Deprecating and Replacing Bridgy Publish for WordPress

I’ve decided to take a different direction for the Bridgy plugin for WordPress. I’ve never quite been able to explain to people it doesn’t actually do anything. It’s a user interface for the Bridgy service. I’ve decided that the best thing to do is to is to change the approach radically.

Bridgy is a service that integrates with various sites…Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Github, and sends back comments, likes, etc to the original copies of the same posts on your site. There are a few similar services I’ve integrated with. It also has a feature called Publish where it allows you to syndicate your posts to those services.

This is something of an arms race, as APIs change all the time. Sometimes, there is no official established API. Ryan Barrett, the creator of Bridgy, announced in a blog post this week that due to Facebook API changes scheduled to take effect on August 1st, the Publish features of Bridgy for Facebook would be discontinued at the same time.

I’m writing this partly to lay out my plan in my mind as I’m working on writing this now. I’ve gone through a few different versions of this idea before settling on this.

The Bridgy plugin consists of two parts: The first part is a UI that is added to the post editor that consists of a series of checkboxes, and the corresponding code that triggers the same action from a post made over Micropub. The second part was added last summer, and is basically a registration page for registering for Bridgy.

I’ve opened an issue for discussion on whether I should move the second part into the main Indieweb plugin. Newcomers to the Indieweb could install the plugin, register for Bridgy inside it, and instantly start getting backfeed from other sites.

That brings us to the first part. The checkboxes. They will need to be rewritten, if I want them to continue, for the new post editor, Gutenberg, at some point. But, I don’t just want to syndicate via Bridgy. I want to syndicate to anywhere I can or choose to integrate in, both using the WordPress post editor and Micropub.

So, I’ve decided to integrate the top level of this, the logic that gets a request for syndication from the post editor or Micropub, inside Syndication Links.

Syndication Links displays icons which link to syndicated copies of posts. You’ll see them on this post. I keep adding in integrations to other plugins as people ask. I have Mastodon Auto Post, Keyring Social Importer, Medium, Social Network Auto Poster, and a few more. And I’ll likely continue to look at plugins that syndicate to other sites, figure out where they store their data, and display it as part of this plugin.

But now, this second part will expand the plugin into this territory of being a middleman for actually syndicating content. This is similar to what I did in Simple Location, where I have a series of providers for weather, location, maps, etc. and anyone could write a plugin(though only I have so far) that adds another provider.

To start, the first provider I’ll be including will be a rewritten version of Bridgy Publish, as well as my plan to add Indienews, as both are triggered by sending a webmention to a site.

At the point that I finish the alternative with feature parity to the existing code, I will discontinue development on the separate Bridgy plugin. It will mean one less plugin to maintain. Anyone who does not want to use the new features in Syndication Links…they will be off by default to start with.

It also means that, if I wanted to, I could add native publishing support for services in future. While there are certainly no end of Twitter/Facebook/etc plugins for WordPress, none of them quite understand syndicating a favorite to Twitter doesn’t mean a new tweet, it means something else. I can continue to write integrations for other plugins, or add new providers myself.

Not saying I’m going to do that. I’m only committing to what I’ve said above.

Finally, to all of you who liked the Bridgy Publish plugin…I’m curious to hear your comments on this. Bear in mind, I built the Bridgy Publish plugin to use it, and I still never migrated myself over to it. I would like to finally leave what I am using, and this would mean I could change providers without changing interfaces if I ever add something in future.

How I Set Up My Indieweb WordPress Site – 2018 Edition

This is an update to my 2014 article on how I set up my WordPress site. It was requested I update it.

Standard Plugins

  1. Character Count for Post Content and Excerpt(Link) – Because I need to be aware of the 140 character limit of Twitter, one of the services I send my content to, I need to know the character count of what I’m typing. This adds that to my editing screen. No longer using this plugin and could not find a replacement.
  2. EWWW Image Optimizer(Link) – It reduces file sizes for images to ensure faster loading
  3. Pushover Notifications(Link)or the forked alternative Pushbullet Notifications(Link) for WordPress – This plugin sends notifications of site events to my phone. The Pushover version is actively maintained and allows for extensions.
  4. Simple Local Avatars(Link) – Overrides the default of using the Gravatar service for profile pictures to storing them locally. However, this plugin hasn’t been updated in years. May look for a new one.
  5. WordPress SEO by Yoast(Link) – While I’m not obsessive about Search Engine Optimization, I find this plugin assists in my writing by reminding me about the importance of certain elements. While this is still a popular plugin and good for many people, it’s become a bit too aggressive for me.
  6. The SEO Framework (Link) – Sometimes, I think about getting rid of all SEO plugins. I’m not really obsessed with this. This does add non-Indieweb markup for some sites that require it. It isn’t worth it for me to manually add this right now.
  7. Hum(Link) – This is a simple URL shortener. So for each post, there is an equivalent URL address at di5.us. This allows me to give out easier to enter links to longer post titles.
  8. JSON Feed(Link) – Adds a JSON Feed to a WordPress site. This is an alternative to RSS as a feed. I’ve used it to feed my content to Micro.blog more effectively, as the specification was co-created by Manton Reece, who is the creator of that service. The plugin could stand some enhancement.
  9. Series(Link) – Creates a simple taxonomy called ‘Series’. I added this to my site to allow creating series of articles.
  10. WP Photo Sphere(Link) – For the rare occasions that I post 360 degree images. Rare as in I’ve only posted one.
  11. Social Network Auto Poster(Link) – I keep wanting to get rid of this thing. But I haven’t spent the time to replace it. Thinking of doing that soon.
  12. Simple Location(Link) – You can call this an Indieweb plugin, but it isn’t specifically an Indieweb technology(although it does use Microformats markup). It adds location and weather awareness to a post. So, you can click to add your location and the current weather conditions at that location to a post.
  13. Home Assistant for WordPress(Link) – I use Home Assistant for my Home Automation integration. Since it has an API, I wrote this simple plugin. While at the moment, I hope to add the ability to display information from any sensor and to update a sensor on the Home Assistant side from WordPress, I use it right now as an enhancement to Simple Location. Instead of getting my location from the browser, it gets it from my Home Assistant installation, which tracks my presence.

