New and Unspent: 10 Fresh Free WordPress Plugins (Edition: March 2015)
The great popularity of WordPress stems in large parts from its almost unlimited expandability with plugins. No matter what you want to create with WordPress, with almost absolute certainty a plugin for it already exists. However, it is not easy to find the proper one out of the 35.959 currently listed plugins. This problem tends to intensify when it comes to niche plugins that offer solutions for uncommon problems and are not too well-known. For that reason we came up with 10 new and highly interesting plugins that are not known to everybody yet.
Image by Kevin Phillips from Pixabay
This plugin enables the administrator to order necessary content without which an article (or a page) can not be published. For the most part, this content can be defined freely. For example, you may determine that an article can not be posted without a featured image. In the example on the left below, the featured image is still missing, which is why the button for updating the post is hidden. On the right side, all requirements are met, so that the post can now be published. Useful for blogs with multiple authors or forgetful bloggers.
The following things can be set as necessary: title, editor, featured image, excerpt, up to 3 categories and up to 5 tags.
With Ultimate Member the creation of a membership website is supposed to be easier than ever before. The plugin enables you to develop an advanced and modern online community. Users can register directly on the website and log in. They no longer need to visit the WordPress site. According to the developer, the plugin was designed with a focus on simplicity, clarity and flexibility and is supposed to make the development of a membership website easier. As a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few screenshots:
User support is handled via a separate Support Forum. The variety of functions leaves nothing to be desired. Nonetheless, it is completely free of charge. There is no premium version to pay for, either.
This plugin connects the popular Contact Form 7 Plugin and the well-known email newsletter service MailChimp. It automatically adds the sent data to predefined lists in MailChimp by using their newest API. There are several lists, and API keys supported. The Contact Form 7 Plugin needs to be installed before using this extension. Well, obviously...
Tag Wiki for WordPress expands the dashboards for single keywords. Each tag page gets its own URL in the form of example.com/tag/apples/info and can contain the descriptive contents for this tag. Even a special, self-owned template can be developed for the Tag Wiki Website. The Tag Wiki pages can be linked together automatically as well as manually.
The Plugin enables several no longer linked functions on the WordPress dashboard. It is regularly updated and according to the developers, new up to now hidden functions are added constantly.
Displays the contributors of a Github repository at desired positions within the theme. This can be done either with PHP functions or WordPress short codes. Two examples: If you want to view the 50 contributors of the https://github.com/pods-framework/pods/ repository, you can do it this way:
Above you see how the result of using Acknowledge Me could look like.
An article list by a(n) (guest) author can be added to a post with short code. There are further functions that can be used as sometimes not all articles of a website are written by the editors due to guest entries. These articles then need to be attributed. By this Author presents a solution for this particular problem. The relevant articles are tagged with the name of the author and when you create an author page, you can then add a short code. If the author later registers under the same name, his articles will be automatically added to his Bio page.
The name already tells you everything. The plugin enables you to find certain text passages and exchange them with different text. Works with articles, pages and navigation elements in real time.
Compact View Mode displays the list of articles in a more compact way. The compact mode is activated by clicking the left icon. That is useful for display on tablets and other smaller screens.
Code Snippets Extended enables you to create, manage and implement (executable) code snippets in articles and pages. You can use several coding or markup languages in each snippet. For example, you may mix HTML and PHP or JavaScript and HTML, or even PHP with CSS and HTML and JavaScript. There is also an option for testing snippets before saving. Here some screenshots to clarify how the plugin works:
Image by Kevin Phillips from Pixabay
1. Post Type Requirements Checklist
This plugin enables the administrator to order necessary content without which an article (or a page) can not be published. For the most part, this content can be defined freely. For example, you may determine that an article can not be posted without a featured image. In the example on the left below, the featured image is still missing, which is why the button for updating the post is hidden. On the right side, all requirements are met, so that the post can now be published. Useful for blogs with multiple authors or forgetful bloggers.
The following things can be set as necessary: title, editor, featured image, excerpt, up to 3 categories and up to 5 tags.
- Developer: dauidus
- Regular Updates: Yes
- Last version: 03.02.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- Developer's Homepage: not known
- Download from WordPress.org
2. Ultimate Member
With Ultimate Member the creation of a membership website is supposed to be easier than ever before. The plugin enables you to develop an advanced and modern online community. Users can register directly on the website and log in. They no longer need to visit the WordPress site. According to the developer, the plugin was designed with a focus on simplicity, clarity and flexibility and is supposed to make the development of a membership website easier. As a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few screenshots:
User support is handled via a separate Support Forum. The variety of functions leaves nothing to be desired. Nonetheless, it is completely free of charge. There is no premium version to pay for, either.
- Developer: Ultimate Member
- Regular updates: Yes
- Last version: 10.02.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- Developer's Homepage: Ultimate Member Support Forum
- Download from WordPress.org
3. Contact Form 7 MailChimp Extension
This plugin connects the popular Contact Form 7 Plugin and the well-known email newsletter service MailChimp. It automatically adds the sent data to predefined lists in MailChimp by using their newest API. There are several lists, and API keys supported. The Contact Form 7 Plugin needs to be installed before using this extension. Well, obviously...
