UPDATE: Organize Series 2.0 Final has been released. You can get it here.
Finally, I’ve reached the point where I can release a beta version of the Organize Series 2.0! It’s been a long time in the making and I’m glad to finally have reached this stage. UnfoldingNeurons.com is now running on WordPress 2.3.3 and I’ve installed OrgSeries and all seems well.
I’m still going through the code and cleaning it up, adding internal documentation, and structuring the files so it’s a bit more intuitive. I also want to get OrgSeries 2.0 ready for WordPress 2.5 before I do a final release. However, since I know so many people have been patiently waiting for me to get this version out the door I decided to release the Beta for those brave souls who want to give it a go. REMEMBER though, that this is a BETA release and I take no responsibility for any problems you may have with it. I’m hoping that releasing this BETA will also lead to some great feedback from users, helping me to improve it in time for the big release.
What’s New?
Since this is a beta release, I haven’t had time to do in detail documentation but here’s an overview of all the features found in orgSeries 2.0 (with the final release I’ll flesh things out a bit):
Integration with WordPress taxonomy structure:
This is a biggy. I’ve stuck to using the hooks into the WordPress core as much as possible to take advantage of the built in goodness (security and efficient db queries).
New “Manage Series” page and integration with the “Manage Posts” page.
OrgSeries 2.0 takes the “organize” in Organize Series to a whole new level. It is much easier to edit series information and edit posts that are part of a series. With a new column on the manage->posts page indicating the series a post belongs to (if it belongs to a series) and the ability to filter the listing of posts by series, users can now more efficiently work with their series of posts.
Integration of “Series Icon”.
No longer do you need a separate plugin to manage images associated with your series. Everything is integrated and manageable via the new series interfaces. Groovy 🙂
Add series on the fly in the Write/Edit Posts page.
There is a new Series box that enables you to add posts to series and even add new series on the fly while writing your posts. No longer do you have to navigate to a different page when starting a new series! You can also now choose to order your posts in a series in whatever order you want (the default will append posts to the end of a series). If you change your mind and want to make a post a different part in the series you can edit it and all the other posts will automatically be re-distributed when you save.
More options and a new %token% system for choosing how OrgSeries will be displayed.
Among many new options to choose from are choosing how you want your series posts to be ordered on the series archive page; what url will direct to your series table of contents; what size you want your series-icons to be on various pages they are displayed… But the thing I’m most excited about is the ability for users to use the new token template system to fine tune the way series related information will be displayed on your blog!
Import from earlier versions
Built in to Organize Series 2.0 is an import routine to pull all your series information from older versions of OrgSeries and bring it into the new system. This definitely cuts down on the time it takes to setup all your series that you’ve been writing with older versions of the plugin. I’ve run the import on my series and it works beautifully! (note: because this is a beta…your mileage may vary which is why it’s so important to back up your blog before giving this a go.)
WIDGET!!
One of the most requested features I received from users was a Organize Series Widget. Organize Series 2.0 actually now has two widgets – both customizable. The first widget is for displaying all the series you’ve written. It also provides the (toggable) option to display others posts in a series when your site is displaying a post that belongs to a series.
The other widget will display the latest series you have written.
Other new features:
- next/previous posts in series links (by popular demand – and completely customizable)
- lots of new tags for theme authors and for those who like tweaking their site.
- seriestoc.php – default template file for the Table of Contents of all your series.
- series.php – Template file for the display of series archive pages (if you don’t use it the plugin will default to the category archive template for your theme)
Installation instructions:
Well if you’ve read this far then you are probably interested in the download link and want to get on with the installation. First, please take the time to read the following guidelines – it could save you some grief should something go wrong.
- Backup your database (Have I stated that enough yet?)
- If it isn’t already – deactivate the OrgSeries plugin (if you are upgrading, else this step won’t apply)
- If you haven’t already, upgrade your blog to WordPress 2.3.3
- Make sure your other plugins are up-to-date. IF you are using Category-Icons, DO-NOT upgrade it to the latest version – leave version 1.5 activated. If you haven’t used Category-icons don’t worry about this step.
- If you are upgrading: Delete the old OrgSeries plugin from your server and then copy over the new files (keeping the same directory structure).
- Activate OrgSeries 2.0 beta-1
- Go to Options->Series Options. If you are upgrading the import form should show up on that page. If so, follow the instructions for importing all your series from previous version(s) of OrgSeries.
- Go to Options->Permalinks page. Click on the “Update Permalink Structure” button. This is an important step if you want the series table of contents to work properly.
- That’s it! Explore and have fun (you’ll probably want to make sure all the new templates in “Series Options” are displaying things the way you want – if you were using the default css with earlier versions replace all “cat” with “series” [i.e. catlist becomes serieslist])
Support
I’ve opened a thread in the Unfolding Neurons Forums for this version of Organize Series. Please post any bugs or problems you encounter in that thread. I’m going to be pretty active in fixing bugs and/or any problems prior to the final release. When I release an updated version I will replace the download file so the link on this page (and in that thread) will always remain current.
Final words:
My goal is to have the final release of Organize Series 2.0 timed for the release of WordPress 2.5. I’m hoping by then to have all the idiosyncrasies of WP2.5 accounted for by then. I also still plan on implementing a “uninstall” option for completely clearing the WordPress db of all files related to Organize Series if a user ever decided they wish to get rid of the plugin (now who would ever want to do that?).
Halleluja!
Yeah! I’m one of those who wait so long for a working Organise Series with WP 2.3.3!
BUT…
get unfortunately this error message when adding a post to a series:
Warning: array_key_exists() [function.array-key-exists]: The second argument should be either an array or an object in …/wp-content/plugins/orgSeries/series-taxonomy.php on line 32
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at …/wp-content/plugins/orgSeries/series-taxonomy.php:32) in …/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 390
What’s to do?
