SimpleLife
SimpleLife is a (getting not very) simple Wordpress Plugin adapted from my own custom php script for my own lifestream.
Excited? See it in action: Here
NOTE: As of 1.1a Simplelife is currently backwards compatible with PHP4 but timezones may not display correctly. Upgrade to PHP5. PHP4 has now been “end-of-life’d” - its dead.
Features
- Works With All Feeds - even del.icio.us feeds. MagpieRSS, provided by Wordpress and used by other plugins doesn’t work correctly with del.icio.us feeds.
- Feed Icons - provided by the feeds themselves (using appropriate site favicon) or custom icons (provided by you).
- Install And Go - no settings to play with, uses existing wordpress cache, just insert your usernames and choose your color schemes (or don’t).
- Compact/Lightweight - you won’t get lifestream specific CSS on every page where its not needed and you get one function - its all handled on the lifestream page itself.
- Widget Ready - Add your lifestream to your sidebar widget style!
- Themeable - WYSIWYG Styling Options, see examples in the options page “right here, right now”.
As you may have gathered SimpleLife takes its name from the underlying feed parsing software used, SimplePie. SimplePie is included with the plugin (its one of the files you need to upload) and provides safe, fast and compliant parsing technology.
SimpleLife started off an unsupported hack I made available - it worked for my site and that was good enough for me. However.. people started sking awkward questions, and seemed genuinely interested - so I’ve made the whole thing into a proper plugin. The trouble is the more i added the more i needed to add, and the more I thought about adding.
I have included a link to this page in the code and would appreciate it if you would keep the link as is. Afterall, its only fair to give credit for the many hours I’ve spent providing you with an ace lifestream plugin that works, that you can download and use and that works out of the box
FAQ
Is there a database - will this plugin archive my life?
No! Its really beyond the scope of this plugin - no one really cares what you did on Jan 16th 2004 on the internet. It is kinda cool what you did yesterday though. See?
So it polls the feeds everytime the script is executed?
No! The cache you set determines how long before it repolls the feeds (in seconds). The default is 15 minutes. That doesn’t mean it repolls every fifteen minutes. That means it repolls when the script is run, unless the script was run less than 15 minutes ago. Now I’m confused.
Why doesn’t simple life do/say/look like X/Y/Z?
Sigh. CTRL-F and search through the comments. Check the “To Do” list. If its not been mentioned before request it ![]()
Is it free?
Yes, but why not send me something like sweets through the post. That would be a nice gesture.
OMG Why is it doing this?
Sigh. CTRL-F and search through the comments. Check the “To Do” list. If its not been mentioned before ask about it ![]()
I’ve loaded it up and there is code all over the plugin management page?
Looks like a line break issue - if you’re competent enough, open the plugin in a text editor, and convert unix linebreaks. Otherwise download the most recent version. Also - if you do experience this problem, DON’T UPLOAD AND EXTRACT A ZIP. Extract the Zip and upload the files seperately - some servers apparently don’t make zip love like they used to. Failing that, the easiest thing to do is click “edit” next to all that ugly code and then click save. Did the code disappear? MAGIC.
Can you make it work on PHP4?
I’ve tried, tried til my fingers were blue in their faces. Simplife is PHP5 - as of August this year PHP4 will be unsupported by all including PHP themselves… so there is no motivation to develop for a dead platform! Unless you fancy paying me :)?!
OK, so my server is PHP4 default, but i can force PHP5 - why is it not working?Why is it PHP4 by default? Change it! PHP5 is better. Its newer. Its shinier. Its a bigger number - and bigger is better. If you absolutely have to do this, make everything inside the wordpress directory run as php5 (some servers let you specify directories) or you will get issues.
Whats a page/template/tag?
Read This. Otherwise, use the widget.
I set up the template but its blank?
Does the widget work? That will narrow down whther or not the plugin is playing up or your template is borked.
The code doesn’t work, it doesn’t it doesn’t it doesn’t it doesn’t it just shows up, fix it for me, FIX IT FOR ME.
