For WordPress 2.5 or better: Download latest Blog Introduction (.zip, ~120 kB, latest version from wordpress.org)
(Older version, below WP2.5, WP2.1 or better: Download Blog Introduction 1.2.5 (.zip, ~32kB))
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For WordPress 2.5 or better: Download latest Blog Introduction (.zip, ~120 kB, latest version from wordpress.org)
(Older version, below WP2.5, WP2.1 or better: Download Blog Introduction 1.2.5 (.zip, ~32kB))
124 Comments
hi. Thanks for plugin
perfect.
Regards
I am running the latest wordpress (2.5.1) and followed the instructions to the letter. This code was added in the right place:
but no content appeared. Any suggestions?
This is on http://www.yeahthatskosher.com
ck, thanks for the report! I believe I've fixed the issue. Plugin should work now. Let me know if it doesn't.
I'm stuck here:
''Create a new page. Put ‘blog-introduction’ as its permalink. Set the page private''
How do you do this? Do i need to create a new page? How do I put this as permalink?
Timmy, you don't need to create a new page, you can use any page that you already have. If you don't have an approriate page already, then you might as well create a new one.
If you're using WP2.5 you can edit the page's permalink right under its title (when you're in the page edit view). (In older WordPress, if I'm not mistaken, the permalink (or slug) setting is located on the right column.)
I can't see it. I'm using WP 2.5. I clicked on the page, You have the title, the page body and then you have the advanced options below that.
custom fields and so on..
on the right side, save, publish and private option.
Any idea? Can you send me a screenshot?
Timmy, in WP 2.5 you must enable permalinks to something other than the default. Then you should see an edit below the Title of your page when you create it. You may have to save/publish before you can change it, but that's how to see it.
Hope that helps.
Jussi, I've got the introduction working on my site, but I was trying to tweak it to do the following:
Show the introduction only to non-logged in readers. If they are logged in, I'm trying to remove the introduction and just begin the post loop as normal.
However, the plugin doesn't have the $user_login variable available where it is called, which is the easiest to test a logged in user with. What are your thoughts? The plugin works great, just trying to fit it to a little different logical model.
Ok, I figured out how to make my logical question above work. I added $user_login to the global variable line and then test with it.
Robert,
That's a great idea! I've updated the plugin to support this. (Unfortunately you'll have to change the settings if you update.) And thanks for helping out Timmy.
Love this plugin
and had it working great in 2.3.3
but in 2.5.1 the text is too large when landing on the website's URL, until I click on the page link (not hidden), then the text is the normal size on the page.
John, codewise everything should've stayed the same. I don't know why the size has changed. You may change the size of the text using CSS in your theme, but I also added an option to do this in plugin options of your admin panel. Thanks for the feedback!
Hi I was wondering if there was a way to make the introduction appear in a specific div on the homepage instead of above the most recent article.
I was hoping to convert the introduction area into a Featured Article area this way. What do ya think?
Jeremy, I'm not sure I'm absolutely sure what you're looking for.
Plugins work with the aid of WordPress actions. This plugin appears at the "loop_start" (i.e. "Runs before the first post of the WordPress loop is processed".). If you could find an action that would suit your need, it could possibly be implemented.
Hmm.. on second thought I may have a clue what you were after. Did you want an introduction before certain post (say, of a certain category)? This kind of thing I would take care of with theme files.
Hi Jussi.
Just wondering if the plugin works with 2.7.1?
I tried installing it, but I'm new to WP so not really shure how to use.
I can edit the settings and so forth.
But nothing shows in my blogg.
Cheers
Amrit
Amrit, thank you for your feedback!
I tried the plugin with 2.7.1 and it does work - at least for me. It could be that your page permalink or id is not correct.
To ease finding the problem I added a preview pane in plugin's settings page. Please update to v 1.4 and see if it helps.
Hi Jussi. Indeed it works.
My customer had fippled with some settings somewhere so I tried a fresh install, and voilá, Intro works.
Nice work with the update. Very handy.
Is it possible to add a function that makes it always visible even tough there are no posts?
