I would like this changeover to be complete by October 15th, when I plan to remove the hosting of the RecipePress site, support, and documentation from my server. If you are interested in taking this, you will be responsible for all support and any web sites related to the plugin. Please contact me if you are interested. Thank you.

With almost no issues reported from the latest release candidate, I decided to go ahead and get Version 2.2 of RecipePress released today. There are some minor bug fixes and the addition of a Spanish translation included in this version, but that is not what you wanted to here, right?

Recipe Box Added!

Recipe Box

That’s right! At long last I have added the first phase of the Recipe Box feature that everyone has been asking for. It’s very basic right now, and if you use custom templates you may need to make some modifications to make it work, otherwise you should start to see links to the Recipe Box on all your recipes.

Currently the recipe box is limited to adding and removing recipes, and making notes in your cookbook, but I wanted to get the functionality out there so people can test it. I will add more to it once you tell me what you think it needs. Talk about it on the Support Forum.

New Taxonomy Widget

I am in the process of deprecating the outdated category widget included with the plugin and replacing it with more versatile widgets. This release includes the first of those new widgets to allow you to list any of the built in or custom taxonomies for the plugin. This new widget supports hierarchical listings and includes an option to “View All”, done through AJAX to prevent a page refresh. Don’t worry though, the “View All” will take users to your category list if AJAX is not supported.

The Future?

For the next few weeks at least RecipePress will be dormant except for bug fixes. I need to get the core stable before adding more features and introducing more bugs. This is your time to check everything out and let me know what problems you are having. Please report any issues you are having on our Issues Page, or ask for help in our support forums.

• Recipe Box: It is a bit limited right now, but the groundwork is there. You can add items to the box, view the box, add notes, and delete recipes. More will be coming very, very soon.
• Taxonomy Widget: A new widget to allow you to display entries in any of the RecipePress built in and custom taxonomies. Initially you can determine how many to list, and a “View All” option will allow viewers to expand the list. You can use a simple unordered list or show taxonomy icons if you are using the Taxonomy Images plugin.

This release candidate should be ready to go and I would love to hear your feedback in our Support Forums or you can report issues on our Issue Page. Enjoy!

Taxonomy Widget

Previously, users could only list recipe categories in their sidebars, and the hierarchal features were not working. Version 2.2 introduces a new widget that allows users to list any of the built in or add-on taxonomies.

My Recipe Box

That’s right, an early version of “My Recipe Box” is in the latest nightly build. The overwhelming response on the poll and in support forums for this feature prompted me to get started on it. Tonights release is just some preliminary work on it but for the most part it does work.

You will need to set up a page and add a shortcode to get it to work for now. Check the new “Recipe Box” tab in the settings page for more details on this, and to turn this option on. Right now you can add recipes to your box and get a list of them. More features will be added over the next few days.

Beta Testers

If you want to beta test this latest version, you will need to go to our Google Code page and grab the source from the source tab. You can also use SVN to keep your test version up to date on the Source Code page. I am working to see if I can make getting the latest version easier, but for now this works. If you find problems, have questions, or want to make suggestions, you can use the Beta Testers Form or report them on our issues page.

Oh, and I already know that some of the “instructions” pages are not done, and the language file is not up to date. I will take care of those things before the final release, which I would like to have ready by Friday, March 11th, 2011. So, grab the latest copy and let me know what you think!

Most Wanted Poll

First, vote in the poll below – this is a no obligation method of choosing your preferred features. Choose your top 3 to get all the features you want.

Pledge Support at Fundry

I know that some of you are planning to make a donation once things work for you, and I greatly appreciate that. Now you can pledge that support, with no obligation to actually pay me, by going to the my Fundry Project Page and pledging support for any of the features above. If the feature you are looking for is not listed, you can request a new feature and ask others to pledge their support of it as well.

Now, I will admit that creating and supporting this plugin has never been about the money. Even without pledges and donations there will always be new things coming out. However, knowing what you want and what you are willing to support will help me plan what gets done when. And of course, the features that have the most pledges are likely going to get the most attention.

Now you know how you can help – and trust me, I appreciate your support!

