The upgrade is done, but some plugins and theme crap have to be updated/fixed. Also, I seem to have deleted something, somewhere. Not sure what, yet. The new version has a much-improved (and non-plugin) media manager thing so I’m slowly converting some of the blog-only graphics to that so some links may be toast while I complete the move.

The long awaited 0.2 release of my first WP plugin is finally here. My apologies for the delay, I’ll do better on the next release…

This version adds support for limiting the maximum number of tags displayed, some code clean-up and approximately 5 new lines in the readme. I’ve adjusted some of the titles/filenames/etc. to be more clear. ITC seems as good an acronym as any, so the name will likely stay.

The new version can be downloaded from my projects page.

see also: ITC 0.1
update: Someone added the plug to a codex-style site. Neato.

“See a need, fill a need.”

I present the initial release of my 1st complete and functional WordPress plugin.

Improved Tag Cloud 0.1

ITC is designed specifically to combat a problem I have with the normal tagging cloud and related plugins currently available. Namely, the number of terms generated by someone who’s pretty bonkers about accurate tagging/searching. This blog with it’s sub-100 posts already has well over 100 tags and that’s only because I was distilling them down to keep the cloud small!

All ITC does is ask you what the minimum amount of posts you require a tag to have before it’s displayed in your cloud. For my blog a setting of ONE actually works perfectly! Your mileage may vary. I didn’t really test it (or code against it) but an excessively high number would likely produce … uh … nothing? Don’t do that!

I have also added a “My Stuff” page to the index as well where I’ll chronicle my ongoing coding exploits. THE HORROR!

This is my first foray into WordPress hacking, so be gentle.

update: The E! True Hollywood Story on this project was that I wanted to generate some code I could show a potential employer that was applicable to their business. Long story short, they kicked me to the curb after (what I thought) was two excellent interviews with some of the nicest people you’d care to meet. I guess you never can tell with people…

In my previous lamentations regarding the recent Wordpress 2.3 upgrade I bemoaned the lack of good options for splicing the new tagging into Technorati, which I had already grown accustomed to using. Will Garcia over at Gormful.com apparently shared my angst and, as coders do, solved the problem.

Enter WP23-Technorati-Tags. A few code changes to the theme and voila. The already-handled tagging supplies both local-cloud links and Technorati links. It’s a little redundant, ’tis true, but I’m sure I (or most likely someone else) will find a more elegant way to present that information. On first blush I’m thinking that use a “cloud” display for the local tags and leave the techno ones in the clean list format.

hmm, that is a good idea. Mayhaps I’ll look into that!

Now if I could only get WP to automatically put ALL of my posts into the same, single, ALREADY DEFAULT category we’d be golden.

I love upgrades.