I need your help. I have a new project that will include features of Wordpress that I’m not that familiar with and I need some ideas on what plugins you’ve used in the past to accomplish these types of things.  The site is being built for a Chicago-based group of individuals who just want to get together and have fun by posting topics to the site, and displaying information on upcoming events in the area.  The owner of the site would like to see the following sections:

Streaming Music

Music files, likely in MP3 format, will be loaded dynamically into a player on the site where the visitor can turn it on or off at will.  The idea is to give the visitor a taste of Soca music from the Trini community.

Social Events Calendar

The events calendar, preferably a page on the site that displays upcoming events in the area, will be the highlight of the site and the events need to be advertised throughout the site in order to gain interest in attending them.  Site admins can enter the events through the WP admin.  An option to register for the event is a nice-to-have, but not necessary.

Photo Gallery

An easy-to-use section to visitors to upload photos to a gallery that can be displayed to all visitors.  This requirement is somewhat vague right now, but I imagine that each user who wants to submit photos will have to have a registered account on the site, and upload the photos after they’ve logged in, making them instantly visible to anyone who comes to the site.

Contacts

I’m thinking this list might be a directory of individuals who have chosen to allow their profiles to be publically available, showing their contact information at various social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.  The Media Page plugin does a nice job of displaying the media links of the site owner, but doesn’t break it down into individual user profiles. Possibly an extension of the user profile would work nicely here.

Check out my progress on the site as I update it to match some of the suggestions that you will provide here.  Visit Croiseepeople.com.

This post shows you how I resolved an “issue” where I wanted to take a component from my page and blow it up to full screen using JQuery.  Note: Full screen indicated the full browser window and not the actual screen.

The concept is simple, and I’ve represented the actual layout using the image below:

Building the Page Components

My project included an iFrame which contained contents from another website, so I’ll replicate that here by using an iFrame to load my twitter.com timeline (a simulation).  In my example below, I have wrapped the iFrame itself in a DIV with an ID of “container”, and added a button just inside of the DIV container to allow for the user to toggle between full screen and regular size.  The resulting code now looks like this:

<div id=”container” class=”container”>
<input type=”button” id=”trigger” value=”Toggle Full Screen” align=”right”/>
<iframe src=”http://www.twitter.com/webguyatwork” style=”width: 100%; height: 100%”></iframe>
</div>

The visual representation of what I’ve just done looks like this:

Next, Style the Container

The following styles will be applied to my container DIV.  The first class, named simply “container”, will be used to represent the DIV in its regular state while the second class, “container-fullscreen” will be used to represent the DIV when it is in full screen mode.  Again, full screen actually means the full size of the browser window and not the screen itself.

.container {
position: relative;
height: 500px;
width: 100%;
}

.container-fullscreen {
position: absolute;
left: 0px;
top: 0px;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}

Finally, Add the jQuery Code

The jQuery code now can be added, allowing the toggle button to do its job.  The code can be externalized into its own script file, which I strongly recommend in almost any situation, but for the purposes of this demo, I’ll add it inline.  The resulting jQuery code looks like this:

<script type=”text/javascript”>
$(function() {
$(’#trigger’).click( function() {
$(’#container’).toggleClass(’container-fullscreen’);
});
});

</script>

Try it for yourself

Here is a complete view of a working html file that you can download and try for yourself.  I’ve swapped out the button image in favor of a standard input button in this example, but you can see how easy it is to use either and still have the same effect.

<html>
<body>

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”jquery-1.2.6.min.js”></script>
<style type=”text/css”>
.container {
position: relative;
left: 30px;
right: 30px;
height: 500px;
width: 80%;
}

.container-fullscreen {
position: absolute;
left: 0px;
top: 0px;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
</style>

<script type=”text/javascript”>
$(function() {
$(’#trigger’).click( function() {
$(’#container’).toggleClass(’container-fullscreen’);
});
});
</script>

<div id=”container” class=”container”>
<input type=”button” id=”trigger” value=”Toggle Full Screen” style: “align: right”/>
<iframe src=”http://www.twitter.com/webguyatwork” style=”width: 100%; height: 100%”></iframe>
</div>

</body>
</html>

My first official Wordpress plugin is complete and ready for distribution.  Named “Twitter Visual Stats”, this plugin is a “widget” that adds a visual Flash-based graph to your site to show visitors your increase in the number of Twitter followers over time.  There are several basic configuration parameters that you can set once the plugin is activated, so you can customize it for your site.

I have just submitted the plugin to the Wordpress.org site for approval and upload to their CVS repository.  Until then, I have made the plugin available on my blog through the following download link.

Download link: http://blog.4minds.com/downloads/twitter-visual-stats/

Installation instructions are included on the page link above as well as in the ZIP file as “readme.txt”.

Feedback

I need it, please.  Tell me what you think of this plugin. Be brutal if necessary, but please give me feedback.  If you have suggestions for improvement, I’ll take them into consideration.  Leave your comments on this post below.

I’ve had my iPhone since April, and while I probably should have held back and waiting for the 3G to arrive, the original iPhone is holding its own in the world of very useful applications.  The ability to extend the phone with custom developed applications is what originally drew me away from its competitors.  Having the iPhone has certainly opened my eyes to the usefulness of the social media scene with its location-aware services.  Below is my short-list of favorite location-aware applications from 2008.

#1. Twinkle – http://tapulous.com/twinkle

I created my Twitter profile during a presentation on social media at the Burton Group Catalyst conference in June.  The presenter showed the site and I immediately signed up and started sending messages and building the start of my network.  Since then, I’ve discovered Twinkle, my favorite Twitter client on the iPhone to date.  Part of building a good social network is to find people around you who are posting messages.  Twinkle’s “nearby” feature can be tuned from as close as your local neighborhood (mine’s pretty quiet) to everyone in the world.  I’ve found a lot of good people by using this feature, and it’s one that I frequent throughout the day, every day.

#2 Brightkite – http://www.brightkite.com

The Brightkite application is very simple to use and allows you to view what’s going on in nearby locations, including integrated photos.  The nice thing about Brightkite also is that it posts your updates to your Twitter timeline so you don’t have to post similar updates in both applications.  This application was just updated on December 15th to resolve an issue with using placemarks on the iPhone.

#3 – The Weather Channel – http://www.weather.com

Though I don’t use this one on a daily basis, it is very cool that it knows where I am and will automatically get the weather for my

current location without me having to type in my zip code every time.

#4 Google Earth – http://earth.google.com

This application is a bit bulkier than the built-in maps feature of the iPhone. However, it’s a very cool little maps application for locating yourself quickly and finding your favorite places around you.  Tilt the phone up for  a more level view of your current location.  From my house, I can tip the phone up and see Lake Michigan, some 60 miles away!!!

What are your favorite location-aware applications?  Maybe you will persuade me to try some of them out.  Submit your replies below.

A collegue at work prompted a conversation on Facebook the other day and it got me worked up a bit.  He wasn’t defending the site at all, but simply asking for input on our thoughts about using the site.  I had a few thoughts of my own that I’d like to share here.

First off, I’ll admit Facebook is a pretty cool site for catching up with long lost buddies from high school and for sharing pics and now posting videos for others to view.  It has its benefits over sites like Twitter and Brightkite where you can personalize your content in a more meaningful way for your friends to see.  But when it comes to open development for Facebook, have they jumped the shark?  Let me explain…
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