Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
13
To view more information about a plug-in, click the name link
in the directory. This brings you to the plug-in page, either on
the developer's site or on the directory itself, as shown in
Figure 13.2, with additional descriptions, user comments, and
such. Click items on the link bar (Installation, FAQ,
Screenshots, Other Notes, and Stats) to check out even more
information.
Return to the Administration page and click Install for any
plug-in you want on your site. Another Description pop-up
page opens. Look this over, and click Install Now. WordPress
downloads the plug-in archive and unzips it to the
/wordpress/wp-content/plugins directory. Click Activate
Plug-in to turn on the plug-in to complete the process.
note
When you browse the Plugin
Directory by keyword or tag,
results are displayed by most
recent update. Keep an eye on the
number of downloads a plug-in has
before you install on the basis of
an average five-star rating—unless
you don't mind being the experi-
mental guinea pig for a plug-in.
Plug-in Compatibility
One piece of information you will want to check before installing any plug-in—inside or outside of
the directory—is the Requires WordPress version number (the first version of WordPress your plug-
in supports) and the Compatible Up To version number (the most recent version a plug-in has been
tested with; ideally this would be the current stable version, or even the beta of the next version).
New versions of WordPress, which appear quite frequently, can suddenly break any plug-in.
With thousands of existing plug-ins, the WordPress team can't check every one to see which plug-
ins are headed for doomsday. That testing falls to the plug-in developers. Most plug-ins work fine
moving forward, but new WordPress version releases are indeed a nightmare time for plug-in
developers.
Plug-ins that haven't been tested in awhile might have been abandoned as well. If the last compat-
ible version listed is WordPress 2.0, you might want to look elsewhere.
Finding Free Plug-Ins Outside the Directory
Compared with the similar process with themes, it seems to be a little harder to find free plug-ins
that are not in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Although the Google search for “free WordPress
plug-ins” generates even more hits than “free WordPress themes” (87 million versus 49 million),
nearly all the top 50 matches point directly to the Plugin Directory, or to developers already in the
Plugin Directory.
So how do you learn about the best plug-ins? Again, look to the community for answers:
•
The Weblog Tools Collection highlighted in Chapter 12, “The WordPress Toolkit: Themes,” does
plug-in reviews twice a week.
•
Angelo Mandato does the consistently interesting WordPress Plugins Podcast, where he
reviews one plug-in at a time. He also reports from conferences and interviews plug-in
developers to learn more about their recent work and their craft. Listen and subscribe at
www.pluginspodcast.com.
