Organize Series WordPress Plugin
Current Plugin Version:
2.0.8
For WordPress version 2.3-2.7
Do you find this plugin useful? All tips welcome!
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The Organize Series plugin helps with the organization and presentation of articles/posts you write as part of a series. It helps make it easier for readers of your blog to discover all the series you’ve written and also to easily find post that are part of the same series.
Organize Series actually adds a new taxonomy to the WordPress taxonomy structure so your blog would have “categories”, “tags”, and “series” as the taxonomy types.
NOTE: For upgrading from earlier versions of Organize Series (1.6.3 and earlier) make sure you check out the upgrade section. These instructions are for fresh installs of Organize Series.
- MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR WORDPRESS DATABASE (that’s all in caps for a reason – nothing should go wrong but it’s a good precaution nevertheless!!)
- Download the File
- Extract to a folder in
../wp-content/plugins/. The orgSeries folder can be named whatever you want but the default is “organize-series”. The final structure would be something like this:../wp-content/plugins/organize-series/--and all the orgSeries plugin files/folders-- - Activate orgSeries on your WordPress plugins page.
- The Series-Icons feature uploads to the default upload directory you’ve set for your WordPress installation (in Options/Settings->Miscellaneous). If you want to use series-icons its important that you uncheck the “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders” box.
- Visit the “Options/Settings->Series Options” page to initialize all the default settings.
That’s it! You might want to read through the Series Options page (in the “settings” menu of WP 2.5 or “options” in earlier WP versions) and the Manage->Series Page. You’ll also notice that your “write/edit” posts page now has a handy dandy series box on it for adding your posts to a series (and creating new series on the fly).
For support please visit the support forums.
Upgrading
If you are visiting this tab then you are probably a user of one of the older versions of Organize Series and have been waiting for me to finally get something out the door that is compatible with WP 2.3+ First, thanks for being patient – I’ve been frustrated myself with the time it’s taken but I think it’s been worth it! The good news is that you can import all your series structures from your old setup into the new series taxonomy!! Just follow these instructions carefully.
- Backup your WordPress database (especially if you plan on importing old series data – everything has been tested but I simply have no way of testing for every environment. So be safe, and you won’t chafe)
- If it isn’t already, deactivate the older version of Organize Series.
- If you haven’t already, upgrade your blog to the latest WordPress version.
- Make sure your other plugins are up to date EXCEPT for the category-icons plugin if you are using it. If you plan on importing all your old series-icons then it is important that you leave the older version of category-icons (version 1.5) activated until the import is complete.
- Delete the old Organize Series Plugin from your server (in folder /orgSeries/). Copy over the new plugin files (as explained via the installation instructions).
- Activate Organize Series
- Go to the Options/Settings->Series Options page. If you are upgrading and have old series to import there should be a form at the top of the page with instructions for importing all that data. Follow the instructions
- The import routine will return a message outlining all the series and posts that were imported. After that’s done go and check out all the new stuff (and make sure all your series are correct (check out the new Manage->Series page!)
For support please visit the support forums.
Features
The following is a brief overview of all the features in Organize Series. For more indepth coverage of the features of Organize Series you can follow the Organize Series Usage Tips Series on my blog. Better yet, why not suscribe to the usage feed?
Integration with WordPress taxonomy system
Beginning with version 2.3, WordPress introduced a database and core change that resulted in a new taxomony system. The core WordPress has two taxonomies – “categories” and “tags”. Organize Series introduces a new taxomony “series”. Thanks to the rich api provided to plugin authors Organize Series takes advantage of (as much as possible) the built-in WP goodness! As an added bonus – plugin developers can expand on what Organize Series offers by interacting with the new series taxonomy and the built-in filters/hooks.
More “organize” for taking care of your series…
Check these additions to your WordPress administration:
 |
A “Manage Series” page. Add, delete, edit all your series on one handy dandy page. Functioning much like the “Manage Category” page, Organize Series makes it easy to keep track of all the series you are writing. |
 |
Integration with the Manage->Posts page. Now it’s easier than ever to keep track of what posts have been added to series in a familiar setting. Even better, you can also filter the post list by series (and in combination with other filters in WP 2.5) giving you a quick way to see all the posts you’ve already added to the series. |
Filtering the list of post by series…
In WP 2.5:
In WP 2.3.x:
Add “prettify” recognition to your series…
Easily associate images with your Series via the Manage->Series page.