- Developer: Renzo Johnson
- Regular updates: Yes
- Last version: 01.02.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- Developer's Homepage: Homepage
- Download from WordPress.org
4. Tag Wiki for WordPress
Tag Wiki for WordPress expands the dashboards for single keywords. Each tag page gets its own URL in the form of example.com/tag/apples/info and can contain the descriptive contents for this tag. Even a special, self-owned template can be developed for the Tag Wiki Website. The Tag Wiki pages can be linked together automatically as well as manually.
- Developer: Maitar
- Regular updates: Yes
- Last Version: 21.01.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- Developer's Homepage: not known
- Download from WordPress.org
5. Tweak Hidden Options
The Plugin enables several no longer linked functions on the WordPress dashboard. It is regularly updated and according to the developers, new up to now hidden functions are added constantly.
- Developer: citywanderer, stubo
- Regularly updated: Yes
- Last version: 22.01.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- Developer's Homepage: Homepage
- Download from WordPress.org
6. Acknowledge Me
Displays the contributors of a Github repository at desired positions within the theme. This can be done either with PHP functions or WordPress short codes. Two examples: If you want to view the 50 contributors of the https://github.com/pods-framework/pods/ repository, you can do it this way:
<?php acknowledge_me_display( 'pods-framework', 'pods', 'Pods Is Brought To You By:', 50 ); ?>
or, using a short code, like this:
[acknowledge_me owner="pods-framework" repo="pods" header_text="Pods Is Brought To You By:" total="50"]
Above you see how the result of using Acknowledge Me could look like.
- Developer: Josh Pollock
- Regular Update: Yes
- Last version: 26.01.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- Developer's Homepage: not known
- Download from WordPress.org
7. By this Author
An article list by a(n) (guest) author can be added to a post with short code. There are further functions that can be used as sometimes not all articles of a website are written by the editors due to guest entries. These articles then need to be attributed. By this Author presents a solution for this particular problem. The relevant articles are tagged with the name of the author and when you create an author page, you can then add a short code. If the author later registers under the same name, his articles will be automatically added to his Bio page.
- Developer: racanu
- Regular Update: Yes
- Last version: 22.01.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- Developer's Homepage: not known
- Download von WordPress.org
8. Easy Replace
The name already tells you everything. The plugin enables you to find certain text passages and exchange them with different text. Works with articles, pages and navigation elements in real time.
- Developer: Think201 and others
- Regular update: Yes
- Last version: 15.01.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- Lizenz: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- Developer's Homepage: not known
- Download from WordPress.org
9. Compact View Mode
Compact View Mode displays the list of articles in a more compact way. The compact mode is activated by clicking the left icon. That is useful for display on tablets and other smaller screens.
- Developer: Frankie Jarrett
- Regular update: Yes
- Last version: 07.01.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- Developer's Homepage: not known
- Download from WordPress.org
10. Code Snippets Extended
Code Snippets Extended enables you to create, manage and implement (executable) code snippets in articles and pages. You can use several coding or markup languages in each snippet. For example, you may mix HTML and PHP or JavaScript and HTML, or even PHP with CSS and HTML and JavaScript. There is also an option for testing snippets before saving. Here some screenshots to clarify how the plugin works:
- Developer: aftamat4ik
- Regular update: Yes
- Last version: 10.02.2015
- Price: free on WordPress.org
- License: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- Interactions with other plugins: not known
- developer's Homepage: not known
- Download from WordPress.org
Conclusion
In this article we showed you several new plugins for specific use cases, that deserve more attention than they got up to now. Personally, I will definitely give the "Post Types Requirements Checklist" plugin a try, as I tend to forget things while creating an article. Which plugin is your favorite? Would you like to add one of the other? Feel free to do so in the comments below.Related Links
- Post Types Requirements Checklist - Download von WordPress.org
- Ultimate Member - Download from WordPress.org
- Ultimate Member - Ultimate Member Support Forum
- Contact Form 7 MailChimp Extension - Download from WordPress.org
- Tag Wiki for WordPress - Download from WordPress.org
- Tweak Hidden Options - Download from WordPress.org
- Acknowledge Me - Download from WordPress.org
- By this Author - Download from WordPress.org
- Easy Replace - Download from WordPress.org
- Compact View Mode - Download from WordPress.org
- Code Snippets Extended - Download from WordPress.org
“Contact Form 7 MailChimp Extension” For me, that means a great advantage, thanks.
I would like to suggest another new plugin to readers of this article. I’ve just created and uploaded to WordPress plugin named “WP Show Stats” https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-show-stats/ This plugin allow bloggers/admin to keep an eye on all the WordPress elements used in a site. It provides statistics about posts, pages, categories, tags, comments, custom post types and users with Google Charts. Hope it will help someone who is having large blog and need to track on content.
Ioanni, thank you for sharing this article.
Thank you for the post…
I was just trying the “Tweak Hidden Options” plug-in, and only thing I enabled was gzipcompression. It really works. My admin pages are loading much faster. That is important, specially if you have a complex plug-in installed what takes a lot of resources.