Post By Email Weekly Update

I’ve spent the past week converting the Post By Email pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party into proper OOP form, trying to incorporate the best practices for plugins as well as the WP coding standards (from which I learned a few things… like why you’d want to leave the end tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) out of PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher files!).  I cribbed a lot from Tom McFarlin’s WordPress Plugin Boilerplate.

On activation, the plugin now copies the global Post By Email options into its local settings and hides those settings from Settings->Writing.  There’s also an options page that uses the Settings APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways..

Hilariously (and illustrating the dire need for an upgrade), I’m having a hard time figuring out how to test this; it turns out it’s actually quite difficult to find a free email provider that still does unsecured POP.  Suggestions?  I might have to add SSLSSL Secure Sockets Layer. Provides a secure means of sending data over the internet. Used for authenticated and private actions. support just to be able to retrieve any emails.

Anyhow, I’m calling this version 0.9, with 1.0 being all the functionality from coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. (nothing extra yet).  Once I upgrade it to a full 1.0 version, I’ll post installation instructions here so the curious can try it out and tell me what breaks.

Next steps:

  • Show log info on plugin options page  (e.g. “Last checked at 2:15pm, 1 message posted.”)
  • Find an email account to test with (or just add SSL?)
  • Add a “check mail now” button on the options page

#post-by-email, #weekly-update