Integration with Write/Edit posts page
Organize Series brings a new “box” to your write/edit posts page for series related tasks: (1st pic is in WP2.5, 2nd pic is WP 2.3.x)
- Add new series on the fly. Ajaxified and simple to use (works pretty much the same as adding new categories on the fly)
- Add posts to existing series.
- Choose what order you want that post to be in the series. If you leave the field blank, your post will automatically be appended to end of the series. But if you want you can number that post to be whatever part you want and every other post in the series will be automatically adjusted for their new parts Is that cool? Yeah, I thought so too!
Works out of the box.
Once you’ve activated the plugin (and are not importing from earlier versions) all you have to do is visit the Series Options page and then you’re ready to go (you don’t have to change/or add anything!). Out of the box, Organize Series defaults to automatically insert into your blog all the necessary “template tags” for displaying series related information.
Defaults from out of the box:
Series Meta with each post:
Series Table of Contents Page:
Series info box on single post pages:
Series Navigation Strip:
Use permalinks? No problem, Organize Series detects that and introduces a permalink structure for series archive pages (defaults to http://yourblogaddress.com/series/%theseriesslug%). Don’t like the default settings/look…well…
Complete options page for easy customization without having to edit any .php files
Nearly everything you might want to customize with Organize Series can be done on the Series->Options page:
- Control placement of series related info (Series Meta, Series Table of Contents, Series Postlist boxes, Series Navigation Strip, etc.)
- Customize the html output or series related info by using the %token% system with a token legend right on the page (check out the screenshots tab).
- Control what the path of your “series table of contents” link will be.
- Control how posts in a series will be displayed on series archive pages. The default is by date in descending order (newest to oldest) – but you can order it by part too.
- Set the icon width for images associated with series for different pages.
An example of one of the edit template boxes on the Series Options Page:
An pic of the Token Legend (lists all the %tokens% you can use in the template) (pic taken from 2.3.x):
Pretty cool eh? But maybe you’d like to be able to customize things even more?…
A whole bundle of template tags for theme authors and WP tweakers
Do you actually like going into the guts of your theme files? Then, you’ll love the “template tags” organize series makes available for you! Better yet, I’ve made it easy for you to find them: All the template tags you’ll ever need are found in the series-template-tags.php file in your Organize Series plugin directory. Each tag is also fully documented inline so you can have a better idea what it does!
You can also edit the default .css file for orgSeries OR point to your custom .css in styles.css for your theme.
Oh, if you implement Organize Series in a cool way let me know here
And one last thing I’ve just gotta mention…
Widgets!! Need I say more?
Usage
There’s just so much to say about how you can use Organize Series that I’ve decided to write a series of posts dealing with using Organize Series. You can follow along with the series here or feast on the feed.
Don’t forget, if you have questions related to usage, I’m usually pretty good at responding to requests for help here.
Have fun – and get writing those series!!
[...] Когда моих статей в серии стало более семи, стал вопрос о навигации по этим статьям и о выделении статей в серию. Можно делать все вручную (я поначалу так и делал, даже меню навигации по статьям набросал). Но решил все таки воспользоваться готовым решением. И оно нашлось. Плагин для wordpress - Organize Series (домашняя страница плагина). [...]
[...] http://unfoldingneurons.com/neurotic-plugins/organize-series-wordpress-plugin Organize Series dizi yazıların icabına bakıyor. Bazen farklı günlerde bir blogun bölümlerini yayımlamak kullanışlı olabilir. Özellikle blogunuz bir blog üzerinde yayımlanmayacak kadar uzunsa. Organize Series kullanışlı bir WordPress eklentisi olup dizi/grup bloglar yazmak için size pek çok seçenek sunuyor. Blogunuzla diğer blogları ilişkilendirebilir ve içindekiler benzeri dizinler oluşturabilirsiniz. [...]
[...] The Organize Series plugin helps with the organization and presentation of articles/posts you write as part of a series. It helps make it easier for readers of your blog to discover all the series you’ve written and also to easily find post that are part of the same series. [...]
[...] my favorite series plugin was In-Series, but since upgrading to WP 2.7 I have had to change to Organize Series. To use this plugin you can create a number of series in the admin panel, then you can add posts to [...]
[...] kullanışlı olabilir. özellikle blogunuz bir blog üzerinde yayımlanmayacak kadar uzunsa. organize series kullanışlı bir wordpress eklentisi olup dizi/grup bloglar yazmak için size pek çok seçenek [...]
