Great New Plugin - Simple Tagging

February 8th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

I removed UTW a few weeks ago as it was killing my server and causing issues with WordPress 2.1. I thought I could live without tags, but I was surprised by how many readers asked me to put tags on as they were using the tags to find related articles.

Luckily, Ajay asked me to try out the new Simple Tagging Plugin. I thought UTW was a feature-rich plugin, but Simple Tagging introduces some cool features that UTW doesn’t have. What’s even better is it’s much faster and isn’t killing my server.

Simple Tagging has too many features to list, but here are the ones I’ve found useful:

option to automatically add tags to feed
import tags from UTW or Jerome’s Keywords
Add tags as meta keywords
Auto-suggest tags for posts
Auto-completes tas as you type
Very friendly tag urls -e.g. http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/tag/Advertising

It didn’t take me very long to add the Simple Tagging Plugin to my site, although I’ve still got a few issues to iron out like getting getting it show the pagination on my tag pages and also finding a way to limit how many related tags are shown. Hopefully the plugin author will get back to me soon with a fix.

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About the Author

Everton is based in London and has worked in the internet and mobile space for over ten years now, and before that worked in corporate strategy and consulting. He has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University, and currently runs the Portal and online operations for one of the largest ISPs in the UK. He also writes for Windows 7 News.

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There Are 23 Responses So Far. »

#1

Comment by Ajay on 13 February 2007:

I’m planning on giving this a go on my site as well since it is working so nicely for you.
#2

Pingback by Quick Links 25-02-2007 - Enblogopedia.com on 25 February 2007:

[...] Here we go: [...]
#3

Comment by Kirk M on 25 May 2007:

I’ve just switched from UTW to the Simple Tagging plugin and although it appears to be put a much lighter load on my WP install I have a couple of questions that I’m really confused about. I don’t consider my self stupid in the least but sometimes the simplest things elude me. So if anybody can help…

Things I can’t figure out:

1. There is no place just to add a new tag to the list of existing tags without being forced to “match it” to an already existing tag. This, of course, adds it to one or more posts the existing tag is already assigned to. I just want to add a tag to the list for future use. You can’t do it via the write post page (as you could with UTW), the “manage tags” page or anywhere else that I’ve found. Would you know what I’m missing here?

2. In the “manage tags” page, in the list of tags (left sidebar), the number of posts assigned to each tag is shown as a link next to each tag, that is suppose to take you somewhere to see a list of those posts assigned to that particular tag but only takes you to a 404 page. The link I see down in my status bar when I hover over the post number assigned to any given tag looks like this:

http://just-thinkin.net/wp-admin/(name of tag)

This url goes nowhere but to a 404 page of course.

All the other various problems are already listed in Tickets at the plugins site at “Trac” but I haven’t found anywhere there that might offer some way to contact the author.

Perhaps I’m just having a “missing it” couple of days but I’m wondering if you might have any insight that might help?

Thanks
#4

Comment by Everton on 25 May 2007:

the author used to offer very good support Kurt, but he’s handed over ownership to a new person - maybe he can help. If he’s not responding via Trac try getting his attention on his blog
#5

Comment by Kirk M on 26 May 2007:

Thank you Everton,

I swear I couldn’t find any link to the new author at all at Trac. Maybe I just missed it but somehow I doubt it. I know he’s addressing the tickets at Trac but you can’t leave comments (of course) and there’s no “forum” type thing.

Thanks again for the link.
#6

Comment by vinit on 28 August 2007:

when i go to individual “tag” pages they show every tagged page (with full article). i dont want to show full posts on those pages. i just want to show two-three lines of each article. how do i do it?
#7

Comment by Kirk M on 28 August 2007:

Hi Vinit,

Try this:

I assume you created the “pagetemplate.simpletagging.php” page already to display your tag pages with. In this case all you have to do is open that page in an editor (the built in file editor in wp or some another of your choice) and look for a line that that contains this wrapped in a php call (without the quotes):

“the_content”

and change it to this:

“the_excerpt”

That should solve your problem.
#8

Comment by Vinit on 29 August 2007:

Thank Kirk M for replying.

I did what u said, but it didnt solved the problem.

initially code was

and i changed it to

plz help me out man.
#9

Comment by Kirk M on 29 August 2007:

Hi Vinit,

Your code didn’t come through. You need to knock off the ‘
#10

Comment by Vinit on 1 September 2007:

@Kirk M

initially the code in the pagetemplate.simpletagging.php file was

and i changed it to

but still tag pages are showing full post.
#11

Comment by Vinit on 1 September 2007:

initial code:

after modification
#12

Comment by Vinit on 1 September 2007:

why the code is not coming?
#13

Comment by Vinit on 1 September 2007:

finally i got the solution. wht you said is correct — one needs replace the_content code with the_excerpt. but the most imp thing is pagetemplate.simpletagging.php file should be in themes directory.
#14

Comment by Kirk M on 1 September 2007:

Hey Vinit,

LOL, I just replace my heavily modified theme with the original to clean things up a bit and have been adjusting the code accordingly and I the only thing I forgot was to put that page back. I must be getting old.

Glad it worked for you. Noiw maybe I ought to do the same myself right?
#15

Comment by Vinit on 1 September 2007:

I swear man this simple thing was driving me nuts. i searched for hours for the solution.
#16

Comment by Jasmine on 28 September 2007:

I am currently using the Simple Tagging Plugin in a really interesting way: I am tagging posts with the URL for the company in which the post refers (e.g.Dirty Dancing Tickets) then using those tags to link that post back from a page about that company. I’ve looked over the Related Posts function but it’s a bit confusing for me at the moment - it looks like it’s a good starting point, but I only need the relation off of one tag I specify (not all the tags of the post). Can anyone help me out with this one? Thanks!
#17

Comment by tickets on 30 October 2007:

Hey Vinit. I comment. You follow. I’ll be waiting for that to follow you back.
Well, what were the issues exactly? And did the plugin author get back to you?
Thanks!
#18

Comment by Hard Rock on 27 November 2007:

Or maybe it’s better you follow I comment
#19

Comment by London on 30 November 2007:

That’s right, pagetemplate.simpletagging.php should be in the themes directory. Maybe we need a guide book on this
#20

Pingback by Plugin Refresh | Connected Internet on 20 January 2008:

[...] Great New Plugin - Simple Tagging (15.585) [...]
#21

Comment by Concert on 21 January 2008:

Yeah, we definitely need a guide on this
#22

Comment by Bon Jovi on 21 January 2008:

I really don’t see any need for a guide book here …
#23

Comment by Buy Absinthe on 31 January 2008:

The latest wordpress plugins, allow more than just tagging, ping, and digg.