wordpress development – K2B SOLUTIONS – Web Design & Mobile Apps Developement

#7 Most Important WordPress Post Plugins You Should Be Aware Of

k2B Admin — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 05:07:57 +0000

There are numerous plugins available for Content Management Systems. Still, nobody could deny their interests towards WordPress. WordPress is best known for blogging. As it is more flexible to handle people prefer to go with it.

In order to make the experience a better phrase let me introduce you a few plugins. These automatically drags blogs of relevant posts together. This may or may not affect your performance. But it depends on the choice that you make. For your convenience, I have come up with a list of plugins that work better for your blog.

#1 Related for WP:

The Related For WP plugin includes various features which include automated links, custom caching and custom templates. Provided there is an additional option which you could make use to change links. You could manually change the post links in case if you wish to alter the relevant content.

You are given full control over links that you can rearrange the order of links. In order to install this plugin, you could make use of the widget or the short-code which pretty works on any theme. The backend has a setup wizard that guides you through the entire process.

#2 Intelly related posts:

Intelly helps you to embed relevant posts inside your content. The plugin is a matching system that pulls appropriate content. Further, the existing templates are really interesting to work with.

Even this plugin is automated from the initial setup. The following are the things that it performs from the beginning;

Embed link boxes in content on natural breaks
Grab relevant feature images for posts with proper thumbnails
Generate links for posts.

It is possible to customize your theme color from the backend with few defaults. If you are looking out for a definite in-post related link plugin then I would suggest Intelly.

#3 WP simple related posts:

Related plugins are the ones that drive in links from categories and tags. This reduces the processing time as the plugin does not require to scan your content or headlines for keywords.

The WP Simple Related Posts is a plugin that looks appropriate for post tags and categories. This may differ for each post but the ultimate purpose of the plugin is to automate the process by shuffling the links on each page.

The WordPress plug-in is free of cost, thus the developer has released a free add-on template on GitHub. You can make use of the plugin for a better customization process.

#4 Similar posts:

Wish to take more control over the links in your page? Similar Posts would be the best choice you could ever make. The developer has come with a recent update of the Similar Posts which is v2.7.

This plugin works based on the keywords in the content or headlines. It can even manage using the categories and tags. On the other hand, you need to choose the weight that goes to each factor. You also need to be mindful of the following things,

How links should appear?
Which posts should be neglected?
And the factors that need consideration before pulling links.

All these require a bit more concentration and effort to get running. At the same time, you gain a more control over the related post setup.

#5 YARPP:

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin is abbreviated as YARPP. It was designed as an additional option for all other plugins. This indeed the best plugin. It ruins quite a lot of resource on the server and would be helpful if you are on a VPS or dedicated host.

You can even alternate using a caching plugin to speed things up. If you are good at working with CSS then the templating system is easy to handle and edit. Organizing posts using thumbnails and links inside your article is an added advantage. It is really a flexible tool to blend into an article.

#6 Contextual related posts:

Contextual Related Posts makes use of a custom algorithm that grabs keywords from page titles as well as the main body content. This is an intensive plugin yet a result-oriented one.

On installation, this automatically pulls related posts based on the page content. You can attach the related posts functionality inside your template file or can even add it as short-codes.

This plugin owns a unique caching system. However, if you have installed another caching system then you need to reset both in order to reset related posts. This obviously cuts down page size but becomes a mess when you turn up to be a massive website.

#7 Related posts by pick plugin:

Related Posts by Pick Plugins follows a unique strategy that differs from all the other plugins. This plugin displays all the articles under the page content. The other functionalities are just like the other plugins. It grabs the posts from content and from the categories and tags. You are also given authority to check the links manually.

The plugin is also available with unique features which include the optional slider view and the ways to set up the related posts on archive pages.

Final word:

If you are trying to excel your performance on WordPress you could make use of the WordPress plugins. These are the simplest and the most effective plugins that have placed its mark on the platform. On engaging these plugins you could make it a better chance to excel with your posts. Do let me know your success stories.

