ComicPress Manager

Johnny

ComicPress Manager

The ComicPress Manager plugin works in conjunction with an installation of ComicPress , the Webcomic theme for WordPress . ComicPress Manager is intended to reduce the amount of work required to administer a site running ComicPress. It exists because I’m both lazy and busy. :)

Download the latest version from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory . By downloading from the directory, you’ll receive auto-update notifications when new versions are released.

  • Upload individual comic files or a Zip archive of comic files directly into your comics folder and generate posts for each comic as it’s uploaded with the correct go-live date and time
    • To save a trip to the Edit Post page, you can use the Visual Editor right in ComicPress Manager to add styled text content to your post.
    • Using this method ensures that the post has the correct date and time as it’s being created, reducing mistakes in posting.
    • You can also upload a single file that does not specify a date in the filename, and enter in the post date on the upload page.
    • You can also replace a single existing file with any other file, preserving the original file’s name after upload
    • If you’re using a different date naming convention, you can convert the old convention to the currently defined date naming convention
  • Use a stripped-down version of the Comic uploader straight from the Write menu (Write -> Comic)
  • Upload thumbnails directly to the archive and RSS folders
  • Generate thumbnails for all uploaded comics for your archive and RSS folders
  • Re-generate thumbnails after you’ve changed thumbnail parameters
  • Get a quick status & sanity check on your installation
    • ComicPress Manager will check to see if:
    • Your comics, archive, and RSS folders exist
    • Your comics, archive, and RSS folders are writable by the Webserver (if you’re generating thumbnails)
    • You have enough categories defined to use ComicPress
    • You have defined a valid blog category (and comic category for ComicPress 2.5)
    • You’re using a ComicPress-derived theme
      • NOTE: This check is done by examining the name of the theme as defined in style.css. If you want this non-fatal check to succeed, leave the term “ComicPress” in the theme title.
    • You have comics in your comics folder (if there aren’t any, it could be a sign of other problems)
    • You can also disable these checks once you know your configuration is correct, to improve performance
    • Additionally, you can see a table that shows what posts have comics, what comics have posts, and which of each have thumbnails.
  • Preview the comic that will go live with your comic post
    • Save a trip to your blog and see what comic will be going live with your post straight from the Write Post screen. You are also informed if thumbnails exist for this comic.
  • Create any missing posts for comics that have been uploaded to your comics folder
    • If you’re migrating from another Webcomic hosting solution, or if you prefer to directly transfer your comics into your comics folder, then you can generate posts for all comics that don’t already have posts.
  • Delete a comic file and the associated comic post
    • If you need to remove a comic, take care of both the file and the post at the same time to save yourself some time. ComicPress Manager plays it safe during this operation, and will not delete a comic if more than one post appears in your comic category for that day (which shouldn’t happen anyway with the current version of ComicPress).
  • Change the post dates and comic filenames for any comic you’ve uploaded
    • You can use this advanced feature to shift a large number of comics forward or backwards in time.
  • Modify your comicpress-config.php file from ComicPress Manager.
    • If you’re using a comicpress-config.php file, and the permissions are set correctly, you can modify the settings directly from ComicPress manager. If your permissions are not correct, the config file that ComicPress Manager would have written will be shown so that you can copy and paste it into your comicpress-config.php file.
    • If your config goes awry, you can also restore from a backup config.

Additionally, on your Dashboard, you’ll see the latest stories from the ComicPress site, so you can keep up on updates, upgrades, and other news to make your Webcomics publishing using WordPress/ComicPress easier and more fun.

ComicPress Manager is built for WordPress 2.5.1 and ComicPress 2.1 and 2.5. ComicPress Manager works on PHP 4, but using PHP 5 is strongly recommended.

Before you begin working with ComicPress Manager, and especially while the software is still in development, it is recommended that you make regular backups of your WordPress database and comics folder.

More information about the plugin, including Frequently Asked Questions can be found on the plugin’s page on WordPress.org .

ComicPress Manager is released under the GNU GPL version 2.0 or later.  ComicPress Manager uses the Dynarch DHTML Calendar Widget .

If you’ve found ComicPress Manager useful, please consider making a donation to support its development. If you make a donation, no matter how small, I’ll put a link to your site right here.  I am not responsible for the content on linked to sites. :)

Thanks to all the folks below for their generous donations:


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