Twit It Up!
Twit It Up is a simple AJAX powered WordPress plugin that allows your visitors to tweet/retweet your blog posts quickly and easily directly from your blog.
Version Information
1.0.1 - Released 5th March 2009: This release of Twit It Up resolves some minor issues relating to blog post titles. We noticed that when certain characters were used as part of a blog post title, some issues occured with the JavaScript behind the site. This has now been resolved and we recommend all users upgrade to this version.
1.0 - Released 7th January 2009: This is the first version of Twit It Up and obviously it still has some room for improvement, however I have tried to incorporate some initial customisable features into this initial release. I am also confident that any remaining bugs have been resolved. If you have any feedback, suggestions or issues, please contact me.
Feature List
Twit It Up offers the following features without any customisation to any code or script:
- Full AJAX powered web-form to ensure your visitors never leave your actual post/webpage.
- Provides your visitors with the ability to modify the tweet before submitting it to Twitter.
- Automatically shortens your URL structure using http://is.gd/. Other URL shortening services will be added shortly.
- Shortened URL’s are cached in the local database to reduce future load times.
- Ability to show Twit It Up on all posts or just single posts.
- Ability to completely customise wording on the web form and other design elements as well as modify the default tweet message.
- Every design element can be styled with CSS.
Hosting & WordPress Requirements
Twit It Up has been designed for WordPress 2.7 and above and has not been tested on any earlier versions. We highly recommend that you use this software under a WordPress 2.7 environment as we can not guarantee the plugin will work under earlier versions.
As for hosting, the only real requirement is that your host has support for cURL in PHP. Other than this, Twit It Up should work fine. Most web hosts (shared or otherwise) should support the cURL library.
Live Demonstration
You can view Twit It Up in action by checking out any of the blog posts on my blog. The Twit It Up plugin appears directly under the blog post under the Sociable links. Here is an example.
Getting Twit It Up!
Twit It Up can be downloaded directly from the this website by clicking here. It will also be available to download directly from the WordPress Plugins Directory shortly.
Installation
Installation is simple and straight forward. Like most WordPress plugins, Twit It Up simply needs to be extracted and uploaded to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory. A full listing of step-by-step instructions has been included below:
- Download a copy of Twit It Up from here.
- Extract the twit-it-up folder to a location on your computer that you’ll remember.
- Connect to your WordPress installation using an FTP client such as FileZilla.
- Upload the twit-it-up folder you extracted in Step 2 to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
- Now you must enable the plugin by browsing to http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/ and logging in.
- Click on the Plugins option on the left.
- Find Twit It Up in the listing of plugins and click on the Activate button.
- You must now configure Twit It Up by clicking on the Settings option on the left and then click on Twit It Up.
- If necessary, make any changes to the configuration of Twit It Up and then click Save.
- Twit It Up is now configured. Further customisation can be made by modifying the CSS behind the code otherwise you’re good to go!
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some questions we’ve had about this plugin to date:
How can I style the web-form and other elements behind Twit It Up?
Easy! Twit It Up has its own CSS file that can be found under the Twit It Up folder in your Plugins directory. Simply modify the CSS in this file and you’ll soon have Twit It Up matching the style of your blog in no time.
How can I modify the text displayed in the Twit It Up web form?
There is a template file found under the Twit It Up folder in your Plugins directory titled twit-it-up.tem.php. This file is a template for the web form that appears when a user selects to tweet about the relevant post. Make any necessary changes to this file and save your updates for an immediate change to the web form.
How can I modify the text displayed in other areas of Twit It Up?
Other text displayed in Twit It Up can be modified via the WordPress Administration Panel by clicking on Settings and then clicking on Twit It Up.
What are the various tags used in the Default Tweet Template about?
With Twit It Up, you have the ability of specifying what the default tweet is for all users on your site. As such, we have added some fields that will be populated on a per-post/per-user basis. Simply add these fields to your Default Tweet Template and they will be populated automatically.
Does Twit It Up support other URL shortening services such as twurl, tinyurl and others?
Not as yet. This is only the first version and I really wanted to get something out in the community for some feedback. I will most definitely add a number of URL shortening services as soon as I can.
Problems/Feedback
If you run into any issues using Twit It Up, please be sure to contact me directly. I would also love to hear any feedback or suggestions you may have!
Updates & Announcements
All updates and announcements relating to Twit It Up can be found by following @twititup on Twitter. We will post news and other updates regularly via this account. Feedback, questions and suggestions can also be sent directly to @twititup.
Shout Outs!
A huge thank you to @marnieb for designing the Twit It Up logo and coming up with some great ideas for the plugin. She is definitely the source of inspiration for this plugin as she noticed that the WordPress community was lacking such a solution. Hats off to you, Marnie! Hope you all enjoy this plugin!