Beta 2 contains mainly bugfixes, error handling and compatibility updates for WordPress 2.8 (currently in beta 2) which should be released soon.

I’ve also created a dedicated page for WP Post Thumbnail plugin. It’s something which I should have done earlier.

Would you mind testing WP Post Thumbnail 0.2 beta 1? You’ll find a link to download the plugin in a zipped file at the bottom of this post. It is placed down there in hope that you might spare a few minutes of your time to read about WP Post Thumbnail 0.2 beta 1.

Here’s a rundown of version 0.2’s major changes and things to note:

dear bloggers …
• Save as draft (or published) before making thumbnails
  The plugin’s crop panel won’t appear before you ‘Save Draft’ a new post. The plugin needs a proper post ID to link thumbnails to their respective posts. So type your post, save it as draft and the crop panel should appear when the page reloads.

  

  This is more of a safety measure than anything. Technically, WordPress gives you a temporary post ID (something like this: -12345678) the moment you write a new post. As soon as you type a title or a few sentences, WordPress auto saves it as draft for you. Only then the post gets a proper post ID. Until I have more time understanding how to go about temporary IDs, I don’t plan on keeping this checking measure around.

• No more XML file in theme folders to configure thumbnails
  WP Post Thumbnail 0.2 does not read thumbnails configuration from an XML file in theme folders anymore.

  WP Post Thumbnail 0.2 is re-written from a blogger’s point of view. It has options for you to easily configure thumbnails to suit different WordPress themes.

  The plugin comes with 3 presets. For each preset, bloggers can change width, height and assign which custom key it points to.

  

  Lets say you are using a theme that calls custom key “wppt-standard” to put thumbnails in posts. Simply enter “wppt-standard” in the custom key field.

• Choose default thumbnail
  For themes that do not use custom keys for post thumbnail (such as Kubrick’s default WordPress theme), you can choose one thumbnail preset out of the three and set it as default.

  

  If preset1 is set as default, the plugin will insert all preset1 thumbnails into their respective posts.

  

• Uses WordPress’s media library
  Unlike the old version 0.1.8, you now have to upload your original images (jpg, png or gif) to the media library. Choose the uploaded images from WP Post Thumbnail panel and crop.

  

  Note: I’ve received feedback concerning JPGs loaded into the crop panel looking horribly compressed. It was done so intentionally. The JPG is ridiculously compressed before loading so that it loads fastest. Don’t be alarmed coz when you save thumbnail, the crop is done to the actual full quality source which you uploaded. The next update out of beta will probably include an option to trigger compression quality of source JPGs loaded into crop panel.

  By retaining the original source images, you can always come back to the source to recrop. Or simply let the plugin do it for you. Which brings us to the next feature.

• Auto recrop & resize
  As mentioned above, WP Post Thumbnail 0.2 has an options page to modify width and height of 3 preset thumbnails. Each time you set a new width and height for a preset, the plugin automatically recrop/resize existing thumbnails to the new dimension. Thumbnails automatically shrink or grow around your crop’s area of focus while preserving aspect ratios and proportions.

  

  It might not be apparent how this feature will help you now. But imagine you’ve been using Theme-A for a year. Theme-A uses 200px by 150px thumbnail for post entries. You have blogged hundreds of posts and created hundreds of 200px by 150px thumbnails.

  What if you decide to switch to a new theme, Theme-B, that uses 250px by 100px thumbnails?

  To save you the trouble of manually going back post by post to recrop hundreds of thumbnails, the plugin does that for you at a click of a button.

dear theme developers …
• (Optional) Shortcode to get thumbnail img tag
  This is completely OPTIONAL. Let’s be clear about this.

  Most theme developers currently use custom keys to put thumbnails in their themes. If you’re one of them using “get_post_meta” tag to call post thumbnails in your existing themes, no changes is necessary.

  The plugin comes with an additional way to call post thumbnails. “wppt_thumbnail” shortcode returns an img tag complete with alt, title, width and height attributes. The “custom_key” parameter is required. The shortcode accepts an optional “class” parameter for you to style the img. The following shortcode sample calls custom key “your-post-thumbnail” and “your-post-thumbnail” class parameter:

  [wppt_thumbnail custom_key="your-post-thumbnail" class="your-post-thumbnail-class"]
  

  Why use “wppt_thumbnail” shortcode instead of the usual “get_post_meta”? The plugin allow bloggers to edit ALT and TITLE attributes for each thumbnail created. They can enter precisely what they want as ALT and TITLE. The “img” tags called by the shortcode contains ALT and TITLE attributes that the bloggers entered for each thumbnail. Remember, using shortcode is absolutely optional.

  Here’s a sample on using [wppt_thumbnail] shortcode in your posts loop. If you want to implement the [wppt-thumbnail] shortcode way of calling post thumbnail, bear in mind, you can’t expect all your theme users to use WP Post Thumbnail plugin. Therefore ideally, you should have both [wppt-thumbnail] shortcode and the normal “get_post_meta” way:

  
  <?php $pft_widescreen_img_tag = do_shortcode('[wppt_thumbnail custom_key="pft_widescreen" class="thumbnail"]');
  
  if ( !empty( $pft_widescreen_img_tag ) ) {
  
  echo $pft_widescreen_img_tag;
  
  } else if ( get_post_meta($post->ID, 'pft_widescreen', true) ) { ?>
  
  <img class="thumbnail" src="<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'pft_widescreen', $single = true); ?>" />
  
  <?php } ?>
  

DownloadHere’s the download link to WP Post Thumbnail 0.2 Beta 2:

wp_post_thumbnail_0_2_beta_1.zip

Requirements

• Requires at least: WordPress 2.7
• Tested up to: WordPress 2.8
• You might need directory “wp-contents/” set to write permissible (777) mode before installing plugin.
• Also, CHMOD the plugin’s cache directory “… wp-contents/plugins/wp-post-thumbnail/cache” to writable too (777).
• Requires web server running PHP5.
• Safe mode OFF.

