I’ll be showing the method to publish your new WordPress plugin in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Read more about the folder structure and the basics of the subversion repository.

For this tutorial I’ll be using Versions 2 that is available on their website.

Write your plugin

First of all: write, complete and debug your plugin. There is a lot of documentation in the WordPress Codex where you can find you to do so and there are also dozens of great tutorials on the web available.

Add your plugin to the Plugin Directory

After your plugin is ready you add your plugin to the Plugin Directory by sending the form on WordPress.org. You’ll receive an email when your new plugin is accepted.

Actions explained

Just a few basic actions that are necessary for your to release your plugin in the plugin directory.

Checkout

Get all the files from your subversion account. You’ll download all the files and the file structure of your repository.

Commit

Upload all the new and modified files.

Update

Get only the updated files and folders

Set the server settings

After downloading Versions 2 just open the application and press the upper Repository button.

Enter all the fields that are requierd. Note, these are only the WordPress server settings.

The location is the url to the WordPress subversion server. You’ll find this url in the email that you’ve received when your plugin has been accepted. The username is automatically been placed after the http:// when you enter your username in the specified field. Enter your password en hit the Create button.

Your repository will be verified and if everything is alright the repository is added to the toolbar on the left of the interface.

Set up local settings

Just select the bookmak and the main folder in the right column of the interface and press Checkout (The third icon on the left upper corner).

Browse to a local folder that you’d like to store your plugin. You do not need to create a subfolder, Versions will do this automatically. Press Checkout and Versions will copy the file structure from the WordPress server to your local machine.

In my case I’ll use the folder:

Desktop/10002 WordPress plugins/

In this case it’s a existing plugin so there are some folders in the directories but that isn’t interfering this tutorial.

Update or release your plugin

Before we go any further, please be aware of the subverion folder structure. I’ve published an article about this. Read this and you’ll understand what I’m going to do now.

Copy the files to the local folders

Just copy overwrite the plugin files to the local branche folder you’ve selected before you’ve pushed the checkout button so in my example it’s

Desktop/10002 WordPress plugins/wordpress-easy-todo/branche/

Create a new folder in the tags for the version you would like to share.

Desktop/10002 WordPress plugins/wordpress-easy-todo/tags/1.1.5/

Do the versions magic

Go to the Versions application and you’ll see the folder wordpress-easy-todo whith several files with questionmarks or edit icons in the left column.

• Select the files with a questionmark and press the Add button on the upper right.
• Check if all the files are correct and if you do not have any overload in the folders. If so, mark them as deleted with the Delete button on the upper right.
  do not remove these files with finder, you’ll be ruin your repository bookmark and have to create a new one.

I’m going to update my plugin so I’ll have to add the folder 1.1.5.

The question mark for folder 1.1.5 is now changed into a plus icon.

Now move the folder of the previous version to the branches folder. Do not change the name so it stays a good version identifier in the future.

After you hit the OK button the folder will be moved to the branches folder after we’ve commited all the changes we’ve made.

Commit changes

Select all the changed files and folders. The question mark identifier for the trunk folder is only mentioning that there are files in it with changes.

Hit the Commit button on the left upper corner. Describe what the changes are and press the commit button.

The files are commited to the server and after that everything has to look like this

The WordPress server updates every 15 minutes so grab a cup of coffee or a beer and try to install your new plugin via your WordPress admin panel.

Notes

Be sure you only add files and folders via the Finder interface. Please do not delete or move files and folders because this will ruin your plugin structure. You’ll get an error and in that case you have to remove the subversion bookmark from the Versions interface.

If your plugin isn’t updated you’ll have to check the status of all the files. When there are no icon’s shown in the left column of Version everything will be alright but be sure the tags folder only contains the folder of your latest version!

Words are not enough to describe this plugin so just take a look at the WordPress Easy Archive plugin page!

Therefore, I’m going to tell you something about the file structure of subversion so you can easily maintain your plugin on the subversion repository.

There are three folders that will help separate development versions from stable versions.

Branches
This is where the previous versions are stored. For example: you are maybe working on version 1.2 in Trunk but you could have a subdirectory for the development of version 1.1 in branches. This is done to restore bugs or security reasons.

Tags
When the plugin is ready for release, copy the files into a sub-directory in the tags folder. The name of the sub-directory is the version name.

Trunk
This is where the files for your latest version are stored. This is most likely the bleeding edge version of your plugin.

With this knowlegde I can build my own imaginary folder/file structure for a wordpress plugin:

• WordPress-YDD-Plugin
  • Branches
    • 1.0.0
      • wordpress-ydd-plugin.css
      • wordpress-ydd-plugin.php
      • etc.
    • 1.1.0
      • wordpress-ydd-plugin.css
      • wordpress-ydd-plugin.php
      • etc.
  • Tags
    • 1.0.0
    • 1.1.0
      • wordpress-ydd-plugin.css
      • wordpress-ydd-plugin.php
      • etc.
  • Trunk
    • wordpress-ydd-plugin.css
    • wordpress-ydd-plugin.php
    • etc.