Changelog

• Version advanced due to the major rewrite and plethora of new ideas.
• Added support for recipe image on the front end form.
• Added custom permalink settings to replace use of pages.
• Added support for theme files.
• Added embedded theme based on Twenty Ten with necessary files.
• Converted ingredients to custom taxonomy for more control and better indexing.
• Converted recipe sizes to custom taxonomy that can be editted by users.
• Added tools to automatically convert sizes to taxonomy when recipe is edited.
• Updated template tags to use new recipe sizes taxonomy – backwards compatible with old data.
• Fixed several spelling errors.
• Add option to select how many recipes to display on the index page.
• Added option to add recipes to author pages.
• Removed the “Measurement Type” option as it was not used.
• Added setting for index slug defaulted to ‘recipes’ for better control over URL structure.
• Fixed issue of only showing 5 recipes on recipe lists – now has standard WordPress pagination.

You will need to run the update function if you are updating from version 1.3.1 or older. This will convert any old data formats to the new structure. Ingredient sizes, serving sizes, and ingredients are now stored in a taxonomy to allow more control over those features. Some old template tags were removed and custom templates may need to be adjusted to work with this.

Please report any bugs you find on our Bug Reporting site, and you can get support on our new support site. Enjoy!

• Custom permalink structures, no more choosing what page to display content on.
• Better support for other languages – appears it doesn’t work in the current version.
• Embedded WordPress Themes for plug and play compatibility.
• Better support for theme files supported by Custom Post Types in WordPress.

Development of this new version began in the early morning hours today and is coming along quite well. I will be announcing beta test version on our SourceForge page later today and will be asking for beta testers to thouroughly test this new version before it is released.

I am working to keep the plugin backward compatible so current installations will still work, but that may not be possible at this time with the new rewrite rules support and the custom permalink support. Going foward, use of the plugin on themes may require adding and customizing files to themes. Instructions will be included on this web site and on our WIKI explaining just how this is to be done. New users will simply need to use the embedded theme for plug and play compatibility. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for features that should be in the 2.0 release, please comment here. Thank you.

• Fixed many instances of WP errors that were suppresed in live mode.
• Fixed issue with invalid arguments related to custom taxonomies.
• Fixed issue with converting old style recipes to new.
• Fixed the broken “recipe options” link.
• Added wp_enqueue_style for styles.
• Added wp_enqueue_script for javascript.
• Add option to ignore built in templates and use the “single-recipe.php” template in the folder.
• Added German Translation.
• Fixed an issue where new recipes would not show up if setting is set to publish automatically.

For some reason the WordPress site has version 1.3 but still shows version 1.2 – hopefully that will be fixed in the next auto update. As always, report any bugs  on our bug tracking page.

Custom Taxonomies?

Yep, not only can you now change the names of the built in categories and cuisines, but you can actually add new taxonomies to your site for this plugin. A new set of template tags was added to display these:

• get_the_recipe_taxonomy($tax, $args, $post): This will get the list of entries for a given taxonomy and return it as a string. The $tax is the object name for the taxonomy as displayed on the Taxonomies Settings tab. The $args and $post are both optional as with other template tags.
• the_recipe_taxonomy($tax, $args, $post): Prints the results from the get_the_recipe_taxonomy() tag.

The older get_the_recipe_category(), the_recipe_category(), get_the_recipe_cuisine(), and the_recipe_cuisine() template tags were left in the code for backward compatibility. Please note that these may be removed in future version. I hope to add some stuff to the WIKI for this soon, but time is limited.

As always, please report any bugs you find. Enjoy!

The problem occurred when the user selected the same page to display the recipes, categories, and cuisines. With this setup, the recipe list would show, but the recipes would not. Nor would any of the categories or cuisines. I will look to see if it is possible to have this type of setup, but I have to assume it is not.

So, if your recipes are not showing, you should look at those settings. Make sure you have different pages set for each of those three pages, as well as the page for the form, so that things work properly. Actually, come to think of it, you should either select “Do not display” or a separate page for every one of those, otherwise the plugin code won’t know what to display on each page.

Upgrade Notice!

Previous versions had some serious issues with templating, and required files to be copied to your theme. This version eliminates all of that and you can actually remove any template files from your theme folder now. If you have made adjustments to the way your recipes display, they should still work, but this is fair warning that some adjustments may again need to be made.

I apologize, but this change was necessary to prevent having to build theme packs for every single theme out there, which is what was happening. This new version hooks into the content instead of the template to do the formatting, so your themes formatting should work on all pages. I have left in the template tags for recipe_header() and recipe_footer(), but they do nothing now. The template files recipe_header.php and recipe_footer.php are no longer used.

Printing Support?

Yes, but it is very early and may not work 100% at this time. I am still working on this but needed to get feedback from the community. There is a new template tag available called recipe_print_link() that will create the link in your templates. If you are using the built in templates the print link should appear. I would appreciate your comments and suggestions for this here or on the support forum.

