I would welcome any comments on this plugin. If you have suggestions about how I wrote the plugin, or experience problems with it, or if you would like something added to it, please let me know!
Description
Frontpage Manager allows you to customize how the posts appear on your frontpage in several different ways.
- you can have the posts drawn from all categories or a subset of your choosing
- you can choose how many posts should display on the front page (this is distinct from WordPress’ built-in Reading Settings which applies to all blog pages)
- you can have each frontpage post limited in length by number of characters, words, or paragraphs
- you can choose which HTML tags should be stripped from frontpage posts
- you can specify a read more link, etc. if you like
- you can hide the category in the page title, if you wish
The plugin will attempt to make sure that any tags that are interrupted by the post-limiting feature are matched so as not to cause formatting issues.
Compatibility
I have tested this plugin from WordPress 2.8.
Installation
Install the plugin automatically from WordPress (go to Plugins -> Add New) OR
Install manually
- Unzip the plugin files to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/frontpage-manager/’ directory
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Set your preferred settings through the Frontpage Manager section under WordPress’ Settings menu
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does this plugin also apply if you have a static page set as your frontpage rather than latest posts?
- Yes. There are settings in the back end such that you can apply all options to your main posts page even if you have a static page as the front page, and you can also apply the word/character/paragraph limitation to the page that is your static front page.
- How can I style how the read more link looks?
- The link is contained within a div that has been given the class ‘fpm_readon’. Simply add .fpm_readon{} to your theme’s style.css and put whatever CSS styling you want in it.
Screenshots
See Screenshot 1
Download
Version 1.2 Right-click and choose Save as or Save link as
Changelog
Version 0.9 beta — December 2 2009
- Plugin launched
Version 0.91 beta — December 4 2009
- Removed default from ‘Read more linktext’ so you don’t have to have any if you don’t want
- Allowed option ‘all’ for ‘Tags to strip’ for those who wish to get rid of all HTML markup
- Fixed small bug where ‘Tags to strip’ field was disappearing inappropriately
Version 1.0 — December 7 2009
- Implemented selection of multiple categories from which posts will be displayed
- Made it so ‘Read more linktext’ and ‘Text ending’ are not displayed when post is too short to require limiting
Version 1.1 — May 14 2010
- Fixed the PHP error that showed up when no category was selected, and put in a warning
- Made it so you can apply the word/character/paragraph limitation to a static front page
- Made it so you can apply both post category/number limitation and word/character/paragraph limitation to main posts page, when it isn’t the front page (i.e. you have a static front page)
- Made it so that the post category is not displayed in the title of the homepage
Version 1.2 — June 6 2010
- Bug fix: Made the hide category in page title a togglable option in the backend since it doesn’t always seem to work… This is just a quick workaround until I have the time to devote to figuring out why my method of hiding the category in page title, doesn’t always work (sigh!)
Hi,
I posted this question on the WP plug-in forum, to get answers, and to help the visibility of your plug-in.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/337658?replies=1#post-1300746
In case you don’t see that post,
I’m pasting it here as well.
Thanks.
Hi Elise,
This looks to be a great plug-in.
I’m currently running a theme, Arthemia, (slightly modified) which has some controls on the front page post settings. I’d like to have more control as frontpage-manager appears to offer.
Any idea as to whether the 2 will conflict? I’m hoping to get some insight before installing frontpage-manager, if I can. I know you may not be familiar with the theme in question, but perhaps if you look at my Page Source info?
Thanks,
PhotographyUncapped
Adobe Photoshop CS5 News Features Release Date Cost Updates
I tried using your plug in but the category selection is not sufficiently flexible for my purposes. Your options are all or one. What I need is some.
Good luck with the plugin.
Hi John,
Yes, as indicated in the FAQ, this first beta version only allows all or one category. I intend to change that in the next version though, which will hopefully be soon!
Hi John,
Selection of a subset of categories has been implemented, if you want to give it a look.
Elise,
I meant to comment sooner. I saw that you updated this feature, awesome! I’m now using your plug-in on my site and it works a treat!
Thank you for being responsive!
Hi John,
No problem, I’m glad it works well for you! I’m glad I got to it on Dec. 7th as the next day my daughter was born
Please let me know if you think of any way I should improve it further.
Great idea!!! I only miss one option, custom ordering, this will make the front page just perfect,
Thanks,
Sahar
hello,
Since some of my project posts contained only video footing, how can i display it on front page (the post was showed up on the front page but it didn’t display my video)? I think this plugin is only looking for the actual wording right (no image and video will be displaying on front page)
Thanks
T
btw, if I selected ‘Do not limit’ on the Limit Post(s) by droplist then my video will show up. Only one problem, since ‘do not limit’ was selected, it will display other long posts on the front page as well.
Thanks
Elise,
just a suggestion:
1. you could add ‘limit by tag’ under the Limit Post(s) droplist.
2. let says frontpage-manager tag is
3. then on my post, I can just add where ever i wanted (in my video post for example, I can just add it right after the video.
4. on the display function, just look for that tag and get everything in front of that tag.
Sorry about all of these posts. Thank you fro a great plugin btw.
