Custom Meta Widget

Please post any suggestions, feedback, or bug reports in the comments section of this page.

Clone of the standard Meta widget plus options to hide log in/out, admin, feed and WordPress.org/custom links.

Description

This plugin acts in exactly the same way as the standard Meta widget except that it adds options which allow you control which of the 5 standard Meta widget links should be displayed, with the additional option to add your own custom link.

The standard Meta widget that comes with WordPress offers no customization and requires you to show all 5 of the standard links (register, login, entries RSS, comments RSS, and WordPress.org).

Installation

Download the latest zip file and extract the custom-meta-widget directory.
Upload this directory inside your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
Activate the 'Custom Meta Widget' on the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.
Add the 'Custom Meta' widget to your sidebar (using the Appearance > Widgets menu) and choose which customizations you would like.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my Meta widget look the same?

This plugin does not modify the standard WordPress Meta widget. It is a completely separate widget titled 'Custom Meta.' If you are currently using the standard Meta widget, you will have to remove it from your sidebar and replace it with the Custom Meta widget using the Appearance > Widgets menu.

It also looks identical to the standard Meta Widget unless you opt to change which links are shown/hidden in the Appearance > Widgets menu, under the expanded 'Custom Meta' widget.

Which links can I hide/show?

You can remove any, all, or none of the links which appear on the standard Meta widget. You are also able to add a custom link to the list if you wish.

Why did you make this?

I didn't like having the 'Comments RSS' link on the sidebar, but did like having the rest of them. I couldn't find a plugin to do that and manually editing the code to accomplish this, while simple, is a dirty hack that breaks with every WordPress update, so I created a crude plugin to remove just the 'Comments RSS' link. I then cleaned this up and added an options page for all the links so that no one else would have to do this in the future.

Can you add this feature I just thought of?

Can I? Yes. Will I? Yes, if I think it would be a helpful addition. I'm trying to keep things clean and simple, but there's always room for improvement, so let me know if you think a feature is lacking!

Will vanilla WordPress ever implement some variation of this?

I don't know man. They haven't yet, so it doesn't look very likely. But I think they should and I would be glad if they did.

Why did you add an option to link to the plugin site, you horrible sellout?

Most people, myself included, are understandably reluctant to donate real currency for free stuff. However, putting a link to my site from your site is just as helpful and a much more comfortable and forthcoming mode of charity, especially in the webmaster community. Also, because I'm a horrible sellout.

Screenshots

The widget's options page on the Appearance > Widgets menu.

The widget displayed on the sidebar with 3 links hidden and a custom link added.

Comparison of options between the standard and Custom Meta Widget.

Translation Help

If you would like to help make this plugin available in your native language, please send your .po file to plugins@shinraholdings.com, and I will include it in the next version. The all the language files are in the lang subdirectory of the plugin.

en_XX - bitacre
da_DK - Kris Thomsen
ru_RU - VadDevArt
de_DE - Dr. Paolo Colombani
sk_SK - Branco Radenovich

34 Thoughts on “Custom Meta Widget”

Jeff Rivett on September 4, 2012 at 7:16 am said:

Greetings. I just started using Custom Meta Widget and so far I like it – thanks!

Just one thing: this morning, I noticed that the plugin updated itself. The version is still 1.4.1, but two files changed: wp-content/plugins/custom-meta-widget/customMeta.php wp-content/plugins/custom-meta-widget/readme.txt

The changes are all related to the change in your domain, from shinraholdings.com to bitacre.com.

I would prefer to handle plugin updates manually, so I was wondering whether there is an option to disable the plugin’s silent, automated updates. If not, are there any plans to add such an option?

Regards, Jeff

Reply↓
- bitacre on September 4, 2012 at 9:38 am said:
  
  The plugin shouldn’t/couldn’t have updated itself unless it was reinstalled. Because all I did was change the URLs in the files, nothing of substance was added so, I didn’t release a new version (i.e. version 1.4.2), I just updated the current version 1.4.1 in the WordPress.org database. This means that anyone who hasn’t downloaded it yet will get the new version, but the people who have already downloaded 1.4.1 won’t be asked to update and certainly won’t update without permission.
  
  If the files did update themselves, that was not my intention, and is a problem with the WordPress.org plugin system, not some type of secret update code.
  
  Are you sure you have the updated version?
  
  Version 1.4.1 had a bug fix and was very recently released, separately from the change of domain name. Perhaps you just updated it with a few other plugins at once then forgot about it?
  
  Automatically updating plugins would be a MASSIVE security breach so if this is happening in the plugin system, WordPress needs to be told ASAP.
  
  Reply↓
Kami on September 27, 2012 at 9:48 pm said:

Is there a way to remove the WordPress.org link that is attached to the ‘logo’ area on the reg/login pages?

I have tried making changes on the plugin’s Editor page of my dash… but its not working.

Please help.

