Greg Perry addressed a WordPress option we are searching for quite some time:
What I really want is a sidebar section that displays visitors and a little technical information, such as IP address and useragent. I like the useronline division into members, guests and bots, but find fault with its implementation…Of course, if I want visitors to register as users, I have to offer something worth registering for, and don’t have anything yet. I’d settle for a pattern recognition system that identified repeat visitors, which would hopefully allow me to identify friends and family as they dropped in, but pattern recognition is really cutting-edge programming.
Website: Ramblings
I have been searching for ages for a plugin that just shows the current number of logged-in members and the number of visitors in the sidebar of this WordPress weblog, the rest is just unnecessary crab.
I don’t get though why such a thing does not exist for WordPress 1.5.2 “Strayhorn”. There used to be the WordPress User Online plugin but that does not work in the latest versions of WordPress. Jennifer from www.scriptygoddess.com wrote something but I think that is too much work and I do not see her counter in any sidebar.
I would be very grateful if anyone can help me and my friends out.
Update: Greg Perry from Ramblings fixed the User Online plugin, he is going to write the documentary how he solved the problems.
Update 2: Greg Perry – I have to wonder whether it’s more efficient to just start my own plugin. I guess I’ll wait for the masses to weigh in on that issue. Holy Crap!
Update 3: Greg Perry – This evening I printed out the code and followed it step by step. I can see that, although I have learned from the way the author wrote the plugin, I would do it sort of differently…When I get the time, I’ll start on a new plugin from scratch that I will publish under the GPL. Hovering
Update 4: Greg Perry – I’m sure the author had a good motivation for choosing to use the comment_author_ cookie, and I’m sure it was because he didn’t expect visitors to routinely register when they go to blogs, even ones that they visit a lot. But if someone was interested enough to leave a comment, he or she got a cookie that identified them later. That strategy isn’t perfect, but I think it’s a lot more practical than expecting visitors to register when they visit your blog. Personally, I hate registering, and I’ll only do it if it gives me a distinct advantage. Logging In
Update 5: Greg Perry – I’ve compared my hacked versions of the WP-UserOnline plugin to the released versions and compiled the differences in a text file. I put the file, called “Instructions.txt”, in my online folders. WP-UserOnline Hacks
Update 6: There is a new version of Useronline for wp 1.5.2 (with some minor bug, but it works). The version for WordPress 2.0 works fine. I want to thank Greg for all his efforts and help. You are always welcome to visit us or ask for help, Greg.
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Also posted on http://www.gregrperry.com/blog/?p=131
Greg that is great!
Knowing which members or the amount of members that are currently online and how many guest is a basic necessity for building a community around your weblog. That is why I was so astonished that WordPress does not have this service.
In the end it would be nice to see who is currently on the weblog and if you are a member you should be able to view a members page where you can see who is also a member, Nickname based off course, and on which articles each individual member commented.
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As posted on Ramblings: Hovering
Ha ha, dear Greg I fully support your efforts
If you have any problems writing your own plugin I would suggest to take Tijs his offer of testing your Beta. He is a really good php programmer but hasn’t got the time to write such plugin.
If you are writing your own plugin I would suggest making it a real interesting one by integrating some other plugin features:
1) Combine it with the login of WP.
What a mayor aim should be in a new plugin is that it motivates people to register on your weblog. As you can see on my weblog I’ve placed a login box in my sidebar. So to motivate people to register this box should trigger something.
I would suggest that before you login visitors can only see how many other visitors and bots are currently online. Say something like this:
Welcome Guest
Currently online:
Guest: 16
Members: 3
Bots: 2
When people login they see something like:
Welcome John
Currently online:
Guest: 15
Members: Greg, Tim, Vincent, John
Bots: Google Bot, Yahoo Bot
>>Your Profile
>>Site Admin
>>Logout
Off course it should only show the members nicknames.
It would be truly great it you would incorporate a chat or shoutbox which would only appear after you login. This would make this chat option more private: for your visitors only and would be another incentive to register / login. All efforts in developing plugins like these would make WordPress more suitable for small community weblogs.
In short keep up the good work and if you need any assistance please contact us. Although my php understanding is extremely poor.
What has surprised me was that the Profiling plug-ins User Meta en User Extra only are 2.0 competible (see http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/Meta) and that their profiling capablities as for example list al topics and comments per user to other members is not part of these plug-ins (to my knowledge).
@ Klaas,
As far as I know it still does not make it possible to show how many guest and which users are currently online in the sidebar. I really don’t get it why the WordPress developing community isn’t creating more direct community building plugins, like the basic option described in this post and comments.
I hope that more and more php professionals are supporting Greg in his efforts. That is why I am putting so much effort in mobilizing as many people as I can to get the word out there. That is all I can do, I lack the php skills to develop such plugins myself.
Searched to check if anyone was already using the name I was thinking of for the new plugin and yes, someone has:
http://www.mcmike.nl/?page_id=29
Since the writeup is in Dutch I was wondering if you guys could take a look at this as well; I’m downloading the plugin to try it out.
Ok I will have a look at it on wednesday, extremy bizzy
I’ve installed the useronline plugin for 1.5.2 link to website
I want to thank Greg for all his efforts.
The verion for wordpress 1.5.2 still has a duplicate entry error but the version for wordpress 2.0 works fine. I am still having wp 1.5.2 on this blog. But somewhere in February I will switch tot the latest wp version
The troll plugin is not totally working I think
I was searching for \’Discover Login\’ at google and found your post named \’User Online for WordPress 1.5 and higher\’ in search results. Not very relevant result, but still interesting to read.
Good site I “Stumbledupon” it today and gave it a stumble for you.. looking forward to seeing what else you have..later