Do you want the ability to add any widget to your posts, pages, custom post types?  Now you can do it with this simple plugin.  WidgetBuddy gives user the ability to add a [wb] shortcode anywhere that a shortcode is useable that will outputs a specific widget.

You can download the plugin and read its instructions on the WidgetBuddy page.  I’d love to hear your feedback.

Have fun placing widgets ANYWHERE on your WordPress site now.  (Oh and Merry Christmas!!!)

I have built a career on top of WordPress. For the past two years I’ve been blazing new trails with WebDesign.com training business leaders, educators, freelancers, developers, designers and people who are life long learners how to use and maximize the potential of WordPress. We’ve dug deep into the code and development aspects of building rock-solid websites with cutting edge functionality. We’ve been dissecting the individual necessary elements that when combined create a comprehensive SEO strategy for success. We’ve been going “right-brained” on design and creativity while striving to harness the power of design tools like Photoshop, Pixelmator, and more. We’ve detailed the roadmap required to become a successful business owner and freelancer. All in all, this has been an exciting and fascinating year. We’ve got so much in store for the upcoming year at WebDesign.com and I’d like invite you to take a closer look at who we are and what types of training and community we can provide for you.

But I realize this year would not have been possible without the amazing talents of many people within the WordPress ecosystem. So I wanted to take a moment to thank many of them and I’m sure some have no idea they have had any such influence on a large group of members at WebDesign.com. So without further delay, here are some of my top influential people within the WordPress world.

Chris Jean

Chris is the lead developer over at iThemes.com and the brilliant brain child of the Builder Theme. Chris exemplifies the words of Lao Tzu when he said that “to see things in the seed, that is genius”. Chris is able to see complex topics/solutions/ideas and see them from the littlest element and what that small tool/code/sample could become. Plus, Chris knows how to turn that little element into the fully fleshed out practical tool that he originally envisioned. His love of code, logic, and the ability to think through solving problems has been an inspiration to me. Plus, his Builder theme which enables all levels of programmers/developers/designers to harness immense amounts of power in crafting websites. So to you Chris, I raise my glass of holiday egg nog!

Carl Hancock

For many people Carl’s name is synonymous with Gravity Forms. But really it is Carl and his team that have done so much to shape the direction of premium plugins within the WordPress ecosystem. Carl’s dedication to ease-of-use, accessibility to advanced functionality, and a rock-solid plugin is a great blueprint for any other plugin developers to heed. Gravity Forms has revolutionized the toolbox of freelance and professional development studios. Gravity Forms is now one of the “must install” plugins that should be on every single WordPress installation. Gravity Forms allows me to point the community of WebDesign.com to the plugin as a solution for many of their problems. So to Carl and the Gravity Forms team, this second glass of egg nog goes to you.

Dustin Bolton

Dustin has the ability to change an entire industry. He did this with a homerun right out of the gate as the lead developer at PluginBuddy with BackupBuddy. BackupBuddy single-handedly changed the way developers worked with and backed up their WordPress sites. BackupBuddy allowed for simple (and complex) site migrations from different servers, automated backups, and so much more. Like Gravity Forms, BackupBuddy is a “must install” plugin for WordPress. And for many developers and studios using WordPress, BackupBuddy has created a new revenue stream as they are easily able to automate backup solutions for clients. Dustin (and your PluginBuddy team), I was able to get a special coupon code for buying one egg nog and getting two for free. This one’s for you.

Scott Kingsley Clark

Sometimes a person has to think outside the box to not only get something done but to change the way people interact with technology. And as Steve Jobs said, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Scott Kingsley Clark and the team he works with on the Pods plugin is the embodiment of that type of thinking. WordPress had an issue and pods solved that issue and allowed developers to have little relational databases of content existing inside of WordPress. Pods provided a new way of dealing with data in WordPress, from creating new content systems to a simple way to customize thousands of dynamically created pages. Pods even powers a large portion of the WebDesign.com training library. So Scott and the pods developers out there… $pods->showTemplate(‘MassiveGlassofEggNog’);

Justin Tadlock & Pippin Williamson

I put Justin Tadlock (Hybrid Theme) and Pippin Williamson (Pippin’s Plugins) together because they both have a great desire to not only educate the WordPress community about developing with WordPress but are also committed to releasing great products that add useful tools to the WordPress community and WordPress itself. Whether it is Justin’s Members plugin or Hybrid theme, or Pippins’ Easy Custom Post Type plugin or his Post Type Column Editor, these two developers are good at identifying needs within the community and providing solid solutions. And to Justin and Pippin, I drain the final bit of egg nog in your honor.

These six individuals have shaped my approach to development and also shaped how I teach development. It is my opinion that these six individuals have made WordPress a better community to be a part of and I’m thankful that they are who they are. And while there are many people who have great influence in the WordPress ecosystem, I wanted to highlight these six who have had tremendous impact in the WordPress community.

Who do you think in the industry has changed the way you worked with WordPress this past year?

And while there are plugins that you can use that will auto-insert the Google Plus icon on your site… why waste the overhead of a plugin if you can accomplish the same thing with a single line of code. That’s right, I’m going to show you how to easily add the Google Plus icon/button to your site/post.

All you have to do is add this single line of code into the header section of your website.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

If you are using the Builder theme, you can accomplish this in the Settings page of Builder by placing the code like so…

The next step is simple. Whenever you want a Google+ button to appear, you place the following HTML tag in that location.

