Drupal > WordPress Conversion Part IV: Plugin breakdown
Here is a list of the plugins I used to make in order to stretch the powers of WordPress to that of a very feature-rich content management system that maintains the simplicity and user-friendliness of a blog. You can see the results at Craft Emergency Relief Fund.
What I think is truly remarkable about using WordPress as a Content Management System is that it can be twisted and turned in so many ways without even coming close to modifying the core code. Upgrades become a snap and sustainability goes through the roof. I truly believe it is hands-down the best solution for small to medium sized organizations.
Breadcrumb by Dan Peverill
A simple and wonderful breadcrumb navigation system.
Where you’ll see it: Hiding in the green bar at the top of all pages on Craft Emergency Relief Fund.
Batch image upload by Tony Gambone
Batch Image Upload is pretty simple: It allows the user to upload a large number of images quickly and easily. It’ll even resize them on teh fly. A nice alternative to FTP.
Collapsing Page Menus – Vernal Creative Edition by Cam Fraser
This is the shiny gem of the collection. Collapsing Page Menus by superstar plugin developer Cam Fraser is the end-all menu solution for WordPress sites. You can read more about it at my previous entry.
Where you’ll see it: Head to an interior page and play with the menu on the left. Notice the nice behaviour. Ooh lala.
ImageManager by Per Soderlind
Holy smokes. This is an incredible plugin. It is a total must-have for any wordpress installation.
PHP Exec by Priyadi Iman Nurcahyo
PHP Exec allows your users to execute php code from within the body box of a post or plugin.
Where you’ll see it: The Emergency Readiness and related pages are generated in an interesting way: CERF staff bookmarks resources as they find them using delicious and a bookmarklet. We then use Feeddigest to create nice little html listings of the feeds coming from the group delicious account, and spit them out onto the page using PHP Exec. The client went nuts over the ease of use.
SpotMilk by Sunghwa Park
Spotmilk is a beautiful overhaul of the default WordPress admin interface. Highly recommended.
Search Pages by David B. Nagle
A nice, solid plugin that allows the default WordPress search engine to search page content as well as post content.
Where you’ll see it: Try searching any page or check out these results.
Search_Hilite by Georg Leciejewski
Search Hilite does some nice context highlighting of search results, allowing the user to more easily comb through results. Works hand-in-hand with Search Excerpt (below).
Where you’ll see it: Try searching any page or check out these results.
Search Excerpt
Search excerpt modifies the default search results so that the users search phrase is shown instead of an excerpt from the top of the post/page.
Where you’ll see it: Try searching any page or check out these results.
WP Admin Bar 2 by Matt Read
Another must-have and staff favorite. WP Admin Bar places an unobtrusive menu across the top of all site pages and posts. It allows for easy access to common user functions especially an edit button that jumps to the edit screen of the post/page you are viewing. Hot.
Wp_list_pages Reloaded by Cam Fraser
Ah, our buddy Cam is back with this wonderful solution. Wp_list_pages Reloaded works hand-in-hand with Collapsing Page Menus – Vernal Creative Edition to throw a specified class on every menu link that is a parent of the page you are viewing. The last hole in WordPress menu management has been plugged.
Where you’ll see it: Visit anything at CERF and notice that nice menu hiliting action.
That’s a mighty fine list of outstanding ideas and generous people. I love the creativity and drive of the Free software. Thanks to everyone everywhere that participates in our wonderful community.