What I need to do is to suppress the display of the function output onscreen, pass it to a variable then do a split of the variable to separate the message and author in an array. See the code below on how I did it

<?php 
if (function_exists('stray_random_quote')) 
// turn on output buffer
ob_start(); 
// run the function of the plugin
stray_random_quote('feedback',false,'',true,1,0,'Category','ASC',false,''); 
// get the content from the buffer
$string = ob_get_contents(); 
ob_end_clean();
// split the output and remove unnecessary HTML tags
$feedback = split('by',strip_tags($string));
// access the message
echo trim($feedback[0]);
// access the author
echo trim($feedback[1]);

Pretty easy!

The post Separating message and author in ‘Stray Random Quotes’ WordPress plugin appeared first on My Silly Point of View.

plugin-a.zip

plugin-a-folder
---- plugin-a-main-file.php
---- plugin-a-readme.txt

plugin-b.zip

plugin-b-folder
---- plugin-b-subfolder
-------- plugin-b-main-file.php
-------- plugin-b-readme.txt

There are two ways to install a plugin. Option 1 is to unzip the file and upload the contents to wordpress_root/wp-content/plugins/ directory. Option 2 is to use the Add New -> Upload option found in the left panel bar of the administrative page of WordPress. Let’s assume the two plugins went through the two installation options.

Installing ‘plugin-a.zip’ using Option 1

1. Unzip the file
2. Upload the contents to wordpress_root/wp-content/plugins/
3. Login as admin and go to Plugins -> Installed.
4. Locate plugin and click Activate link.
5. Result:
   Plugin activated.

Installing ‘plugin-a.zip’ using Option 2

1. Login as admin and go to Plugins -> Add New -> Upload
2. Locate the file plugin-a.zip by clicking the Browse button.
3. Click Install Now button.
4. Result:
   Unpacking the package?
   Installing the plugin?
   Plugin installed successfully.
5. Click Activate Plugin link.
6. Result:
   Plugin activated.

Installing ‘plugin-b.zip’ using Option 1

1. Unzip the file
2. Upload the contents to wordpress_root/wp-content/plugins/
3. Login as admin and go to Plugins -> Installed.
4. Locate plugin and click Activate link.
5. Error: Plugin does not exists in the list.

Installing ‘plugin-b.zip’ using Option 2

1. Login as admin and go to Plugins -> Add New -> Upload
2. Locate the file plugin-b.zip by clicking the Browse button.
3. Click Install Now button.
4. Result:
   Unpacking the package?
   Installing the plugin?
   Plugin installed successfully.
5. Click Activate Plugin link.
6. WordPress ? Error
   The plugin does not have a valid header.

Based on our testing, plugin-b.zip seems to fail on both methods of installation. To find out what is causing the error, we have to understand how the plugin installation works. Upon checking the core files I found this excerpt in get_plugins() function:

* WordPress only supports plugin files in the base plugins directory
* (wp-content/plugins) and in one directory above the plugins directory
* (wp-content/plugins/my-plugin). The file it looks for has the plugin data and
* must be found in those two locations. It is recommended that do keep your
* plugin files in directories.

The plugin data that the function is looking for can be found below:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Name Of The Plugin
Plugin URI: http://URI_Of_Page_Describing_Plugin_and_Updates
Description: A brief description of the Plugin.
Version: The Plugin's Version Number, e.g.: 1.0
Author: Name Of The Plugin Author
Author URI: http://URI_Of_The_Plugin_Author
License: A "Slug" license name e.g. GPL2
*/
?>

So in order to properly install and activate a plugin, the following two conditions must be satisfied:

• that a plugin main file (.php) must be placed in plugins root folder or in first-level subdirectory within plugins folder
• and it should contain the necessary plugin data for identification/validation purposes

In the case of plugin-b.zip, although the main PHP file contains the needed plugin data, the validate_plugin() function returned an error since neither the file can be found or check if it contains the plugin data because it is placed in the second level subdirectory, a directory location in which the function is not designed to scan the content.

To fix the plugin-b.zip file, it needs to have the following content structure:

plugin-b.zip

plugin-b-folder
---- plugin-b-main-file.php
---- plugin-b-readme.txt

I hope this post will enlighten WordPress users who wants to maximize their blog’s potential

The post How to fix the ‘The plugin does not have a valid header’ error when activating a WordPress plugin appeared first on My Silly Point of View.

Update (May 12, 2010): Mage Enabler is now available in the Official WordPress Plugin repository. Get it here!

It’s been a while since I posted my tweak that allows Mage object to be utilized within any WordPress installation. The tweak requires the blog owner to modify functions.php as stated in my post. I’m inspired by the feedback of the readers who used the tweak so I decided that a plugin that does the same thing should be made to prevent modifying the WordPress core files thus preventing the tweak to cause inconsistencies when an upgrade is necessary.

It is my pleasure to introduce to you, Mage Enabler plugin. Just copy the whole code snippet below and save it as mage-enabler.php. Place it inside a folder named mage-enabler together with the readme.txt available right after the code block. Please take time to read and follow the readme.txt instruction on how to install the plugin in your WordPress setup.

How to use the plugin?