Put. It. In. A. Page. Template.
My feed doesn’t format properly, it doesn’t recognise my style options…
Feedburner, Google Reader, Delicious and any other service that links a feed item to a different domain than its source will not work. Don’t use feedburner tbh.
MY CACHE IS FOOKED…
Chances are you don’t have one. Set it up. KAcey.US writes “Just as a note for people who have issues with the wp-content/cache folder not being writable, the issue is that it’s not actually there. Navigate to the /wp-content folder in your file manager, and then create a folder called ‘cache’, and set CHMOD to 755.” Hurrah!
History
- 1.1a
Twitter Feed - Currently truncated, needs to be fixed. - 1.1a
Fix Stripos in PHP4 - Not available on PHP4 installations. - 1.1a
Date Formats - Allow user to display DAY and TIME how they like. - 1.1a
Allow Users To Change Timezone - Optional for PHP5 users to correct times. tz settz - 1.1a
Experimental: Allow PHP4 Users To Change Timezone - Would really be useful even though PHP4 is end-of-life’d furtherreading - 1.1a
Date/Time Display Formats - Including date time display options for each feed item. - 1.1a
Option & Function Tidy Up - Some of the options I’ve used are a bit non specific, which could clash with a similarly badly written plugin
- 1.1a
Last.FM Bug - Typo leading to no background color for last.fm - 1.1b
Timezone Bug - Typo leading to call of non PHP4 function in PHP4 installs. - 1.2
Uploaded To Wordpress.org - Plugin updates should now appear in wordpress. - 1.3
PHP Version Indicator - Because people don’t know how to check - 1.3
Twitter is broken! - fixed fixed - 1.3
Remove Stripos Completely - moved to pregmatch as there were still some issues. Fingers crossed with PHP4. - 1.3
Flickr Image Display - Optional setting to allow you to show photos for flickr feeds. - 1.3
Flickr Title Display - Optional setting to allow you to show titless for flickr feeds - useful if showing thumbnails as they are sometimes ugly together. - 1.3
Cache Path - 1 time in every 10 a non standard installation cause problems. Fixed. The other 9 times out of 10? Turns out you soppy sods didn’t even have a cache directory set up. Set one up.
To Do
- Different Encapsulation? - Requested. Possibly look at using divs instead of lists. I’m not keen on this, I’d rather offer more styling options for the list such as width/height etc.
- Date Cut Off - Only show feed items for last ‘n’ days for example.
- Extra Display Options - Full control over borders etc
- Flickr Tag - Show flickr feed with only one flickr tag.
- Relative Dates - 1 day ago, 2 days ago….
- Fix Line Ends Issues - Assuming thats whats causing the trouble!
Updates
Subscribe to this feed for plugin updates
Examples
Brian Graves
Apollo
Kevin Donahue
2by4
Daniel Sale
Dabelo.com
Anthony Chivetta
Kieran’s Lifestream
Download
Simplelife 1.0
Simplelife 1.1
SimpleLife 1.1a
SimpleLife 1.1b
SimpleLife 1.3
Installation Instructions
- Unzip download
- Upload simplelife directory to your plugins directory
- Activate the simplife plugin
- Go to Options -> Simplelife….. Fill them out. Choose your colors. La La.
- Either add your lifestream to your sidebar with the Widget (might want to limit the items
or place <?php simplelife(); ?>in a template file. I’ve included an example you can upload to your current theme directory, which contains title, blurb (when you type it in the page content box) and comments (if you enable them). - Enjoy
Please comment here with a link to your page if you use SimpleLife, I’d love to see everybody’s implementations.
Filed by Kieran at November 19th, 2007 under Uncategorized
1. At 4:36 pm on December 7, 2007, Brian wrote:
Hey - This is great! I have been developing a standalone app using PHP, MySQL, and SimpleXML and then I found your WP plugin.
I am going to be updating the CSS to suit my needs, but it is working far better than any tumblr or gelato or whatever.