Instructables Wordpress Plugin

by MrRedBeard

1.8K1312

Intro: Instructables Wordpress Plugin

Version 2 released

Want to have a list of Instructables by Author or KeyWord on your WordPress based site? I've created other solutions in the past but now I have created a free WordPress plugin to make this easier for more people. If you do not use WordPress or want to do it yourself see my older instructable on how to do this. This plugin will always be free and opensource.

It's official!!! The plugin has been published to WordPress.

Download the Instructables Plugin Here

ShortCode Usage:

Display a user's projects:
[instructablesUP username="MrRedBeard" num="2" thumb="true" tileview="true"]

Replace the username "MrRedBeard" with another username and keep the quotes. Replace "2" for the num to change the number of projects you want displayed. If you do not want thumbnails of the projects then change thumb to false.

Display a list of projects by keyword:
[instructablesKW keyword="tent" num="3" thumb="true" tileview="true"]

Replace the keyword "tent" with another word and keep the quotes. Replace "3" for the num to change the number of projects you want displayed. If you do not want thumbnails of the projects then change thumb to false.

I welcome and would love your feedback and suggestions. PM or post below.

  • Updated 20170715:
    • You can now define and store instructables feeds
    • Added editor support
    • Added ability to display a group's instructables
    • Added ability to have multiple keywords
  • Updated 20150104:

    • Added function to display a user's favorites

    • Made functions more efficient and removed redundancies

  • Update 20150102:
    • Can now display in tiles.

STEP 1: ​Lets Expand This Plugin Together

I will be setting up a github project for this plugin and welcome others to contribute. The code will be fully documented for ease of understanding. If you do not have experience with WordPress plugin development no worries I am currently writing an Instructable on writing your first WordPress plugin.

I am using php's simplexml_load_file() to grab xml feeds from Instructables. This may not work with all hosting platforms so let me know if you get errors. The following are a few of the XML feeds published by Instructables. Play with these and create variations. If you find something useful or just cool let me know in the comments.

I already include the keyword and username feeds. Would you use any of the others or expand upon theme?

The XML Feeds

Other URL tricks

Web Scrapping

Profile Image - div class="user-image" img src

11 Comments

LadySith 8 years ago

Does this work with groups? I'd like to put our groups Instructables on our self-hosted Wordpress

MrRedBeard 8 years ago

I will check and see. If not I will add the feature.

LadySith 8 years ago

Thanks :) I'll wait for an update

TheHomeschoolHouse 7 years ago

This is really fantastic! I would love to see someone expand on this further. I tried this on my site and it unfortunately didn't quite fit my needs. The keyword function will only search for one keyword (so refining isn't possible). Ultimately what I really need is the ability to link to just one instructible page (with a nice looking preview that isn't a resource hog on my web host of course).

Wonderful job though! I've made some simple plugin's myself and I know they're a lot of work!

MrRedBeard 6 years ago

Latest version allows for multiple keywords

I will work on web scrapping the instructable to a page on another site

MrRedBeard 7 years ago

About to update the plugin to have more functionality and increase compatibility.

Tater Zoid 9 years ago

Awesome plug-in. I'll let you know when I implement it into my blog. Thank you.

kingwolf44 9 years ago

This is a great idea! I am a website designer, and I am sure I will use this in the future. Thanks for putting in the time and effort!

MrRedBeard 9 years ago

Awesome if you let me know if you end up using it and what you think.