The lightest WordPress Series Manager ever
- Only 18 kilobytes in code size.
- No extra database tables.
- No extra gimmick.
- Just serial writing.
Features
- Resource-friendly. Avoids additional database clutter by utilizing custom fields.
- Editor-UI-agnostic. Avoids clutter of post editor UI by exploiting the existing custom field UI.
- Compatible with “Serial Posts” plug-in. Can be used as its complement.
- Lightweight. Only about 14 KBytes in size. (Compare that with about 90+ KByte of In-Series, or 190+ KByte of “Organize Series”)
- Builds on the popular Sliding Notes plug-in, hence re-using any existing Sliding Notes CSS styling
- Works out of the box (if Sliding Notes is installed)
- Ah, and did I mention it does not add extra database tables
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Main Features
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News |
Installation
First, download the plug-in archive at wordpress.org. To install, simply unpack the archive into wp-plugins. This will give you two plug-ins: Hackadelic Series Admin and Hackadelic Series Front-End. The first implements the series administration (the so-called “back-end”), the latter represents the front-end, which automatically inserts a post series index in posts that are part of a series. (The reason why these are separate plug-ins is described in the plug-in announcement.)
CAVEAT: The Hackadelic Series front-end uses Sliding Notes to provide an ajax-style expandable series index. It therefore requires Sliding Notes to be installed (otherwise you’ll see the raw shortcodes only).
Configuration
Settings
There are settings to adjust the text in the automaticfally inserted series indexes. These are mostly meant for adapting the front-end to languages other than English (but can be used to simply change the text to whatever you like, of course).
Visual Styling
The front-end (i.e. the series post index) can be styled using two CSS clauses. Here’s a sample CSS, which you can add to your stylesheet and customize to your liking:
div.hackadelic-series-info {
margin: 0 1em 1em 1em;
}
div.hackadelic-series-info.on-frontpage {
margin: -1em 1em 1em 1em;
}
Usage
To make a post a member of a series, simply add a custom field with the key “series” (or whatever you configured in the series administration), and enter the name of the series as the custom field value. If the front-end plug-in is installed, you get fancy but unobtrusive series post indexes in your posts for free. (See an example.)
Usage with “Serial Posts”
If you are using “Serial Posts“, you’ll need to change the “Meta Key” to “Serial” in the “Series Administration”. You can do this at anytime without “loosing” your series. (So you don’t need to do it until you actually install “Serial Post”.)
Series Administration
The series administration panel is found in the “Tools” menu (in WP2.7, in WP2.6 it is in the “Manage” menu).
It is primarily intended to rename individual series, but you can also view, and quick-jump to member posts of a series. You can also change the custom field key to use for series association.
Care must be taken though when renaming to an existing meta-key. Later renames would change all keys, including those that were not associated with a series.
A more thorough description, including a screen shot, is in the plug-in announcement.
Future versions will include a feature to mass-assign posts to series.
Further Reading
The plug-in announcement contains lots of useful information about and around the plug-in. So don’t miss it.
Conclusion
This is the third in my series of plug-ins, all of which focus on supporting bloggers in provide their readers with a rich reading experience, while otherwise staying out of the their way. I hope you’ll find this one an equally useful and a visually attractive addition to your blogging toolbox.
Cheers and happy serial writing!
If you use this plug-in, please consider making a donation to support the further development. Donate whatever you feel appropriate. Any amount is appreciated.
Thank you.
February 4th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I found the Serial Posts plugin and yours, and decided to give them a try in tandem. I installed the Serial Posts plugin on my test blog and messed with the CSS for while. Now I am trying to add yours and it will not work. I change the meta name to Serial and it finds the series I set up for Serial Posts. When I do anything else, like rename that series, or go to one of those posts, the meta name changed back to series. I don’t have a series set up, so it finds nothing.
I set up a series, with that for the meta name, and it showed up on the posts. If I go to the admin section it shows there. But if I change the meta name, that works on the post, but not in the admin. So I once again have nothing showing.
This is frustrating because while Serial Posts does most of what I want, your plugins ad some nice features to it.
February 4th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Tom, thanks for your feedback. Problem found and fixed. I’ll be releasing version 1.0.1 any minute.