Reply↓
- bitacre on September 29, 2012 at 4:17 am said:
  
  That sounds like an issue with your theme. Vanilla wordpress doesn’t have that.
  
  Reply↓
  - Kami on October 3, 2012 at 3:21 pm said:
    
    Can you elaborate on this? I
    
    Is there a particular string within the css/editor that I should look at if I was looking to replace the wordpress.org link?
    
    As I stated before I went to the plugin editor for ‘custommetawidget’ if you check out my site you can see that I have branded the login page… I really am at a loss on what to change in order to remove the wordpress.org link over the logo but I really like this widget.
    
    Reply↓
    - bitacre on October 3, 2012 at 4:10 pm said:
      
      Okay first of all, this plugin has absolutely nothing to do with the actual login page, it’s just a sidebar widget. This is all it does.
      
      Secondly, this totally unrelated problem is easy to fix. I don’t know how you managed to skin the login page logo without knowing how to do the url, but you just need to throw one more line in your theme’s functions.php file.
      
      function shinra_login_url() { return 'http://whatever-you-want-to-replace-wordpress.org'; } add_filter( 'login_headerurl', 'shinra_login_url');
      
      Again, this has absolutely nothing to do with this plugin, but I hope I was able to help you anyway.
      
      Reply↓
      - Kami on October 4, 2012 at 5:27 pm said:
        
        Thanks for the help the issue was with the ‘custom branding’ i removed the plugin that I had and installed a diferent one. completely resolved this issue.
        
        Really appreciate the extra mile you went!
      - bitacre on October 4, 2012 at 5:42 pm said:
        
        Anytime.
Jim on October 17, 2012 at 4:31 pm said:

Found this section after I sent an email request so will also post it here. Is it possible to get this plugin with 2 custom links as an option ?

Reply↓
- bitacre on October 17, 2012 at 5:10 pm said:
  
  Sure, I just made a branched version that supports up to 6 links. Would you be needing more than that? Download a zip from here or get it from the SVN branch on WordPress.org.
  
  Reply↓
  - Mr Ignatius on February 7, 2013 at 4:17 am said:
    
    Thanks! Very good job and very good support. Stay here, please.
    
    Reply↓
Jim on October 18, 2012 at 1:26 pm said:

Thanks very much it appears everything is working. Do you have a paypal link where I might send a small token of my appreciation for your assistance.

Reply↓
- bitacre on October 18, 2012 at 4:02 pm said:
  
  Glad I could help! This link redirects to our paypal donation page, much appreciated
  
  Reply↓
John on December 21, 2012 at 11:17 am said:

Hi, and thank you. Is there anyway I can hard code this in to sidebar.php so that it always is on the bottom of the sidebar ?

Reply↓
- bitacre on December 22, 2012 at 4:25 pm said:
  Yes… if you really want to. You can hardcode widgets using the the_widget() template tag. This function has the following syntax: the_widget( $widget_PHP_class, $instance, $args );. This particular widget has quite a few instance variables, so it will be a little cumbersome if you want to set them manually. Here’s an example of the whole code snippet:
```
$instance = array( 
    'title' => 'Widget title', 
    'register' => 1, 
    'login' => 1, 
    'entryrss' => 0, 
    'commentrss' => 0, 
    'wordpress' => 0, 
    'showcustom' => 1, 
    'customtext' => 'Custom Link Text', 
    'customurl' => 'http://custom-url.com', 
    'linklove' => 1
);

$args = array(
    'before_widget' => '', 
    'before_title' => '', 
    'after_title' => '', 
    'after_widget' => '' 
);

the_widget( 'customMetaWidget', $instance, $args );
```
  So yes it’s possible, but… why would you want to?
  Reply↓
  - John on December 29, 2012 at 3:28 am said:
    
    Hi again, and thanks for responding. The owner of the site (billplattfishing*com) wants the the login below all of the sponsor advertisements..As it looks now the login is smack in the middle of the sidebar. This also makes sense to me, we think client or visitor should read content before having to decide to login or register. Please, you have been so helpful to me. If showed you the sidebar.php could you help me ?
    
    Reply↓
    - bitacre on December 29, 2012 at 1:07 pm said:
      
      Oh I see your problem now. Yes, if you send me your sidebar.php, I’d be glad to take a look.
      
      An easier solution might be to place the advertisement code in separate text widgets inside the sidebar, that way you can arrange everything in the sidebar from the dashboard.
      
      Send an email to shinrawebholdings@gmail.com if you’d like to continue this conversation in private.
      
      Reply↓
- eugene80 on March 14, 2013 at 7:55 am said:
  
  Hi,
  
  This is actually exactly what I’ve been trying to achieve except I want to add this widget into my header.php file. Could you perhaps assist me with this? I can send you my header.php file if you don’t mind.
  
  Thanks in advance.
  
  Reply↓
Stuart on January 16, 2013 at 8:42 am said:

Hi, I am not technical. Is it possible to change the background colour of the widget to make it stand out a little more?