<g:plusone></g:plusone>

So now you have a very simple way of utilizing the Google Plus social sharing capabilities.

This is how it will appear on your site:

What if there was a way for you to assist these social networking website with choosing the CORRECT image or the preferred image so you’re not going around promoting ads instead of your site. Well there are two quick bits of code you can add to your site to help with this situation.

First Image Fix Option

The first option is to add the following single line of code to your header area of your site. When we’re using WordPress we can do this several ways. We can modify the header.php file and insert the line above the tag, or we can add it into the header area by creating a simple function in our active theme’s functions.php file. The line that we need to add looks like this:

<link rel="image_src" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/defaultpic.png" />

The rel=”image_src” essentially gives your entire site a “default image”. Any site that might be using your site’s url to grab information, if they have a need to create a thumbnail or visual representation, this link is one of the first places they will look.

Second Image Fix Option

This next option is specific for Facebook. Facebook has some new markup protocols called OpenGraph. We can take advantage of these protocols and literally instruct Facebook to use the Featured Image of a post as the default thumbnail. The following code goes in the active theme’s functions.php file.

function fix_facebook() {
	global $wp_query;
	$thePostID = $wp_query->post->ID;
	if( has_post_thumbnail( $thePostID )){
    		$thumb_id = get_post_thumbnail_id( $thePostID );
    		$image = wp_get_attachment_image_src( $thumb_id );
    		echo '<meta property="og:image" content="'.$image[0].'" />';
	} 
}
add_action('wp_head','fix_facebook');

So now when I share a post on facebook, I will get the correct thumbnail without messing around with the images and ads on my site.

Springpad

Springpad is a notebook keeper’s dream. If you are a visual organizer, then Springpad is right up your alley. With the ability to sync your “notebooks” across any computer, you will never have to worry about losing track of key elements or notes. There is also a “digital cork board” section to organize all your grouped notes and tasks for the uber visual organizers. This is an essential cog in my workflow because I use both a MacBook Pro and a CR-48 (Chromebook) as my two computers. The ability of Springpad to work in an “offline” mode on the CR-48 is a blessing.

WorkFlowy

I like to make lists. I also like outlines. Workflowy provides both of these in one package with a ton more functionality thrown in. I like productivity websites that allow me to keep my hands on the keyboard and take full advantage of the functions without having to remove my hands to use a mouse to navigate. Workflowy allows me to make my lists and outlines, turn them into todo/tasks, share those lists as a whole or broken down into smaller elements, and even tag areas for greater searching and sorting. Essentially Workflowy is one massive list, but the features built into this site make it a breeze to use.

WordPress

WordPress is my platform upon which I build lots of things. Whether I’m teaching webinars at WebDesign.com or building my own projects, it all starts with WordPress. WordPress does the heavy lifting so you can focus on the functionality and direction you or your client wants the site go. WordPress is now used on 15% of the top million websites around the world. And 22 out of every 100 domains are powered by WordPress. If you aren’t working with WordPress as a platform, you’re probably pulling your hair out on a daily basis. Save your hair… work with WordPress!

Builder

Built by the amazing team at iThemes, Builder is a powerhouse theme framework/constructor for WordPress. The sheer number of hooks, filters, options, flexibility and power that comes with using Builder makes it simply a must have tool for working with WordPress. Builder comes with a power layout engine, tons of child themes to get you started, a live style-manager to tweak your site, integrated SEO options, and the most amazing support staff dedicated to supporting owners of the Builder theme. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… “With Builder, anything is possible.”

Coda & ShiftEdit

Coda is my primary IDE for all my development work. The simplicity of switching easily between the editor and SSH is a huge timesaver. Coda clips, addon plugins, and built-in FTP access (using Transmit code) make this the only desktop web development tool you’ll ever need. I also use ShiftEdit as an online IDE. So no matter what computer I’m using to connect to my servers. ShiftEdit is available for me to use with all my settings, clips, and resources ready for my use.

Google

I’m not sure what we ever did without Google. I use so many Google Tools on a daily basis it almost seems crazy that we can utilize all of them for free. Gmail, Google News, Google Analytics, Google Adsense, Google Calendar, Google Documents, GoogleTalk, Google Voice, Google Maps, Google Plus, Google Reader, Google Groups, Google Webmaster Tools, and more.

These are just a few of my tools. Yes, I also use things like Twitter, Skype, Woopra, Zoho, and other tools, but this post was just getting too long and I thought I should end it. What tools do you use in your workflow?

Here’s how:

• Select Books from your Coda toolbar
• Press the plus sign at the bottom of the program.
• In the pop-up window enter WordPress / PHP into the Book Title field.
• Enter http://hitchhackerguide.com into the Book URL.
• In the Use for Mode drop down select PHP-HTML-WP (or if that is not an option, you can select PHP).
• In the search url field enter http://lookup.hitchhackerguide.com/*
• Click Add to create the book.
• Now you can use the book to look up functions, or just CMD+Click on a function name.

It’s very easy to install, you just need to do three things:

1. First download the syntax file from HitchHackerGuide, and then unzip the file.
2. Copy the unzipped folder (PHP-HTML-WP.mode) to the Coda Modes folder. ~/Library/Application Support/Coda/Modes/ (If your computer doesn’t have this folder, you can simple create it.)
3. Now go the the Preferences of Coda and change the “Default File Type” to PHP-HTML-WP. And now you are good to go.