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Current stable release for WP 2.3.x: 0.8.1

Current stable release for WP up to 2.2.3: 0.4.1

1. What’s this for ?

Previous Posts Picker (P3) is aimed at the posts writers. It shows the previous posts related to the one you are writing for easy reference. This functionality is added to the post editing form making the link edition easier.

2. Requirements

• WordPress: P3 requires at least WP 2.1 (or up). It is compatible with all versions of WordPress up to the latest release (2.3.3).

3. Installation

1. Download the archive for WP 2.3.x or the archive for WP < 2.3
2. unzip and drop all the files, as is, in your plugins directory.
3. Enable the plugin in the WP Admin >> Plugins section.
4. Browse to WP Admin >> Write >> Posts or WP Admin >> Manage >> Posts then choose a post to modify.

(Note: if you are upgrading from a previous install, simply overwrite the older files with the new ones in the instructions above)

4. Other languages

P3 is delivered in English and French but can be easily used with other languages. You just have to create a file PpP-xx_YY.mo (xx_YY being the language code of your WordPress settings. Eg: fr_FR for French) from the existing file PpP-fr_FR.po after translation of the text strings located after the “msgstr” tag.

The resulting PpP-xx_YY.mo file has to stored in the plugins directory.

Thanks to Georg, you can download the danish version.

5. Documentation

In the post’s edit form , P3 adds a box named “Show previous posts” on the right side of the screen and another box named “Previous posts list” below the text zone.

It’s possible to rearrange the order of the boxes clicking on the box title and dragging it to the new location.

The “Show previous posts” box

The “Show previous posts” box is used to set the parameters that will select the existing posts.

The parameters are:

• A text zone “Posts number” to set a limit to the number of items displayed. Default value : 5.

A first set of parameters for category selection including:

• The “Select categories” checkbox to enable the selection of posts by category.
• The “Current post’s categories” radio button, if you want to use the categories set for the post in edition. It’s the default value.
• The “Other categories” radio button, if you want to choose your own set of categories from the list below.
• A list of existing categories. When the radio button is set on “Current post’s categories“, the current post’s categories are automatically selected by the plugin. It’s possible to manually select one or more categories and then the radio button will be set on “Other categories” automatically.

A second set of parameters for tag selection including:

• The “Select tags” checkbox to enable the selection of posts by tags.
• The “Current post’s tags” radio button, if you want to use the tags set for the post in edition. It’s the default value.
• The “Other tags” radio button, if you want to choose your own set of tags from the list below.
• A list of existing tags. When the radio button is set on “Current post’s tags“, the current post’s tags are automatically selected by the plugin. It’s possible to manually select one or more tags and then the radio button will be set on “Other tags” automatically.

A third set of parameters for author selection including:

• The “Select author” checkbox to enable the selection of posts by author.
• The “Current post’s author” radio button, if you want to use the author of the post in edition. It’s the default value.
• The “Other authors” radio button, if you want to choose your own set of authors from the list below.
• A list of existing authors. When the radio button is set on “Current post’s author“, the current post’s author is automatically selected by the plugin. It’s possible to manually select one or more authors and then the radio button will be set on “Other authors” automatically.

When you are done modifying the parameters, just click on the “Save and continue” button located below the text area. The parameters will be saved and the “Previous posts list” box content is updated with the set of corresponding posts.

The “Previous posts list” box

This box, located below the text editing area, is used to display the list of posts matching the criterias set in the “Show previous posts” box. This list consists in posts titles with its permanent link (permalink), categories and tags the posts belong to, author name and publication date. It’s then easy to copy the link and paste it in the post’s text editing area when you want to make a reference to a previous post.

6. History

V. 0.8.1

Selection by tags added

V. 0.6.1

Made P3 compliant with release 2.3 of WordPress. This version doesn’t work with previous releases of WordPress.

V. 0.4.1

 Selection by authors added and categories, date and author in resulting list

V. 0.2.1

 Initial version