=== Plugin Name === Contributors: KimHbel Donate link: http://blog.huebel-online.de/ Tags: blog, introduction, sidebar, thumbnail, snapshot Requires at least: 2.1 Tested up to: 2.8 Stable tag: 0.3.0 Shows a thumbnail of a blogroll/linkroll-entry by random == Description == This is a plugin that brings up a little preview of a site into the widget-less sidebar. If you want to use this in a widget-enabled theme, give [blogintroduction-wordpress-widget](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/blogintroduction-wordpress-widget/ "blogintroduction-wordpress-widget") a chance. The link is chosen by random out of the links in the WordPress link-manager. You can specify a single link-category or use all categories for the random-link-base. You can also decide to show invisible/private links. This is for the case you want to show links as a preview you don't want to show in the linkroll. If you want and if there is a description for the link done in the link-description-field it would be shown. A refreshing via AJAX could be enabled with a specific time (in seconds) when the next thumbnail would be loaded. This plugin uses the [websnapr](http://www.websnapr.com/ "Website Thumbnais For Your Site")-Service for generating the thumbnail-images. Keep their [term of use](http://www.websnapr.com/terms/ "General Terms and Conditions for Websnapr") in mind. You should get an API-Key for free from there to use this widget and get more then 80 snapshots per hour, with key it would be about 340 per hour (250.000 a month). Since Version 0.3.0 you could also use the image-link stored in the link-manager for containing the link to the preview-image. If no link is given the widget would use websnapr as fall back. If you want to leave a feedback, feel free to do this on the [plugin's homepage](http://blog.huebel-online.de/blogintroduction-wordpress-plugin/ "Home of blogintroduction-wordpress-plugin - Blog of Kim Huebel") of the author's blog. Though the pages are in german, comments in english are wellcome, too. == Installation == 1. Upload `blogintroduction-wordpress-plugin.php` and `blogintroduction-wordpress-plugin_ajax.php` to the `/wp-content/plugins/blogintroduction-wordpress-plugin` directory 2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress 3. Add the call to the function `plugin_blogintroduction_getBlogintroduction()` at the place in the sidebar you want to show it 4. Configure your plugin using the admin-page The configuration is a simple thing: * Websnapr-API-Key: Here you could put in your API-Key. It's not necessary to fill this field for running the widget but its better to keep in mind with the [term of use](http://www.websnapr.com/terms/ "General Terms and Conditions for Websnapr") I think. * Image-width: The value is a the number of pixels of the image-width in the sidebar. This parameter correspondents to the width-value in the html-img-tag. * Image-height: The value is a the number of pixels of the image-height in the sidebar. This parameter correspondents to the height-value in the html-img-tag. * use4:1-ratio: If checked, height would be well-sized to a 4:3-ratio corresponding to the width-value. Given height above would be ignored then. * Image-source: Here you could chose from where the preview-image would be loaded: From websnapr or from a location given by the Image-URL in the link-manager. * Link-category: Here you could chose the category of the links that would be the source for the random-links. * Link-target: Simply means link-target. So where the link should be opened. "Im neuen Fenster" means in a new window, "Im aktuellen Fenster" means in the actual window of the browser. * Show description: If the checkbox is checked, the link-description in the link-manager would be shown with a Label "Description" (depending on the translation). * Show private links: Check this box to show private-links. * Show new thumbnail in ... seconds: Here you enable the auto-renew-function, that means, every x seconds depending on the value you enter in the box on the right side, a new thumbnail would be shown. The minimum time is 10 seconds to avoid heavy traffic and other problems. == Changelog == Version 0.3.0: * Image-Source chooseable * Fixed issue with image-height * Version-number-gap caused by synchronizing with codebase of [blogintroduction-wordpress-widget](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/blogintroduction-wordpress-widget/ "blogintroduction-wordpress-widget") Version 0.0.1: * Initial shot. == Frequently Asked Questions == = Where could I leave a comment or a question relating the plugin? = If you want to leave a feedback, feel free to do this on the [plugin's homepage](http://blog.huebel-online.de/blogintroduction-wordpress-plugin/ "Home of blogintroduction-wordpress-plugin - Blog of Kim Huebel") of the author's blog. Though the pages are in german, comments or questions in english are wellcome, too. = Sometimes I see thumbnails containing an error 404 or "bad request" or something, what's about this? = If you see thumbnails containing some errors the cause lies at websnapr itself. I don't know, how they produce the thumbnails but it's not in my hands to fix this subject.