Dynamic Content Gallery screenshot
2009 has been a hectic year for me so far – many projects and lots of work, which has meant that development of the Dynamic Content Gallery plugin for WordPress had to take a back seat for a short while. Happily, I’m back on the case and the good news is that I am close to releasing an updated version!
In fact there are many new features, hence the decision to jump to version 3.0 rather than 2.3. Don’t worry though, backwards compatibility remains, so if you don’t want/need the new features, the new version will work exactly like the current version – but with cleaner, and quicker, code.
Here are the changes and new features scheduled for version 3.0:
- Offer an alternative jQuery script – plugin conflicts should be a thing of the past. The user will be able to select either the existing Mootools script, or the alternative jQuery script.
- 3 options for how to use the plugin – the current way (selection of categories and posts, max 5 images), a simplified way (posts pulled from one category, user-definable number of images to display) and pages.
- A general clean-up of the code
- Revised Settings page with, hopefully, clearer instructions for use
- New options to control the image transitions (type of transition, timing etc)
Expected release date for the version 3.0 Release Candidate: 8th August 2009 13th August 2009.
Expected release date for the final version 3.0: 15th August 2009 17th August 2009.
Update 12 August 2009:
Typical development slippage, I’m afraid, probably because I’m being ambitious with the very many improvements. :-/
Therefore it’s likely that I will need to release this in 2 steps – the first release to deal with the behind the scenes improvements and improved configuration options for users (pages, one category with user-defined posts, increase from 5 to 10 images of mixed categories/posts), and the second to introduce the jQuery gallery option. I was also hoping to incorporate the full 2.8 Dashboard experience for the Settings page (clickable, draggable config boxes etc), but this is still largely undocumented by the WordPress community and I haven’t managed to fully implement it. This is candy really, I shall put those tweaks back to the next development phase.
Do you have a RC of version 3 of your Dynamic Content Gallery that I can try out? I tried to implement ver 2 but it conflicted with WP Shopping Cart. I’ll be using it in WP and WPMU setting and would be happy to provide any ‘polite’ feedback that I can that may be of value.
Many thanks,
Boyan
Hi Boyan,
I’m just about to put RC1 on the wordpress.org site. I’ll post the link once I’ve done this. Any feedbacl is always welcome.
The new release won’t fix the Shopping Cart issue as there is nothing I can do about it at my end, thanks to my plugin using a js script based on mootools. However, the good news is that I will shortly be offering the DCG with a JQuery version of the gallery which means – no more conflicts! Hang tight, and I think you’ll be happy with what’s coming. 🙂
Can’t wait! Willing to give this a try to enhance my techie blog 😀
Just wondering how the final 3.0 version is going? Is there a revised release date?
@ Matt
Certainly within the next week or so (I know, I know, I keep saying that, lol). I have a busy schedule at the moment and I’ve fallen behind with some final testing. I would like to have it out by mid-October. 🙂
No probs. I know what it’s like! Appreciate the update and look forward to the release.
I have to say I am looking forward to the new version.
I’ve had so many conflict probloms with other plugins, that its driving me CRAZY!!!
I’d also like that say thank you for all the great work you have done in trying to over come these conflict problems.
You are gonna be a hero to a lot of people if you get it working fine
Take care
Bruce
Hi Bruce,
Thanks for the support and encouragement – much appreciated.
Release date is getting closer, but I’m still working on a few final tweaks. I’ve promised too many release dates already, subsequently missed (so I won’t mention another one), but it’s close. Really. Honestly. I promise. 🙂