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"Ask Me" plugin documentation
Plugin Name: Ask Me WP2.1
Plugin URI: http://www.angis-blog.de/2007/02/18/ask-me-plugin-fuer-wordpress-21/
Description: Allows user to ask the blog owner questions.
Version: 2.0.8 and higher
Author: Sara Smith and Jelena Pavlovic, modified by Olli and Angelina
Author URI: http://www.ilovecode.com and http://www.morningcaffeine.com
Put in root Wordpress directory
Inspired by Dean Edwards' about me script
http://dean.edwards.name/about
Modified by Angelina
http://www.angis-world.de
This plugin allows your visitors to get to know you a better. Here is the chain of events:
1. Someone comes to your site and asks you a question.
2. You are sent an email notification.
3. You login to wordpress and answer the qestion and approve it.
4. The question automatically appears on your website in date descending order
5. if the user wants a follow-up email, it is sent immediately on approval.
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Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Bugfix:
Just overwrite your old askme.php with the new file. That's it! Your page is now valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
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1. Requirements
The Exec-PHP is required to use this plugin. Download and configure it first at: http://bluesome.net/post/2005/08/18/50/#requirements
Please follow the installation instructions located there and be sure to
a. Disable the WYSIWYG rich editor within the user options (at the bottom of the page)
b. Disable "WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically"
Make sure your permalink structure is name based rather than using the post id. This plugin may not be for everyone.
2. Installation
This is a fixed Version of the Askme-Plugin which will work on Wordpress 2-0-8 and higher.
The post_status in the script has been changed from static to draft and post_type page has been added. This should fix the problem that after installation the Ask me page doesn't contain anything.
Installation is rather straight forward.
To install Ask me, after you have confirmed Exec-PHP is working correctly please follow the instructions below.
a) First Installation af Ask me:
1. Upload askme.php to wp-contents/plugins/
2. Go to your Dashboard and activate the plugin.
3. Now the plugin has created a draft named Ask me, just publish it in the pages management.
b) Ask me already installed:
1. Deactivate the Ask me Plugin.
2. Delete the Plugin with an FTP Program.
3. Open your SQL Database and delete the four wp-askme-entries.
4. Search "wp_post" in your Database and delete the entry Ask me (or however your Askme Page is called).
5. Upload the new askme.php with your FTP Program to wp-contents/plugins/ and activate it with the plugin-manager.
6. Publish the Ask me draft in the pages management.
Here is what happens when you activate it. Tables are created to store your questions and answers as well as your settings. A page will be created for you called "Ask Me" and given the post name "ask-me". Your page will have the all the needed data in order to start receiving questions. You can edit the entry paragraph as you see fit, but do not change any of the function calls. Only thing to do is publishing the page.
3. Configuring
Go to your wordpress admin panel under Options->Ask Me. You will see a link at the top that says: "Update Settings". Click it. You will see four settings that you have control over:
1. Email address: this is the email address that you want your questions sent to. This is also the email address that will be used when you respond to a question.
2. Per page: This is how many questions you want to see per page in the admin panel.
3. Public Per Page: This is the number of questions you want your visitors to see per page.
4. Form action: This is a field that we really recommend you don't change but the option is there. When you activate the plugin, this value is set to ask-me. But we realize that people may want to change their page title or call the script from another page. If you do that, you need to put the post_name (value in the database) here. This is also the Post Slug field you see when you edit your page. If you can avoid it, please do not change this field.This value is used in an email sent to the person qho asked the question.
4. Styling
You have your page.. so now how do you make it look nice? By default alot of the elements will take on the same style as other elements in your blog. We did try to set up some more ways to style your output. Simply place the following classes in your stylesheet and edit as you see fit:
.askme_link
{
}
.askme_question
{
font-weight:bold;
}
.askme_answer
{
background-color: #cccccc;
color: #584A30;
border: 1px dotted #333333;
padding: 2px;
margin-top:3px;
}
.askme_navlinks
{
text-align:center;
color: #866C2F;
text-decoration:none;
}
.ask_navlinks a:link
{
color: #C67400;
text-decoration:none;
}
.ask_navlinks a:visited
{
color: #C67400;
text-decoration:none;
}
fieldset.askme {
border: 1px solid #cccccc;
padding: 5px;
background: #e6e6e6;
}
.askme label {
display: block;
width: 10em;
float: left;
}
5. Administration
Go to your wordpress admin panel under Options->Ask Me. The questions are automatically displayed in reverse chronological order with those that have not been approved yet on top.
To delete a question:
Simply click the delete link next to the question. If you want to delete more than one question, place a checkmark next to the questions and scroll to the bottom of your questions and press the "Delete Selected" button.
To answer a question:
Click the edit link and you will be taken to a form pre-filled with the vistor's data. Fill out the answer and make sure you check the approved box or the question qill not appear in your list.
6. Troubleshooting
We have a couple known issues that we are trying to sort out but still wanted to release this to the community for testing and use now.
Issue: When I go to my Ask Me page, I get a 404 File Not Found error.
Work around: This issue seems to happen only on wordpress installations that have custom themes. There is a work aroud that I found. After the installation, go in and create another page (call it test page if you want) and save it. Once you do that, you can now access your "Ask Me" page. It is okay for you to delete your test page; your ask me page will still continue to work.
Notes: On activation, the plugin creates a post in the wp_posts table and flags it as a page rather than a post by setting the post_type field = 'static'. I think when you create a page through wordpress, the same thing is done, but there is also another setting stored somewhere that is basically a flag saying, yes, this blog has pages. That is the only thing I can think of.
Issue: The form at the bottom of my "Ask Me" page does not look right.
Notes: I tried to standardize the form as much as possible and define the elements just as they are defined in the post comment form, but for some reason, it is not responding correctly. I tried numerous things, but couldn't get it so I'm not sure what the issue is. If you know CSS at all, you can hack the form as needed.
7. Contact Information
For any bugs, suggestions, or questions about the plugin email:
sara [-at-] ilovecode.com