The Gateway Church website does all that – a first timer will get enough of a feel from the front page to visit and under the hood are powerful communication and administration tools to facilitate the church mission

• Front page excerpts
• Comment count in a speech bubble
• Nested commenting for lively discussion
• Big headlines to capture attention

Main menu – vastly improved with drag and drop and close

Rota management – the rota now uses autocomplete to store people in their job! You can also email the rota out to participants

Sermons – can now be uploaded and podcasted – mosts hosts have an upload limit of 8MB, so there is a facility to add already uploaded files that perhaps you have ftp’d.

The cache of emails is now stored in a subdirectory the uploads directory – with a redirect in the old directory.

Photos You can upload photos for people, but not much use is made of them yet

Fixes

• Activation errors
• Tied up code and initialise all variables more correctly
• Functions that require people to be in the directory first only show when directory is populated.

Coming Soon

1. Shortcodes page in the menu to list all the shortcode options
2. Photos in the directory as an option
3. Bible passages in the sermon uploader
4. Rewrite of the calendar module – with ical support
5. Instruction Manual

Writing and updating the plugin is pretty time consuming but fun and largely fuelled by coffee, so if you like, please thank me with a brew!…

What would you like to see added to the plugin?

Panache Hair Company is doing well and in a recent local news paper article cites the website as part of that success story “The company website has played a signifcant role in attracting customers from near and far and she also frequently uses Facebook to let people know about special offers.”

Reset by Orse on flikr.com

My emergency password reset plugin will regenerate every user’s password and email it to them. If you have been hacked, I advise you change all the SALTS in wp-config.php, which forces all users to log out too. WordPress.org provides a tool to generate new SALTS.

To us my bulk emergency password reset and email plugin…

1) Download the emergency-password-reset at wordpress.org plugin
2) Upload the zip file to your plugins directory and activate.
3) If you are and administrator you can click on “Reset all Passwords” – the plugin will generate new more secure passwords and let all the users know.

Hope you find it useful

They are relatively easy to create!

1) Enqueue the scripts that will allow toggling open and closed and the order to be changed. They need to be hooked in at the ‘init’ stage

add_action('init',apmbt_init');
function apmbt_init()
{
        /**
 *
 * Initialises js scripts and css
 * 
 * @author  Andy Moyle
 * @param    null
 * @return   
 * @version  0.1
 * 
 */ 

    wp_enqueue_script('common');
    wp_enqueue_script('wp-lists');
    wp_enqueue_script('postbox');
}

2) Create the page the boxes will appear on

<div class="wrap"><!-- wraps the page and allows styling to occur-->
    <div id="poststuff">
	    <!-- #post-body .metabox-holder goes here -->
		<div id="post-body" class="metabox-holder columns-2">
		    <!-- page content here -->
                </div><!--post-body-->
    </div><!--poststuff-->
</div><!-- wrap-->

Those classes and ids allow the meta box styling to happen

3) Create functions for each meta_box’s content

4) The meta boxes need nonce fields to allow any open/close toggling and order changes to be saved

<form  method="get" action="">
	<?php wp_nonce_field('closedpostboxes', 'closedpostboxesnonce', false ); ?>
	<?php wp_nonce_field('meta-box-order', 'meta-box-order-nonce', false ); ?>
   </form>

5) The meta boxes are then “added” and “done”

add_meta_box( $id, $title, $callback, $post_type);
//have as many of these as you want
//$id is a unique id for the meta box
//$title is the title
//$callback is the function with the content
//$post_type for our implemntation is the name of the plugin
//There are other optional arguments which we aren't using

add_meta_box prepares the meta box and can be placed in your content stream or as in an add_action hook
do_meta_boxes tells wordpress to render the meta box

do_meta_boxes( $page, $context, $object );
//$page is our plugin name
//$context is advanced
//$object is NULL

6) Lastly we need some jquery to initialise previously saved open/close toggles and order

<script type="text/javascript">
	jQuery(document).ready(function($){$(".if-js-closed").removeClass("if-js-closed").addClass("closed");
			       
				postboxes.add_postbox_toggles( 'pluginame');
				});
    </script>

pluginname is your plugin name that you have used above. Other tutorials used pagenow but it didn’t work for me on custom admin pages in v3.5

Here’s the code bundled up…

<?php
/*

Plugin Name: admin_page_meta_box_tutorial
Plugin URI: http://www.themoyles.co.uk/web-development/meta-box-tutorial
Description: Example plugin to use meta boxes on a plugin page
Version: 0.1
Author: Andy Moyle
Author URI:http://www.themoyles.co.uk
*/

//avoid direct calls to this file where wp core files not present
if (!function_exists ('add_action')) {
		header('Status: 403 Forbidden');
		header('HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden');
		exit();
}
add_action('init','apmbt_init');//initialise required javascripts
add_action('admin_menu','apmbt_admin_menu');//adds menu link
function apmbt_init()
{
        /**
 *
 * Initialises js scripts and css
 * 
 * @author  Andy Moyle
 * @param    null
 * @return   
 * @version  0.1
 * 
 */ 

    wp_enqueue_script('common');
    wp_enqueue_script('wp-lists');
    wp_enqueue_script('postbox');
}
function apmbt_admin_menu()
{
        /**
 *
 * Creates Admin Menu link
 * 
 * @author  Andy Moyle
 * @param    null
 * @return   
 * @version  0.1
 * 
 */     
        add_menu_page('Meta Box Demo', 'Meta Box Demo',  'administrator', 'apmbt/index', 'apmbt_admin_page');

