Please pardon any lack of details, the plugin is still in beta and some specifications are still being ironed out.
The aim of the Sermon Posts plugin interface is that it be similar enough to the WordPress interface that few instructions will be needed. However, I thought this might be helpful, so this here is a dedicated manual for the plugin’s use.
The first thing to notice is that the Sermon Posts admin tab shows up near the posts:
Preacher/Series/Service
- Adding, Editing, and Deleting
- To list the sermons made by a particular preacher, go to the “Preachers” tab, find the preacher, and click on the “Count” number, like this:
Planned feature: Filter sermons by Preacher, Series, and Service in the actual Sermons listing.
Sermons
Editing Files
Possible Settings
- There aren’t really many at this time, but you can suggest some!
Importing Old Things
To importing sermons, go to the “Tools”, then “Import”, then look on the list for “Sermon Browser Import”. The import procedure is still a little rough, visually, but it is functioning just fine.
Importing multiple times is not a supported feature, and I don’t intend for it to be, since keeping things synchronized would be highly complex. However, if you want to live dangerously, you can head over to the “Settings” and “Sermon Posts” tab, and look toward the bottom for the link to the database destroyer. If you click on that, you’ll be given some options for removing remnants of old import attempts, or be able to remove the plugin entirely.
Please only do this if you understand what you are getting into. Failure to make proper backups before importing or modifying data is like jumping out of an airplane without bringing a parachute.
Theme Development
Sermon Posts versus Sermon Browser
The Sermon Browser plugin was made a long time ago, and WordPress did not support many of the features it does now. Because of this, the creators of the Sermon Browser had to make piles of extra tables, and had to write piles of extra code to make things work. Because of this, developing themes is difficult, and you are restricted to a very limited design use, and a very limited searching ability.
WordPress now supports custom posts and custom taxonomies. Because of this, much of the functionality provided by the Sermon Browser plugin can now be handled seamlessly by WordPress itself. This means that template designs can use normal functions, and searching can be done using WordPress default search, making the site feel more unified.
How does it work?
The biggest question for current Sermon Browser users is the same question that will be asked by new users: How do I make it work?
Planned Feature: Sermon Browser template to PHP code.
The basic answer is that you’ll need to add a file to your theme directory, named “single-sermon_post.php” For more references, check out this handy resource on file names.
Planned Feature: More options on the integration side, with query options and such.
I need to add more info here.
There are also a handful of functions available for use inside themes. You can check them out here.
Hi, I use my personal blog to test plugins etc. before I add them to a client’s site. Ultimetly I’d want to use sermonposts on http://ctkac.ca
I have version 0.61 installed. I have created this file “single-sermon_post.php” which I have in the Twenty Eleven theme folder. I’m running WP 3.2.1
Problems/Questions I have are …
1) I can not see how to add any of series, preacher or services. I see the page for all of these but none of them have a visible submit, create, ok button.
2) How do I select the sermon post format or how do I differentiate between a news post and a sermon post?
I’ve been running “sermon browser” since the beginning but the lack of response or updates has become very frustrating. However, to change over to a new method, such as yours, to post/display sermons I’ve got to be very sure your solution will work. Reason as y9ou can see here our sermons are very popular … “You have 171 files in 97 sermons from 24 preachers in 14 series using 47 tags. They have been downloaded a total of 22,701 times, an average of 234 times per sermon. The most popular sermon is Moving Forward in Faith, which has been downloaded 503 times.”
Thank you very much for all your work on this.
Hello John, the bad news is that I’ve had to set aside development on SermonPosts for quite some time due to increased work load. The good news is that I’m almost ready to start development on it again!
You say you have version 0.61 installed, and I must embarrassingly admit that I couldn’t remember what version my own software was at :-X but after I looked, it appears that mine only goes to 0.13, so perhaps you installed 0.06.1 by mistake?
Hey Tobias,
I just released a sermon plugin for WordPress: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sermon-manager-for-wordpress/
Perhaps you would like to work with me on improving it since your time is limited? Just a thought.
Jack
Hey there Jack, thanks for thinking of me, but I’ll have to pass on the offer. I don’t mind the competition, so I’ll give you some tips if you think you want to continue forward with the project:
Make sure to turn on WP_DEBUG in the wp-config.php file, that way you can catch all the errors and notices. There were piles of notice flags, and ideally you’d want no errors or flags at all. Try using things like
if( isset( $_GET['index'] ) && $_GET['index'] == 'val' )for GET and POST values.You’ll definitely want to at least rename your functions so you don’t have name collisions, perhaps a prefix like wpfc_ would suffice. Even better, you could wrap the entire thing inside a PHP class, that way you can name them whatever you want.
Your plugin needs a lot of cleanup, but it functions! I’ve actually started back up on the Sermon Posts plugin, so it will be available on the WP site soon.