My customer doesn't have much posts, actually none on the first page, which makes the intro text not visible...
Cheers
Amrit
Amrit, if there are no posts on the first page, there's probably some static content? Could the intro be fitted there?
Anyways, at the moment the plugins works right before the posts are being listed, taking use of loop_start hook. If you find a hook that would suit your need, it could possibly be implemented. See the full list of hooks for plugin development.
The intro could be fitted there, but since it still is treated as a post, it will interfere with the way I want the bookmarks layed out.
I would like to have the header/then intro, then links, then posts.
Making a post sticky to the first page would make my links end up
above the posts.
I'm a week into WP, so I don't know much about it.
I'm trying what hooks might be used when there are no posts published, but seems tricky, cos if no posts, then an error message will be posted stating there are no posts.
The website above is is just a testsite I´m fiddling with.
Cheers
Amrit
Hi there
)
Just the plug-in I was looking for
but...
the Welcome message shows at the top of EVERY page of my posts, not just the first page - is this easy to change?
@Amrit, the hook that can be used pretty much depends on how your design/layout is being constructed.
@Thingymajig, thanks for the comment! The welcome message should show on front page only so what you described would be quite drastic. Is the site in your comment the site you're talking about? I can't see the welcome message elsewhere than on the front page.
Thanks for your reply Jussi.
Yes that is the right site. If you scroll down the home page and click on the page bar to view previous entries the Introduction message shows on Page 2, Page 3 etc.
in IE (I heven't tried other browsers - shame on me!)
I do use PageBar 2 Plug-in to display my pages but I have tried disabling it and the welcome still shows on each page of posts.
So, just to confirm this, you'd like to disable the introduction on the home page if the visitor is browsing older posts (page 2, 3 etc)?
Sorry for the delay - bit of a permalink trouble, spent the last week sorting it out!
Yes that's exactly it, I would like to disable the introduction on the home page if the visitor is browsing older posts (page 2, 3 etc). Do you think that would be possible?
Sure. It's first on my list and will be available in the next release.
Thingymajig, v1.5.3 works as requested.
Wow Jussi - have upgraded today and it works great on the site - thank you very much!
)
Glad to help!
Put this on a blog for a client and it works beautifully.
Thanks, JudyA! Always nice to hear positive feedback!
Hello, thanks a lot for the plugin!
I was wondering if we can have different introduction texts to each category or subcategory?
Thanks, Elisa! I guess that could be possible. I'll keep that in mind when I prioritize new features.
Hi Jussi! Thanks for the reply...
I looked all over the internet for more than a week for a plugin that could make me able to have different intros per category... the only one now is the wp sticky post, but it doesnt work right...
Just so you know, there are tons of people looking for a plugin like this to work.. so if you can make it, it will be a success for sure!
Thanks thanks thanks...
Elisa.
hey, it's looks exactly what i need, but i'm getting an error after trying the save settings "options.php page not found". maybe it's because i'm using wpmu?
thanks
Elisa, I'm not sure if I want success.. But we'll see.
Amir, I think I got it fixed. I'll try to release it asap.
Elisa, update the plugin and try to create a page with a slug [your-cat-name]-cat-intro, e.g. best-tomatoes-cat-intro.
Amir, let me know whether the update works.
hey, tested it again. this time no error message, but it's either i'm missing out something or it just doesn't change anything...
thanks a lot!
for helping...
Amir, do you see anything in the preview on settings page?
no, nothing...
Jussi, wow you're fast! Thank you for communicating with us, normal people LOL!!
I'm going to test the plugin and let you know for sure...
Thx,
Elisa.
Hey Jussi,
Updated the plugin and configured it to show intro from PAGE. Then I created a new PAGE and saved the permanent link to miami-cat-intro. Nothing happened... a normal page was created and didnt go to my Miami category.
Should I try to create a POST and do this instead?
Thanks a lot for trying to help us.
Elisa.
Elisa, there are some problems with version control on wordpress.org. They might be the culprit. I'll get back to you asap.
