How much does Pods cost?
Pods is free and will remain free, but check out how much effort it’s taken to get it to where it is today!
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sc0ttkclark
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sc0ttkclark
Pods 2.0 has arrived!
Background
The Pods Framework has been around since late 2008. Planning, design, development, and testing started in 2010 for Pods 2.0 leading to an Alpha release on January 2nd, 2012. Beta was released on August 12th, 2012. Now Pods 2.0 has finally arrived, as of September 21st, 2012!
After our soft launch, we’ve been working on bug fixes for the past few weeks to ensure maximum stability and backwards compatibility before going full force with our 2.0 announcement. That point has been reached and we’re ready for the flood of new users that awaits, including our awesome Pods 1.x users who are anxious to upgrade.
Have at it, and most of all — Enjoy the freedom of developing any type of content with any type of field that you can think of for WordPress!
Bug Reports / Feature Requests
Please report bugs and suggest features in our GitHub Issues area. We’ve got an awesome feature line up for Pods 2.1 that is already in progress, we’ll announce our 2.1 testing program in the next month. Pods 2.1 is scheduled to be released alongside WordPress 3.5 on December 5th, 2012.
Big Thanks to our Sponsors!
We have to really thank Automattic and Matt Mullenweg for all they’ve done to help us, we honestly could not have finished Pods 2.0 and taken it to the next level without their support.
RD2 provided some awesome UI design work for our new 2.0 upgrade screens.
MarkNet Group provided extra help when we needed it to keep the project going over the past two years, major kudos!
What’s new?
Below is a feature list that goes over what 2.0 offers, we hope you enjoy it as much as we have while we’ve used it on our own projects.
- Slick new interface, fully revamped to make managing your Pods easy and stress-free
- Large performance enhancements using transients and object caching (reducing queries per page load in both dashboard and site to the lowest possible number, sometimes that’s ZERO)
- New Upgrade wizard screens designed by RD2 will help you upgrade from previous versions and report any potential known issues beforeit actually upgrades your site
- We’ve partnered with Automattic to offer 1 free month of VaultPress service to users upgrading from Pods 1.x, you will see the offer in the upgrade screens.
- We’ve also partnered with iThemes to offer 25% off of a BackupBuddy license to users upgrading from Pods 1.x, you will see the offer in the upgrade screens.
- Add New Pod wizard guides you through creating or extending content types with custom fields
- Create New Content Types
- Custom Post Types
- Custom Taxonomies
- Advanced Content Types (each type lives in it’s own table, outside of the WP object architecture)
- Extend Existing Content Types
- Post Types (Posts, Pages, Existing Custom Post Types)
- Taxonomies (Categories, Tags, Existing Custom Taxonomies)
- Media
- Users
- Comments
- Create New Content Types
- Choose to store your data using meta-based storage (default) or custom table-based storage
- New Field Editor and Field Types
- New Field Type options built in (no more input helpers for most common input types!)
- Date / Time – Date, Time, or both
- Number – Plain Number or Currency
- Text – Plain Text, Website, Phone, E-mail, or Password
- Paragraph Text – Plain Paragraph, WYSIWYG (TinyMCE or CLEditor, or add your own), or Code (Syntax Highlighting)
- Color Picker – Choose colors, because colors are great (Using the default WP color picker, Farbtastic in 3.4)
- Yes / No – You can’t really go wrong with a checkbox, but we’ve added a few charms to make it stand out
- File / Image / Video – Upload new media or select from existing ones with our Media Library integration, or use a simple uploader, your choice
- Relationships – Relate any item, to any item of any WP object type or another Pod, now with improved Bidirectional relationship support
- New Field Type options built in (no more input helpers for most common input types!)