[...] 9- الإضافة التاسعة :Organize Series [...]
Hey there. I went back and forth on this, but in the end, your plugin did everything I want and I won’t trade it back, no matter what. I’m doing a redesign on a major archive (yes, using WP!) and the ability to connect posts in a series is just invaluable. But in designing the add-new-post page for authors (most of whom are relatively non-savvy), I realized that I’ve already got about six series listed, and by the time I’m done, it’ll likely be nearer to sixty or seventy series… and that’s a LOT to have as radio buttons just above the “publish this” box, on the right.
I fiddled with the actual entry box out of curiosity (only way I learn, sadly), replacing radio with select/option. The final result looked like what I’d need — a select box with the first option blank (unless already selected), the second option to be the clear/remove, and then the list of all series. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t pull up a post’s saved series info, nor would it save any new selections. So while I know intellectually it’s not a difficult procedure, skill-wise it’s giving me lots of trouble, and then I realized maybe I’m not the only person who may potentially have a massive string of series and would find a full-on radio-button list to be a real screen-space eater.
If you’re not too busy (ahem, given we all are), any suggestions on how to convert from radio box to drop-down box? Is there somewhere else in the code I should look to make sure the info is pulled up, displayed, saved properly given the change in format? Or perhaps a suggested line of code that I could use to replace the existing code? I’m fairly conversant in PHP, HTML, etc, but I tend to stumble over unfamiliar functions when I’m not entirely certain what’s being called where and/or why, so I prefer to be conservative in any tweaks… and obviously being conservative, this time, got me nowhere!
Any help, ideas, suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This plugin has saved me literally HOURS of trying to do similar on my own, from scratch — and the problem of “oh noes there’s like EIGHTY eating up my sidebar!” is the only remaining issue.
Thanks in advance, and again thank you for all the hard work you put into this plugin. It’s awesome!
Glad to see you find such value in Organize Series. IF my memory serves me correctly I think the radio button area should become scrollable after the series gets too long. That may have been an older version however.
As for working on the drop down select box – sorry, I don’t have time to volunteer work on that right now. It’s a great idea however!
I would suggest you post your request in the Organize Series Support Forums, I’ve been noticing that there are some great users who have been helping each other out there. Hopefully someone will see your request for help and give you a hand.
Becomes scrollable, hunh? Would that shift be listed in the same area as the radio button, or is it pulling from elsewhere? Given some basic clue, I can go hunting (and report back as to whether or not it was kept, if you like.)
No problem on no time, I know how it is. I’ll check in with the forums after I find the draft-changes I used (since they didn’t work, took them out and replaced with original, natch) and see if anyone can help me troubleshoot.
Thanks again!
[...] from using the form. I think this nice plugin makes guest posting more convenient for both sides. The Organize Series plugin Well, I think you’ve already guessed what this plugin is for. The series of posts are [...]
Hi,
is it possible to create user-specific series? Like “user-x collection”?
Thanks!
Not with the current iteration of Organize Series
[...] Series functionality itself is a Wordpress plugin from Darren Etheir. I’m only using the back-end piece to connect articles to their series. I wrote the front-end out [...]
Hi,
when i activate this plugin and browse my site, it gets error when i click page 2 from navigation.
say you display yoursite.com/page1 and when you want to browse yoursite.com/page2 it says page not found.
i deactivated plugin and it is ok now.
anyone else faced the same problem ?
how can we fix this ?
btw, thanks for this great plugin!
sorry for my previous entry..
my problem is not related to this plugin.
cheers~
[...] Organize Series is an excellent WordPress plugin. Ever tried it out on Thesis? Doesn’t look too hot. [...]
[...] I’d previously released Thesis Extensions and Thesis Super Filters (now contained in Thesis Power Tools) inside of a plugin called Thesis Plugin Integrator. Thesis Plugin Integrator was conceived to automagically integrate popular WordPress Plugins into the Thesis design. It was damn cool, but I could already see a maintenance nightmare forming. Not something I want to keep up with. However, I still plan on releasing Thesis mods for the GPL plugins I regularly use, like Organize Series. [...]
Hi,
Your plugin is really great. Thx !
Here are a couple of features it could be nice to implement if you get a chance to work on :
- Add a template to get the Creation Date & Time of the series
- Add a template to get the Last Modification Date & Time of the series
- And finally a bit more difficult one : add the possibility to designate an author of the series
Again thx you for your work.
Cheers for FR.