If I may point this out to you:
Serial Posts has only one feature, and it is to provide a “series table of contents” (i.e. a list of posts belonging to a series) based on a post’s custom field. It uses the shortcode technique to do so. Hackadelic Series provides a “series table of contents”, too, but it is automatically inserted in every member post, and is styled differently. In addition though, Hackadelic Series also allows to effectively manage your series. As such, it is a complete solution, and does very well on its own. So from my view point, it is Serial Posts which provides a nice addition to Hackadelic Series, not the other way around.
February 4th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
True from your point of view. But I found the Serial Posts plugin first, and it gives me the shortcode that means I can put the listing exactly where I want it in my post. Your plugin lets me collapse it neatly without having to code the CSS myself, and makes the administration easier on the backend. And your own post says that Serial Posts was already out when you went to put out yours.
They are both nice plugins that can stand on their own. But together they each add to the other.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Tom, that was exactly my intention: To enable synergy between the two plug-ins, so that users don’t need to decide between one or the other, but can use the one and the other at the same time.
So did my fix work for you?
February 5th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Yes it did. The meta name was changed and stuck, and it is working smoothly the way it is supposed to. Thanks for the quick fix.
I do have a suggestion you may want to consider. Add an option for the user to decide if he wants the menu expanded when it loads. Large series could really make the post long and hard to read if they are open automatically. This is especially the case on a front page, where you can have many posts from the same series at the same time.
February 5th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Tom, thanks for your suggestion. For clarification though: It sounds as if the series menus were all expanded initially, but they are actually collapsed. Or at least they should be. If on your blog they’re not, then there’s a weird problem. If so, please let me know as soon as you have it live online so I can check it out.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:09 am
They are all expanded on my test blog. It is live there right now if you want to check it out. http://test.brincefield.net/
February 5th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Tom, you are experiencing the same problem as Fird. Comment out the “.hidden” CSS clause in “/wp-content/plugins/shadowbox-js/css/extras.css” , and it’ll be O.K.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Thanks for the answer to that. I will take care or it. But who is Fird, and where would I find out about his problem? Also, I fixed the error on my post. Sorry I did not see this before it went live.
February 5th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Well, there’s a link to Fird in my prior comment, but I guess when viewed by email, it is not shown. Here it is again:
http://hackadelic.com/solution.....omment-152
February 6th, 2009 at 5:19 am
I missed the link, it blended into the background color to my eyes. But that fix took care of the problem. Now I can play with the CSS to get the look I want before trying to add it to my active site. Thanks.
February 9th, 2009 at 7:39 am
Me again. I have ran into a small problem with the Series plugin. I added it to my site and created a series, no problem. But when I look at the front page, it is including my drafts and scheduled posts on the listing, and people can go to them and read them. This is, not how drafts or scheduled posts are supposed to work.
February 9th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Tom, I noticed that myself recently, and I’m already about to release the bugfix, but thanks anyway. You are absolutely right on that. (Though I believe users won’t see your drafts when they have no permission, but a 404 instead. Not pretty, neither way.)
February 18th, 2009 at 6:05 am
May I ask how you got the fancy image/text rotation at the top of your “Hackadelic Series” page, containing among other things the text “# Resource-friendly. Avoids additional database clutter by utilizing custom fields.
# Editor-UI-agnostic. Avoids clutter of post editor UI by exploiting the existing custom field UI…”
Is that a part of your plugin? I found it to be a very cool effect!
Fird
February 19th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Well, Fird, that’s what I do, yet another voodoo
Right now it’s a quick hack I’ve done specifically for my site. I’ll eventually turn it into a plugin.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:13 am
stupid question, I added the css to my style css, but i cannot seem to change the color of the text “This entry is part of a series” to make it stand out more.. Any Idea’s I copied the “div.hackadelic-series-info on-frontpage into my style.css and added a color change but it does not change the color.
Sorry, not real good with css, but i do try.
Thanks,
Bob
March 19th, 2009 at 4:06 am
Bob, simply add something like
color: red; font-weight: bold;to thediv.hackadelic-series-infoclause.Note that you must reset you browser cache for CSS changes to take effect.
March 20th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Thanks for the quick response, I told you it was a stupid question!
March 21st, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I’m trying to use the Hackadelic Series and Sliding Notes plugins on a WordPress MU site. I’m having a problem with the shortcode displaying. The series title is being displayed as:
This entry is part of a series, WordPress Beginner’s Guide» [/slider]
When I click on the series title, it does not expand. Instead the shortcode simply drops down to the next line like this:
This entry is part of a series, WordPress Beginner’s Guide»
[/slider]
Is this a compatibility issue (either with MU or my theme)? Any tips you could give would be helpful.