Tung
Hi Tung,
Hmm, thanks for the suggestion. I think adding a limit by tag is a good idea — I’ll implement it for the next release! (It may take a little while as I have a 4 week old baby and am also in the process of moving countries!) Regarding the video — what were you limiting it by before you chose “Do not limit”? And if you don’t mind, can you give me the HTML you were using for the video? I’d just like to mess around with it/test it, because it shouldn’t have made the video disappear (as long as the # words/characters/paragraphs limit was large enough).
Thanks!
Hi Sahar,
Sorry for the delay in response. Can you specify what you were thinking of in regards to custom ordering? In the back end settings, what ordering options would you like to see?
Thanks!
congrats on the new baby Elise. I got a young one as well and I know how you felt. A lot of hard works but it is worth it…
Here is the syntax that I used for my friend website:
(i put extra spaces hopefully it will display the full text on this website)
[ flv:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UOGKtUhuQc 425 344]Captured by Rogers TV
btw,
Tung
Hey Elisa,
I’ve been trying to install your plugin under WPMU 2.8, but I can’t seem to get those “Select Categories” functionality working. Would this be an issue with WPMU or just something in my installation?
I have 10+ categories and I only wanna show one category, “News”, on my frontpage. ‘Max posts’ is set to 10, `Tags to strip` set to `all`, `Limit posts` set to `Do not limit`.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Oh, and congrats on the baby
Cheers, Mark
Hi Mark,
Hmm, I duplicated your settings on my own website but it worked as expected. Therefore I would expect it has something to do with WPMU (which I have no experience with). Right now I am at my mother’s house where I have internet only for approximately 5 minutes per day :-/ but next week when I am somewhere with normal internet again, I can check it out and see if I can find out what the problem is!
Running on Version 2.9.1 of WP. Getting this message when I modify settings postings in Frontpage Manager:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in D:\Hosting\4602789\html\blog\wp-content\plugins\frontpage-manager\fp-manager.php on line 98
Hi Christine,
I believe you are getting that error because when updating the Frontpage Managaer options, you haven’t selected any categories that you want to appear on the front page. Select at least one category of posts to appear, and the error should disappear. I will fix this in the next update of the plugin.
Thanks!
Thanks for that plugin, does the job just fine.
How can i add/show the name of each categories on the front page.
Nice plugin.
I have just used it in WP 2.9.2 and it works.
And as part of an ongoing WP tutorial have suggested that a WP user install it to solve a problem.
http://www.danielwiener.com/is/artist_website/galleries-of-images
Thanks again
Daniel
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for that. I’m glad you are happy with it!
Use this plug in on a couple sites and love it! Works great. I have one site I really want to use it on but I have a static frontpage and the blog on different page. I would love to be able to make this plug in apply to whatever page the blog was on.
Thanks,
Mike
Hmm. Good comment. I admit I have no idea how to do that but I can look into it
Though I’m pretty overloaded right now, I hope to find some time to put into this plugin sometime soon!
Hi!
Your plugin is wonderful. However I have a problem with title of my frontpage. It is titled with the title of my blog + the name of the first chosen (in your plugin’s settings) category. How can I change this, so there won’t be this category name?
Hmm, you’re right! I only noticed that when you mentioned it. Well, I spent some time working on the plugin today, I think I have found a way to remedy issue you mentioned, and I hope to tidy it up and upload the next release in the next couple of days.
Hi Mike,
The next release should be coming out in a day or so and it will allow you to have frontpage manager apply to wherever the main blog page is, even if it’s not the front page.
Thanks
I am looking forward to new version 
I upgraded to version 1.1. but my category pages were no longer visible so I went back to version 1.0, and everything is fine.
If I can be helpful in troubleshooting, perhaps by telling you what other plugins I had active, etc., let me know. Email would be better as I may not be likely to stop back in with any regularity.
Thank you for the plugin!
Danny
-Made it so that the post category is not displayed in the title of the homepage
could you make this a toggle option in your next version? my archive pages don’t display right with 1.1
ex: my blog page
1.0 –
Title – Blog|The Death of Me
Page Header – Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
Sidebar – You are currently browsing the The Death Of Me weblog archives for the Blog category.
1.1 –
Title – |The Death of Me
Page Header – Archive for the ” Category
Sidebar – You are currently browsing the The Death Of Me weblog archives for the category.
Thank you for all your hard work! I am going to go back to 1.0 for now.
http://kirilisa.com/downloads/projects/wordpress/frontpage-manager_1.0.zip
I am having the same problem, so I had to revert to version 1.0.
The problem appears independently of the theme, the plugins installed or the version of WP.
We have it working in 4 different sites with different configurations, themes and plugins.
The plugin is great.
Thank you for this outstanding job.
Hi Jonathan,
I will definitely make it a toggle option on the next version which will hopefully be very soon. I thought of making it a toggle option while I was writing it, but didn’t. I guess this shows one should always go with one’s first instinct
Hi Majofa,
I couldn’t replicate the problem (I was emailing some with Danny, above) so that made it tough to troubleshoot, but I suspect I know what is responsible for the problem and hope to make a getaround for it in the next version which I plan to put out sometime this coming week. Could you tell me, do you happen to use the Top Level Categories plugin?
I can’t get it to work. I see “Fatal error: Call to undefined function the_content_limit()” on my front page and that’s all. Uninstalled.