Nightline Association WordPress Plugins

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Instant Messaging Button Embed (Plugin)

You can use this plugin to allow people visiting your WordPress website to see when your IM service is open, and when it is open, allow them to start a new chat with you.

Requirements

• Access to your WordPress Admin and plugin page, so that you can install the plugin.
• The code for an IM space on the Nightline Portal. For instance, the code for https://portal.nightline.ac.uk/im/demo in the URL to your IM space would be demo.

Setting it up

1. Download the latest version of nla-im-button-embed.zip from the NLA IM Button Embed Plugin, listed under 'Assets', from the Releases page.
2. Log into the Admin panel of your WordPress website.
3. On the menu bar, click Plugins.
4. On the plugins page, click Add New, and then Upload Plugin.
5. Upload the nla-im-button-embed.zip file, and then click Install Now.
6. Once the plugin hs been installed, click Activate Now.

Add the button to your website

1. Log into the Admin panel of your WordPress website.
2. Navigate to the page you want to add the IM button to, and click Edit Page.
3. Click the + button in the top-left corner, and search the block list for Shortcode, and drag it to where you want it on the page.
4. To the Shortcode block, add the text: [im_embed_btn im-code="YOUR_CODE"], replacing YOUR_CODE with the code to the IM space you want to link to.
5. Click Update in the top-right corner to publish the page.

Customising your embed

IM Embed Settings

You can access the IM Embed Settings page in the WordPress Dashboard by going to Settings and selecting IM Embed Settings.

• Base URL: if you're using the Nightline Portal, you should leave this box blank.
• IM open text: you can change the text that appears on the embed button when your IM space is open.
• IM closed text: you can change the text that's shown when your IM space is closed.

Style changes

• You can customise the alignment (left, right or center) of the embed by adding align="left", align="right" or align="center" to your shortcode. For instance, [im_embed_btn im-code="YOUR_CODE" align="center"].

Find my Nightline (Plugin)

You can use this plugin to allow people to find the Nightline services that covers their higher education institution. It does this by pinging Portal for the relevant data. It is the same as the Find my Nightline tool displayed on the Nightline Association homepage.

Requirements

• Access to your WordPress Admin and plugin page, so that you can install the plugin.

Setting it up

1. Download the latest version of nla-find-my-nightline.zip from the NLA Find my Nightline Plugin, listed under 'Assets', from the Releases page.
2. Log into the Admin panel of your WordPress website.
3. On the menu bar, click Plugins.
4. On the plugins page, click Add New, and then Upload Plugin.
5. Upload the nla-find-my-nightline.zip file, and then click Install Now.
6. Once the plugin hs been installed, click Activate Now.

Add the widget to your website

1. Log into the Admin panel of your WordPress website.
2. Navigate to the page you want to add the Find my Nightline component to, and click Edit Page.
3. Click the + button in the top-left corner, and search the block list for Shortcode, and drag it to where you want it on the page.
4. To the Shortcode block, add the text: [find_my_nightline].
5. Click Update in the top-right corner to publish the page.

Development

You can use Composer to install the necessary linting and code analysis tools for working with WordPress code. The minimum PHP version we target is regrettably 7.4.

The code is formatted in compliance with the WordPress coding standards. One day they'll switch to PER, but that day is not today.

NB: It is very important to bump version numbers when you have updated a specific plugin. For plugins with compiled source code included in the distributable, such as Find my Nightline, it is vital to ensure that any changes have been compiled and committed for release.

License

GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPL-2)