Thanks
March 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 am
Owen, I’ve tested the plugin with WPMU, it runs fine there, so it must be your theme.
April 8th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Hello Hackadelic!
Unfortunately, I’m having the same issue as Owen M. I receive the following error message after enabling both plugins and adding my first post to a series:
This entry is part of a series, [slider title="31 Days to Build a Better Blog"]Entries in this series:
1. An Elevator Pitch for DebtFreeAdventure.com – Day 1 of 31DBBB
[/slider]
Thanks, your help is very appreciated.
DebtFREEk!
April 8th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Nevermind Hackadelic, you can disregard that previous comment. I have the DB-Cache plugin installed & simply had to clear its cache & now I’m good to go.
Thanks again,
DebtFREEk!
April 15th, 2009 at 5:53 am
Is there a manualway to display the list?
I’ve free space in the sidebar, and I was wondering I could use this plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/pl.....tallation/ to show the list of series in the navbar.
I haven’t been able to found how to display the list whitout the Front-end plugin
April 15th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
kud0gfx, what list do you have in mind? The front end displays a list of “sibling” posts – member of the same series, not a list of series.
Anyway, currently there is no manual way to display neither a list of series, nor a list of posts in a series. There is a Serial Posts plugin that provides a shortcode for the latter, but I don’t know if it will meet your needs.
I’m going to add shortcodes in the future that provide several listings. (Actually, I already use one to generate a list of recent release announcements, like on the TOC Boxes homepage
)
April 17th, 2009 at 6:22 am
I mean if you’re in a post that is part of a serie, in the navbar i wish i could show the other posts part of that serie, is that possible with Serial post?
April 17th, 2009 at 6:24 am
with navbar i meant sidebar, sorry for the typo
April 17th, 2009 at 11:10 am
AFAIK Serial Posts is meant to do just that on singular pages. I don’t know it it will work in the sidebar. Please refer to the Serial Post desciption. (I’m not the author of Serial Posts.)
April 19th, 2009 at 7:04 am
OK, thx for the info, anyway, for now, i would like to fix a little problem i’ve with hackadelic-series and my style.
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4.....roblem.png
Any idea how c’d i fix it? i’ve been working around with css, but cant get anything to fix, i hope you’ve some idea.
(The red area is the text of the post)
April 19th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
kud0gfx, it seems releated to CSS settings of the red area. I’d guess either the
floatordisplaysetting. I can’t tell more w/o a real URL where the effect can be observed.April 24th, 2009 at 4:49 am
real url: http://onlineparatodos.com/alf.....1%C3%9726/
thanks for all your support dude
June 4th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Hackadelic,
Any suggestions on how to get the series to expand when the page loads? I see this was suggested in earlier comments but Im wondering if you have a temporary solution.
June 5th, 2009 at 12:48 am
Kyle, currently there isn’t. It wouldn’t be too hard to add though, as Sliding Notes, which is used to display the series, has that feature already.
When time and priorities permit, I’ll add an auto-expand option.
July 19th, 2009 at 2:58 am
Just a heads up
Newish plugin WP-Announcements breaks Hackadelic series so that the series slider opens and is visible and a whole bunch of other plugins
I tried it then had to deactivate it quickly
nb also breaks toc and sliding notes
July 19th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Thanks, DavyB.
August 26th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Hi there,
I installed the plugins from wp, and while the index is building, i do not see any way to insert them into the entries. admittingly, it is before 10am so my brain is only in second gear. Any advice?
here is a 2nd entry in a series, that is built.
http://arielsilverstone.com/pr.....rules-1-2/
Ideas?
August 26th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I’m not sure if I know what you mean by “the index is building”.
Have you followed the usage instructions?
September 7th, 2009 at 10:35 am
want to start a series now, and was wodnering about the order: I guess it will be sorted by publishing date, any chance to change the sort order of the posts inside a series?
September 7th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
oh, one more question: what about the option to hide the series information when on the homepage? my theme displays the entry up to the read more tag if present, so I can’t use the excerpt without modifyng the whole template, but wouldn’t such a feature be welcome?
besides, does your plugin also work together with the templates based on themehybrid.com? Those tempaltes, have a meta field called: Series, maybe have a look?
