My Essential Textpattern Plugins and How to Use it

Textpattern is a very flexible CMS, but like any other CMS there’s always in the need of plugins. Texpattern has a large community, although not as large as Wordpress. There are severals Textpattern plugins that are really matters to me. Here are the list.

1. ajw_comment_feed

Provide RSS feed for comments for visitor. Your readers can subscribe to the post discussion, great plugin to increase page views.

2. ako_social

Display social sites icons for your site.

3. cbs_gravatar

Display gravatar avatar for commenter, nothing else nothing more.

<txp:cbs_gravatar size="48" alt="gravatar" class="gravatar" link="true"/>

4. hcg_templates

This is the most useful plugin. Textpattern default template system is using database and inline forms, thus makes creating templates a lot harder than actual files. With hcg_templates, you can export and import your templates. Imported templates will applied to your site template instantly.

This plugins seem to dead, the author website has beed suspended and couldn’t find it in Textpattern plugins site either. I have version 0.3, it’s still working in Textpattern 4.2. Send me email if you want hcg_template plugin.

mcw_templates is the new plugin for templates manegement, yet i haven’t tried it.

5. htn_feedstats

One of bloggers friends, the plugin only purpose is to display your feedburner subscriber stat. The plugin support caching, it will not overload your server request.

<txp:htn_ _feedstats name="feedburnerid" cachefile="http://www.yourdomain.com/files/feedcache.txt" />

The output will be ### readers (### subscribe stat). The plugin need feedcache.txt in your files/ directory and chmod it to 777.

6. mrw_spamkeywords_urlcount

Smart anti spam plugins, its records words and URL that used by spambot or spammers. With this plugins, 99% spams are terminated and I can sleep at night without worried to delete all those spams in the morning.

The plugin doesn’t need any tags, it just works after activation.

7. pvc_users_info

What Textpattern lacks is user information. With pvc_user_info you can display users information, such as bio, avatar, real name, personal sites in your blog or sites. See below the post for the example.

My txp tag is looks like this.

<div class="authorprofile">
        <txp:pvc_author_image class="avatar"/>
        <div class="name"><txp:pvc_author_firstname /></div>
        <div class="web"><txp:pvc_author_web /></div>
        <div class="bio"><txp:pvc_author_bio /></div>
    </div>

After activation you will see new sub menu in Admin > User Profiles.

8. rah_htmlile_bar

This is more for non techie writer, will help you write htmlile faster by clicking the toolbar on the write page.

9. rss_admin_db_manager

Backup is important task. With this plugins, you can backup your Textpattern database saved in your server, or import database. Really great plug-ins.

10. rss_admin_show_adv_opt

I am using custome field fan. Custom field are located in Advance panel, by default it’s hidden. With this plugin, the Advance panel will automatically displayed. Saves one click per post.

If you use Texpattern 4.0.2, this plugin is deprecated.

11. rss_live_search

This one is my favorite. Gives your Textpattern live search using Ajax. The looks of the search query customizable by CSS.

Here’s my txp tag.

<txp:rss_live_search max="10" inputsize="35" label=""/>

And, here’s CSS to skin the live search result.

.sidebarRow #livesearch {
    color: #fff;
    background-image: url(../siteimg/bg_input.png);
    border: 1px solid #231e10;
    height: 24px;
    -webkit-border-radius:6px;
    -moz-border-radius:6px;
    font: bold 10pt Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;
    width: 330px; 
}
#LSShadow {
    z-index: 2;
    position: absolute;
    color: #fff; width: 310px;
    font: bold 10pt Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;
    margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 5px;
    background: #352c27;
    padding: 5px 10px;
    border: 1px solid #231e10;
    border-top-style: solid;
    border-top-color: #231e10;
    opacity: 0.91;
    html-shadow: #000000 0px 1px 0px;
}
.LSRow, #LSHeader{
    line-height: 2em;
    border-bottom: 1px solid #493d3c;
}
.LSRow a {
    display: block;
    padding: 0px 10px;
}
.LSRow a:hover {
    background-color: #1b294d;
}

12. SimplePie Plugin

Aggregate other site RSS feed into your Textpattern site. I use this for @zeusbox twitter stream and our graphic river items.

<txp:feed items="1" showdesc="false" showtitle="false" error="Cannot Connect to Twitter" showdate="M.d g:h a">http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/635683.rss</txp:feed>

13. tru_tags

Tagging or keywords is available on Textpattern default installation, with tru_tags your used tags will displayed under keywords input. Very convenient if you rely on tag system in your blog or site.

14. zem_contact_reborn & zem_contact_lang

Every site need a contact form, and zem_contact_reborn is one of the most popular plugin for contact form. It’s because it packed with great features, such as customizable input, anty spam prevention system and also easy to use. The plugin need zem_contact_lang to work.

Here is the tags on our contact page.

          <txp:zem_contact to="email@address.com" label="Email us">
              <txp:zem_contact_html label="name" min=3/><br />
             <txp:zem_contact_email label="email"/><br />
             <txp:zem_contact_select label="Subject" list="Replacement icon request, Project inquiry, Questions, Supporting message, Other" /><br /><br />
             <txp:zem_contact_htmlarea label="Your Message" /><br />
             <txp:zem_contact_checkbox label="Check this box if you are a human" /><br />
             <txp:zem_contact_submit label="Send" />
         </txp:zem_contact>

What’s your the most essential Textpattern plugins?

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