How to Customize Your WordPress Admin Panel?

k2B Admin — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 11:18:45 +0000

Introduction:

If you are using a WordPress website then this post could help you with managing your website stuff in a better way. Being a WordPress user you might have come across a very common problem. It is “How do you get the insight of all your website content at one glance?”

There is no possible way of getting your entire content about your pages, Articles and user comments. This makes checking all associated fields complicated. You might find it more difficult if you are going to check this for a specific page.
In this post let us discuss on customizing solutions and about a plugin that is all set to overpower this problem.

The modern WordPress website is good at the content than just holding titles or chunks of texts. The plugins have functionalities that WooCommerce introduced. It performs well in storing contents like prices, subtitles, additional images and henceforth. But how do you track information when you are able to view only the title, date and author, in your admin panel?

It is obvious that you cannot overview any other information, yet you could get rid of these problems. If you lack coding knowledge then I can explain to you, “how to configure using admin column plugin”. The post also explains you the following,

Adding columns to post overviews,
Create filter forms to find content,
Sort post using columns,
Edit content inline using admin columns

Inspiring use case:
Let’s start with an example, say you are given a task to manage a website which deals with real-estate agency portfolio. On your website, you display locations, images, addresses and many other attributes. Whereas, on the admin screen, you can manage a portfolio and even control existing real estates.

The columns on WordPress appears by default and are barely relevant to your real-estate website. Find the following image which is the current strategy of a WordPress Blog. On the admin panel, you could find the portfolios with no information in it.

The same happens in case of car dealerships, creative portfolios, web shops and so on. So let us work on the real-estate portfolio which has an overview like the one in the below image.

When you go through this image you find a lot of insight in the portfolio. It is much easier to find, validate and even edit as you see them. I would provide you instructions on adding custom columns on WordPress that you might sort them and add custom filters. I would also guide you on how to make use of the plugin to handle with Admin Panel.

How to handle columns with code?:
Adding columns and editing them according to your content is required. To perform this, WordPress offers a column application. Yet, you could perform these tasks using certain WordPress Hooks.

To alter or add columns make use of manage_[post_type]_posts_columns and manage_[post_type]_posts_custom_column.
At [post type], enter the post type that you wish to point. For example, for pages, you could make use of manage_page_posts_columns and manage_page_posts_custom_column.

You need to use this hook manage_posts_columns as a filter that handles an array of columns. The standard array of filter you need to use is as follows,

[
  [cb]          => 
  [title]       => Title
  [author]      => Author
  [categories]  => Categories
  [tags]        => Tags
  [comments]    => [..] Comments [..]
  [date]        => Date
]

You can remove a few columns in order to add a few. To do so you need to add a call back to the manage_posts_columns filter and add custom columns to columns array. You are about to use the manage_realestate_posts_columns hook. Here the post type is represented as “real estate”, which is passed as the first argument to register_post_type function for registering custom post types. We use it in place of post type in manage_[post_type]_posts_columns filter.

add_filter( 'manage_realestate_posts_columns', 'smashing_filter_posts_columns' );
function smashing_filter_posts_columns( $columns ) {
  $columns['image'] = __( 'Image' );
  $columns['price'] = __( 'Price', 'smashing' );
  $columns['area'] = __( 'Area', 'smashing' );
  return $columns;
}

The first line includes a function smashing_filter_posts_columns which is the callback filter that handles columns displayed. The next line defines the callback function. Lines 2 to 4 add custom columns to the list of columns. At last, line 6 returns to resulting column. The ultimate purpose of adding columns is to display image, price, area, and array with the new columns that have returned.

There are two more things to be reviewed:

You need to remove the irrelevant columns.
Rearrange the columns that the image appears first.