- New grouping fields API on the Add/Edit forms for Post Types, Taxonomies, Media, Users, and Comments (We’re adding a management UI for this coming in 2.1)
- New Shortcode popup integration with TinyMCE editor (now provide one-off templates within the shortcode itself)
- New Widgets (and provide one-off templates within the widget itself)
- New Form UI front and back
- New Attachments option available for File Uploads allows you to click “Attach” and select media items from the normal built-in WP Media Library pop-up
- New Componentsallow additional functionality to be enabled but not loaded if you don’t want/need them
- Pod Templates
- Pod Pages
- Pod Helpers
- Roles and Capabilities
- Add / Edit Roles (Administrator, Editor, etc..)
- Add / Edit Capabilities for each Role
- Markdown Syntax for Paragraph Text fields
- Migrate: Import from Custom Post Type UI
- Import Custom Post Types and Taxonomies created by the Custom Post Type UI plugin
- Import them all, or choose a few
- Optionally cleanup the Custom Post Type UI options when done, removing the imported objects from it’s control
- Basic WPML Integration and confirmed Polylang compatibility
- Fully Localized interface and error messages! All of our text strings in the plugin now run through the i18n functions. We don’t have any translations yet, but we’re looking at getting GlotPress setup for translators to start getting in.
- Requires at least WordPress 3.4 and is tested against WordPress 3.4 and 3.5 releases
Not sure about Pods 2.0 yet? Screenshot time!
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hsatterwhite
Holy Cow in a plugin Scott! I’ve been looking at it since Thursday afternoon and it’s absolutely wonderful. The UI is great, intuitive, and very forgiving when you’re making mistakes. Love seeing how far you’ve come with Pods as it is by far one of the most powerful plugins/frameworks/extendomatic-in-a-box things to to ever happen to WordPress.
I’m a big fan of how you re-vamped “Helpers”. Using it as a custom post type with the built-in WordPress revisions feature is spot on smart. This is honestly the first time I’ve ever looked at Pods 2.0 in any of its forms. The really cool thing to me is that you created “Helpers” in a way that provides flexibility and history. Using Code Mirror for syntax highlighting, storing it as a custom post type, and utilizing WordPress’ built-in revisions function takes “Helpers” light years beyond what it was in the 1.x.x releases. As a long time user of Pods I’m completely overjoyed with Pods 2.0!
Again, thanks for all that you’ve contributed to the WordPress community.
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sc0ttkclark
It’s messages like these that make what I do worth it. That’s exactly what I set out to do for Pods 2.0, so I’m very glad that was successful!
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sc0ttkclark
Pods 2.0 Alpha 11 is out, if you’re wondering where all the other alpha versions went, they were here and gone in a flash as I’ve been committing fixes and features like crazy this weekend!
Latest big ticket item that @mpvanwinkle and I have been working on since this past Fall has been the Meta box integration for Post Types, Taxonomies, Media, Users, and Comments. In the latest alpha, we’ve now got integration into each one of those forms (both add and edit!). It’s dynamic, so any field you create for your pods that are integrated with those objects will appear in the corresponding object’s forms. Storage is meta only right now, working on getting further support for the Pods table-based storage for each of the objects.
Form UI work will be progressing further this week as @mikedamage will be working on it heavily. We’ll be working on getting that done and pushed into an upcoming 2.0 alpha for both admin and front (theme-side) forms.
Get in on the alpha today and check it all out, provide feedback, and of course test
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sc0ttkclark
Pods 2.0 Alpha 6 is out, includes some bug fixes and a new updater that will allow you to upgrade from within WordPress to the latest alpha/beta versions as they come out via the 2.0 branch in GitHub.
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sc0ttkclark
Gravity Forms Integration – Need testers!
Beta testing of the new Gravity Forms integration with Pods is going on NOW!
This code has evolved as it’s been used on a number of my projects since I started using Gravity Forms when it first came out back in 2009. I’ve refactored it a bit, and it’s now available for devs to geek out with their PHP out.
It doesn’t have a UI yet, so it’s really meant to be tested on a manual PHP integration at the moment.
