=== Teaser Maker === Contributors: ferntechnology Donate link: http://www.ferntechnology.com/ Tags: post, page, excerpt Requires at least: 3.0 Tested up to: 3.9 Stable tag: 4.3 License: GPLv2 or later License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html Create one or more pages of "teasers". Teasers are like WordPress Posts - except that they generally point to content on some external site (though they can also point to content on the same site). == Description == "Teaser Maker" is a tool for creating, managing and displaying **"teasers"** on a WordPress site. Where "Teasers" are a very common trick (used by many large and small sites), to **build both content and traffic**. = "Teasers" for Small (eg; Personal) Blogs = Sole bloggers have the problem that it's almost impossible for a single person to create sufficient new content to keep users returning on a regular basis. Even one interesting post per week can be a major challenge. But a very effective solution is simply to add links to related content from other sites. It's quick and easy to do. And users don't care that the content itself is off-site. The fact that you've collected links to the content of interest to them (in one convenient location), is what matters. Many well-known sites use this technique. And there are typically 5 to 100 teasers for each original article/post. In other words, it's not unusual for the bulk of the site's content to be externally sourced. = "Best of" Pages on Small and Large Sites = Many well-known sites (that perhaps employ 100s if not 1000s of paid writers), also make extensive use of teasers - in the form of "Best of" pages. About.com for example, uses "Best of" pages a lot. "Best of" pages are easy to create. And users just love clicking links like (eg):- * "10 Best Digital Cameras" * "World's Best Beaches" * "Hottest New Movies of 2014" * "The 20 Best Reasonably Priced Restaurants in Paris" * "Best French Wines Under $20" * "Ten Leading Hollywood Actors Who Wound Up on Skid Row (or in Jail)" * etc, etc So Teasers can help both small and large sites to build up both content and traffic. = Teasers are Effectively Fancy Links - With Title, Image, Text and "Read More" Link = Each teaser typically has:- * **Title**, * **Image**, * Paragraph or so of **Text**, and; * "**Read More**" link (though most of these components are optional). And teasers are typically listed (like WordPress Posts), on pages containing one or more teasers - with perhaps some ordinary page content before and after the teasers. An introduction before and/or comments section after, for example. = Teasers vs. WordPress Posts = Teasers **look** very much like WordPress Posts. But there's a significant difference:- * Clicking a **TEASER**'s title or read more link takes the user to the external (or internal) **page that the teaser points to**. Whereas; * Clicking a **POST**'s title or read more link takes the user to the **single post page** for the post concerned, = Adding/Editing Teasers ("Std" Version) = 1. Log into the WordPress Admin Section. 2. Click the "Teaser Maker Std vX.X.X" link on the Left Menu. 3. Click "Teasers". 4. Click "Add Teaser to to create a new teaser - or the "edit" link in the Action column to edit an existing teaser. 5. Fill in or edit and Submit the form. Each field has some help notes to guide you. = Displaying Teasers ("Std" Version) = 1. Log into the WordPress Admin Section. 2. From the WordPress "Pages" screen, Add a new WordPress page. 3. Add the **[teaser-maker] shortcode** to the page (where you want the teasers to be displayed). You may put other page content (text and/or images, etc), both before and after the shortcode. An introduction to the teasers that follow, for example. 4. "Publish" or "Update" the page. = Teaser Maker "Std" Version = The Teaser Maker "Std" version is available for FREE download from the WordPress.org Plugins Directory: https://wordpress.org/plugins/ The "Std" version:- * Allows you to create a single page of Teasers (with no limit to the number of teasers on that page). * Supports one non-customisable teaser layout (image, title, text and read more link, listed vertically down the page). = Teaser Maker "Pro" Version = The Teaser Maker "Pro" version is a paid plugin available from: http://www.ferntechnology.com It does everything the "Std" version does plus:- * Allows you to **create as many teaser pages as you want** (with an unlimited amount of teasers on each page). * Supports **two standard teaser layouts**:- * **"ALL DOWN THE PAGE"**. Image, Title, Text and Read More link listed vertically down the page (in that order). (Same as "Std" version.) * **"IMAGE FLOATED RIGHT"**. Image floated right, with Title, Text and Read More link listed vertically down the page (in that order). * Allows you to **clone** and then **customise** these standard **teaser layouts** (and/or any custom teaser layout). To adapt it to your site's theme, for example. * Allows you to create **unlimited custom teaser layouts**. Each custom layout can contain whatever HTML, CSS and