Amir, that sucks. I'll try to figure it out.
Elisa, what version did you update to?
Hi Jussi,
I used your "2.5 of better" version and my wordpress version is 2.7.1
Elisa, so I guess you have the plugin v 1.6.
Try http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/blog-introduction.1.7.1.zip, that's the latest one, I'm still trying to sort out how things work at wordpress.org..
If that doesn't work, tell me your cat name, permalink, full url (you can omit domain), and name of the page you're trying to use as an intro and this page's permalink.
Yes, just checked and its 1.6...
Jussi,
Just tried and it didn't work... it goes to a real page and doesn't form a category intro.
cat name: Miami
permalink: http://www.taflorida.com/category/miami/
full url:http://www.taflorida.com/wp-admin/categories.php?action=edit&cat_ID=3
name of the page i'm trying to use as an intro: test
this page’s permalink: http://www.taflorida.com/miami-cat-intro/
Thank you!
Seems to be working for me:
http://img22.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture1mji.png
The intro is right there before the posts in that category.
Thanks for trying Jussi... how did you do?
I did like this... I created a page called TEST and edited the permalink end to miami-cat-intro... I have a cat called Miami. After that I updated the site and nothing happened.. a page was created and not an intro for that category...
What am I doing wrong?
When I go to the address
http://www.taflorida.com/category/miami/
your test introduction appears.
Do you think you could elaborate your problem still?
Jussi,
Yes the intro is on Miami - the category, but if you look up, the page "test" is showing... so if I create one intro to each category, I would end up with 10 or + pages on the top just to be able to relate the content of these pages, to the intro of the categories....
Is there a way these pages don't show on the top of the site?
Thanks,
Elisa.
Ah, that. If you set these pages as private you're the only one who sees them. You can try it with another browser or by logging out. Hope that helps.
Jussi!!! It finally works!! Wow that's terrific... how can I donate to you???
Thx
If you insist on thanking financially make a donation to a local charity.
Hi Jussi,
I really want to use blog-introduction but I can't get it to work with the theme that I have. Can you please have a quick look at my blog and see if you know about this problem. I used the page "intro"/42 but the text is not following the theme.
Thank you for making WP so good!!
Thanks once again... you were terrific!
Marie, I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean with "text is not following the theme". Could you be a bit more specific? Do you have CSS set up for the intro?
Elisa, glad to help. Don't forget that charity.
I won't!!
Hi Jussi,
I choose to have at static homepage as a startpage instead. =)
Hi Jussi,
Great Plug-in!! I've got two questions for you... being new to WP I don't know exactly what i'm doing and hope you can help me out. Is it possible to change the background color of the "Intro" to make it stand out and differentiate it? and is it also possible to use a break (my intro is longish) so that if someone wants read the whole thing they can click a link to "get more" where it will continue as a seperate page?
Thanks, azza! Try updating to 1.8. It'll give you an option to define a style for the intro. You could use something like
padding: 0.5em 2em; background-color: #aabbcc;
as the style for intro.
As to the break, I'd suggest you write another page which is linked to in the intro.
Jussi, my understainding is an introduction can appear on category using a page with this default slug 'yourcategoryurl-cat-intro'
My question is:-
1)Can I change the default slug for category intro?
2)What if I've a different intro for different category? Is this possible? If yes, how to do it? If no, maybe you may want to add this feature. It is normal for each category to have a different intro.
Daniel,
1) No, unfortunetely that's not possible at the moment.
2) Yes. Let's say you have two categories, "animals" and "widgets". Intros will appear from pages that have slugs "animals-cat-intro" and "widgets-cat-intro", respectively.
I'll update the readme file, it is a bit ambiguous about this feature.
hey Jussi,
Thanks for your help the last time i asked a question... I've got another one for you. I've just changed themes and for some reason I can't get the Blog Intro to show up on the homepage for this particular theme. I'm trying to use Arclite (i think thats how its spelled) and no matter what I do I can't get my intro on it. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
My sidebar is on the left, and this plugin is putting the blog-introduction at the beginning of that instead of before the posts. Is there a workaround for that?
