This is an information and discussion page for the WordPress plugin, Automatic Featured Image Posts. Feel free to leave comments or suggestions about the plugin below or download Automatic Featured Image Posts through the WordPress repository. You can also fork and/or contribute to Automatic Featured Image Posts on GitHub!
General Overview / Use Case
Early in 2011, my wife and I took an extended trip to Europe and ended up with a couple thousand photos that we still haven’t found time to go through properly so that we can share. Once we started thinking about it some more, it seemed that the best interface would be collaborative and something that we owned. While we could upload all of the photos to Flickr or Picasa and then go through and add titles and captions, there was something appealing about using WordPress instead.
Automatic Featured Image Posts is this:
- Use the built in media upload functions in WordPress to upload images.
- As each image is saved, a new post is created.
- Once the post is created, the uploaded image is assigned as the new post’s featured image.
- And repeat. Or not.
This is really great when combined with the drag and drop media uploader introduced in WordPress 3.3. Also really great when combined with a theme that makes good use of featured images, such as the version of Autofocus released the other day on WordPress.com.
Of course, there’s not too much to it after that. I’ve definitely solved my major use case, though I want to go back in and add more options of Exif data to automatically populate post content and the like if that Exif data is available.
Contact / Suggestions / Requests
If you have any suggestions or requests, feel free to toss them over to me in an email at jeremy.felt@gmail.com, as an issue on GitHub or leave a comment on the WordPress support forums.
Clarification & Further Instructions
- Please make sure that this plugin is a good fit with your theme before using. You may want to do a few test images first to see how your theme handles them. In the case of a theme like Twenty Eleven, only featured images that are large enough will appear in the header by default. In the case of a theme like Autofocus, all featured images will make some sort of impact on the front end. In other themes, featured images may not be in use at all and you’ll be left with posts that have no content.
- The WordPress codex page for Post Thumbnails has a lot of good info on featured images and how to enable them and use them in your theme.
Update – version 0.2
- If you are adding an image or images through the Edit Post or New Post screens, the new posts that are created will be assigned the same categories as the post you are adding them through. If no categories have been assigned to the current post, or if you are adding images through the Media screen, the default category for your WordPress installation will be used.
Update – version 0.3
- Support for custom post types was added. If you have an existing custom post type registered, you can choose to assign the featured image to a new post of that type by default.
Update – version 0.4
- A more technical update. Switched from using the wp_update_attachment_metadata filter to the add_attachment hook. Should be a better fit overall.
Update – version 0.5
- Support for post formats was added. If your theme registers it’s support for post formats, an option to select one will be provided in settings.
- A warning screen will now show in settings if your theme does not support featured images.
- Code cleanup.
Update – version 0.6
- Adds 3 filters to allow themes and plugins to modify the new post’s title, content, and categories before it is saved.
- Filters in Automatic Featured Image Posts – a full write up with examples.
Update – version 0.7
- Fixes a bug in the way new post dates were being saved. The new post date should now mimic what WordPress is set for.