I deleted old series data with the import function.
My WP is 2.3.3. on a server with mySQL 5.0.32 and all current php versions. Do you need more info?
🙂 m.
Hi Max,
Okay, I’ve done a modification that should fix the bug you’re having. Re-download the orgSeries files and copy them over and then try adding a post to the series and see if it works for you.
ALSO, for future bug posts/problems if you could please post in the support forums Here I’d appreciate it…I want to keep all the bug reports in one location.
Thanks for the fast answer and bugfix.
I’ll test it now.
And sorry for disregarding your advice to use the support forums! 🙂
was so full of pleasant anticipation, so i forgot.
🙂 m.
Yay! Thanks so much for putting this together!
Now I’ve got to convert back over from using the “In Series” plugin while this was updated. I’ll be upgrading to WP 2.5 so it looks like a lot of WP tweaking for me in the near future….
@Circle:
Your welcome. Let me know how it works for you.
Regarding 2.5 compatibility. My current testing shows that for the most part orgSeries 2.0 will work okay – however, there are still a few kinks I need to work out before it’s 100% compatible. There’s a pretty major bug I’m working on right now that prevents the series archive page redirects from working correctly in WP2.5, however all other page/post displays work okay. There’s also a couple of bugs with the Manage->Series page and adding series on the fly in the Write/Edit Post page.
I’m really hoping to have OrgSeries 2.0 ready for a full release by the time WordPress 2.5 gets out the door…but as usual I can’t promise anything hehe.
I hope this comment isn’t bad form. Please feel free to delete this comment and follow up personally if you think it inappropriate.
I currently use In Series by Travis Snoozy and yours looks similar to his. Have you looked at his to see how it differs? One thing I like about his is that the styles can be edited from the admin page which means I don’t have to edit the .php file. This is especially handy for me because I’m sharing a single WordPress installation amongst several sites using a variation of Multi-Blog by Stephen Rider.
If you (or someone who’s used both) could comment on the pros and cons of each, that would be helpful in making a choice, especially since moving to yours could mean some reconfiguration of my sites.
Thanks,
David
@ David
Nope, your comment isn’t bad form. I’ll give a short answer because the long answer will come in the form of the docs I’m still writing:
Those are the only things I can think of at the moment. Let me just say that Travis has a great plugin and there really is nothing wrong with it. I just happened to want to take a different route with implementing series than he did – hence my plugin. I’ve been taking a long time to develop orgSeries 2.0 because I want to take care to future-proof it better than earlier incarnations and to make it easier to update going forward.
Really David, the only way you can get an accurate idea of how OrgSeries compares with In-Series is to give it a whirl. You should be able to install orgSeries along with In-Series with no problems.
Maybe Travis will post a comment here at some point 🙂
I found this plugin in the latest weblog tools page, and I have what might seem like a strange comment. Your description of what this comment does is lacking “this is what the Organize Series plugin is used for…”, and there are no demos, examples, or screenshots. I think I understand from the “what’s new” what it does (organize posts into a “series” for people to read) – and yet I don’t see any “series” linked in your sidebar for an example.
Please explain a bit more why I would want to use this plugin instead of just creating a series “page” in wordpress and link to posts included in the series?
Also – why don’t you use “subscribe to comments”? Unless you email me, I’ll never now you responded to my comment without visiting this page again (and I probably won’t remember that…. =))
@JT
James, this is a beta release and I’m still in the midst of writing the docs. With the full release there will be a plugin page listing all the “what this plugin is for” etc.
I released this as a beta for two reasons:
1. There are people who have been using earlier versions of Organize Series for a while and have been waiting for this version patiently.
2. I wanted feedback for what’s broken/not working and for what I need to include in the docs.
As for examples: If you look in the main menu of my blog (it’s just up a bit from the title – you can’t “miss it”) you’ll see the word Series – that’ll give you an example of a working version of the plugin.
As for doing what you suggested for creating a page and listing all the posts in a series…That’s exactly how I did it when I first started out in the WordPress blogging world. Then I got tired of having to update the page everytime I added a new post (and updating each post in the series to show where to find other posts in the series). Organize Series makes things a lot more simpler.
As for using subscribe to comments – yeah, I’ve had one other request for that. If I ever get around to it I’ll add it. In the meantime, did you know you can subscribe to the comment feed?.
Hey Darren,
Just FYI, In Series supports arbitrary post reordering. Start/end is just where the post goes when you first save; you can put the post you’re currently editing after any other post in the series on the second save.
Also, to answer the bits you were unsure about:
In Series doesn’t have a direct series editing page; that’s a feature for later (probably 3.2).
Define “extensible.” 😉
Congrats for implementing so many of the features from In Series; I know it’s a non-trivial task.
See I told you Travis would comment here 😉
Thanks for clearing those things up Travis.
You explain everything here except what your plugin does.
I just installed and activated the OrgSeries plugin for the first time (2.0 Beta 1), but for some reason, wordpress/OrgSeries thinks that I’ve installed it before, and is giving me an error. I select “Do Nothing” for the import, and it tells me “Something went wrong with the import…are you sure you had a previous version of OrgSeries installed?”
I know that I had no previous version of OrgSeries installed, because I haven’t heard of it before.
What information do you need from me to diagnose this error?
Hi Tahongawaka,
Thanks for the bug catch. I’ve fixed the problem and published a new version (OrgSeries 2.0 beta1.3). You can redownload it and then after copying the files deactivate and reactivate and things should work fine.
BTW if you could post any future bug reports/problems for the beta in the support forums I’d appreciate it 🙂
Current version is beta 1.5
This contains an important fix to a couple of bad bugs that affected deleting a post that is part of a series. In such cases other posts in the series would not have their post order reset.