The Indieweb Stuff

  • WordPress Webmention(Link) – Adds webmention support for WordPress. This allows communications between sites.
  • Semantic Linkbacks(Link) – Adds richer content to WordPress comments received by Webmention. For example, interprets them as reply, repost, like, favorite, mention, etc. This allows different displays and actions to be done with them.
  • Semantic Comments(Link) – One of my own plugins. It changes the display of WordPress comments based on the information from Semantic Linkbacks. It presents the profile pictures in a Facepile for the various types of mentions with the comments separately below. This functionality has now been rolled into Semantic Linkbacks and is even better than it was.
  • Indieweb Taxonomy(Link) – Semantic Linkbacks is all about receiving webmentions for the various semantic types. But this plugin, another one of mine(although I credit several with contributions), adds new terms to WordPress posts for responding to content on another site. So, a post on this site can be a reply to another site, a like, etc. It will automatically send a webmention to the other site, if that site supports it, of course. Replaced by Post Kinds
  • Post Kinds (Link) – This replaced Indieweb Taxonomy. It is a replacement for the WordPress Post Formats which uses Indieweb post types. It allows you to respond to content on other sites, generates previews of those sites for context, allows you to post activity type posts(like watching, listening, reading, etc).
  • Syndication Links(Link) – Another project, which adds fields to a post for the corresponding versions on other networks. It also adds links to same to the post.
  • H-Card Tools – Still under development and not yet available for download, this is just the profile widget marked up appropriately, in the sidebar of the site. Some of this was rolled into the Indieweb plugin
  • Indieweb Plugin(Link) – The Indieweb plugin is not only a plugin installer, but it contains tools for adding rel-me links based on your profile, declaring the default author for your site, and adding a simple h-card widget to show off a primary author.

A Few Choices

  • There is an alternative to my Syndication Links plugin…a plugin called WordPress Syndication (Link).  It automatically adds the links to the post, and extracts the data from a variety of sources that post to other sites. This includes NextScripts Social Network Auto-Poster(Link) or Mailchimp’s Social plugin(Link), and even Bridgy(we’ll get back to Bridgy in a moment).
  • The theme I use is a custom one I built, but the most popular theme for Indieweb sites is Sempress(Link). My theme isn’t quite refined, but if you want it, a copy can be downloaded here. The version in use on my site is just a colored version of the minimal style the theme offers. I am currently using a fork of the WordPress Twenty-Sixteen theme(link) I modified for Microformats and support of the plugins I use.

Bridgy

Bridgy is not a WordPress plugin, or something you need to install(although you can host it yourself). Bridgy now has a WordPress plugin(link) which acts as a UI for registering and posting to Bridgy. Oddly enough, I wrote the plugin, but don’t actively use it. I need to fix my handling of syndication.

Bridgy is a service that you can link your accounts on places like Twitter, Github and Facebook to, and it will pull in comments, likes, etc from those sites and send them to your site to be integrated. This requires the Webmention and Semantic Linkback plugins to understand what is being sent.

To the Future

I enjoy developing this site as a learning tool. I hadn’t done much WordPress development before this and it is very useful to know.

For anyone who comes here considering trying my setup, I’m always available to help. For those who are trying my plugins…they are still being refined, but feedback and contributions(of code) are appreciated.

This site is under development, so it does change regularly. I will often summarize some of the changes with a post, but sometimes not.

Etiquette question: You are sitting at a table in a public place, reading quietly and drinking a beverage. At the adjoining table is an individual watching a video, volume turned all the way up, and no headphones. What is the correct course of action?
Episode 2 – Explaining IndieAuth and other Developments


In this third episode of An IndieWeb Podcast, I invited Chris to discuss my project of the last few months, the IndieAuth endpoints for WordPress, and some related Micropub work I’ve been doing, and some other ideas, and try to teach him about IndieAuth, so far as I understand it.

