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In version 0.7 of his WP-SNAP! plugin, Nathan has restored the ability to pass a category number directly to the plugin, making it once again compatible with WordPress Pages. This is great news, but I’ve opted not to include a glossary until I can meet all three glossary criteria.

In the current version of WP-SNAP! (0.61), plugin author Nathan has removed the option to pass a category number directly to the plugin. This means it is no longer compatible with Pages. Furthermore, I find that Jaykul’s Ubernyms does not play well with WordPress 2.1. So, I am taking my glossary offline until I find a better solution.

I’ve been looking for a way to create a glossary for this site that would:

• allow alphabetical navigation, of course. And take full advantage of a WordPress post’s title, excerpt and body for its display.
• automatically insert an indicator next to the glossary term in any post or page that links directly to the glossary.
• use WordPress’s categories to create hierarchical structures. The idea here is that you can create hierarchies to show relationships like synonyms or antonyms. I am only guessing that this is possible.

Well, two of three ain’t bad. (I’m still wondering if there is a way to show relationships between glossary terms.) To see the results in action, consider the term, microformats. The small pencil icon indicates it is a glossary term. Clicking it the term brings you to the Notebook glossary and a brief description. Clicking on the title brings up the complete post.

Step-by-Step

Disclaimer! I am not a programmer, just a keen user. Please keep that in mind as you read how I created the glossary:

1. Install and configure WP-SNAP! Nathan’s clever plugin (v0.5.1) offers a way to navigate through a category of posts using alphabetized pagination. Install and activate the plugin as per his directions. In the configuration options, I elected to display both title and excerpt, and accepted the default for the rest.
2. Create a Glossary Page and a unique glossary category. All glossary posts will be assigned this category. Add this line, which will display content for a glossary category only, to the Page
3. Include the conditional function, which checks to see if the plugin is enabled, and without which, the page borks when the plugin is disabled:

   <?php
        if (function_exists('wp_snap')) {
             echo wp_snap('catID');
   ?>

4. Install and configure Ubernyms. Jaykul’s remarkable plugin (v2.5) lets you configure words that you always want linked. In fact, it does far more than this, in particular can be used to configure a set of frequently used abbreviations. But for this project, simply add each new term to the configuration panel, assigning each one as Just Link and a Make Link to the glossary (e.g. for microformats it’s …/glossary/?snap=M)
5. Add CSS styling. Surprisingly, this step requires most of the effort. WP-SNAP! does not include any styling, so you must pull out the style sheet and go to town. Ubernyms does include styling, to which I added these lines to insert a small book icon next to the link to indicate it is a glossary item:

   a.uttJustLink {
        background: url('/pencil.png')
        center right no-repeat;
        padding-right: 12px;
   }
   

Limitations

I am quite happy to have my Notebook glossary up and running almost effortlessly. Still, nothing is perfect:

• There are just too many auto links. I mean, if you are prone to repetitive term syndrome like I am, and find occasion to microformats this and microformats that, you find yourself asking how many time do you really need to auto link microformats to the glossary in a single post? One microformats link really ought to do.
• There are conflicts with other link styling plugins such as Denis de Bernardy’s External Links plugin.
• By CSS styling the Ubernyms uttJustLink class, I’ve effectively eliminated the possibility of using non-glossary auto links because they too would be styled with the glossary book icon. It would be great to be able to add unique styling for glossary terms, or use some other technique all together. This is possible, but requires modifying the plugin. Jaykul has put this on his to-do list for future plugin developments.
• This is less a problem than a missed opportunity: The Ubernyms plugin makes use of DomTT tool-tips (a javascript library that lets you add custom tool-tips to web pages) that lets you add, say, definitions to the tool-tip. This lets you read the definition of the term simply by hovering your mouse over the term. There is no need to visit the Glossary. Even so, I hesitate to enter the same excerpt twice, in both the glossary and tool-tip. That’s antithetical to nature of a database-driven web site.

Feedback

If you try this approach for creating a glossary, or any suggestions how to better implement this idea, do share it by leaving a comment here.

For those (see comments) who can’t decide if chronological or alphabetical navigation is better, you might want to investigate Owen Kelly’s glossary implementation, which lets you alternate between both views. It’s part of his larger “Memi” project, an attempt to build a personal learning space. See the glossary in action in the development category page.

A glossary WordPress plugin is now available. The Internet Marketing Monitor offers IMM-Glossary, a plugin that has much of the same functionality as I’ve written here. It certainly is much easier to use than setting up two plugins to work together. In addition, it offers an option to link to just one instance of a term in a post or page, rather than all of them. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to take advantage of the WordPress posts structure and all the advantages that implies, or at least doesn’t integrate the terms into posts as well as WP-SNAP! does. For me that’s important, so I am sticking with the method I’ve written here. Yet, all in all, a plugin that definitely deserves your attention if you want a glossary for your WordPress site.