After the alphabetical list of plugins I use, I want to present two plugins I wrote for a specific website, and then also shared. Today, we cover the first one, the Embeds for ProvenExpert plugin.
On the ProvenExpert, you can register as an expert and then get reviews and testimonials from others. They also offer different “rating seals” for your website. When I helped to integrate the seal into a website, there was only a very “hacky” PHP solution provided by ProvenExpert. This was not really satisfying for me, so I wrote a plugin and published it in the plugin directory.
What does Embeds for ProvenExpert do?
It implements multiple widgets to show the different ProvenExpert seals. Since each seal has some different options, while they share some others, I decided to create not just one widget, to make it easier to configure them. If you want to use the plugin, you have to create an API key. After storing this key in a small settings page, you are good to go and can add as many widgets as you want.
The plugin only supports widgets, so if you want to use it in a block based theme, you have to use the “Legacy Widget” block, if they are not visible in your block based widget area or if you want to use them on a page.
Why do I use Embeds for ProvenExpert?
The main reason to implement this plugin was the lack of a good integration into WordPress, when I wrote the plugin more than five years ago. Since then, ProvenExpert has also provided a JavaScript snippet. This can work, but it would require the user to have the unfiltered_html capability, as the snippet would otherwise be removed for security reasons with every content update. Implementing the widgets was also a great learning experience. I had plans to also add blocks at one point, but now this is no longer needed.
The official plugin as a replacement
It is no longer needed, since there is now an official plugin from ProvenExpert, that only supports blocks, and which is developed by the German WordPress community member Thomas Zwirner. When I’ve visited WordCamp Leipzig this year, he also informed me, that the API I am using for my plugin, might be shut down at one point. If this happens, I would probably either ask the 80+ people using my plugin to migrate to the official one, or turn mine into an add-on, that would provide widgets instead of blocks, but using the new API used by the official plugin.
Conclusion
Sometimes you come around some solutions from platforms you really don’t like. If there is no official plugin – there was a third-party one, which also didn’t satisfy me – then you often end up writing your own solution. If this solution would also help others, that’s usually when I decide to publish it into the Plugin Directory.
Have you ever done something similar? For me, it was not the first plugin I publish after needing it for one specific site. Tomorrow, in my last advent calendar blog post, I will share another plugin like this with you.