Nutritional Data?

Thanks to Justin Handley of My Healing Kitchen for submitting code to make this feature possible. It is somewhat limited but will give you some basic nutritional data for your plugins. You will need to enter this data on the recipe edit page if you have it as it is not automated. A new template file is in place to create a somewhat standard looking nutritional information box, and new template tags, the_recipe_nutrients() and get_recipe_nutrients(), are available for use on templates.

There were so many others things done that make this plugin easier to use as well as more useful. I will leave it up to you to go and find them, and comment about them. As always, please report any bugs you find on our Bug Tracking page.

Thank you, and enjoy!

This will be the final release candidate before the official release of version 1.2 tomorrow. If you find any bugs please report them ASAP. Unless additional bugs are reported on our bug tracking site, the code is frozen until tomorrows release.

The updates tonight include:

• Changed post type from ‘recipes’ to ‘recipe’. If your recipes disappear, simply deactivate then activate the plugin.
• Changed the order of the arguments for the recipe template tags. Should be args first, then post if outside the loop. Both may be left empty.
• Updated language file and fixed some bugs in language calls.
• Started adding printable recipes. Default templates add a “print” link which load a printable version. Still working on the templates and the features, but you can get an idea of where this is going.

There may be some other small fixes and such, but nothing ground breaking. We are still on track for a Friday release of 1.2 with printing and some other new features. If you want to use a nightly build version, you will need to get it via Subversion on our SourceForge page.

Enjoy!

Required Settings

There are some important steps that must be done after installing this new version:

1. Visit the Recipe Press settings page.
2. Click on the “Display Settings” tab. You will need to select the page where recipes, categories, and cuisines will display. If you do not already have these pages, click on the checkbox to have new pages created. Any content on the page you select will be replaced with the appropriate plugin data.
3. Click on the Form Options tab and do the same as above for the page where the recipe form will display.
4. Save the settings.

There are a few more new settings as well, so take a look around and see what new stuff you can do. I will be adding even more over the next few weeks.

Download the Release Candidate

You will have to go to the SourceForge page to get the release candidate, then upload the files using FTP. I have uploaded the file and it may take a bit for it to be there, but you will want to get the file recipe-press-1.2-rc1.zip that should be located in the Release Candidates folder. Let me know what you think by commenting below, or by reporting bugs.

I also fixed a bug where themes that do not already support post thumbnails would not display recipe images. As always, please report any additional bugs on our Bug Tracking page. Thank you.

Upgrade Notes

Version 1.0 uses the Custom Post Types feature of WordPress 3.0, and your existing data will need to be converted to use in this new version. When you first upgrade to this version, you may not see any recipes, however, you should see a menu item under the Recipes menu called “Convert Recipes”. This page will convert all of your existing recipes and categories to the new format, and will remove the old data. You should make a backup of your site database before running this conversion.

New Features

There are quite a few new features for this release, including adding recipes to multiple categories, cuisine tags, thumbnail support, and custom fields. You will need to go to the settings page for the plugin to activate any of the new features.

Displaying Recipes

In previous versions you would need to add a page with a short code to display recipes on. In this version, recipe are automatically displayed at http://yoururl.com/recipes. The recipe-list shortcode has been deprecated. I realize this prevents you from listing recipes on any page you like, and support for this will return in a future version. This change was necessary to fit in with the new Custom Post Type features. In addition to listing recipes, several other pages are available by default:

• Recipe list: http://yoururl.com/recipes
• Category list: http://yoururl.com/recipe-categories
• Cuisine Type list: http://yoururl.com/recipe-cuisines
• Submit form: http://yoururl.com/recipe-share

Currently, the categories and cuisines only work with pretty permalinks, and I am not sure there is a way to change that. If need be, shortcodes to display these will be added.

Menu Support

If you are using a theme compatible with the new Menus options in WordPress 3.0, you can add the pages above, including a public submit form page, to your menus. You may need to turn this feature on under the “Screen Options” tab on the Menus page. You can also add recipes, categories, and cuisine types to your menus.

I hope that you find this new version more powerful and easy to use. In the coming weeks I will be making some custom template packs for use with specific themes as some themes will not work properly with this version of Recipe Press. If you have any questions, you can post a comment here or visit the Support Forum. If you find bugs, I ask that you submit them on the Bug Tracking system for this plugin.

Release Tomorrow?

So far I am on track to releasing the new Version 1.0 tomorrow on the WordPress site, barring any major bugs showing up today. Get your bug reports in now.