 

WordPress Plugin for IndieAuth

Related IndieWeb Wiki Pages

Micropub Apps Mentioned in the episode

 

PESOS – Post Elsewhere, Syndicate to your Own Site

POSSE – Post on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere

Closing discussion of IndieWeb Readers and MicroSub Pieces

Episode 1 – Leaving Facebook for What?

This second episode was originally recorded in March, abruptly ended, and then was not completed until April due scheduling. In it, Chris and I discuss the hot topic of Facebook scandals and where you might go if you decide to leave Facebook.

Show Notes

The originating articles that kicked off the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica issue:

 

Other related articles:

Recent Documented Facebook Quitters:

Jonathan LaCour: https://cleverdevil.io/2018/ive-officially-deleted-my-facebook-account-and

Eddie Hinkle: https://eddiehinkle.com/2018/03/22/5/article/

Natalie Wolchover: https://twitter.com/nattyover/status/975711260221362177

New York Times Profile of multiple quitters: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/technology/users-abandon-facebook.html

IndieWeb Wiki related pages of interest here:

Potential simple places to move to when leaving Facebook

 

Sebastian Greger’s Privacy policy: https://sebastiangreger.net/privacy-policy/

Mastodon not supporting Webmention specification: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/6074#issuecomment-378452136

The IndieAuth plugin update I was writing about last week finally got released to the WordPress repository. It’s a great development for the community. You can now use your website to log into a variety of different services.

IndieAuth for WordPress

Part of my own project for this week, while taking off for the holiday, was to complete work on an Indieauth endpoint for WordPress.

IndieAuth is a layer on top of OAuth 2.0, a standard that grants websites or applications access to their information on other websites but without providing passwords.

OAuth is already being used by a variety of services…Login with Facebook or Login with Google options on sites are usually OAuth based. The difference is that for IndieAuth, users and clients are all represented by URLs.

Authorization Prompt for Indieauth for WordPress

So, why did I want to build one? A few reasons. The most popular use for a IndieAuth server as authentication for Micropub clients. Micropub is a standard for creating posts using third-party clients.

WordPress is moving toward deprecating their post interface in favor of a totally new one called ‘Gutenberg’. As a long time WordPress user, the focus on this concerns me as it does not necessarily represent my needs or desires as a user of the platform. So, I want to have options.

Currently, OAuth servers for WordPress of all types are limited. The REST API, which was heralded with much optimism, lacks an OAuth authentication method. In fact, it lacks any built-in authentication options other than the WordPress login for external authentication.

There is an incomplete project for an OAuth2 server for WordPress I did get some useful ideas from, however. I also have to thank Aaron Parecki, who wrote a book on OAuth2 and wrote the Indieauth specification, for reviewing my work and giving lots of feedback.

What I’ve built, with help, is a working IndieAuth authentication method that works for the REST API, among other things.

Since I wanted this to be widely adoptable, I needed to make sure of a secure implementation, and I think the results are a good initial version. There is an opportunity for further refinements and improvements, but it means that WordPress users are no longer dependent on Indieauth.com, the reference implementation of the spec which uses OAuth providers like Github and Twitter to authenticate.

This leads to my hopes for the future. There are people working on Micropub clients for Android. And if any of them pans out, or my own mobile options, I could easily post notes to my site from wherever I am using tools that are much more flexible to my needs than are available now, the culmination of nearly 4 years of moving toward this point, on and off.

The success for me will be able to read something on my phone, and quickly share that to my site. Or have a thought and quickly share it to my site, without having to spend so much time setting it up I think better of it.

There are still pieces that need work to achieve that, but this is a major piece knocked off.

For a while now, my website has been able to ask the browser for its location and use that to add location to posts. The problem is it is frequently inaccurate. So, I’ve been working on allowing my website to query other information sources to find out my location. The first one is my home automation system, which tracks my location to determine if I’m in the house or not. The same system also has the data from my weather station…I also post weather on my site.  So, by doing this I can have the most accurate information when I post. Although it thinks I am next door when I check it against my house.

Working on Integrations

Spending some time working on integrations. Specifically, integrating data from my home automation systems into my website. In previous iterations, I have added support for weather to posts…but not directly from my own weather station. Added support for location, but not directly from my own phone’s location.

I am trying to decide how far I want to go. For example, in addition to actual coordinates, I have a property for my location that allows for the following options: At Home, Just Left Home, At Work, Just Left Work, Just Arrived Home, Away, and Extended Away. do I want to actually identify where I am, either with granular or general location just because I can? Or do I just want to add context to a post when I’m saying something else.

There are lots of other integrations I’m looking to do, for various reasons. There is a lot of data I’d like to store in my site that you won’t be able to see, for historic and future purposes.

This is a problem people may have solved on other sites, but I’m trying to solve it for myself. Especially since anything I post on my site is syndicated elsewhere.

This is a test episode of An Indieweb Podcast(working title). In it, Chris Aldrich and I talk about a variety of Indieweb topics, with the theme of Considering the User, inspired by an article we were reading.

Part of this is an opportunity to improve audio post presentation on my website, so you will see audio posts improve over time.