Jude, does your sidebar appear before the actual content (in html source)?
Yes, it does.
Ok, thanks. That gives me some idea. I'll look into it next time I update the plugin.
Hi Jussi still using Blog Intro on our site - no problems!
I have now started to use Simple:Press forum software which I also have working fine. Simple:Press have developed some template tags which users can include on posts and pages. I can use the template tags on all my posts and pages except on the page I use for Blog Introduction - any ideas?
Thingymajig, glad it's still working for you! You know, I'd really like to help you with the tags, but I'm afraid I don't have the time at the moment.
I'll have a quick look (if and) when I start updating the plugin again.
No problems Jussi - thanks for your reply.
I get the same problems as posted above.
I can't get the introtext in the centre above the posts, but in the left sidebar. It works and looks good, but it is in the wrong place.
Anyone has a suggestion for a workaround?
My theme is Atahualpa and it is supposed to work with this plugin.
Jude, Tomas,
Version 1.9.1 should allow for you to make your away around the issue. Settings now incorporate a loop count setting which basically counts how many article loops your blog does (e.g. first loop in recent articles in sidebar, second loop in the main content area, etc.). Setting that value into 2 should fix the issue.
Let me know whether it works. Thanks,
Jussi
Hi Jussi,
I am using your plugin and I have a similar problem than Tomas A, I can’t get the introtext in the centre above the posts, it shows in the right place, in the posts zone but displaced to the left instead of the centre. It works and looks good, but it is in the wrong place. I have a theme made by me in Artisteer software but it is very simple.
Any suggestions to fix the problem?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Best regards,
Luciano.
Luciano, does the introtext appear before posts in html code? If so, maybe some CSS formatting might do the trick?
Jussi,
No, the introtext isnt in code, it is well formatted. You can take a look at http://www.luchotv.com
Thank You.
Luciano.
I took a look at the code. Intro is there in proper place. If the table has a fixed width you should be able to center it e.g. with CSS style "margin: 0 auto;" or using other applicable margins.
Thanks a Lot Jussi, I just aligned the table to the center and problem solved.
Best Regards,
Luciano.
Thank you for the plug-in. I must be missing out on something because nothing comes up on any page nor in my preview pane. I have tried to keep defaults with the exception of the 1st one where I answer yes to display the page. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Never mind. My slow-motion comprehension caught up. I was trying to make a post instead of a page. Now it works. Thanks. Is there anyway to make a post become the introduction?
I read through the preceding issues and am interested in what Daniel was asking about... Was that issue resolved? Can you have a different intro for each category? I had one set up on my home page, but then when i added one on a category page, the home page intro disappeared. I am hoping to use this plug in to put a different intro on each category and the homepage. Possible?
Default slug for category intros cannot be changed, but you can have intro for each category. See e.g. this very blog.
http://jussi.ruokomaki.fi/tech/category/os-x/
has a different intro than the front page.
The category slug is "os-x", thus its intro is taken from a page that has a slug "os-x-cat-intro".
Thanks. I got it working for different pages. I think there wss something wrong bc it stopped previewing the html in the preview window. It is working again but do you know why it might be including the extra quote in the class?
div id="blog_introduction" class="-container""
/
Also, I am having trouble with including an image in the intro where the content below doesn't line up. I was trying to put a clear:both at the end of the intro but can't find where it embeds...
You can see it here;
http://missionbayyouthwatersportscamp.com/wordpress/
Thanks Kevin, extra quote removed in 1.9.2. Did it help at all?
Yes. I can now call the class in the styles.css sheet. Thanks.
Kevin, I'm glad we got it fixed. Thanks for filing the bug!
Hey... I'm having some problems when I insert custom code into my index.php. What function inserts the blog intro into the page? I replaced the standard post functions with a loop that is based on a custom field (featured-post) and now the intro gets inserted in the sidebar. Is there a function call or include I can place to move it back to the right spot? See http://www.watersportscamp.com/wordpress
Kevin, the intro appears before the_loop. If you have several loops, say some in your sidebar appearing before your main loop, you can skip the preceding loops by using "Intro before nth loop" setting in Blog Intruduction settings.
