WordPress Plugin Update
The AtD/WP.org plugin experienced some reworking this week. This release smooths the install process, adds a new feature, and fixes several bugs. Here are the highlights:
Auto-Proofread on Publish and Update
Many of you have told me “I love AtD but I keep forgetting to run it before I post”. Well, never fear. Mohammad Jangda and I have worked together to bring a new toy to you. AtD now has an auto-proofread on publish and update feature. You can enable it from your user profile page.
When enabled, this feature will run AtD against your post (or page) before a publish or update. If any errors are found, you’ll be prompted with a dialog:
It is then up to you. If you want to publish, click OK. Otherwise click Cancel to interact with the errors and make your changes. The next time you hit Publish your post will go through.
Define a Global AtD Key for WPMU Users
If you’re using WPMU and would like a way to set a global AtD key, we’ve got you covered. AtD now looks for an ATD_KEY constant before prompting for a key. If this constant exists, the ask for a key page goes away. You can also define ATD_SERVER and ATD_PORT if you’re running your own AtD server from our open source distribution. You can set these constants in wp-config.php.
Smoother Installation Process
For most of you, installing After the Deadline is a snap. For some of you, it doesn’t work out. It seems there are two issues that pop up and this update addresses them.
The first snag is many folks try to use their WordPress.com API key instead of their After the Deadline API key. Fortunately these have different forms and are easy to tell apart. The plugin now detects when you entered something other than an After the Deadline API key and gently notifies the user that an After the Deadline API key is different.
The second snag has to do with security. Many system administrators lock down a PHP installation by disabling functions that PHP scripts use to connect to other hosts on the internet. AtD connects to a service to do its job. AtD now detects this security measure and tells the user to contact their system administrator (along with what needs to be fixed).
This should help many of you out. As always, enjoy the update.
As a side note: the AtD/jQuery and AtD/TinyMCE extensions were both updated as well. These are minor fixes but you should get them if you’re using them in your app.
After the Deadline 
[…] fantabulous spelling and grammar checking plugin After the Deadline has just undergone another round of improvements. Now, you can add a global constant if […]
Looks like a great update to the plugin! I updated the plugin and added “define(‘ATD_KEY’, ‘YOURKEYHERE’);” with the correct key to my wp-config.php but I still get the “API key needed” messages in my blog dashboards. I’m using ron_r’s simple multi-site plugin and WPMU 2.8.6. What’s strange is that clicking the “enter your API key” link in the message redirects me to the dashboard of another blog on another of my sites. Any help you can offer would be appreciated. Thank you.
Hi Seth,
That shouldn’t be happening. I didn’t test on WPMU (as I don’t have a WPMU setup). I know it works fine in normal WP. I’ll try this out on Monday and see if I can troubleshoot further.
— Raphael
I’m thinking to add the same functionality to the bbPress plugin when I get some free time… 🙂
[…] WordPress Plugin Update « After the Deadline. AKPC_IDS += […]