We are not definite about removing the above-mentioned columns rather construct an entirely new array of columns precisely as needed.

add_filter( 'manage_realestate_posts_columns', 'smashing_realestate_columns' );
function smashing_realestate_columns( $columns ) {
  
  
    $columns = array(
      'cb' => $columns['cb'],
      'image' => __( 'Image' ),
      'title' => __( 'Title' ),
      'price' => __( 'Price', 'smashing' ),
      'area' => __( 'Area', 'smashing' ),
    );
  
  
  return $columns;
}

Finally, the overview screen looks the way it is shown below. Unnecessary columns are removed and the new ones are added to the exact position where it has to be.

Populating columns:
The next step is to populate columns. WordPress can also help you with it using a Hook, which is the manage_[post_type]_posts_column action. As stated above this is not a filter and this can help you add content and does not allow you to change it. Thus, we are going to echo column content that we wish to display. Let’s get started with the column content.

add_action( 'manage_realestate_posts_custom_column', 'smashing_realestate_column', 10, 2);
function smashing_realestate_column( $column, $post_id ) {
  // Image column
  if ( 'image' === $column ) {
    echo get_the_post_thumbnail( $post_id, array(80, 80) );
  }
}

I have added a callback function smashing_realestate_column to ‘manage_realestate_posts_custom_column’ fetching two parameters which are the column name and the post ID. It is indicated in the fourth parameter add action. This indicates the number of arguments expected for a callback function.

The third parameter which is the priority hook determines the order of callback functions registered to the hook, must be accomplished. The callback function populates the “Image” Column.

The other two columns “Price” and “Area” are stored as the function fields with price_per_month and area. The implementation process is quite similar to both columns.

add_action( 'manage_realestate_posts_custom_column', 'smashing_realestate_column', 10, 2);
function smashing_realestate_column( $column, $post_id ) {
  // Image column
  if ( $column == 'image' ) {
    echo get_the_post_thumbnail( $post_id, array( 80, 80 ) );
  }

  
  
  // Monthly price column
  if ( 'price' === $column ) {
    $price = get_post_meta( $post_id, 'price_per_month', true );

    if ( ! $price ) {
      _e( 'n/a' );  
    } else {
      echo '$ ' . number_format( $price, 0, '.', ',' ) . ' p/m';
    }
  }
}

The same is done for the ‘Area’ column except for the unit. Otherwise, the code is the same for ‘Area’ column.

add_action( 'manage_realestate_posts_custom_column', 'smashing_realestate_column', 10, 2 );
function smashing_realestate_column( $column, $post_id ) {
  [...]

  
  
  // Surface area column
  if ( 'area' === $column ) {
    $area = get_post_meta( $post_id, 'area', true );

    if ( ! $area ) {
      _e( 'n/a' );
    } else {
      echo number_format( $area, 0, '.', ',' ) . ' m2';
    }
  }
 
}

Finally, the overview of real estate page looks good with the relevant information that you wish to display.

Managing using admin column plugins:
Now let us have a look at how to manage columns using Admin Columns plugin. In this plugin, there is no requirement for codes and just use drags and clicks to manage columns. There are optional fields that help you to customize for naming a column and its behavior.
Let us dive in deeper to know how the plugin works. Before getting started install admin columns as you install the plugin and get it activated.

Adding, altering and removing columns:
Remove the unwanted columns that appear in the overview.

Isn’t that easy? Let us proceed by adding a column. To add a column click on the “Add Column” button and choose the “Featured Image” column type from the dropdown and fill the appropriate settings.

If you have followed me very closely, you would have noticed that we have missed adding the “City” column while using codes. That is a hectic task with coding but that really turns to be simple when done with a plugin. Select the “Taxonomy” column and choose the “City” Taxonomy.

The result is done. Isn’t that simple either?

Editing using admin columns:
In order to edit your content, you need to visit the edit page. Look out for the fields that you wish to change, update them using the update option and view them on the overview screen. You could get the entire process done in just three simple steps. Make use of Admin Columns Pro.