Say, you have two loops and you want the intro to appear before the second one (instead of the first one), you'll set "Intro before nth loop" as "2".
Hi Jussi
I have previously tried to include template tags in my introduction (within php code after installing Executable PHP plug-in). Template tags in php code work on every other page but not on the page selected for use with Blog Introduction.
I have found a workaround for this by replacing Blog Introduction with The-future-is-now plug-in which displays posts with a future publish date. I then wrote my introduction post with template tags and dated it well in the future.
Just thought you/your visitors might like to know - guess there's more than one way to crack a nut!
Thanks for your plug-in though - and the excellent support!
Thanks for the tip! I'm sure many will find it useful.
Nice Plugin!
can I show the introduction in my sidebar instead of the Content?
Bichareh, I'd suggest using a text widget in the sidebar for that purpose.
I have a site that I installed and developed on my server using the full directory address during development ccsju.com/puertoricosmallhotels so that I wouldn't interrupt the existing live site until it was time to implement. (change wp-config file so I could login to WP at that directory).
Last night, I changed DNS, updated the wp-config file to show puertoricosmallhotels.com, updated the .htaaccess file to return the default to the root directory and ran Velvet Blues Redirect and cleaned up some hrefs in my widgets.
Everything seems to be running just fine - except Image captions on BLOG INTRO pages now show up as html code
[caption id="attachment_1315" align="aligncenter" width="425" caption="Test"] then the image displays [/caption]
See example at: http://puertoricosmallhotels.com/cat...budget-travel/
Pages are displaying captions just fine when displayed as just pages (without serving as blog intro pages).
See example at: http://puertoricosmallhotels.com/category/personal-style/budget-travel/
I can't figure out what it could be.
I deactivated/deleted and then reinstalled/activated and tried removing/reinserting images and captions - but its still a problem.
Any ideas? I've used this plugin before and its great - this is just driving me crazy since it only happened since I changed the domain references. Thanks for any help.
Richard, could you post here full html code for the intro (the blog intro page), as well as corresponding html code appearing in your category page that shows the error?
Hi Jussi,
I posted the code, but don't see it showing up here...
Just checking to see if you got it... Rick
Reposting code in several postings - prev may have been too big.
Problem with the captions occurs in any theme - even the default wordpress theme.
Also, went to some other sites that I use Blog Introduction and the same problem occurs there.
I've put the captions in two sites:
http://www.smallcaribbeanhotels.com on the page for British Virgin Islands/Andgada (in the menu).
http://www.puertoricosmallhotels.com under Personal Style/Budget Hotels (in the menu).
So it doesn't appear to be related to any directory change as I originally thought - since smallcaribbeanhotels was never changed. I'm thinking it is something related to new version of wordpress which is on both sites.
Code will follow in sep posts. Thanks!
Whenever I try to post the html code in this comment box, the comments don't seem to go through.
I've posted the two versions at
http://puertoricosmallhotels.com/blog-intro-test/
The only difference I can see between the two is the following added before the blog-intro version:
After this, they both look the same to me...
Thanks!
Rick
sorry, the html reference was stripped out again:
I stripped out the brackets - so this is the only difference between the two pages. On the blog-intro page, these are directly before the html and must be what is causing the visible bracket and code wrapping around the image (looks like a shortcode entry).
div id=”blog_introduction”
div id=”blog_introduction_content”
I'm running WP 2.9 and in the options section all the options are missing it just shows the radio buttons then /> next to them. Is there anyway to make it compatible with WP 2.9 Thanks...
@Richard, please let me know if version 1.9.6 will fix the caption problem. (This update also might be able allow executable php, a problem which Thingymajig encountered and covered earlier, but I don't have the time to confirm this.)
@Matt, I'm running 2.9 without problems. Just a guess, but it could be a browser specific issue. What browser do you use? Do you encounter your problem with all browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera, etc)?
Caption problem is now resolved.
