Overview
wp-reactions is a plugin that mimics the functionality of Blogger’s ‘reactions’ feature. The core idea is that readers are presented with a small ajax form where they can submit their immediate reaction to a post by simply clicking a checkbox.
Demo
WP_Reactions can be seen in action on my test blog.
Download
Installation
There are two alternatives installing wp-reactions. You can use WordPress’ built in plugin installer, or you can do it by hand.
To install manually, unzip the wp-reactions.zip archive into your WordPress installation’s plugins folder. Once this is done, navidage to your plugins admin page and activate the plugin as you would any other.
Configuration
To display the reactions you want, two things need to be done.
- Wherever you want the reactions to appear, insert the following code into your theme. Note that this will only work within The Loop:
<?php the_reactions(); ?>
- Navigate to the Settings->Reactions admin page. Here you can add the reactions you wish to display.
- You’re good to go! Reactions will appear on any new posts you make.
Compatibility
WP_Reactions has been tested and is compatible with WordPress 2.7 and 2.7.1. Older versions may be compatible, but they have not been tested. Use at your own risk.
Version History
- 0.6.6: Fixed a bug where creating reactions on a fresh install would fail.
- 0.6.5: Added pre-reaction text option to the admin page. Tidied up the form markup. Tweaked the retroactive updating (It won’t run if no changes have been made to the reactions).
- 0.6: Added CSS classes to reactions markup to allow easy styling. Saving plugin options now applies the changes to all posts retroactively.
- 0.5.1, 0.5.2: Bug fixing to get the initial release to actually work.
- 0.5: Initial public release. Basic functionality has been implemented.
Frequently Asked Questions/Troubleshooting
When I click one of the reaction checkboxes, nothing happens! What’s wrong?
This is probably occuring because the javascript that handles the click event hasn’t been included. wp-reactions relies on the wp_head hook in order to include the javascript file. To remedy this, make sure that the code <?php wp_head(); ?> is included in before the </head> tag in your theme’s header.php file.
Future Releases
I have a high-level roadmap describing my future plans for the plugin: wp-reactions roadmap.
Known Bugs
The following issues are known bugs that will be fixed in upcoming releases:
- The form markup is not valid XHTML 1.0 (strict)
- The way the form is nested is incorrect.
- The ids on the individual reactions currently have whitespace in them (depending on the reaction text).
Feedback
Please email any feedback, questions or comments to contact@theflyingdeveloper.com