September 7th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Ovidiu, you can change the publishing date. There is no other way.
My theme displays up to the more-tag as well, and it works well.
You can adjust which meta field is uses in the plugin settings. That makes it compatible with any series concept based on meta fields.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Thx. so I will now jsut go ahead and try to use the Series meta tag. didn’t know if there is more involved than the name of the meta tag…
September 8th, 2009 at 8:18 am
oh, sorry, except for one thing: the Series meta tag is set for each post by the hybrid themes. so every article will have this meta tag, even if it is empty and it seems your plugin will then lump all those posts together into one series
could your plugin be “told” to ignore meta tags that are empty?
September 8th, 2009 at 9:06 am
oh, and what about this series plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/series/ it takes a slightly different approach by not using meta fields but the built-in taxonomy.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I will enhance the plugin to ignore blank series names (I just don’t know when I’ll get around to it).
If another series plugin is based on a different concept than meta fields, it may coexist with my plugin, but they won’t cooperate.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:16 am
great, thanks. as soon as the plugin ignores blank series names, I can simply use the Series meta field that hybrid themes automatically integrate into the write post screen
no big deal here, but its neater not having to fiddle with custom fields.
the other series plugin I mentioned, is based on the built-in taxonomy, don’t worry I just thought I’d mention it.
September 30th, 2009 at 2:59 am
Hi Hackadelic
really great plugin! and works perfectly.
I only have one question.
Is there a way that I move the series list to appear at the end of the post content, not as it is now in the beginning?
thank you!
September 30th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Hello,
Can I hide the series in homepage? Can I move it to any position by shortcode?
September 30th, 2009 at 9:43 am
I don’t want load the jQuery framework every load my website, can you write a small js can do 1 job just as slide notes plugins
October 1st, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Veronique, not yet. But it’s on my agenda.
October 1st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Narga, currently you cannot hide the series selectively, nor there is a shortcode to position it freely, though the latter is in my agenda already.
I will certainly not reinvent the
wheel ofcode for sliding (unless you are willing to pay me for it).October 16th, 2009 at 1:24 am
What a pitty!! The plugin looks nice and useful. But I had the commented issue of “This entry is part of a series, [slider title="XXXX"]Entries in this series:
1. XXXXX
[/slider]
We had to opt for another plugin. But we’ll be looking around for an update with the bug solved.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Nevermind… I installed your “slide notes” plugin and the “slider issue” got solved. It works nicely!!!. You can check it at
October 16th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Ego Ipse, that happens when people don’t read instructions carefully.
It is clearly stated that the plugin’s front end requires Sliding Notes.
October 17th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I got the plugin long ago, when the statement wasn’t as clear as it is now.
Anyway… Your plugin simply rocks. It’s smooth, non-invasive and nice-looking… It’s “insanely great”…
October 18th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Thanks, Ego Ipse, I’m glad you like it.
But just “for the records”: The statement about the dependency on Sliding Notes was there from the beginning.
October 19th, 2009 at 2:55 am
Just for the records… I never said the statement wasn’t there. I just said it was not as clear as it is now…
Thanks again for the nice plugin…
October 19th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Oh, so you didn’t mean to say that the statement wasn’t clear, but that the dependency wasn’t clear to you… Sorry for the misunderstanding.
October 31st, 2009 at 5:01 am
No, I mean what I said and anything else. But don’t worry. Your apologies are welcomed.
Best regards and thanks again for the nice plugin…
October 31st, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Oh, Big Ego, so you are one of those guys who need to have the last word on a matter?
Well then it wasn’t a misunderstanding and there is nothing for me to feel sorry about. I withdraw my apology, and repeat the facts:
The dependency to Sliding Notes was stated here from the beginning, it’s always been in the same shape as it is now, and there has always been a clear notice at the plugin’s wordpress.org page about it. Hell even the initial announcement post says that.
Attempting to blame others for overseeing essential information is not very gentlemen-like.
October 31st, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I am having trouble with your plug-in and I was wondering if you could help me.
I have created a series with the meta-key but the sliding note with the series info is not being put into my post automatically. It is supposed to do it automatically, right? If not what do I need to do to have it inserted?
I have the sliding note plug-in installed along with both series plug-ins installed. I am using the inove theme.
