Well, we’ve all been there. We have a code at hand from a blog, documentation or knowledge base, but totally clueless on how to test it without ruining existing setup. It says to test on theme functions.php, but client will not be happy if you modify any files. Fear not, let me show a non-destructive way of testing code quickly, in any WordPress installation, without touching anything.

Plugins are the way to go

Plugins are a blessing for WordPress developers. They are easy to install, maintain, update and even deactivate if necessary. The code is completely separate from the installation and you can ditch it anytime you want. That’s a great thing we are targetting here – easy to install, yet easy to remove when done.

If you find a small code snippet, an action or filter that you want to test quickly, then you can cook up a tiny test plugin, put the code there and test. The best thing is when you are done, you can delete the file or deactivate it. The setup will be like it was before (assuming you did not change anything in the system with your test piece of code).

Of course, you can test the code on a theme functions.php. But you will have to revert back to the original version if your code fails – not a good thing if you are in a hurry. Bad indeed.

Smallest plugin code

In order to show up on the plugin list, you just need a file like this below in your wp-contents/plugins directory:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: My Test
*/

Save it on anything you like, for example, test.php. You can also put it inside a folder, but not needed for a small, one time use test plugin.

It will show up in the WP Admin – Plugins screen like this:

Just Activate the plugin and it will run on all WordPress pages, frontend and backend, so easy!

Example test plugin

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Test Message
*/

add_action( 'admin_notices', 'print_message_on_backend' );
function print_message_on_backend() {
// Just a test message to show on WP Admin
echo "<p>Some test message which shows this on every admin page</p>";
}

add_action( 'wp_footer', 'print_message_on_frontend' );
function print_message_on_frontend() {
// Just a test message to show on footer (on frontend)
echo '<p>Some test message to show on footer</p>';
}

Save it in a .php file inside wp-contents/plugins, then check WP Admin – Plugins. Activate the new plugin named “Test Message”. After you activate the plugin, you will see that the code you entered on your new test plugin works. You will see the message in the code on every WP Admin page you visit.

This was just some test code. You can try as many things as you want. But if you are manipulating any data, it is always a better idea to keep backup, even if you are using a test plugin.

So it is possible! Testing a code in 2 minutes. The best part is – it is not touching any file in the install and you can easily remove the plugin when you are done with it.

If you need any help regarding custom plugins or any queries regarding this article feel free to contact us.

The post How to Test Any WordPress Code Quickly, Without Harming the Setup appeared first on 79mplus and is written by 79mplus Admin

We are very happy to announce a maintenance release of 1.0.25 for our Intercom Subscription plugin. This release addresses the API update to the latest version from the platform author – Intercom.

We have learned that Intercom has released their API version 1.1 with some structural changes to the API. This may make our previous code to not function properly. So it asks for an urgent and prompt maintenance release with a fix.

As you know, maintenance releases are not always exciting, but they are crucial to have a stable working software. This release is just that. We are looking for more improvements to be added to the plugin in future, but until we find time in our busy schedule, this is the release we have for you at the moment.

Let’s check the updates that await you:

Intercom API version updated

Intercom has pushed a new update to their API. When we first introduced our plugin it was at 1.0. The latest update made it to 1.1. It has some notable changes in the API structure.

To enjoy the new features, you will have to select 1.1 version of the API from the Developer Hub’s App settings if it’s not already selected:

Our plugin was not ready for 1.1. So using the new API with our plugin for example, would result in users to be not listed. There might be other problems on the way, but we have found this issue to be prominent.

The latest version of our plugin 1.0.25 has been updated to include Intercom API 1.1. This will result in smoother performance with the new version of the API, if you choose to use it.

The latest version of our plugin 1.0.25 has been updated to include Intercom API 1.1. This will result in smoother performance with the new version of the API, if you choose to use it.
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Fixed Intercom user not being listed

In our brief testing with API 1.1, we found out that user is not placed correctly on Intercom from the previous version of our plugin. This is due to using “users endpoint” feature of the API. Users endpoint has changes in data structures which was incompatible with our existing code. Intercom suggested to apply changes to code for compatibility. So we changed our code in 1.0.25 of our plugin and it ultimately fixed the issue.

Notice about PHP version

Intercom API 1.1 requires at least PHP 7.2 to be present on your server. As we are using the latest API, the requirement would apply to you as well. Please contact your developer or webhost to ensure that you have the version or later installed.

In summary, this version provides important update to the plugin to ensure continuous stability of the plugin. It might not bring new features into the table, but it is essential to make the plugin functional for the latest API changes.

The post Intercom Subscription v1.0.25 is Here: A Timely and Important Maintenance Release appeared first on 79mplus and is written by 79mplus Editor

We are excited to announce another release of the versatile and feature-rich Mplus Intercom Subscription plugin. 1.0.24 is a minor release, but not to mention an important one.

We are excited to announce another release of the versatile and feature-rich Mplus Intercom Subscription plugin. 1.0.24 is a minor release, but not to mention an important one.
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In this latest batch of changes we have updated the logo to a new one, fixed admin menu icon not showing issue and updated company field description to be more natural.

