I’ve been using WordPress 2.7 for a while now and have comprehensively tested my WordPress plugins on it. In this post, I release the results of my testing: Four plugins work fine (albeit with a non version specific bug found in one of them). One plugin seems to have problems with WordPress 2.7.

Plugins That Work With WordPress 2.7

The following WordPress plugins appear to work fine with WordPress 2.7:

• DualFeeds
• FeedEntryHeader
• LocalCurrency
• KeywordLuv

However, during testing I discovered a bug with LocalCurrency, which I’ll explain in more detail below. This bug is not specific to WordPress 2.7 and has always existed in the plugin. If you haven’t noticed it yet, you’re unlikely to.

Plugin Which Has Problems With WordPress 2.7

Unfortunately, the IFrameWidgets plugin has a problem, which appears to be related to WordPress 2.7. In fact, I suspect that this problem has existed since WordPress 2.5, but only occurs on certain browsers.

The problem is that widgets running in the IFrame widget do not appear. This seems to be related to the JavaScript no longer being able to find the height of the IFrame (the plugin hides the IFrame until it’s fully loaded, then automatically resizes it based on it’s contents).

I’m not certain of all scenarios when it will occur, but I’ve managed to make it happen with the BlogCatalog widget using Firefox 2.0.0.20. For me, there’s no problem in Firefox 3, Google Chrome and IE6.

Kirk M from Just Thinkin’, who reported the problem, seems to be having a more serious problem with the Google Friend Connect Members widget: he gets the problem with Firefox 3.0.5, Shiretoko builds, Chrome and IE 7.0.

It may be that there are two problems: a general problem which only occurs with FireFox 2 and a more specific problem with the Google Friend Connect Members widget.

I suspect the general problem occurs because the way widgets work changed back in WordPress 2.5: IFrameWidgets uses the number of the widget in the plugin logic. Prior to WordPress 2.5, you were only allow a maximum of 9 widgets, so the plugin was using the numbers 1 to 9. In versions after 2.5, there is no maximum number of widgets and the plugin is using numbers such as 320138091. It may be that FireFox 2 can’t handle numbers this large?

I am continuing investigations and hope to identify a fix soon. You can follow this issue in the comments on the IFrameWidgets page and I’ll announce the fix in a post – so subscribe to my feed if you want to know when it’s released.

LocalCurrency Bug

As mentioned above, LocalCurrency has a bug which has always existed within the plugin. The plugin works fine within a single post or page, but doesn’t always work on pages with multiple posts (ie the home page or category pages).

The plugin has been designed to work on pages with multiple posts, but it doesn’t always load the JavaScript that allows it to make the call to Yahoo! Finance. To optimise performance, the JavaScript is only loaded when the plugin finds the <–LCSTART–> tag in the post.

This is fine for single posts / pages. It’s also fine for pages with multiple posts IF the tag is in the first post on the page. However, if the fist post doesn’t have any currency to be converted (ie no <–LCSTART–> tag), then the JavaScript isn’t loaded.

I’ll be fixing this problem sometime in the near future. I’ll probably add an option to allow the blog owner to decide whether they want to convert currency on multiple post pages. If chosen, the plugin will load the JavaScript without checking the posts for the tag, circumventing the problem.

Final Thoughts

Anytime there is a WordPress upgrade, there is a chance that one of my plugins will break. This means I have to do extensive testing with each WordPress release. This takes a lot of time, but fortunately, there are normally no problems to fix.

For the WordPress 2.7 release, I did find a couple of problems – but I’ll get them fixed as soon as I can.

It’s been a while since I last posted, because I’ve been tied up with some other projects. My focus is now returning to this blog, but before I get into anything of substance, there’s some housekeeping I need to take care of.

If you subscribe to the feed of one of my WordPress plugin categories, please be warned that these feeds will be removed in 7 days time. The feeds in question are the following:

If you want news about my WordPress plugins, please subscribe to the following feed:

http://www.scratch99.com/category/my-wordpress-plugins/feed

This feed will contain news and tips relating to ALL my WordPress plugins.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to the feed relating to the tag (rather than category) for each plugin. These will probably have all the news relating to each plugin, but may also contain other posts that mention the plugin in passing. These feeds are as follows:

• DualFeeds Tag Feed
• IFrameWidgets Tag Feed
• FeedEntryHeader Tag Feed
• LocalCurrency Tag Feed
• KeywordLuv Tag Feed

I’ve taken this move for two reasons:

1. I’m consolidating my categories, because I have too many of them. This will merge 5 categories into one general category for my WordPress plugins.
2. I normally stick to one category per post, but I often have news relating to more than one plugin. This will allow such news to reach everyone who needs it.

I regret any inconvenience this may cause, but hopefully it will result in a better site.

I’ve been pretty quiet for the last couple of weeks, mainly due to offline endeavours. However, I did find time to finish off a new WordPress plugin called LocalCurrency, that allows you to show currency values to your readers in their local currency.

For example: If a post contains 10 yuan, a user from Australia will see 10 yuan (AUD$1.53), while a US user will see 10 yuan (USD$1.39).

How LocalCurrency Works

LocalCurrency determines the reader’s country (via IP address), gets the current exchange rate from Yahoo! Finance, then calculates the equivalent value in the readers currency for any values in the post. It then updates the post so the reader can see their currency, in brackets after the original value.

All of this is done using ‘AJAX’ techniques so that page load times aren’t affected. Readers can change their currency via a selection box if they desire.

Where Do I Get LocalCurrency?

See the LocalCurrency plugin home page for more information about LocalCurrency, a live example, and to download the plugin.

Why Is It On JobsInChina?

There is one big difference about this plugin, compared to my other plugins. LocalCurrency is a JobsInChina production. That means I’m hosting  it on the JobsInChina.com website. There are several reasons for this:

1. It was written for use on the JobsInChina blog
2. It’s running on that blog, not this one
3. It is more likely to appeal to a higher percentage of visitors to that blog (as many will start their own blog when living in China).
4. Honestly, the backlinks will help JobsInChina. I’ll write more on this in the coming weeks, but a plugin is great at generating backlinks.

This was a hard decision. This is my WordPress plugin site, so it could be argued that all my plugins belong here. Point three swayed the argument. JobsInChina is supposed to provide resources to people wanting to live in China. That includes bloggers!

It’s not all about point four. In fact, I’m sure there are SEO experts out there who’d say that it’d be better to keep the two sites separate and tightly focused. Of course it is possible for a site to be an authority on more than one topic. This blog has some authority for China – it ranks at position 20 for Chinese Hospitality (it used to be on page one, but it’s slipping).

Anyway, I may come to regret the decision, but it’s been made now. I’ll provide any feedback on the SEO impact if it becomes obvious.

Final Thoughts

This was one of the more complicated plugins I’ve written, as it involved JavaScript and ‘AJAX’, but it’s been very satisfying to complete. I’m not expecting it to be a mainstream plugin, but it is handy for people living abroad who often talk about what they’ve spent recently.