Checkboxes and radioboxes, with all Dev4Press plugins, are enhanced using jQuery. Problem with default HTML elements can be that they are not easy to position and control. jQuery helps with that, and make controls look pretty. Multi select dropdown control doesn’t exists in HTML, so it’s much better to replace existing multi select control with jQuery powered dropdown.

But, controls looking pretty is not exactly always accessibility friendly and they don’t matter much to blind users. They usually use a screen reader that interprets HTML controls. But, some of the enhanced elements we have are hiding actual elements making it impossible for screen reader to find them. Same thing happens with tabs and many other elements, but in case of most jQueryUI powered controls, they have built-in accessibility support. For the rest of the controls (checkboxes/radioboxes/multi dropdown), there is an option to disable them.

Accessibility Control

Each plugin, on the settings page got a new tab called Accessibility with one option used to disable enhancements. If anyone finds some more controls that have similar accessibility problem, I will add them to the enhancement control. As for xScape powered themes, same option is added in 1.6 version that will be available in the next couple of days.

Ad Block Widget

Widget got two more options to control HTML added before and after each ad in the block. With number of options rising there, widget controls now have new layout.

JavaScript code is now fully compressed, and several small bugs in that code are fixed.

For info about the major 1.3 version, check out previous post.

Win the plugin license

If you don’t already have license for this plugin, here is the chance to win it simply by using Twitter. So, three lifetime standard licenses will be given on March 29 2011. To participate:

1. You only need to follow us on Twitter.
2. Tweet this:
   

   GD Affiliate Center 1.3 Pro for #WordPress giveaway. For a chance to win it, follow @milangd and retweet http://dv4p.com/gdac13

3. You can tweet as many times as you want, all tweets will be counted, tweet more to increase your chances to win.

Promo coupon(s)

To get 40% discount for this plugin (for yearly recurring payments standard and developer licenses, coupon is applied to initial payment only): GDAFFC13. But, that’s not all, here is one more coupon for 30% discount for Dev4Press Plugins Bundle that includes all our Pro plugins (again, for yearly recurring payments standard and developer licenses, coupon is applied to initial payment only): DV4PMARCH11. Coupons can be used until March 31 2011.

Demo Website:
http://www.gdaffiliatecenter.com/
About Plugin:
http://www.dev4press.com/gd-affiliate-center/

Plugin adds date year, month and day based templates for archives and adds ID based post templates, that, as far as I know will work fine. But, post types templates for archives are a bit of a problem.

For WP 3.0, plugins added type-{post-type}.php and type.php templates support for archives of custom post types posts. WP 3.1 added standard archive-{post-type}.php template and for various reasons, type templates stopped working. Plugin implements several functions and enhancements that don’t play well with WP 3.1 due to conflicted functionality, so last plugin version 2.6.2, added some warnings and more info on how to use the templates.

GD CPT Tools: Settings

Many users of Pro version liked the idea of custom post types archives and used them with the plugin long before WP got them, and now is the problem compatibility of using both. So, on the plugin Settings panel you see options, and first two are now clearly marked as WP 3.0 options. So, if you use WP 3.1, disable these.

Third option from the top is to add type based templates to WP 3.1, but that is not working as you expect it now. On some installations is OK, but not on all. It all depends on the existing rewrite rules and on some installations is conflicted. I still have no idea why this happens, and I am trying to determine what is happening with WP template loader to cause problems.

Solution to problem is simple, and it involves renaming the existing template. So, if you have custom post type movie, and your existing template is type-movie.php, simply rename it to archive-movie.php. WP 3.1 will now load this template and everything will work, and all the code you already have will be used.

But, I will still try to determine why the loading of additional template for custom post types fails in WP 3.1, and you can expect solution in some of the following plugin versions.

Main focus in the last two weeks were on completing the xScape theme framework and first two themes built on top of it. More about this will be in the separate post later today, but for now I can tell you that work on that is almost done. Framework and first theme called baseScape will be deployed tomorrow on GD Star Rating website.

But, aside from framework, work on plugins is very active. New GD Star Rating will be released tonight with some enhancements added that were originally planned for the GDSR 2.0. GD Press Tools 3.1 is in development, and features some bug fixes, improvements to database export and compatibility with WordPress 3.0. It’s expected to be released in the next 5-6 days. Also, you can expect one more GD Taxonomies Tools release soon for more WordPress 3.0 related changes. Pro version of this plugin will get another interesting tool for interlinking posts based on taxonomies.