To show you how the plugin works, I’ve decided to convert my example in my previous post by providing a single login page for both WordPress (subscriber) and Magento (customer). This setup assumes that the account credentials (subcriber/customer) in both database are the same and that the function collision problem between WordPress and Magento has been fixed. If you followed the functions.php update in that post, remove the block of code added at line 4123 to 4138.

Location of functions.php

path-to-your-root-htdocs/wordpress/wp-includes/functions.php

Let’s start by opening the index.php file of the WordPress theme Twenty Ten. I’m using version 3.0-beta1 of WordPress in this article. You can replicate the same code update to any WordPress version and theme you have.

wordpress_root\wp-content\themes\twentyten\index.php

Copy the necessary codes (lines 16-18 and 22-40) to make it similar below:

<?php

/**
 * The main template file
 *
 * This is the most generic template file in a WordPress theme
 * and one of the two required files for a theme (the other being style.css).
 * It is used to display a page when nothing more specific matches a query.
 * E.g., it puts together the home page when no home.php file exists.
 * Learn more: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy
 *
 * @package WordPress
 * @subpackage Twenty Ten
 * @since 3.0.0
 */
 if(class_exists('Mage')){
 	Mage::getSingleton('core/session', array('name' => 'frontend'));
 }
?>

<?php get_header(); ?>
<!-- Magento's custom greeting -->
<div style="font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; border-bottom: 1px solid #000; padding-bottom: 10px;">
<?php
if(class_exists('Mage')){
	$session = Mage::getSingleton("customer/session");
	$magento_message = "Welcome ";
	// Generate a personalize greeting
	if($session->isLoggedIn()){
		$magento_message .= $session->getCustomer()->getData('firstname').' ';
		$magento_message .= $session->getCustomer()->getData('lastname').'!';
	}else{
		$magento_message .= "Guest!";
	}

	echo $magento_message;
}
?>
</div>
<!-- End of Magento's custom greeting -->

The purpose of the code change above is to display a ?Welcome [customer name here]? when a customer is logged in, and show ?Welcome Guest? when they are not. Make sure that if you’re going to use any Magento related script in your code, always write it within the following if condition:

if(class_exists('Mage')){
	// Write your Magento codes here
}

This will prevent your page or theme files from breaking up if in case the plugin is deactivated, not working or if Mage.php can’t be found.

Open user.php file found at following address below:

path-to-your-root-htdocs/wordpress/wp-includes/user.php

Locate the function wp_authenticate_username_password() and find the similar code below. I found mine at line 108.

	if ( !wp_check_password($password, $userdata->user_pass, $userdata->ID) )
		return new WP_Error('incorrect_password', sprintf(__('<strong>ERROR</strong>: Incorrect password. <a href="%s" title="Password Lost and Found">Lost your password</a>?'), site_url('wp-login.php?action=lostpassword', 'login')));

Right after the code above, add the following code starting at line 111 to make it similar to the code below. This update allows us to run the login request of Magento within WordPress:

	if ( !wp_check_password($password, $userdata->user_pass, $userdata->ID) )
		return new WP_Error('incorrect_password', sprintf(__('<strong>ERROR</strong>: Incorrect password. <a href="%s" title="Password Lost and Found">Lost your password</a>?'), site_url('wp-login.php?action=lostpassword', 'login')));
	// Start Magento
	if(class_exists('Mage')){
		Mage::getSingleton('core/session', array('name' => 'frontend'));
		$session = Mage::getSingleton("customer/session");
		try{
			$login = $session->login($username, $password);
		}catch(Exception $e){
			// Do nothing
		}
	}

Finally, to call the Magento’s logout function, locate the file below and open it:

path-to-your-root-htdocs/wordpress/wp-login.php

Find the switch case statement at line 352. Add the necessary code to make it similar to the code below and save it:

switch ($action) {

case 'logout' :
	check_admin_referer('log-out');
	// Start Magento
	if(class_exists('Mage')){
		Mage::getSingleton('core/session', array('name' => 'frontend'));
		Mage::getSingleton("customer/session")->logout();
	}
	wp_logout();

Now test your WordPress by accessing the homepage at http://localhost/wordpress/. It should display the ‘Welcome Guest’ similar to the image below with a cookie named as ‘frontend’ in your Firebug cookie tab. That is your Magento cookie.

Clicking the login for WordPress redirects us to the login form like the one below while still showing the ‘frontend’ cookie. Since I have a customer with same credentials on both Magento (Customer) and WordPress (set as Subscriber), all I have to do is to use the username and password to login in the form below.

At this point, your Magento session should be running with an active customer session. To check if it does, go back to your homepage by clicking the top header text or going to http://localhost/wordpress/. It should display now the welcome message with your customer’s name.

For those who will use this plugin, let me know the version of WordPress and Magento you’re using so I can keep track of the list of versions in which this plugin is compatible. Until such time that the plugin is moved to the Official WordPress Plugin repository, I’ll accept and answer inquiries here thru comment/feedback form below. Mage Enabler is now available in the Official WordPress Plugin repository. Get it here!

The post Mage Enabler: A plugin to run Magento's session within WordPress appeared first on My Silly Point of View.