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Contact Forms in WordPress

adam — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:44:18 +0000

After Mark Jaquith tweeted "Uninstall "WP Contact Form 7" -- it is being exploited" - it's surprising to me that the plugin still shows up at the top of the list of wordpress.org plugins. Cforms - the best plugin for the job - has still not been re-listed on wordpress.org, despite being GPL'ed some months ago. As I said on my work blog,

This is far and away the best contact form plugin there is. The reason? configurability. You can easy build literally anything with it. We’ve built out employment application forms, wedding checklists, and more for clients. It also drives our own quote form. There’s also built in spam protection, via question and answer or captcha.

If you need a contact form , or any kind of form (share this via email, file upload, schedule request, etc), go use Cforms.

WordCamp Chicago

adam — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:34:20 +0000

It's great to see Chicago hosting tech events, even if I'm not there to appreciate it anymore. I think that I'll probably find my way back into town for WordCamp, though, since WordPress is more than just a hobby for me now. And I'm sure even if I don't, Blueprint will be represented by someone else, since it's a much closer trip for the rest of the firm

The End of Wank

adam — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:51:11 +0000

I recently wanted to link to some thoughts I'd posted previously, and it was shocking to realize just much my writing and attitudes have changed in the last year. I've been disinterested in the drama that seems to follow WordPress around. I made one last attempt to deal with the goings on at wankpress, but it seems that my comment is hanging out in indefinite moderation, much like she complains about at ma.tt:

I think it comes down to how designers and developers sell themselves, and the expectations put on them. Where a developer can talk about their skills, their contributions to a project, designers are expected to walk in with a portfolio of projects that they’ve designed from start to finish, on their own or as part of a team.

I think it’s also important that while software is great at iterating and evolving, design projects are delivered as a fixed quantity, and expected to work perfectly from day 1. I think there’s room for an open source design paradigm, but I think that much of the artwork for OS projects is delivered using a closed process.

To some extent, delivering it that way seems to work better for developers. They have one absolute standard to code against and solve, rather than having each revision in the design process necessitate many more code revisions.

I suppose since the company I work for is listed on the page she's wanking about, it's reasonable that I would be considered untrustworthy. I think it says more about that status of the wankery, though.

WordPress Flash Photo Carousel Plugin

adam — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:19:14 +0000

flShow WordPress Plugin

Today, my Chicago-based WordPress-powered design firm released their first plugin: WordPress Flash Photo Carousel Plugin. It allows you to easily manage photo galleries from your media library, and creates a template tag to easily insert the Carousel Galleries into your theme.

I love working with WordPress 9-5. It's different than building and supporting general use templates, though. Most of our projects have little application outside of the very specific niche that our clients serve. Occassionally, though, we need something broad enough that it's worth making widely available. It's great to be able to give back to the community.

UDPATE: the plugin is now available on WordPress.org.

Yet Another Theme Repository

adam — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:58:36 +0000

At long last, the formerly dead themes.wordpress.net repository is open-ish again. Disconnected and Dream in Infrared have been uploaded, and are awaiting approval. Promised Land, Walk in the Shadows, and The Thin Line may be uploaded later, if TEMPLATE: sandbox themes will work with the new system. Bus Full of Hippies will naturally be excluded, due to its GPL-incompatability.