The site in question
I really like your plug-in, and I hope that I can get it working!
Also, I know that the plug-in was designed to work within a sliding note, but is there a way to show all the posts within a series in a list format much like the wp_list-categories() function? What about a way to display series in the sidebar?
October 31st, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I read more carefully through the comments on the page, which has answered my question about listings through serial posts.
October 31st, 2009 at 9:20 pm
::sigh:: I tinkered with it some and got it to work. I am really sorry I bothered you
Anyway, I love the plug-in and I really appreciate it. Thank you!
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:35 pm
@Ego Ipse: You definitely stroke the wrong chord in the response you tried to post today, dude, and I’m not going to take it. Presumptuous and offensive comments have no place on my blog. They go straight to the trash can.
Good luck with my plugin… elsewhere.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Thank you for the hackadelic awesomeness! I love the simplicity of these plug ins. They work just as they should: intuitively.
However, I don’t know quite where to edit my css and the MyCSS plugin doesn’t work on my version WP.
Does it matter where I paste it?
I want to increase the bottom margin and change the color or make it stand out more somehow.
Thanks again!
December 31st, 2009 at 5:09 am
Sherryayn, 1st let me tell you: I like the idea of your website, and your endeavor to become a “professional adventurer”. Best of luck to you on your journey.
MyCSS has a quirk where you have to manually create a my.css file in the plugin’s directory before you can edit it. (You’ll need FTP access for this.)
It doesn’t matter though where you paste the CSS. That is, it doesn’t matter to the plugin, but modifying the theme’s style.css file is not a recommended practice. (if you should ever update your theme, you’ll lose your changes.)
January 7th, 2010 at 7:20 am
I would like to have the series expanded when the page is loaded. Where in the code can I change it. Thanks. — Mark
January 8th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Marc, I do not recommend forking the code locally, as you will lose changes when you next update. If you want to go that way nonetheless, have a look at “hackadelic-series-code.php”, line 132. (If you are using version 1.1.1, that is. In my development version, things look completely different already.)
January 16th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Hey I just downloaded and installed both the required plugins and I’m lost. When I got to my wordpress backend and go to the plugin settings all I see is a option to edit the meta key. I’m a newb to writing series post and I’m too lost. Should I be using the Serial Posts plugin also? I was looking for a usage tutorial of some kind and to no avail couldn’t find anything. I really want to use this plugin but I’m lost. I have a question completely unrelated but is has to do with wordpress. When I updated to the newest version of wordpress my visual editor disappeared. It just shows the html editor. Any clue what the problem may be?
January 16th, 2010 at 11:24 am
Calvin, easy, that’s perfectly OK.
There are two places in the back-end related to Hackadelic Series: One is in the options menu (general plugin options, ex. appearance), and one is in the tools. You are referring to the one in the tools. This one is for series administration. When you first install the plugin, you have no series yet, so it’s natural you don’t see a lot on this page. As you will define series, they will appear here.
You don’t need the Serial Posts plugin to use Hackadelic Series. All you’ve got to do is attach a “custom field” to your post (also known as meta-field, or meta-data) named “series” (or whatever you chose on the above page), and assign the series title to it. Refer to the WordPress documentation on how to work with custom fields.
The thing with your visual editor disappearing is weird, but I remember I’ve read it already happened elsewhere, upon some earlier WP upgrade. Alas I can’t recall the details any more. I have had some strange issues after my upgrade to 2.8, and I had to do a thorough cleanup of my installation and the database in order to get rid of them. I also offer a WordPress cleanup service to others.
January 16th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Okay I created a series and I’m seeing other options showing up…but, now I have a question about the sliding notes. How do I configure it and how does it know to put the different post of the series on the list as it shows on your live preview? I’m slowly but surely grasping this please be patient with me.
January 16th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Okay the hackadelic front end wasn’t activated. I guess I missed that part. It’s showing up on the preview of the post. Is there any way to put the sliding note at the end of the post? If not that would be a nice update to be able to choose where it shows up. I seen something on the sliding note plugin I think where you were talking about short tags….so now my question is if I use the short tag will it show up where I put it and not at the beginning of the posts?
January 17th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Calvin, currently series are listed at the top only. The next release will probably allow for moving the list to the bottom. Explicit positioning via a shortcode is not possible right now (at least not with Hackadelic Series alone).