Installation
1. Unzip the package. Upload `wp-post-thumbnail` folder to `/wp-content/plugins/` directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
3. Go to ‘Settings’ > ‘WP Post Thumbnail’ for configuration.

Known Bugs and Issues
1. Large images stuck during loading. Scale your ultra-large images down to a more manageable size (eg. 1024px by 783px) before uploading to your post. Set your web hosting server’s php.ini max_memory to no less than 32MB.

Feedback, bugs and suggestionsTo report bugs, email me at:

stanley~AT~seoadsensethemes~DOT~com

Thank you!

Update 27th May 2009: WP Post Thumbnail 0.2 Beta 2 has been released for testing. I urge you to install 0.2 Beta  2 because WP Post Thumbnail 0.1.8 codebase is not longer maintained.

WP Post Thumbnail plugin adds an image upload, crop and save panel in ‘Write Post’ screen. It allows you to easily upload a .jpg image file. Once the image file is uploaded, you can crop it before saving it as your thumbnail. That’s it.

Spend less time messing around with Photoshop everytime you need to make a thumbnail (or two) for your post. Also, saves you time and trouble from manually copy-and-pasting uploaded image URLs into custom key value fields.

For theme developers, particularly magazine-style WordPress theme developers, you can configure up to 3 different thumbnails to be used in each post. For instance,

- a big 320px by 180px widescreen thumbnail for leading featured post to be displayed prominently on the front page.

- a square 125px by 125px thumbnail for recent posts.

Dimensions as varied as your theme requires can be easily configured in an XML file. Save the file as ‘wppt.xml‘ and put it in your theme’s folder (ideally, the main folder but any folder will do). WP Post Thumbnail will scan your theme folders, look for your theme’s ‘wppt.xml‘ file and read your theme’s thumbnail(s) configuration.

Screenshots

1. WP Post Thumbnail default thumbnail in use

2. WP Post Thumbnail panel in ‘Write Post’ screen

3. WP Post Thumbnail configured to handle 3 thumbnails with different dimensions in a WordPress theme

NOTE: For a video demo, click here.

Installation

1. Copy the `wp-post-thumbnail` folder into your ‘wp-content/plugins’ folder.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress. That’s it.

Note: This plugin requires your upload folder (default: wp-content/uploads/ ) to be writable. Make sure this folder is write access enabled.

The default thumbnail is 160px by 90px which floats to the top left corner of the content of your post.

If your WordPress blog uses a theme that comes with pre-configured set of thumbnail(s) to work with this plugin, the theme’s folder should contain an XML file called ‘wppt.xml‘ created by the theme developer. In this case, it will override the default thumbnail. For theme developers, more information on how to configure WP Post Thumbnail for your WordPress theme can be found in FAQ.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I am developing a WordPress theme. How do I configure WP Post Thumbnail to work specifically for my theme?

Theme developer’s flow illustration (250Kb).
Opens in new window.

A: This is the purpose of which WP Post Thumbnail is written for. The current version of this plugin assumes that you, as theme developer, have basic knowledge of writing a configuration file in XML format and calling/placing the thumbnails’ custom field value within your theme.

For the visually inclined, click the thumbnail on the right to open an image that illustrates basically how theme developers can use WP Post Thumbnail to handle thumbnail(s) in their WordPress themes.

I have included a sample XML configuration file in the plugin’s main folder called ‘wppt.xml‘:

wppt.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<wp-post-thumbnail>

<pft_widescreen>
<name>Widescreen</name>
<desc>Recent posts</desc>
<width>270</width>
<height>110</height>
</pft_widescreen>

<pft_square>
<name>Square</name>
<desc>Category post and more</desc>
<width>150</width>
<height>150</height>
</pft_square>

<pft_rectangle>
<name>Rectangle</name>
<desc>Latest featured post</desc>
<width>390</width>
<height>270</height>
</pft_rectangle>

</wp-post-thumbnail>

The above sample XML file configures 3 different thumbnails titled <pft_widescreen>, <pft_square> and <pft_rectangle>. The node titles are also used as custom field keys to call specific thumbnails to appear in your theme. For instance, to get the square thumbnail:

Say, in your WordPress theme’s single.php:

<img src="<?php get_post_meta($post->ID, 'pft_square', true); ?>" />

Each thumbnail has four properties:

<name> specifies a friendly name to appear in the thumbnail tab in ‘Write Post’ area.
<desc> a short description about the thumbnail
<width> thumbnail width in pixels
<height> thumbnail height in pixels

IMPORTANT: All fields are required!

Save your file as ‘wppt.xml‘ and put it in your theme’s folder (any folder will do). Blogs that uses your theme, and has WP Post Thumbnail plugin activated, will detect your ‘wppt.xml‘ configuration file.

Q: Where are all the cropped thumbnails stored?

A: They are stored in ‘wp-post-thumbnail‘ folder inside your WordPress default upload path. Eg. '/wp-content/uploads/wp-post-thumbnail' by default.

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