Live Blogging version 2 – looking for beta testers
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on version 2 of the Live Blogging plugin for WordPress which I originally released last year, and which subsequently won runner-up in the 2009 Weblog Tools Collection Plugin Competition – an acolade very gratefully received!
One reviewer of the plugin did point out that:
I get the impression that it is a plugin that was built for a specific use and released, rather than a plugin that was intended to be released.
which is a very fair, and accurate, assessment. It’s no secret that I developed this plugin in a few days for Nouse‘s coverage of Roses 2009.
Version 2, however, changes all that. It’s been rewritten from the ground up for WordPress 3.0, with no constraints on time for a release date, so it’s coded a lot better than version 1 was. It also addresses a lot of niggles people had with version 1 of the plugin. It no longer relies on Meteor (it can use an AJAX polling method which is suitable for low traffic blogs), the backend user experience is better and the plugin as a whole is a lot more flexible.
When the final version of the plugin launches, I’ll be writing a full blog post detailing the changes and new features – but rest assured, this is not the same plugin as version 1, but contains the same principle – microblogging without your readers having to refresh the page.
As for now, I’m looking for beta testers. Particularly people who have used version 1 of the plugin, as the migration functionality is one part in particular I’m keen to test. If you are interested in testing and blogging using Live Blogging v2, please comment on the post, drop me a tweet, or e-mail me. I’m hoping to have a beta ready within the next week, which I can distribute and elicit feedback on, and hopefully squash a few more bugs before 2.0 hits the WordPress plugins directory.
I think this plugin could be something big, especially for professional bloggers, and making the barrier for entry considerably lower than what version 1 could provide is something, I hope, can achieve this.
The second beta is now out, and can be downloaded here. Any feedback will be gratefully received.
Lets go!
Roy
Glad to hear you’re interested Roy
There’s just a few finishing touches and a bit more testing I’ve got to do on my local install and then I’ll be putting together a beta package (hopefully before the next weekend) for distribution to see how it works on a variety of different setups!
Hi Chris,
Sent you an email but thought I’d leave a comment also.
Very much interested in beta testing version 2.
Regards.
Hi chris,
is there anything special we need for new version? Will this one also running with meteor?
Thanks Roy
It can run with Meteor, but it doesn’t need it (you can use an alternative method of automatic updating). Meteor is still the best auto-updating method to use though.
The plugin will require WordPress 3.0, but other than that, there are no special requirements.
Ok, there is no Problem. All is running here.
Roy
I’ve made a screencast for version 2 of the plugin: http://www.pling.org.uk/static/Live_Blogging_for_WordPress_2.0.swf
Hi Chris, I would like to ask a few questions about your live blogging-plug in for a project I’m working on.
1. When did you first create it?
2. Why did you create it?
3. Where do you see it going in the future?
Hi Marcia,
I first created the plugin in May 2009 (blog post) as an internal plugin, which I then tidied up and released later on in the month.
The first blog post linked above goes into more details about why I coded it – basically it was to reduce server load (handing over refresh traffic to Meteor) and also give us an edge over our competitors (faster updates, a smoother user experience and a “cool factor”)
I don’t have any solid plans for the plugin at the moment, and I don’t have massive amounts of time to work on it any more. It’s in a fairly complete state, although I do occasionally get feature requests – making it easier to embed the live blogs externally and a mobile interface being the main ones I’ve had a few times, although unfortunately I have little motivation to add this functionality since I rarely use the plugin myself anymore. I guess I’d quite like to see someone fork it (it would be nice if the WordPress plugin directory tied into Github or similar!) and continue to develop it, although keeping my original vision in mind and not letting it get too feature bloated (I see that with a lot of plugins nowadays).
Hope that answers your questions!
Chris