This component will be baked into Pods 2.0 itself, but the code as it is right now was built to work with Pods 1.12+
Mapping a GF entry to a new Pod item
To map a GF entry, hook into the gform_post_submission action for the form you want to integrate with. I usually hook into the gform_post_submission action itself and handle all my forms within a few if/else statements. Once in the function that runs during that action, you just map your $entry array to the Pods_GravityForms::map function.
Pods_GravityForms::map( $entry, $pod_name, $mapping );
$mapping is a key=>value array of fields (key is the GF field ID, value is the pod column name).
In $mapping, you can provide an array for the value, which can contain many other options. Some examples of these would be ‘field’ (the name of the Pod field to save into), ‘bool’ (see below for BOOLEAN fields), ‘default’ (the value to set if no value is given by the form), and ‘bypass_value_set’ (don’t get the value from the GF field value, always use the ‘default’ for value).
For PICK fields, Pods will check to see if the value passed by GF is numeric, if not, it will look up your items by name and try to find the best match. I usually setup my corresponding fields in GF to send back the value as the Pod item ID I want to relate to. You can optionally create your own dynamic field options with the ‘gform_pre_render’ action in GF, hooking into the field’s ‘choices’ array, set the text and value as you need.
For BOOLEAN fields, Gravity Forms sends back Yes / No, or other text depending on how you’ve labeled that field. In those cases, set your map field array value of ‘bool’ to the ‘Yes’ value you want to be triggered by.
Creating a Faux $entry array during validation / pre-processing
Since Gravity Forms doesn’t give you a standard data array both in pre AND post, with this code you can also build a faux $entry array in your GF validation / pre-processing. This also makes it possible to map a GF entry to a Pod before the entry has actually been created in GF.
$entry = Pods_GravityForms::setup_entry( $gf_validation );
That’s the simple version of it, there’s a lot more complexity built in that I’ll try to get some more examples posted here asap.
A few extra methods for most common needs
In most of my form integrations with GF, I’ve had a need for a few methods that I threw in here for your enjoyment as well!
Auto delete the entry GF creates, which runs after post-processing:
Pods_GravityForms::auto_delete( $form_id );
Auto login a user from GF User Registration form:
Pods_GravityForms::auto_login();
Set a select field’s values to pull from a Pod instead of being static/hard coded:
Pods_GravityForms::dynamic_select( $form_id, $field_id, $pod_name, $label_column_name, $params );
Get the Pods + Gravity Forms integration code at GitHub
https://github.com/pods-framework/pods/blob/2.0/components/GravityForms.php
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magi182
Here is a basic example for the Gravity FormsPods connector class:
For a basic contact form, with name, email, website, and comment fields numbered 1, 2, 3, 4.
add_action("gform_post_submission_1", "push_to_pods_test", 10, 2);
// the _1 limits this hook to run only on form id = 1function push_to_pods_test($entry, $form) {
// the function accepts two parameters, but we're going to deal
// exclusively with the $entry object (contains only the user-entered data)$pod_name = 'cf_submission';
// the name of the destination pod$mapping = array(
"1" => "name",
"2" => "email",
"3" => "website",
"4" => "message"
);
// $mapping contains a key=>value array of fields
// (the key is the GF field ID, the value is the pod column name).Pods_GravityForms::map( $entry, $pod_name, $mapping );
// do it!}
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magi182
Here’s a little more complicated example, including some pick fields. You can map any field that is part of the $entry object, and there are lots more than just the ones from your Gravity Forms fields. So it might be worth doing a little print_r($entry); investigation as part of your hooked function. Of course, both of these examples belong in the functions.php of your active theme.