Javascript you want. With the teaser title, text and target/image URLs, etc, inserted into your HTML, CSS and Javascript by means of template tags like (eg): o [**TEASER**TARGET.URL**] o [**TEASER**TITLE**] o [**TEASER**TEXT**] o [**TEASER**IMAGE.URL**] o [**TEASER**DATE.CREATED**] o [**TEASER**DATE.LAST_MODIFIED**] * Allows you to **export and import** any teaser category (including the teasers that belong to it, and their images). This allows you to backup your teasers. And also to develop teaser pages on one site (say a test/dev site on localhost), and then move or copy them to another (say the live site). = Additional Information and Support = Further documentation and support is available from the Fern Technology website: [http://www.ferntechnology.com](http://www.ferntechnology.com) == Installation == 1. Upload the plugin to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory 1. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress == Screenshots == 1. Once you've installed Teaser Maker, you can launch it (from the WordPress Admin Section), by clicking the "Teaser Maker Std vX.Y.Z" link on the left menu. 2. The "Std" version of Teaser Maker It allows you to create a single page of teasers (though that page may contain an unlimited number of teasers). To start adding/editing teasers, just click "Teasers". 3 The "Manage Teasers" screen displays the teasers you've already created. It will be empty of course, if you've just installed the plugin. To add a teaser, just click the "Add Teaser" button (at the top left). To edit or delete a teaser, just click the appropriate button from the "Action" column of the teaser concerned. 4. The "Add Teaser" screen/form is pretty simple and straightforward. With help notes beside each field to guide you. Just enter the required information; then press "Submit". Or press "Cancel" to return to the "Manage Teasers" screen. With most teasers you'll just copy/paste the following info. from the external (or internal) page the teaser points to:- * The page/posts URL into the "Original URL" field. * The page/posts TITLE into the "Title" field. * Either your own description of the page/post - or perhaps the page/posts first (introductory) paragraph of text - into the "Text" field. * The URL of any (optional) teaser image you want to display (into the "Original Image URL" field). NOTES! 1. You can obviously "hot-link" to an image from the page/post the teaser points to. But this ISN'T generally a good idea (since hot-linking to content of other people's sites is generally frowned upon on the Internet). So a better solution is probably to copy the image into you're own site's Media Library. And serve it from there. 2. The "Text Format" field gives you some options as regards adding formatting and links to the text. See the online "help" links for the "Markdown" and "BBCode" options. 3. You can use the "Sequence Number" field to control the order in which the teasers are listed. It works like the "Order" field of WordPress Pages and Posts. In other words; you're supposed to enter a number into this field (eg; 10, 20, 30, ...). And the teasers are listed in ascending order of the numbers (smallest to biggest). 4. The "Edit Teaser" form is just like the "Add Teaser" form. Except that it's pre-loaded with the selected teasers details. 5. To display the teasers you created, just create a normal WordPress Page (or Post) and place the **[teaser-maker]** shortcode in it. You can add other page/post content before and/or after the **[teaser-maker]** shortcode if you want. An introduction before, for example. 6. Once you've published the new teasers page/post (and perhaps added it to the front-end menus etc, as required), it should appear in the front-end as suggested by this example. 7. Here's a single teaser from the example page (and for the "Std" version of Teaser Maker). NOTES 1. The image, title, text and "read more" link are listed vertically down the page. 2. The exact way each teaser appears will be influenced by the site's layout and CSS (= theme). We've tried to create a default layout that will work with most themes. But if the teasers just don't look right with your theme, the "Pro" version of Teaser Maker allows you to completely customise/replace the teaser HTML, CSS and Javascript. == Frequently Asked Questions == = What happens to my "Std" version teasers if I upgrade to the "Pro" version ? = Your teasers are preserved if you upgrade from "Std" to "Pro". You can continue editing and displaying them with the "Pro" version. This applies to the currently available versions of Teaser Maker (June 2014). We can't guarantee that it will apply to future versions. (But obviously, we don't want you to have to re-enter existing teasers when you upgrade, unless there's absolutely no way of avoiding this.) = Are Teasers stored as WordPress "Custom Posts" ? (For techies) = No! Teasers are stored in their own table in the database - and have nothing to do with the WordPress "custom posts" system. == Changelog == = 0.1.114 = * First version. 19 July 2014