Rotating Posts
Nov 26th, 2009 by Hoi Lo
4.0 Rotating Posts
The purpose of using rotating posts for our Plugin Check website is to allow a simple and efficient navigation system between posts. The rotating posts creates a window that displays the full content of the post.
Here is a screenshot of the rotating post in action:
Figure 7. Rotating Posts
The Rotating Post plugin comes with a navigation bar and a display for the post content. Users can use the navigation bar to either go from post-to-post or skip to a specific post by clicking on their corresponding thumbnails.
Unlike many other post slideshow plugins found in WordPress which displays either a certain amount of the post content or only the excerpt, the rotating post plugin displays the post content as if the user is within the post’s link. However, the greatest asset of the rotating post plugin is its ability to maintain the options of the post template. What does this mean? It means that users who have no experience with HTML but wish to remove certain plugin checks from the website can simply use the hide option found in every post to remove it from a common user’s view. This, in return, allows maximum flexibly for administrators and editors to modify the plugin check to their own liking, without knowledge of HTML and Javascript coding.
4.1 Programming Description
Using this plugin did not require any manipulation of existing HTML code except for adding this code snippet:
<?php rotating_posts(); ?>
into the contents of your theme. Preferably, the code snippet should be placed in the Main Index Template (index.php) of your theme, like so:
<?php
/**
* @package WordPress
* @subpackage Gold_Pot_Theme
*/
get_header();
?>
<div <?php post_class() ?>>
<?php rotating_posts(); ?>
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
Once placed, the rotating posts plugin provides the user with an extensive list of options to modify its properties, all of which users inexperienced in HTML and Javascript can easily understand.
Figure 8. Rotating Posts Options
In conclusion, the purpose of the Rotating Post plugin is to provide a simple and efficient navigation system for users using the webpage. Its greatest strength is displaying the full contents of the post while keeping the posts template options.