Introduction
I started working on a plugin that would utilize the 360voice.com APIs to display various data from my 360voice blog. The goal is to use this data, but also make it flexible enough to fit your blogs. I am a windows Applications (C# / VB.NET) developer by trade, and am not extremely experienced in PHP, or WordPress Plugin development….I guess what I am trying to say is do not be surpised if you find code segments you think could be written better, but it seems to function just fine.
Features
- Display your latest blog (configurable number of blog entries to display)
- Display your badges
- Display your favorites (configurable number of favorites to display)
- Display your leaderboard stats
Options
- Choose if you want to show your badges or not
- Choose if you want to show your blogs or not
- Choose the number of blogs to show, if you wish to show them
- Choose if you want to show your favorites
- Choose the number of favorites you want to show, if you wish to show them
- Choose if you want to show your leaderboard stats
Download
Now that this plugin is good enough to be considered 1.0 quality you may download and use it on your own wordpress blog. Simply download this file.
Installation
- Unzip the provided Zip file into your plugin directory
- Activate the plugin
- Configure the plugin options, if nothing else so that it has your gamertag to pull the data for
- Use the functions documented here to display the sections of the plugin you wish to show
Usage
You can use the following functions in any location that PHP code is allowed (meaning in one of your theme files, or if you have an addin installed that allows you to run PHP code directly from a post.
Show All
Show all of the 360voice data based on the options you have configured – in other words if you have selected to not show leaderboards but the rest are selected to show. You will see all blocks except the leaderboards.
ShowVoiceData();
If you prefer, there is a function for each “block” and you can build them individually yourself. Again they pull from your configured options in order to know if the block really should show or not, and any extra options (such as the never of blog entries to show)
Badges
GetBadges();
Blogs
GetMostRecentBlogEntries();
Favorites
GetFavoriteGames();
Leaderboards
GetLeaderBoards();
100% Completes
GetCompletes();
Version History
1.2 – Released 03/25/08
- just noticed that the 360voice APIs changed how they were handling less than and greater than, breaking my blog entry code – fixed it.
- added 100% clubs
1.1 – Released 04/10/07
- Due to changes in the remote API from 360voice and the way I read the XML this plugin wouldnt show blog entries. This has been fixed – download the latest release for this update.
- I think there is a better way to read XML, but I think it requires PHP5 – again I am not a PHP guru by any means, but the current version works again, with a very small change.
1.0 – Released 01/31/07
- Thanks to A Crazed Geek, the PHP for this plugin was cleaned up a bit, and hopefully is ready for anyone who is interested in using it
- Added the ability to download the plugin
0.1 – Released 11/29/06
- Available to my blog only
- Displays Badges from 360voice.com
- Displays Latest entries from 360voice.com
- Displays Favorite Games from 360voice.com
- Displays Leaderboard stats from 360voice.com
Extra Info
Also after I finished the first two sections of the plugin (latest entry, and badges) I found another plugin designed by Saccia that all ready uses the 360voice API for the latest X blog entries. I however could not get this to work on my server (for some reason I get random CGI errors when trying to use the plugin on this hosted web server, but works on my local server). This problem is the exact same problem I was having when I started building this plugin, and forced me to come up with a different way to parse the XML. I am assuming this is just a configuration error on my server, and I am not experienced enough to figure it out – so feel free to check out the 360Voice Bits Plugin if you prefer.
leave a comment – so I can check out the plugin on your site – also feel free to post any comments or questions you may have
Hi there,
Sorry to trouble you… I just downloaded your 360voice plugin and followed the instructions but it isnt visible on the site anywhere.
Ive hunted around and found nowhere to allow it to show on the site. Do I need to add code somewhere to allow WP to see it.
Sorry for what must seem a basic question..
many thanks
graeme smith
(gamertag – spikeybloke)
Graeme,
if you have a theme that supports sidebar widgets, and the sidebar widget plug-in you can simply select the widget from the theme editor. But if you want to manually add it to your sidebar what you would do is go into your theme editior and modify the Sidebar file.
Insert the following function
< ? ShowVoiceData(); ?>
if you are all ready in a PHP codeblock, you can leave out the < ? and ?>.
In the event that you dont want to show all the statistics, look in the usage area for the functions that will show each individual section.
let me know if you still have problems.
Great… I added the code, had to change it to and off it went.
needs a bit work to match my theme a bit but its great. Have added a link from my site in recognition
thanks again
looking at this, it seems as though the plugin for blog entries isnt working anymore – I think I read they updated this API – I will update it as soon as I can.
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A fantastic read….very literate and informative. Many thanks….where is your RSS button ?