Secondary HTML Content 3.0 preview

As much as we like giving back to the community, it’s often hard to find time to keep some of the more sophisticated plug-ins up to date. One plug-in that hasn’t been updated in some time that I am frequently asked about is Secondary HTML Content.

I’ve had a number of ambitious goals for 3.0 for some time:

  • Enable a more complete editor experience (notably, Visual / HTML tabs)
  • Allow users to customize the labels for each content block
  • Add support for custom post types (not just posts and pages)
  • Remove arbitrary limit of 5 editor blocks
  • Integrate the settings with the “Writing” settings page (a logical place for them; I’m make a conscious effort with my themes and plug-ins to not “clutter” the settings panel)
  • On top of all this, provide a seamless upgrade path for 2.0 users

The first bullet has been by far the most challenging. While WordPress has a number of core functions that simplify adding a visual editor, they simply weren’t built with multiple editors on one page in mind. For the technically savvy, there are many hardcoded ID attributes, interacting with both CSS and JavaScript that rely on those IDs. As we know, the DOM is not intended to have multiple elements with identical IDs (particularly when we’re hooking events with JavaScript).

Nonetheless, I’m excited to say that the biggest hurdles have been tackled. Since we can’t work on hobby projects full time, the release is probably at least a couple of weeks out, mostly having to do with the upgrade path code.

  1. I’m surprised that wp’s core dev don’t make this kind of functionality, but anyway, it’s good to have it wrapped up as a plugin by one of the most respected wp developer here.

    This plugin will be a blast !

  2. This looks awesome Jake, thanks for taking the time to create plugins like this. It definitely fills a large gap in many projects using WordPress as a CMS.

  3. Looks great, was about to create my own plugin with same funtionality. This will save me the work :) When will it be released?

    • Soon, I hope! I’m having some issues with the meta box drag events colliding with the HTML editor.

  4. All sounds great. Will this latest version allow you to specify which pages this can be used on, rather than having it appear on all pages ?

    • It appears on all pages, but you can easily hide it.

      • Jake, how to you hide the content blocks on certain page? Also, I am using vs 3.0.1 and only see a limited editor bar, I don;t see the “show/hide kitchen sink” icon. Any ideas? thanks. GREAT PLUGIN!

        • In case you can’t read my mind, my comment was referring to the kitchen sink icon.

        • Aaron, it looks like you need to uncheck the “tiny editor” option in your settings for each new editor, then you should get the “kitchen sink” option.

  5. Hi! this version will fix the issue with not information displaying on home page and index????

    :)

    Regards!

    • Only if the home page is an actual “page”!

  6. Hi Jake
    Your plugin looks brilliant and it would meet many of my clients’ needs but is it compatible with WP 3.1+?
    Also any news on the roll out of v3?
    Keep up the great work!
    Kevin

    • Working out some final bugs on v3!

  7. Hey man, How you getting on with v3?

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