Best Textpattern Plugins & Hacks

After using Textpattern for nearly 6 months I’ve come in contact with dozens of plugins. The total number that I’ve installed and played around with probably approaches 50. And that doesn’t even count the ones that I’ve seen but never had a need to try out.

This list is by no means an authoritative list of any kind. Its simply a list of the plugins and hacks that I’ve found most useful in developing sites using Textpattern. The plugins listed tend to be ones that would apply to many sites whether they be personal or business and I’m currently using all of them on at least one Textpattern site that I’ve built. Of the top 5 hacks I’ve only used the first 3 and have only hesitated to install the final 2 because of the need to integrate changes with the QuikPik Menu.

My Top 15 Textpattern Plugins

1. zem_rewrite
   A must install plugin in my book and the first thing I do after every new Textpattern install. The plugin provides several ways to manage and customize your clean URLs. Although this is rumored to be standard functionality in the official Textpattern 1.0 release, for now it tops the list
2. rss_suparchive
   Sure, easy to put my own plugin second on the list. But hey, I could have made it #1. This monster of a plugin generates article listings by date or by category. There isn’t a more flexible way to build your archive page.
3. zem_contact
   Another must have and brilliant plugin by zem. Every site has a contact form and this plugin can do anything related to form submission that you’ll need. It can be used for anything from a simple contact form to a complex registration form.
4. mdn_if_section
   A simple but powerful plugin that conditionally executes code based on the current section. Can be used to display any section specific info.
5. ob1_title
   This plugin offers several enhancements for the standard Textpattern page title tag. Considering the important of page titles when it comes to search engine rankings, this plugin can do wonders for your site.
6. dak_categories
   This plugin is used to display to categories assigned to an article and creates hyper links to the categories. There are many way to customize the output of your categories.
7. poe_bbclone
   If you use bbClone for your web stats, this plugin is all you’ll need for automatic hit counting of your articles.
8. rei_show_custom
   If you ever have a need to use a custom field to store data then you’ll probably want to show it. If so, you’ll need this plugin. The mdn_if_custom plugin will come in handy as well.
9. ako_nav
   This is an interesting one. Its brand spankin’ new and it actually doesn’t do anything specific to Textpattern but what it generates is something that every Textpattern site has, a menu. This plugin creates an unordered list that can be used for your site navigation.
10. rss_thumbpop
    Yeah, yeah, another one. This plugin creates thumbnail galleries with popup links in table or float format. The popups can be customized to include the full size image and caption.
11. zem_nav
    A replacement for the standard Textpattern links tags that can be used on an article listing.
12. zem_link
    A replacement for the standard Textpattern permlink tag. Can be used to link directly to a specific article.
13. spc_section_alias
    This plugin allows you to assign additional attributes to sections such as a display name and description.
14. pfa_beginning
    A nice automatic excerpt plugin. It will always display at least one paragraph and then as much as you want after that.
15. mdn_count
    A “goofy little plugin” that shows the number of live articles in a section or category.

My Top 5 Textpattern Hacks

1. Automatic Resize & Thumbnails
   If you have images on your site then you want this hack. A replacement for your txp_image.php, the hack does just what it says, automatically resizes pictures to the dimensions of your choice and creates a thumbnail. A real time saver and indispensable in my book.
2. QuikPik Admin Menu 3.0
   Here we go again. Another one of my creations. What started out as a shortcut menu turned into a way to fully customize the Textpattern admin interface. A nice touch when developing a site for a client to give an all around consistent look to your work.
3. Comments Hack
   Among other things these changes generate comments in divs with alternating background colors rather than unordered lists. One more change will give you nice author highlighting in your comments.
4. Notepad
   Adds a new workspace to the Textpattern admin interface. Perfect for sites with multiple authors of to keep track of ideas.
5. Mod File Upload
   Provides the ability to upload files other than images that you can then make available for download.

Honorable Mentions

• rsx_frontend – adds edit links to articles on your site
• rsx_plugins_table – displays plugins in use on your site
• stw_category_tree – displays your site’s category hierarchy
• glx_image – specialized image tag
• glx_code – nicely formatted code presentation
• glx_if – a comprehensive collection of conditional tags
• chh_article_custom – a replacement for the standard article and article_custom tags
• zem_ir – dynamic text to image conversion

I know there are a lot of plugins out there that I haven’t mentioned here. Hopefully I haven’t missed anything too blatantly obvious, but if so, I’m all ears.

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