Let’s see in detail the newest of changes:

New Branding

We have redesigned our logo for Intercom Subscription and all its addons. We had fitting logos before, but they lacked uniformity and consistency across products. So we initiated a redesign of all the logos.

Please welcome our new set of logos for the Intercom Subscription family:

The top one is for our base plugin and the others are for Addons — all 12 of them.

So we applied changes to our WordPress.org plugin page also:

We have changed the logo and banner accordingly. Redesign is always exciting. We hope you enjoy the new logos as much as we did designing.

Admin Menu Icon Fix

It went under our radar for quite a long time. Humans are not without errors. This is a case to confirm it. The reality is, we had the menu image right committed properly in our GitHub plugin repo (luckily). But when committing with SVN, it missed the file for some reason. We fixed it by using –force with our svn add command.

The issue should now be fixed.

“Create it” vs “Create here”

We had lots of internal debate on whether to use “Create it” or “Create here”. The text is a link under the company selection field (if you have it enabled). At the end we decided that “Created here” sounds more friendly, easy to understand and natural to our human users. So we decided to stick with it.

It has been two months since we last released a version. Sorry, we were busy with other projects. We have many features in the wish list, but we also try to keep the plugin lightweight as possible. That’s why we think every feature through before implementing them on the codebase.

So, to wrap up, we have more plans for future with this amazing Intercom plugin. We are constantly striving to improve the addons as well. But there could be many improvements to be made that could be missed by us. We hope you have suggestions for improvements too? Please let us know if this is the case. Till then enjoy the release!

The post Intercom Subscription v1.0.24 is Here: Find Out What’s New appeared first on 79mplus and is written by 79mplus Editor

We have recently released an update to our Intercom Subscription Plugin. We have introduced some timely changes and minor fixes on this recent release. Let’s go through the changes here to see what new features are now available to you.

This version introduces Honeypot Spamtrap as a measure to fight spam requests. Also, we have updated the structure of the form that creates companies.

Honeypot Spamtrap

We open our sites to all the people of the world. But unfortunately, not all our users are good. There are some bad guys out there who are after your site to cause harm and disruption. You may have heard before that some bad guys setup artificial programs to submit the forms in random websites with fake information. These programs are called “Robots”.

These are usually setup by ill-mannered people who try to push their ill-fitted products on your website. Maybe you’ve noticed, you get loads of new comments on your website, even if you’ve just set it up a few days ago and nobody else knows about it. You should also notice that the comments are somewhat out of context and not useful for your content. These comments are artificial and posted by these Robots. If the comments get published it will not be good for you. You will be supporting something which you do not stand for.

Maybe you've noticed, you get loads of new comments on your website, even if you've just set it up a few days ago ... the comments are somewhat out of context and not useful for your content. These comments are artificial and posted by…
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The same risk is true for our Intercom Subscription form.

There are many ways this has been handled in the past by security experts. One of them is CAPTCHA, which is easy to solve by humans but hard to solve for robots. But they are a User Experience nightmare. Who likes to solve CAPTCHA every now and then?

Another clever way to tackle these Robots is to use Honeypot Spamtrap. It works by placing an obscure, hidden field that act like it is a part of the form, but actually isn’t. It does nothing and it is meant to be kept blank. A human like us can’t see the field so we will obviously leave the field blank. But Robots are programmed to fill every field. They are designed this way so that it does not get rejected for having a blank field. Whenever this field is filled, we can detect an automated submission and reject the entry from getting into our system.

With this trick Robots can be detected and stopped from clogging up your website. Plus, no annoyances from our lovely happy users. Users will have to do nothing extra to get validated.

We have implemented Honeypot Spamtrap as a first and basic measure to fight spam on your intercom form. You can enable it from the settings. It is disabled by default.

We recommend that you enable this option if you expect heavy traffic on your website or expecting some spam requests. This should be a basic defense against those pesky spammers.

If you are expecting better spam protection, we are thinking about implementing a CAPTCHA feature for people who need it. Of course, we plan to keep it as optional as every other feature so that it is not pushed against you by force. Please also let us know if you have any better ideas for fighting spams.

Company Creation Form Fields

If you enable company integration, this change might be useful to you. We have introduced a shortcode in our previous release that puts a form to create companies in Intercom so that it can be selected as a company on the subscription form. The field names on the form are now made to match with the labels on the Intercom Dashboard, so you can relate them easily. The field names are often times confusing by itself, so we added helpful hints to go with the fields.

We hope it will now be more user friendly when creating a company for the subscription.

Besides these changes, we have also updated the screenshots on the plugin page to reflect the changes.

That’s about it for today. These are probably minor but important changes for how you use Intercom Subscription on your website. Go ahead, install our plugin and have a great time!

The post Intercom Subscription v1.0.22 is Now Available: Find Out What’s New appeared first on 79mplus and is written by 79mplus Editor

The post Intercom Subscription v1.0.20 is Now Available: Find Out What’s New appeared first on 79mplus and is written by 79mplus Editor