The above image helps you to better understand how it works. On the admin panel, you can switch inline editing from columns setting screen. The panel automatically detects the content and adds editability. The example involves the advanced custom fields add-on for admin columns. It detects the ACF files and adds the possible columns. The columns are sorted, filtered and edited automatically.

The final result looks really neat as you can make the process really simple with the admin columns pro. I have enabled editing for all custom columns and am going to make use of the functionality to edit all content. You can also perform the same and the changes are saved instantly.
Direct edit is upheld for all segments. With the Advanced Custom Fields and WooCommerce add-ons, Admin Columns gives you a local altering background as if you were altering from the points of the details page.

Final verdict:
Admin Columns on WordPress could do much better than any other plugins. There are few more WordPress plugins that you need to have a look at. Why not try them either? Hope this post about Admin column would assist you much better. Now make aligning an easier task on Admin panel.
If I have missed any of the valuable points do let me know. If you have really liked the post then come back to tell me about your success stories.

Open Source Competency – Cost Effective, Rapid, Robust

k2B Admin — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 05:12:31 +0000

Nowadays, lots of people have started talking about “open source” software. Actually, open source is a program in which the source code is generally created as a shared effort by a community and made available to public. Therefore, anyone can view, download, modify, reuse or redistribute the source code without worrying about royalties or fees to pay. Since, open source is freely available; most organizations prefer this to meet their goals on a limited budget.

Is open source only for non-profits?

No! Despite its low-cost, open source model also provides various other compelling advantages for businesses such as time effectiveness, great security, high quality, customizability, flexibility, interoperability, auditability and multiple support options.

Due to the lack of restrictions on modifications of the source code, most commercial software companies use this to build customized solutions. When compared to other centralized models of development, open-source model offers different types of agendas and approaches in production. Apart from this, it also provides a wide repository of modules and plug-ins that helps you to customize your website based on your business requirements.

The main purposes of using the open source model for web development are as follows:

To build reusable components
To build competency in selected application services
To resolve issues when applying open source technology
To provide technical solutions when facing technical challenges
To establish a forum of development knowledge

K2B Solutions, a professional Web Design and Development Company, is specialized in open source development in India. We have a great experience in executing a wide range of open source technology based projects to our clientele.

We provide our clients with robust open source web solutions that are cost-effective. Depending on our clients’ requirements, K2B Solutions provides the best services by reusing and customizing the various potentials of open source frameworks and open source solutions.

We have built high competency in customizing web solutions by using various open source technologies such as

PHP
Drupal
Joomla
Zend
MySQL
CodeIgniter
Magento
Oscommerce
Smarty
AJAX
JQuery

We deliver our clients with unsurpassed open source applications such as

PHP application and development
Joomla–WordPress–Drupal web development
Drupal open source customization
ECommerce website design and development

Why do you choose K2B Solutions for open source web development?

High exposure of different types of open source systems
Great experience in providing best open source solutions
Flexible customization based on clients’ requirements
Rapid deployment of websites and on-time delivery
Unique website respective to the open source

Our highly talented experts provide great assistance to our clients to build custom web solutions by employing different open source technologies and open source solutions.

We generally don’t restrict ourselves to a particular technology to design and develop websites. We always keep ourselves updated with the latest trends and technologies in the open source field.

We help our clients with cost-effective, reliable and quality open source web development services, which help them to recognize their dreams and meet their business expectations successfully.

With more than 50 million websites WordPress rules the web.

k2B Admin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:58:23 +0000

It is amazing to know how even in the last few years, the WordPress economy has grown tremendously and what inventive, new, enterprises it is composed of.

According to the latest survey, more than 20,000 people in this world make their lives as WordPress developers, designers and consultants. This massive community generally hosts blogs, develops websites and provides maintenance services for WordPress users.

Today, most of the cutting-edge agencies and companies are adopting WordPress. They generally have great WordPress implementations for their marketing and applications online. WordPress is mainly used by the companies who want to maximize their web presence and to make possible simple business solutions.

