WordPress Console Update

It’s been awhile since I posted about my open-source WordPress Console (WPC) plugin, and enough has happened since I released it that I thought it deserved a little mention.

What’s New

1. Basic Security

Thanks to Apokalyptik, the back-end PHP scripts now require a shared secret from the console before executing any code. As he so eloquently described it:

As is the plugin is negligently insecure (but outstandingly cool and useful and I want this plugin to be installable, thus the patch)

Even though the increased security is a huge improvement from what we had before, I still wouldn’t run the plugin on production servers.

2. Tab-Completion

This is the biggest functional improvement to WPC by far. It was a feature that I wanted to release the plugin with initially, but it didn’t make the cut because I wanted to release early. The best thing about tab-completion is that it allows you to explore the PHP & WP environments in a very fulfilling way. If you haven’t tried the plugin with this feature, please give it a go.

3. Small Things

WPC now handles command history with more grace. Using the up-arrow puts the cursor at the end of input, you can’t walk off the end of the history buffer, and a few other improvements to the code quality.

Some Press

Thanks to Doug Neiner for giving WPC a solid review on the Fuel Your Coding blog, and for contributing to the project.

What’s Next

I’m not really sure.

I’ve considered adding in-console documentation for PHP & WP functions, but not sure if people would use it much. I also have a command-line version of the console which I could spit shine and include with the plugin, but that might not be too attractive either. Maybe the plugin is as good as done. Any ideas or suggestions?

On WordPress Plugin Release Notes

Plugin upgrade notifications and one-click installs are great for both developers and users alike, but there is one thing about them that I find irritating as a user, and easily avoidable as a developer: displaying reasons to upgrade.
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Introducing the WordPress Console

One killer feature of Ruby on Rails (for me) is script/console. Being able to interact with your code and data inside the full Rails environment is a powerful tool for development. Some days I practically live there, and if I get carried away, I do a lot of my testing there too (bad, I know).

I love Ruby and Rails, but being a contract developer means I go where the money is and recently that has been in WordPress plugin development. I enjoy developing for WordPress, but I’ve been spoiled by Rails and I often long for an interactive console for WordPress.

As a result, I’ve been developing (and using) a WordPress plugin built for WordPress developers. It provides an in-browser console where you can “play” with the code you’re working on.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, this screencast will be worth at least a bazillion of ‘em:
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Clean WP Dashboard

I just published my 2nd WordPress plugin, Clean WP Dashboard.

WordPress 2.7′s dashboard is a huge improvement over previous versions, but when you’re running a site with many users sometimes you just want to simplify things. Enter Clean WP Dashboard.

This plugin adds a simple administration page called “Dashboard Settings” which allows you to select/de-select which of the default WordPress widgets are available on the dashboard.

Source code is on my GitHub account, as usual.