaults($_atts); to be called within any shortcode function and passes the shortcode arguments through.
• $tag_cloud->GetDefaults(); returns an array of factory defaults and setting options that can be used in a shortcode function e.g. $atts = shortcode_atts( $tag_cloud->GetDefaults(), $_atts );.
• The main list of tags is stored in $tag_cloud->tag_list;. This is an array in the following format so you can pass the tag array directly to the class.

  $tag_cloud->tag_list = array(
  	'tag1'=>array('link'=>'URL1', 'rating'=>'10'),
  	'tag2'=>array('link'=>'URL2', 'rating'=>'5'),
  	'tag3'=>array('link'=>'URL3', 'rating'=>'9'),
  	'tag4'=>array('link'=>'URL4', 'rating'=>'9')
  );

• $tag_cloud->AddTag('[name]','[rating]','[link]'); is used to add a tag to the list. This can also be used to start a list. [rating] and [link] are optional.
• $tag_cloud->GetSelected();function sets the argument $tag_cloud->selected_tag; as the name of the last tag selected which can be used programmatically locally to process a clicked tag.
• $tag_cloud->SetURL(); sets the $tag_cloud->return_url to the current page – which is the same as setting it to “current”
• $tag_cloud->SetWPTags([taxonomy]); returns an array in tag cloud format of all Word Press tags and links for the specific taxonomy (e.g. “post_tag” or “category”). This means it can be used to tag cloud all types of custom post objects. The taxonomoy defaults to “post_tag”. It returns unassigned tags. It also resets the $tag_cloud->tag_list; to be the Word Press Tags array.
• $tag_cloud->GetHTML(); returns the HTML code for the tag cloud. It is blank if the tag array is empty.
• $tag_cloud->color_name_to_hex("color") is a utility function in the class to turn text colors into hex values
• $tag_cloud->strRGB("hex", "r") is a utility function in the class to return either the r, g or b element of a hex colour
• $tag_cloud->random_base_color() is a utility function in the class to return a random hex colour
• $tag_cloud->random_color("hex") is a utility function in the class to return a random shade of a specified hex colour

• This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Jrack Wolfe.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Jrack Wolfe.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Jrack Wolfe.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Jrack Wolfe.