- Benjamin
Hi Benjamin,
When I get around to working on OrgSeries again I’ll take your suggestions under consideration.
Hi Darren,
I asked this question in another comment-stream, but is there a possibility to style series based on the categories the posts are in? Or to give a category to the series and style that?
Also, a ‘Print Series’ option would be nice.
http://unfoldingneurons.com/2008/series-options-page-series-table-of-contents-template#comment-4575
I’ve been working around it by giving an entire page a class, but that’s not the cleanest way (makes for large css files).
Thanks for your hard work so far. THis is about the only series-plugin that’s come close to our needs, and about the only one left…
Thanks again,
SkyHi
Re: styling – Two ways:
One: Use the in_category() function (built-in with WordPress) in a conditional script to execute styles based on certain categories and then assign your posts you want styled that way to the category.
Two (even better): Use the in_series() function (built-in with OrgSeries) in a conditional script to style all the posts in a particular series a certain way without having to add the posts to another category. Using in_series() works similar to in_category().
See the doc on in_category() at WordPress.org for more info.
[...] Organize Series. Versión 2.0.8. Permite una nueva agrupación de entradas, además de proporcionar herramientas para listarlas y destacarlas. El índice de entradas al final de esta es gracias a este plugin. [...]
[...] Organize Series WordPress Plugin 2.0.3 [...]
[...] Organize Series WordPress Plugin 2.0.3 [...]
Hi
with the release of version 2.8 WP has now a new taxonomies system in its core … I played a bit with this feature throught this plugin but I’m not very satisfied, while your plugin seems to be very interesting
My question is: is your plugin ready for the new WP 2.8 or is it “obsolete” becouse use redundant functions (or also mysql entries) … if so do you plan to update it?
Tanks a lot
Organize Series works fine with WordPress 2.8 (with some quirks to look at…see the support forums for more info). However, with the new taxonomies options included in WP2.8 there is some redundant coding in OrgSeries (I think…I haven’t looked closely yet). I am planning on giving a pass over the code and doing an update to make it cleaner (and hopefully more efficient) but there is no ETA on that. Developing is a hobby for me – not a job (but I MIGHT consider custom work with OrgSeries if the price is right….
)
Same question – is your “Series” plugin 2.8 compatible?
just installed 2.8 and I’m having problems but don’t know if this is the problem. IT’s the only plugin I haven’t deavctivated yet. Kind of afraid to take the chance on re-doing all of the series
I’ve tested Organize Series with WordPress 2.8 without seeing any major problems.
Hi,
Just to let you know that I spent the last few days to work on your plugin. My purpose was simple : translate it in french for my projects. So I have tracked all the strings inside various PHP files and enclose them with __() or _e() functions. I also add a small function to load strings from the correct .mo file (in OrgSeries.php). Finally all functions are now aware of the L10N domain. I has allowed me to do the FR translation with POEdit. You’ll find it the new “lang” folder (along with the .pot file).
If interested, you can download the modified version of your plugin here : http://www.benjaminlupu.net/misc/2009-06-14/organize-series.zip.
I have respected your code and done no other modifications.
Please find screenshot of the french version here : http://picasaweb.google.fr/benjamin.lupu/OrganizeSeries?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHTws6JqcGS9gE&feat=directlink
Regards.
- Benjamin
Wow! That’s awesome Benjamin! I’ve wanted to localize Organize Series for the next release and you’ve done all the hard work for me
I’ll see that it your work gets included in the next release and you get credited!
[...] auf Brandt Aktuell an. Und wer es selber mal ausprobieren möchte – hier geht es zur Plugin-Homepage. Tags: WordPress Hat Dir dieser Beitrag gefallen? Dann abonniere doch [...]
Wow, this plugin solves so many problems for me! The TOC alone is a wonderful thing.
I am trying to create a fiction community website using WP. Much of our writing is related to each other’s (we write in ‘universes” and so I’d like to present groups of series nested within an overall category (the ‘universe’) in the widget.
And many of the serieses follow an order, like book series do. I would like to be able to assign an order to the series for presentation.
has any of this been tackled?
Do you mean order the display of all the series that have been written? I seem to remember reading someone who found a way to do this in the Support Forums but I can’t remember where. Don’t have time to look it up right now but feel free to do a search there to see if you can find it
[...] here to read the rest: Organize Series WordPress Plugin Share and [...]
My next question; many of myseries have long, fanciful names, and i would like to replace them with the slug in the edit.php display
What do i change to accomplish that?