WordPress powers nearly 16.7% of the websites among the top one million websites. WordPress not only just acts as a blogging tool; it also plays a vital role as a most successful CMS across the world. Among the millions of top websites, around 58,000 websites that are powered by WordPress are not blogs. This means that, WordPress not only used to build blogs but also to build applications, platforms, online games, e-commerce websites, corporate websites, etc.

In the Internet world, WordPress has grown to become the most famous CMS since its inception. It powers more than 50 million websites with one lakh more popping up every day. When compared to Joomla and Drupal, WordPress acts as a stable CMS that provides an expedient interface for developing and managing websites.

As WordPress offers you the cloud-hosted service, you can able to create a free website online. This attracted about 330 million audiences who view 3.4 billion web pages per month. As per the record of W3Techs, nearly 55 percent of the one million most visited websites runs on CMS are also runs on WordPress.

As per the survey, 61% of WordPress users use WordPress just as a CMS and 31% users use WordPress as a blog and a CMS. And only 8% of WordPress users use this as just a blog. The report also says that around 2800 users use WordPress as just as their primary source of income.

How WordPress excels when compared to Joomla, Drupal and other CMSs?

Unlike Drupal and Joomla, WordPress is particularly developed to solve a problem that occurs. Drupal and Joomla are developed as a proper CMS and hence they do not solve any problems. But WordPress has a clear target bloggers and thus the WordPress developers are able to create a successful business at WordPress.com. If the bloggers have any problems, then WordPress provides services that fix the problems.

WordPress facilitates even a non-technical person to install and setup easily. It allows anyone to set up a blog and make it running on WordPress.com in a few hours. Moreover, the features of WordPress are effectively driven by content people and not by technical persons. So, each feature is usable by bloggers and also by the non-technical persons. Therefore, ease-of-use is the main advantage offered by WordPress when compared to Joomla and Drupal.

The blog feature is the ultimate strength, helps to establish WordPress as a Content Management System. WordPress.com is the eighteenth most visited website across the world. Approximately 34000 WordPress.com blogs are available on the top one million websites and 355,355 bloggers visited this website so far. This clearly shows that a huge number of bloggers use WordPress in the world.

The reasons why WordPress has become more successful as a CMS are as follows:

WordPress provides you simple and flexible business model when compared to Joomla and Drupal. Around 8.7% of the eminent communicators across the globe can easily use the WordPress.

WordPress provides greater usability for users. Using WordPress, one can develop a website that is more effective.

WordPress allows developers to create more reliable websites when compared to other CMSs.

Why WordPress rules the World Wide Web?

WordPress is open source software i.e. no one company will be able to hold on a monopoly on the WordPress software. Anyone can use the software and hence it ensures that the tool remains competitive. It allows developers to share the source code with others and also to modify the source code freely. It also enables them to fix the bugs quickly.

WordPress is a user-friendly software tool. It has been mainly introduced to facilitate both technical and non-technical people. It allows them to easily change the text on a web page, add or remove images, rearrange your website navigation, insert links in your website, etc.

WordPress provides a platform with easy-to-use feature. Almost, all the people ranging from high-end enterprise level to small businesses and non-profits use WordPress for their websites.

WordPress has become more popular as it provides a huge library of plug-ins and themes. This makes people to build their own custom websites within a few minutes, hours at most. Moreover, WordPress doesn’t require developers to have programming knowledge. Therefore, WordPress is the tool that is extremely preferred by most developers to create websites.

WordPress also puts the power of defensive and active search optimization into the hands of normal people who do not have knowledge about SEO. So, WordPress is a typical blogger that provides opportunity that position well for competitive expressions as an expertise search marketer.

At present, WordPress is the only blogging tool and Content Management Systems (CMS) that facilitates everything easy when compared to other available tools. Hence, WordPress is ruling the entire web all over the world now. This may continue until the next ubiquitous platform has come into existence to make everything much easier than WordPress.