Reply↓
- bitacre on January 16, 2013 at 11:52 am said:
  
  Yep! Just add this line to your theme’s style.css file (you can find the theme editor at your-wp-url.com/wp-admin/theme-editor.php ) :
  
  .widget-customMetaWidget { background-color:yellow; }
  
  This example would make the background yellow, but you can change this by replacing the word yellow in the line of code above with any other HTML color name.
  
  Cheers!
  
  Reply↓
Stephen Jones on January 18, 2013 at 8:57 am said:

Hi there.

Just wondering if you’d be able to look at adding a couple of additional custom fields, with the ability to select visibility depending on whether logged in or not?

Cheers, Stephen.

Reply↓
- bitacre on January 20, 2013 at 10:30 am said:
  
  I can make you a custom version for a very reasonable price if you would like, but this is too complicated to include in the vanilla version. Let me know if you’re interested: plugins@shinraholdings.com
  
  Reply↓
Lev on January 31, 2013 at 5:59 am said:

need a change in 5 “of the standard links (register, login, entries RSS, comments RSS, and WordPress.org)”

Example: entries RSS –> RSS or only orange pic RSS

More user friendly !

Reply↓
Mark on February 2, 2013 at 7:57 pm said:

Great plugin thanks so much My request is for capability to add rss feeds for other classes of posts. Specifically I am using the portfolio plus theme which makes portfolio-posts instead of regular ones. (I also use MG Calendar which has an rss feed for its events). How do I go about modifying to make these posts appear as an optoin in the custom menu. Looking at the code it seems like its something to do with this: get_bloginfo( ‘rss2_url’ )

But not sure how to proceed. Is it possible you could extend yours to see what other rss feeds are available and offer a line for each one ?

Reply↓
Steve Redshaw on February 17, 2013 at 1:02 pm said:

I like the fact that the Site Admin link does not show up if a site visitor is not logged in. On my website, nobody can just register, so the Register link does not show. When users log in the Site Admin link does appear – that’s great, that’s just how I want it to be. But can I change the wording Site Admin to Dashboard (which is a bit more friendly for loggedin users)?

Reply↓
- bitacre on February 17, 2013 at 2:20 pm said:
  
  Its fully internationalized, so you can replace any text with any other text (checkout the codestyling localization plugin for an easy way to do this). Since this link is a native wordpress function, you can’t simply edit the text in the plugin.
  
  If that doesn’t work, there might be a filter hook for the function that would allow you to modify the text, but I don’t know offhand, and using localization is probably the easier and more persistent solution.
  
  Reply↓
  - Steve Redshaw on February 18, 2013 at 12:58 pm said:
    
    thanks so much, I have not heard of localization before, but a simple plug-in did the trick
    
    love your plug in, it is a very practical, very useful and well thought out tool – thanks
    
    Reply↓
    - bitacre on February 18, 2013 at 3:00 pm said:
      
      Thank you for the kind words!
      
      Reply↓
eugene80 on March 7, 2013 at 1:11 am said:

Hi,

I’ve been trying to create a [short-code] for the widget so that i could use it anywhere I like, can you possible point me in the right direction. I’m new to wordpress and php.

What i have tried sofar was. 1. Create a custom-meta-functions.php file with the following contents;

then added

include (‘custom-meta-function.php’);

to the customMeta.php file

and then added the following to my header.php file

not having enough knowledge of php if have to try and google, and “copy” & play around with how i see other plugins work with shortcodes. If you could point me in the right direction I will greatly appreciate it

Reply↓
- bitacre on March 7, 2013 at 3:57 pm said:
  
  It already is a short code…
  
  Reply↓
- bitacre on March 10, 2013 at 7:55 pm said:
  
  [contact
  
  Reply↓
eugene80 on March 8, 2013 at 1:52 am said:

http://pastebin.com/wEV6MKzr

Reply↓
sundos on March 8, 2013 at 6:59 pm said:

Hi bitacre… I have tried for days to figure out best way for this…

I have 2 pages that should be private … so I password protected them with no problem except it keeps me logged into those pages no matter if I log out or not.. I don’t get it. So, I tried this plug in and logged out.. went back and logged in and already can see those pages again without having to put the passwords in. This may cause an issue in more ways than one.. public computers, and if board members change, etc.

Wondering maybe I could use the “add Links” somehow to make these pages work the way I need them too, privately. lol.. just willing to try about anything to make this work SIMPLY for the users as well as me.

Maybe Ineed is a way to log in and OUT of the “password protected” pages only. Can this work for that in any way?

Maybe I just need “private” and not “password protected” but I for the life of me cannot figure out how that works either.

Can you help me in anyway? .. and beware I have very little knowledge as this is my first attempt at a website.. and I do not know any code,, though I have found and copy/pasted a very small amount and followed the instructions.

Thanks! -sundos

Reply↓
thgary on March 26, 2013 at 9:32 pm said:

Is there a way to add more than one custom link?

Reply↓