I’m searching for a good subversion client on Mac. Which one do you guys recommend?

http://mysite.com/mypage/?myvar=test

rewriting to

http://mysite.com/mypage/test

After a long search on the WordPress forums and the whole internet I’ve found this topic: using an extra parameter in an URL but it wasn’t very sufficient in my opinion. So that’s why I’ll explain the use of multiple parameters in the url.

One $_GET variable

function add_mypage_var($public_query_vars) {
$public_query_vars[] = 'myvar1';
return $public_query_vars;
}

//add a rewrite rule
function do_rewrite_mypage() {
add_rewrite_rule('brands/([^/]+)/?$', 'index.php?pagename=mypage&myvar1=$matches[1]','top');
}

add_filter('query_vars', 'add_mypage_var');
add_action('init', 'do_rewrite_brands');

You can use this variable in a plugin like this:

$slug = get_query_var('myvar');

Multiple $_GET variables

There was just one thing that cost me a headache… I’d like to add multiple parameters to the url and this method I just described isn’t sufficient. I’ve checked the basic url rewrite trough mod_rewrite and this method needs several lines to declare all the possible amount of variables in the url. I’ve tried this method also for the url rewrites via WordPress and here we are: a simple working function:

function add_mypage_var($public_query_vars) {
	$public_query_vars[] = 'myvar1';
	$public_query_vars[] = 'myvar2';

	return $public_query_vars;
}

//add a rewrite rule
function do_rewrite_mypage() {
	add_rewrite_rule('brands/([^/]+)/?$', 'index.php?pagename=mypage&myvar1=$matches[1]&myvar2=$matches[2]','top');
	add_rewrite_rule('brands/([^/]+)/?$', 'index.php?pagename=mypage&myvar1=$matches[1]','top');
}

add_filter('query_vars', 'add_mypage_var');
add_action('init', 'do_rewrite_mypage');

You can check all the url rewrites that are used for your WordPress post.

function get_rewrite_urls(){
	global $wp_rewrite;

	return $wp_rewrite->wp_rewrite_rules(); /* Returns an array */
}

print_r(get_rewrite_urls());

flush_rules

You need to flush your rules to install your plugin and make the rewrite work. Also it can be handy to flush the rules during your development phase. So, just detect if the plugin is going to be installed:

register_activation_hook(__FILE__,'do_flush_gear'); /* Place this at the bottom of your plugin file */

And in some cases you’d like to remove all your custom rewrites. Just use this function:

function do_flush_gear{
	global $wp_rewrite;

	$wp_rewrite->flush_rules();
}

BuddyPress is a suite of WordPress plugins and themes, each adding a distinct new feature. BuddyPress contains all the features you’d expect from WordPress but aims to let members socially interact.

BuddyPress is by it selves a very complete plugin that you easily transform to the layout of your own blog, just like WorPress.

In the standard installation you’ll have several default plugins like:

• Activity streams
• Blog tracking
• Forums (after you’ve installed bbPress forums)
• Friends
• Groups
• Private Messages
• Comment wire
• Extended profiles

Custom BuddyPress Plugin

It is also very easy to add some custom functionality to it when you write your own plugin. When you have plans in this direction I can recommend the BuddyPress Skeleton Plugin.

Create the contour

First you’ll need to sketch something like this on the front plane. Please note that all the dimension lines are centre lines and the poly line is not. The vertical line is our axis in the next step.

You can also add this sketch is a part that you have inserted like I described in the previous article about springs Pressure springs in SolidWorks.

For the next step you’ll need the surfaces toolbar. If you don’t see this toolbar in your interface you can add this by right clicking on a empty space in the upper command bar and select the surfaces tool bar.

Add a Revolved Surface to the sketch.

Line 1 is the centre line we’ve defined in the sketch.

This is what we have now

Create the path

Add another sketch on the front plane (or the same plane you’ve created the first sketch).

Draw a simple line in this sketch from top do bottom.

Add another sketch on the front plane an this one contains a horizontal line. The length of this line is not important, as long as it intersects the cup we’ve already made with the revolved surface.

Now we need a surface sweep. Select this feature in the surface toolbar. Sketch 2 is the rotation axis, Sketch 3 is the profile that needs to be swept. Choose in the options ‘Twist Along Path’ and specify the turns.

This is what we have at the moment. Two surfaces that are totally a mess, but there is a logic behind these two surfaces. The first one is the contour of the spring and the second one is the path of the spring.

Project path on contour

We’re almost done and we’re up to the point were the magic happens. Now we need to project the path of the spring on the contour. Select the two surfaces.

And choose ‘Intersection Curve’ and select the contour (cup) and the inner line of the path.

You’ll get a curved 3D sketch that looks like this. Select the two surfaces and hide them for a better overview.

Create the profile

Create a sketch on the front plane and draw the profile of the spring.

Make sure that the centre of the circle is pierced by the 3D sketch.

At last we’ve got to add a swept boss/base to these two sketches.

Define the profile and the path and you’ll have a tapered or curved pressure spring!

The result

Go and check it out!