This is a really great plugin - THANKS both for the development and for taking the time to resolve the issue.
Also, for Matt's issue, I'm using WP2.9 ok on Safari and options are all there along with the radio buttons.
I tried it on firefox and IE also and there is nothing next to the radio buttons its weird i tried reinstalling it and it still doesn't work.
Matt, please try version 1.9.7 and let me know if it works for you.
Yep that fixed it...thank you for all the support...much appreciated
Hello,
Using the latest version with WP 2.9.2 and I noticed that it ads an extra closing p tag to the code:
FIRST PART OF BI CONTENT
SECOND PART OF BI CONTENT
The BI is not working (not displaying at all) and by using the debug option the --> part of the commented text is attempting to close it I guess? therefore it becomes visible below the next item where the BI is supposed to show into the live page.
Sorry but the code part I included in my last post was rejected.
I just realized that the issue appeared just after installing a plugin called "Thumbnail For Excerpts" maybe not compatible?
Any suggestions will be appreciated, thanks
Hi, I tried installing this plugin and now when I press on a comment part of any of my blog entires it takes me here http://bloomphotography.ca/blog/blog-introduction#respond
Please help, I've tried deleting the plugin and its still doing that.
never mind, I figured it out!
Where is the HTML source written to in the FTP? I can view the source in the plugin editor but I would like to remove some attributes from the html to get it how I would like it, only problem is I can't find it.
Thanks!
James
HTML source is generated in function bintro_get() after the line that starts
if (get_option('bintro_debug')) {
But what would you like to change? I might be able to incorporate that into the plugin (as a setting, for instance).
Hello,
Question.. is it possible to display a flash animation or an applet rotator into this introduction?
Thanks
I wanted to remove the actual title from the blog introduction at the top, I got the text title removed but the spacing on the top is a little off. Trying to force a style on the PHP to get it in line with the other pages.
See: http://www.jamesandmegan.co.uk/jimotest/
If you have any suggestions on how I can change the position of the top margin I would appreciate it! Still having troubles with it
@Francisco, it should be possible as the intro permits shortcodes as well as HTML code.
@James, if the title is not printed then your intro is within two div tags. You might want to put some borders around these to see how they work. E.g.
border: 1px solid red;
for "Style for intro container" setting and
border: 1px solid green;
for "Style for content" setting (in the plugin settings).
Now, what you'll probably discover is that the margin originates from paragraph tags (
) in your introduction content (or that the borders actually make that margin disappear, depending on your browser). You'll see a preview of intro HTML code in the settings. If it has
tags in it, they are generated automatically by WP. In your style.css you can then add something, say,
#blog_introduction_content p {
margin: 0 0 .5em 0;
padding: .5em 0;
}
to get rid of the top margin.
Hope that helps!
Jussi,
Nope, I'm trying to insert a small flash banner with it, doesn't work at all, furthermore it duplicates the latest article posted to the blog.
Francisco, that sounds pretty bad. At the moment I don't have the time to fix the plugin to allow flash. Sorry. But if you find a way to make it work (another plugin etc), please post the solution here for others to use.
Actually I did, for the time being I manually inserted the following line of code into index.php where I want to appear:
<div id="introCont"><?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . "/intro.php"); ?></div>
Depending on the template, id can be anything and the path to intro.php where the actual code for the introduction is.
Just a temporary quick fix since it cannot be suppressed from older post page's 2-3-4-etc like I wish to do.
Jussi, If is of use, your plugin worked fine until the last WP 2.9.2 and Better and Thumbs Excerpt plugins where also installed.
May be conflicting with each other?
Francisco, if you disable that other plugin does the problem still persist?
For what I understand last thing my predecessor did was on the process of updating the blog and that BI failed after installing not the WP update itself but the plugins I mentioned before.
I can try and disable next maintenance time and post the results here. Thanks
I have several blogs on 3.0.1 and the intro will not display. I have all of the config option and it saves the config, but nothing shows on the front page. Any thoughts on what I should check?
Never mind...had a permalink issue...fixed.
Thanks
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