Modifying Details form on new post

Frankly, if you don’t know enough PHP to find that, you should not be editing it ?? – unless you’re trying to learn PHP, HTML, CSS, and plugin structure, then simple plugins like this are a good playground but this is the wrong forum to ask about PHP.

And once you modify it, you own it! New bugs are your bugs. And you’re locking yourself out of any new features and bug fixes from the original developer.

This post and your other one about the submission form are feature requests, not bug fixes, and they are not as simple as they may sound. It is up to the developer to include them in a future release or not.

If this plugin does not provide the functionality you want and it’s not clear whether that functionality will be included in the future, then perhaps you should select another plugin that does what you want right out of the box.

You are right that some newbies want to run before they can walk – and that the consequences could be fatal. PHP is beyond me, and probably always will be. But the child theme structure encourages experimentation and trial and error, even in PHP; and I already have a child function.php file up and running.

And I do bring some attributes to the table in that I am a professional graphic designer and wordsmith and did long ago produce a couple of basic websites with the help of Adobe GoLive. And ever since I foolishly volunteered to create a website for a beautiful woman, I have been studying CSS almost 24/7 at w3schools.com, albeit on a non-structured firefighting basis. So I’m suffering from information overload and taking things slowly. My testimonials section alone will have taken me a week to develop.

I take your point that I might find the functionality I’m looking for in another plugin – but I did thoroughly research all the testimonial plugins I could find and concluded that this one would be the easiest for a novice to get to grips with. I may yet be forced to abandon ship but I won’t give up without a fight. Other plugins may simply present me with new problems so, for now, I’m wedded to this one – in sickness and in health.

I applaud your efforts, chappie. I have made a career of experimentation, trial, and error. I certainly don’t want to discourage that, but it would be irresponsible for someone to point you toward the deep end without knowing how well you can swim.

Here’s a good thread on modifying plugins:
https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/22935/proper-way-to-modify-plugin.

I would also like the custom fields functionality you describe and maybe this is my tipping point for forking this plugin. I will reach out to the plugin author first.

Thanks for the link, Chris: it’s a sobering read – and a slap for me for imaging that I could do what I want in a plugin child file.

That said, some of the simple PHP mods discussed in an old thread here which I linked to yesterday do look easy enough for at least changing labels…so I will probably risk that, once I have backed up the PHP file. The price I pay will be to do it again if/when the plugin is updated, or to stay with the current version.

First time I’ve heard the term “forking” in polite circles but I like the sound of it. I’ll be first in line.