WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Wrapping up EduPress week we’re looking today at how to add extra plugins to EduPress to provide additional functionality to your blog/website. If there are any other ‘advanced’ topics you wish to be guided on, feel free to add comments! 
EduPress is designed to include pretty much everything an educator could need in a blog/website but there will, inevitably, be some who want particular functionality that can’t be sustained in the main release. Fortunately, Wordpress (upon which EduPress is based and is 100% compatible with) enables you to add functionality through the use of ‘plugins’. These are usually straightforward to install, although some require some tweaking of templates, etc. The fundamental rule before you do any manual modifications, therefore, is to BACKUP!
1. There are lots of websites which offer plugins for Wordpress (and therefore EduPress). However, some haven’t been updated since version 2 was released, meaning that they may not be compatible and could mess up your installation. To confident that a plugin will be compatible, go to the following (continually-updated) web page:
http://codex.wordpress.org/User:Matt/2.0_Plugin_Compatibility
2. We’ll take as an example the Email Notification plugin, as it shows most eventualities you will come across:
This plugin allows people to signup to be notified when a new entry is posted to your blog and once they’re confirmed it sends them an email every time a new entry is posted to your blog. It also allows them to unsubscribe if they wish.
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3. Download the plugin – it will either be a zip file (which you’ll need to uncompress) or a .php file
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4. Next – and this is important – before you do anything else, read any instructions that come with the plugin. These could be in a Readme file or simply on the website from which you downloaded the plugin.
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5. In this example the installation involves you transferring some files by FTP and adding a few bits of code to your template:
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6. All plugins go into the /wp-content/plugins directory on the server of your EduPress installation. If there’s more than one file involved it’s usual for the plugin to have a separate folder. Navigate to the correct directory in the left-hand side window of FileZilla and to the plugins directory on your EduPress installation in the right-hand window. Some plugins may require a couple of files to go elsewhere in addition to the plugins folder – check the installation instructions to find out. Transfer the files that need to go into the plugins folder by dragging-and-dropping them from their location on your computer:
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(note that whenever a plugin mentions your ‘Wordpress’ folder, it means your EduPress folder as far as we’re concerned…)
7. Double-check the instructions to make sure if there’s any further steps that need to be taken. In this example, there are two relating to the FTP program. First, a folder needs to be uploaded elsewhere in your EduPress installation:
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8. The second thing to do whilst in the FTP program is to, as it says in the installation instructions, “chmod 666 yoursite.com/maillist/wpemn_config.php� This simply means to change the file permissions on the file wpemn_config.php within the maillist folder in your EduPress directory. You do this in the same way as when EduPress was installed – by right-clicking on the file and selecting File attributes.
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9. As per the installation instructions, the number in the box that comes up needs to be changed to 666
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10. Most plugins don’t require you to run a script to finish off the installation, but this one does. Follow the installation instructions for this step.
11. The next step of the plugin installation concerns options configurable once you have logged into the Admin Control Panel of the EduPress installation. The first thing that needs to be done is to activate the plugin. Go to Plugins/Plugins, find the one you’ve just installed and activate it:
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12. For some plugins, simply transferring the files via FTP to the correct location and activating the plugin (as above) will be enough to add the desired functionality. Others, however – like the one in this example – need a bit more configuration. Some plugins, this one included, add a configuration menu item in your Admin Control Panel
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13. Configure the plugin as necessary and then finish off the installation by doing any manual changes that are dictated in the installation instructions. In this case, some code needs to be added to a couple of templates. I cannot stress enough how important it is to backup files before you do this. You can do this by downloading the file you have to copy via FTP and keeping it safe in case things go wrong. Alternatively, you can copy & paste the contents of the file you are editing in Presentation/Theme Editor to Notepad or a text editor:
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14. Sometimes the installation instructions give you scant instruction regarding the code you need to insert – for example it may just say ‘put form code in template’. This means you can use your discretion about where you want the effects of the plugin to show up. I’d recommend you always think about putting code in the Sidebar, as a first port of call. Open up the relevant file in Presentation/Theme Editor and then copy & paste the necessary code in the place directed in the installation instructions – or where you find its effects most aesthetically pleasing!
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15. Once you’ve inserted all the code that you need to into the correct files, click View the Site at the top-right of your Admin Control Panel to view the effects. Hopefully, you should have access to the new functionality that the plugin offers. If not, go back and make sure you’ve followed the installation instructions properly. If it still doesn’t work, replace the files you modified with the original ones of which you made backups!
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If you were successful, then congratulations! You’ve finished installing the plugin. If you ever need to uninstall a plugin, remove the manual changes you made to the templates, disable the plugin, then delete the files via FTP.
Please note that I am unable to provide support (via the EduPress Forum or otherwise) for plugins other than those included with EduPress by default.
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