Blogs & Podcasts Update
Blogs & Podcasts will be updated on Thursday 28th June 9am – 12pm. This update includes improvements to several plugins and the core system. We are also removing some plugins that have become either insecure, defunct or they are no longer being used.
- Plugins being removed:
- Commentator Data
- Simply Poll
- Kimli Flash Player
- SI CAPTCHA Anti Spam
- WordTwit
- WP Youtube Lyte
- New Plugins added:
- WP to Twitter
- New features
- Youtube embedding directly into a post or page
- Privacy page
Youtube embedding
Now you can copy the embed code from Youtube and paste it directly into a new Blog Post, Otago Blogs will automatically embed it for you.
Privacy page
To comply with the EU’s GDPR you can now create a privacy page for your Blog or Podcast site. This can be automatically created as a page in your menu.
Updates to Blogging and Podcasting Plugins
We have recently applied updates to some of the plugins on our Blogging and Podcasting service: Subscribe by Email and WordTwit These aren’t new plugins but updates to existing ones which brings some new functionality to the service.
Subscribe by Email
This updated plugin now allows for a more customised email to be sent when users receive updates from your blog. This is an improvement upon the text only email that was available before.
https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/help/extending-your-site/subscribe-by-email/
WordTwit
The update to this plugin now allows more than one Twitter account to be connected to your blog site as well as modifications to the security and verification procedures to connect your blog to Twitter. If you have been using WordTwit you will need to obtain verification tokens from Twitter to continue to use the service.
https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/help/extending-your-site/wordtwit/
We hope these updates help you make the most of your blogging experience.
The podcasting plugin gets an update
You might have noticed recently that the podcasting plugin looks a little bit different. There are now a few more boxes on the screen (don’t panic, it is still easy to use). You’ll notice a couple of new features, you might even recognise them from writing posts.
- Categories – A category is a broad grouping for your posts/podcasts, for example a bread recipe may be in a cooking category and a baking category.
- Tags – A tag is a more specific grouping for a single post/podcast in the bread example from above it could be tagged as wholemeal and rye.
As well as the new features, the description field has had a bit of a makeover as well and now includes a visual text editor. But wait, there’s more, you are now told how much space you have left in your site (have a look in the Instructions box).
If you haven’t seen the changes and you have an Otago Podcasts site drop by and have a look.
