I’ve been working with these guys who are really into wordpress plugin programming. Not the cheesy simple little plugins on your mama’s blog. These plugins are incredibly serious apps that show what plugin creation and design should be.
The one I am reviewing now is fantastic. It replaces the need for at least 2 plugins I am using now to do the same thing and it adds awesome features no one has ever thought of before.
General
HeadSpace allows you to configure settings for specific posts, pages, and category pages. In addition to this you can configure settings globally, as well as for search results, 404 errors, author pages, the home page, and archive pages.
Here is the feature list for Headspace 2:
- Hot words - automatic generation of keywords based upon a dictionary of ‘hot’ words (any word that matches the hot words list in a post will generate a keyword)
- Automatic generation of descriptions
- Add Technorati links to your posts
- Dynamic data generation based upon various post information (insert author, time, excerpt, category etc)
- Fully localized
- WordPress 2 only (2.0 and 2.1 compatible)
- Custom stylesheets and javascript - add on a per-page basis without editing your theme
- Insert any ‘raw’ data into the
headsection - Control the title of each post along with meta description and keywords - get rid of your old Wordpress meta plugin, this blows them all away.
New features make this thing so much more than a title and meta manipulator:
New for version 3.0!
- Full GUI editing. Everything is now managed directly from the post editing page - no more cryptic tags
- Support for Ecto and Marsedit (and possibly other tools). You can now edit HeadSpace2 information directly from Ecto and Marsedit without affecting your content. This includes adding the ability to directly use Ecto & Marsedit tags.
- Custom meta-data for all WordPress pages, including posts, pages, search results, archives, 404, and category pages.
- Per-page themes! Now you can choose a theme for every page of your blog
- Per-page plugins. Now you can enable a plugin on a specific post/page
- Custom page titles, site names, and site tag-lines - change for every page
- Custom separator - change the symbol that separates your site name from page title
- RSS titles & description - change the title and description of your RSS feeds
To call something like this a mere “plugin” is demeaning to the programmer. It does far more than most plugins in functionality and does something very important that Wordpress users need to be very aware of: replaces the need for several separate plugins.
The Importance Of Multi-Tool Plugins
When you have 8000 plugins working behind your blog every time someone hits your site, it takes years to load. It also causes tons of conflicts because plugin creators don’t talk to each other and many don’t care to test if their plugins work with other popular plugins.
Raise your hand if you’ve broken your blog at least once by loading a plugin that was poorly written and inconsiderate of what it does to other popular plugins that you run on your site!
I will be talking more about plugin development and usage issues because there needs to be a standard set for how they are written and tested. It’s getting very crazy out there in plugin land with new ones coming online every single day and there needs to be some basic standard set for them so we ‘pressers can be assured that things we plug in won’t kill our sites.
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Paul 07.11.07 at 8:54 am
Thanks for the heads up!
However, I would just like to know what plugins specifically do you feel HeadSpace2 replaced for you, that you no longer need anymore.
Thanks for your great work.
Paul Therond
Jack Humphrey 07.11.07 at 9:47 am
“Another Wordpress Meta Plugin” was the immediate replacement.
The ability to use a plugin on a particular page is brilliant for plugins you only want to use on certain pages and not have running across the blog.
This makes it so even if you have a lot of plugins you are only using certain ones site wide and others at the post and page level, lowering the overall calls to the wp database and speeding up your site.
It also replaces any title manipulation plugins which only do that one thing - a waste of space and source of possible conflicts for such a simple task - that’s included in headspace.
It also pre-replaces anyone’s plugins that come out to do things like page template themes, etc. People come out with plugins that do one thing - the future is plugins that combine a lot of simpler plugins into one clean plugin that makes less demands on your database and server.
Paul 07.11.07 at 11:39 am
Thanks for the reply,
I agree, rather keep the plugins simple and integrated.
You were talking about title manipulation plugins, so this could even replace the plugin optimal-title.
Paul Therond
http://www.4front.co.za
Tonya Pruitt 07.11.07 at 3:09 pm
Jack Thanks tons for this headsup! I am adding 4 new plugins thanks to this post. Definitely adding Headspace.. but found 3 others that I needed from the creator. Love it!
Tonya Pruitt
Alex 07.12.07 at 2:47 am
Thanks Jack …
It’s a nice option but I think that All-in-One-SEO-Pack does same and a bit more … check this plugin:
http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/03/24/all-in-one-seo-pack/
BTW, not my site
just the plugin I like
Cheers,
Alex
Donald 07.12.07 at 3:47 am
hi jack
that is an interesting plugin.
however i am really concerned if this plugin will affect my other plugins that i am using now, especially when a recent plugin that i had screwed up my wordpress causing me to reinstall everything from scratch..
regards
donald
Jack Humphrey 07.12.07 at 7:53 am
Donald,
There’s never any way to tell if a plugin you “plug in” if going to conflict with something you already have running.
That’s the big problem no one talks about with plugins. They are all done by individual programmers and there are no standards for plugin development yet that would do a better job of making sure we can back out of plugin installs if something goes wrong.
The ONLY thing we can do is make sure we are checking out the plugin programmers more carefully before installing anything.
I am leaning toward people like John, who did the plugin above, because they have a track record and are obviously “into” plugins and not just programming something on the side to generate traffic.
You always have to be careful with plugins. They can be like dirty needles for junkies if you pick one up without knowing much about where it came from.
Donald 07.12.07 at 9:56 am
thanks for the reply jack!
you have a great resource site.. i have downloaded your authority black book report.. it blew me away!
i am going to use the book as a way to increase tons of traffic to my blog!
Thanks for the great effort in compiling this report!
Virginia 07.12.07 at 11:42 pm
Thank you, Jack! Somehow this plugin had eluded me before. It is extremely useful, more extensive than All in One SEO or any of the other meta plugins I’ve used. It helps bridge the gap between Wordpress as a blogging tool and as a full-scale content management system.
BillyWarhol 07.13.07 at 4:22 pm
Very impressive Features in HS3*
my WP programmer will be all over this like a dirty shirt!!
;))
John 09.10.07 at 11:56 pm
Thanks for the plug Jack! HeadSpace has actually been around for nearly 3 years now, so it’s really been an on-going ‘labour of love’ for me and not just another meta-data plugin. I’ve recently updated it with a whole raft of new features.
Alex, I’m confident that HS has All-in-one SEO beat in every respect. There’s an import module for it now, should you change your mind.