Useful Way to Taste a WordPress Plugin or Theme

I must get a dozen or two emails a week from so-called SEO experts asking if I want guest posts or will insert their clients link in my site. So I almost too quickly read this one from Emma at TasteWP:

I have a cool WordPress tip for you!
I see that you’re linking to plugins in the WP repo, e.g. here you link to https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-migration/.
Did you know that by replacing “wordpress” with “tastewp” in the URL it spins up a demo site with that plugin already installed? E.g. please click on https://tastewp.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-migration/ to see what I mean.
It allows your visitors to immediately try out the plugins which you recommend. No login is required and of course it’s 100% free!

And this is tasty. And impressive for what it does. Think about it when you are looking to review or pick a WordPress plugin. All you have is what the authors write about it, maybe if luck a link to a demo. But this “trick” Emma shared lets you actually take out of the Codex for a full test drive.

I will choose a different example that what she shared, that migration plugin is one I do not use anymore. But of, the Page-List plugin is in my toolbox for almost any project. Following the directions, I start with the wordpress.org URL of https://wordpress.org/plugins/page-list/ and change it to https://tastewp.org/plugins/page-list/

See what this does, it’s amazing (well I think so) https://tastewp.org/plugins/page-list/

Watch as it dynamically spins up a fully functioning WordPress site with the Page-List plugin installed. The little timer indicates you have 2 days to explore with it (if you create a feww account at Tastewp.com you get a 7 day run with it.

UPDATE! It also works for themes, so starting with say the Intergalactic theme URL you can set up a tasty demo site via https://wptaste.org/themes/intergalactic/

I immediately had a new thought. Sure I can remember to manually swap the wordpress.org domain to tastewp.org but wondered if I could quickly build a javascript bookmarklet that would do it automatically (not so quickly, like 75 minutes as I dusted off the javascript commands and sorted through my bracket typos).

Here is version 0.2, you simply drag the link below to your browser bookmark bar. Then go to any WordPress.org plugin or themepage, and click the bookmarklet. I include checks to make sure the page in view was actually a plugin or a theme (check for wordpress.org/plugins or wordpress.org/themes in the URL) an also added a confirmation dialog since it can take a bit of time for the TasteWP to spin into action.

Taste WP

For the curious, a walk through of my off the cuff JavaScript efforts as commented code (a newer version than the original to include functionality for themes)

javascript:(function(){   // define the bookmarklet protocol as a function

	// get the URL of the page in view, convert to string
	wpURL = window.location.href.toString();

	// set up a holder for the theme/plugin name
	wpName='';

	// check if it is a plugin, if so save it's name
	// it even gets fancy and extras the plugin name from the DOM
	if (wpURL.includes('wordpress.org/plugins')) { 
	    wpName=document.getElementsByClassName('plugin-title')[0].innerText+'" plugin';
	} 
	
	// check if it is a theme, if so save it's name
	// iagain extra the theme name from the DOM
	if (wpURL.includes('wordpress.org/themes')) { 
	    wpName=document.getElementsByClassName('theme-name')[0].innerText+'" theme';
	} 
	
	// if we have a value for wpName we are in the right place
	if (wpName !='') { 
	
		// yes we have a  url! 
		// now offer a message of what will happen, with an opt-out
			
		if (confirm('This may take a minute or two, but TasteWP.com will spin up a fully functioning  demo site using the "' + wpName +'. Enjoy your taste of WordPress!')) {
			
			// start the tasting! First split the URL on "/" into an array
			tasteURL=wpURL.split("/");
			
			// swap the second element from wordpres.org to tastewp.org
			tasteURL[2]='tastewp.org';
			
			// now do a redirect to the tasteWP link to set things in motion
			window.location.assign(tasteURL.join("/")); 
		} // end confirm condition
		
	} else { 
		// red alert! wpURL is not a WordPress plugin link
		alert('This is not a WordPress theme or plugin page! Try again?'); 
	} // end url check
})()

Maybe the bookmarklet tool is not truly needed, but it was fun to build. And doh! I did not even notice, but TasteWP already has a bookmarklet tool, from https://tastewp.com/ under Tips and Tricks then WP Directory tools. I like mine a wee bit better cause I made it.

And thanks Emma and TastWP for this nifty tool. Just seeing something that can dynamically generate a test site is something file away.

Just to be clear, I am not paid for recommending TasteWP, I only write about stuff I try and like. Other requests for guest posts and links still get The Treatment!

I love me doing some bookmarklet tools. You?

Featured Image: Felix likes tasting WordPress plugins more than rawhide bones… and he love his bones.