Been done? Yes of course it has! However you don’t learn anything unless you get stuck in and have a go yourself and that is exactly what I did during an empty half hour period I had the other day (slow lecture). Whilst at university I am doing a lot of timed tasks (ten minutes etc.. as opposed to days) and the timers used are always a mobile phone timer or horrible Powerpoint countdown presentation. I wanted to write something which is simple to build on to create a JS version to ultimately integrate into online resources and lessons (Eg: this task will take you ten minutes. Click here to turn on the timer…).
The code at the bottom of this post is the raw HTML file I wrote. I obviously made it into a WordPress plugin as well. see below example.
Example
Yes, it’s basic but it works well for demonstrative purposes.
Usage
write sb_countdown in square brackets in a post or page and you will get the above example. If you want to edit the text or style it then just open the plugin file and right near the top is a few defines to get you going. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it so didn’t create an admin page. I may well do in the future though.
The Download
SB JS Countdown Timer (1.42 kB)Raw HTML Version
<html>
<head>
<title>Countdown Timer</title>
<style>
body {
font-family: tahoma;
}
#countdown_div {
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 56px;
}
#body_wrapper {
padding: 10px;
margin: 20px;
}
</style>
<script>
function do_countdown() {
var start_num = document.getElementById("value").value;
var unit_var = document.getElementById("countdown_unit").value;
start_num = start_num * parseInt(unit_var);
var countdown_output = document.getElementById('countdown_div');
if (start_num > 0) {
countdown_output.innerHTML = format_as_time(start_num);
var t=setTimeout("update_clock(\"countdown_div\", "+start_num+")", 1000);
}
return false;
}
function update_clock(countdown_div, new_value) {
var countdown_output = document.getElementById(countdown_div);
var new_value = new_value - 1;
if (new_value > 0) {
new_formatted_value = format_as_time(new_value);
countdown_output.innerHTML = new_formatted_value;
var t=setTimeout("update_clock(\"countdown_div\", "+new_value+")", 1000);
} else {
countdown_output.innerHTML = "And... Stop!";
}
}
function format_as_time(seconds) {
var minutes = parseInt(seconds/60);
var seconds = seconds - (minutes*60);
if (minutes < 10) {
minutes = "0"+minutes;
}
if (seconds < 10) {
seconds = "0"+seconds;
}
var return_var = minutes+':'+seconds;
return return_var;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="body_wrapper">
<form id="countdown_form" onsubmit="return do_countdown();">
Countdown from: <input style="width: 50px;" id="value" />
<select id="countdown_unit">
<option value="1">Seconds</option>
<option value="60">Minutes</option>
<option value="3600">Hours</option>
</select>
<input type="submit" value="Go" />
</form>
<div id="countdown_div"> </div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
SB Author Comments: Author Commenting plugin for WordPress
April 15th, 2010To my knowledge it’s not possible to comment on an author in WordPress. “Why would you want to do that?” you ask… Well for example a client of mine is running a classifieds site using the Classipress theme. The site uses classifieds as jobs for people to do and the people posting and signing up to the site are tradesmen. Comments, in this case, can be used as a feedback system and therefore are a valuable addition.
The wp_comments table doesn’t have support or scope to store comments with an associated user (as opposed to post). At this juncture I would have inserted a null (or 0) value into the post_id column and added a row into the wp_commentmeta table with the user ID it refers to. However, I didn’t write the core code for the project so I simply updated a neat little system written by Dan Wellman. Dan’s system is pretty good and uses AJAX and JSON to add comments to a new database table with two fields (author and comment). It was what I would call ‘a good start’ as DB details were required in a number of different files and the database had room for improvement. I have a few more plans for the code but for now have changed a couple of things and bundled it into a WordPress plugin for you.
In my version the database table is created for you, it has several more fields including a primary key (!), timestamps and room for additional information (not currently utilised) to be stored. The WordPress database class is used now so no duplication of the connection details is necessary.
Take a look at the plugin and comments and suggestions for additions are very welcome.
Download
SB Author Comments (1.84 kB)
Usage
Upload and activate the plugin as normal. Then add the following code to your author.php theme template making sure to edit the $author_id variable as appropriate.
<?php if (function_exists('sb_ac_comment_form')) { echo sb_ac_comment_form($author_id); } ?>Credit
Once again credit goes to Dan Wellman who detailed the integration into his site on his blog
No comments »
Posted in AJAX, PHP, Plugins, Time Savers, Tutorials, Wordpress
Tags: comment author Plugin Wordpress Wordpress Plugins