Sup everyone? I’ve been hard at work the past couple weeks coding up a few plugins that utilize the PkmnCards database, and while I’ve sent the stray Tweet and Facebook update on their progress, I thought I’d made a formal announcement about them here…
1. Pokemon Card Scan Linker for WordPress
I originally had this plugin running exclusively on SixPrizes in a very rudimentary form for a couple months, but decided to revamp it with more features and make it more user-friendly so other people with WordPress sites could use it too.
Basically what it does is search your content for mentions of Pokemon cards and links them to their respective entries in the PkmnCards database. Then, when the links are clicked, an elegant overlay emerges to show the card’s scan, specs, rating, pricing, and discussion, all via our database here.
The main draw to using the plugin is to provide reference images for all cards mentioned in your articles. Instead of having to explain what every card does that you talk about, or insert a bazillion images, the cards you discuss will be linked automatically and your readers will soon be speaking your language.
I’m hoping the plugin helps make it easier for new people to start Pokemon TCG blogs, as they’ll have a nice tool to make their site appear legitimate from the get-go. I know I wish I had this plugin when I first started 6P.
FAQ – Download it on WordPress.org
2. Pokemon Card Scan Linker for vBulletin
This is pretty much a carbon-copy of the WordPress plugin ported over to vBulletin, but with less features and settings (at least at the moment). It will check your vBulletin forum posts for mentions of Pokemon cards, and link them just as described above.
The reasons why this version of the plugin doesn’t come prepackaged with a goof-proof options page are A. I’m not that good at coding with vBulletin, B. I don’t like vBulletin’s add-on system, and C. I don’t envision too many sites using it anyway since it’s such a niche modification and there aren’t that many vB-fueled Pokemon TCG message boards.
That being said, I probably will refine it at some point incase there are any forum owners out there that want to use it. It is currently hosted directly on this site rather than vBulletin.org until I polish it up.
Despite the fact that it’s fairly bare bones, it does work, and if you want to customize the code to suit your needs, go for it dude.
3. Pokemon Card Search Engine for Firefox
You know how Firefox lets you select your search engine for its search box? You can add PkmnCards as one of your search engines! I’m sure most of you have probably figured out how to do this, but if you need instruction, watch this video.
And that wraps up the extent of the progress I’ve made on plugin creation over the past few weeks. If you know how to code and aren’t satisfied with my work, feel free to hack away at what I’ve written and make something even better if you can; just be sure to share your mods with me and the rest of the Pokemon TCG community.