}
function apmbt_admin_page()
{
    
    ?>
        <div class="wrap" id="church-admin">
	<div id="icon-index" class="icon32"><br/></div><h2>Meta Box Tutorial Plugin</h2>
	<div id="poststuff">
	    <!-- #post-body .metabox-holder goes here -->
		<div id="post-body" class="metabox-holder columns-2">
		    <!-- meta box containers here -->
		    <form  method="get" action="">
		        <?php wp_nonce_field('closedpostboxes', 'closedpostboxesnonce', false ); ?>
		        <?php wp_nonce_field('meta-box-order', 'meta-box-order-nonce', false ); ?>
                        <?php add_meta_box("id-for-meta-box1", "Title of meta box1", "ampbt_meta_box1", "apmbt");?>
                        <?php add_meta_box("id-for-meta-box2", "Title of meta box2", "ampbt_meta_box2", "apmbt");?>
                        <?php do_meta_boxes('apmbt','advanced',null);?>
		    </form>
		</div>
	</div>
    </div>
    <script type="text/javascript">
	jQuery(document).ready(function($){$(".if-js-closed").removeClass("if-js-closed").addClass("closed");
			       
				postboxes.add_postbox_toggles( 'apmbt');
				});
    </script>
			
    <?php    
}
function ampbt_meta_box1()
{
/**
 *
 * Content for meta box 1
 * 
 * @author  Andy Moyle
 * @param    null
 * @return   
 * @version  0.1
 * 
 */ 
    ?>
    <p>You can put anything in here, change the order and even close it Wordpress will remember!</p>
    <?php
   
}
function ampbt_meta_box2()
{
/**
 *
 * Content for meta box 1
 * 
 * @author  Andy Moyle
 * @param    null
 * @return   
 * @version  0.1
 * 
 */ 
    ?>
    <p>You can put anything in here too</p>
    <?php
   
}

?>

Aaaaaagh!

Last night we were hacked by Turkish Jihadi’s who replaced our index.php, disabled Akismet and one other plugin. What do you do when that happens?

Change your host password and FTP password immediately.

Let the host what has happened and ask them to investigate how it happened.

We have a plugin called Simple Login Log and from that I could see that I had apparently logged in from Turkey – but I live in the UK, so my password had been cracked.

Check the access log on your host’s Cpanel. On ours we could see that someone whose IP was Turkish had been using the plugin editor around that time – so that’s why Akismet was bust.

Urgent action is needed.

1) Change the SALT’s in wp-config.php – that will force all currently logged in users to be logged out!
The SALT section looks a bit like this with goobledegook instead of ###!:

define('AUTH_KEY',         '###');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  '###');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY',    '###');
define('NONCE_KEY',        '###');
define('AUTH_SALT',        '###');
define('SECURE_AUTH_SALT', '###');
define('LOGGED_IN_SALT',   '###');
define('NONCE_SALT',       '###');

The wordpress boys have provided a tool to generate a new one here. Don’t copy the one above! Update your wp-config.php and get it uploaded asap.

2) Next you need to force all passwords to be reset to new WordPress generated ones – so all users have a new password (of course they can change them quickly back though). I couldn’t find an emergency password reset plugin, so I wrote one called emergency-password-reset – just upload it, activate and if you are the administrator you can reset all the passwords in the Users section on the left hand menu. Do step 1 first though to force all users off!

3) You can block IPs in your hosts Cpanel – if you have analytics that shows ips of users when the hack happened (the exact time will be available in your FTP program), then you can block ‘em! They will just try from another IP, but now you are more secure again.

4) I reinstalled all plugins as they had been fiddling. Some hackers try to add some code to insecure plugins (particularly ones using old versions of Timthumb for image management) – so the safest bet is to delete them and re-add them

5) If your username is “admin” change it – either in phpmyadmin or create another user and then delete it!

I’ve had some awful experiences visiting other churches over the years, from the large church with multiple services to the small baptist church that just haven’t taken the time to make sure they are welcoming new visitors.

Think about it – if you have a congregation of 100 currently and get 5% visitors but manage to get only 5% of those to stick – your church will grow by at least 10% a year and double in 7years!

So how welcoming are you? Why not use this welcome audit tool next Sunday? Get a few people to fill it out with the eyes of a visitor. Better still get a non Christian friend to come and do it!

Your church at a distance- website

Your website is the primary shop window for first time visitors, who haven’t been invited by someone.
How clear is it for the first time visitor? – the who, the what, the where, and then when – should be right on the front page!
Does it communicate who you are? Or is it a bit corporate, or a building?
Have you signed up for google places, so your venue appears on the map and a google search for “church your town” gets you above the fold by the map?
Does it work in all browsers and on mobile devices?

Your meeting place

Can people find it easily? Is there good signage, both outside and inside the building you use.
Are the toilets clean and nice enough? One hired venue we use for a very short time, we took a bottle of bleach with us! (we moved to a better venue pretty sharpish)

Your people

Do you have a good welcome team who know they are there more to welcome people than give out a notice sheet?!
Do the regulars turn up early enough to talk to visitors. A first time visitor at The Gateway last week, emailed to ask if they should get ther 15mins early – that’s what visitors do, because they are nervous about finding it, parking and getting a seat.
Do you have a welcoming culture – or are the people cliquey and ignoring of visitors.

Your systems

Do you have a welcome pack – please don’t embarass visitors in the way you give it to them, by making them stand up! I don’t want to be applauded, that is embarassing not welcoming!
What’s your follow up process? We track visitor follow up with our church admin plugin (for WordPress sites) – we used to use this visitors spreadsheet to track our welcoming process.
How do you get address details? We currently use a guest book – nice old ladies are great at getting people to sign it with an address!
Are visitors getting chatted to by lost of people and invited out for coffee, back for lunch, to multiple small groups?
Visit your visitors quickly – Herb Miller’s “Magnetic church” gives some stats on how many return if visited quicly. More on that here.

What others ways do you make visitors welcome?