In the Gravity Form used below, date_created is the date/time recorded when the form was submitted, gender and t_shirt_size are both pick fields. The name and lastname fields are populated from specific fields inside a GF advanced “Name” input.
add_action("gform_post_submission_2", "push_to_pods", 10, 2);function push_to_pods($entry, $form) {
$num_entries = rgpost('input_1');
// you can the fetch the value of a single entry if you need it for logic later in the import// print_r($entry); // if you want to look around a little
$pod_name = 'participant';
$mapping_1 = array(
"date_created" => "date_registered",
"3.3" => "name",
"3.6" => "lastname",
"4" => array ("field" => "gender"),
"5" => array ("field" => "t_shirt_size"),
// Extra parameters can be added by passing an array. Here,
// field contains the column name the pick should map to
"6" => "birthdate"
// dates will come in as date objects
);
if ( $num_entries >= 1 )
Pods_GravityForms::map( $entry, $pod_name, $mapping_1, '', true );
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magi182
posted too quick…
add_action("gform_post_submission_2", "push_to_pods", 10, 2);function push_to_pods($entry, $form) {
$num_entries = rgpost('input_1');
// you can the fetch the value of a single entry if you need it for logic later in the import// print_r($entry);
$pod_name = 'participants';
$mapping_1 = array(
"date_created" => "date_registered",
"3.3" => "name",
"3.6" => "lastname",
"4" => array ("field" => "gender"),
"5" => array ("field" => "t_shirt_size"),
// Extra parameters can be added by passing an array. Here,
// field contains the column name the pick should map to
"6" => "birthdate"
// dates will come in as date objects
);
if ( $num_entries >= 1 )
Pods_GravityForms::map( $entry, $pod_name, $mapping_1 );
}
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cueman
This is all very well and good, but instead of adding more and more features to Pods 2.0, how about just getting it out the door? It’s already a year past the original target release date. The kickstarter thing seemed to suggest that by putting in money, the release would come soon. Keep on adding stuff and it might not even be out in 2012.
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sc0ttkclark
Thanks for the feedback. I’m more aware than anyone of the timeline issues, and I’ve posted updates explaining everything here before so I don’t have to go too far into it. This was a crucial feature of 2.0′s release cycle that I haven’t spent more than a few hours of my Pods time on, this was the result of client work over the past few years, actually previous to 2.0 development itself.
Keep a look out for more progress on 2.0 as I’ve recently hired Fifth Room Creative on to help get the remainder of 2.0 ready. Thanks for your patience and I’m looking forward to the upcoming 2.0 beta.
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magi182
Not to white knight Scott here, but a few points:
Contributing to a kickstarter for an open source, free project is not the same thing as paying for a fee-for-service project.
During the time period, Pods has received regular updates — and many of the 2.0 features have been rolled out as a part of the updates process.
Time is more valuable than money. Even if you were to kick in $1000, that would realistically fund 10-15 hours of development time.If you want it out sooner, pitch in answering help requests on the discussion board, volunteer to knock out some punchlist items, offer to test some completed code, write up documentation for an undocumented or poorly documented feature, hang out on the IRC channel and answer support requests… Open source only works when people treat it like a community, not a service.
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cueman
I think that mentioning kickstarter obscured the message I wanted to convey somewhat, which was that I was worried that Pods 2.0 might be suffering from feature creep. Scott’s reply seems to suggest that’s not the case.
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sc0ttkclark
Thanks for the clarification
Feature creep has been managed, I’ve organize an assault on the remaining 2.0 features and have pushed any fluff to 2.x
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sc0ttkclark
This class is in Pods 2.0, I’ll continue updating it there. To get access to it, simply go to:
https://github.com/pods-framework/pods/blob/2.0/components/GravityForms.php
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magi182
Noticed a couple issue — the first is either it is a documentation issue or a bug:
Pods created by the Gravity Forms add-on do not auto-generate a slug if the slug is left blank. When the docs are written up, slug auto-generation needs to either be integrated, or an example left in the docs for slug auto generation.
With pods entries created by the Gravity Forms add-on — if a GF form field is left blank, a single letter is entered in the Pods form field.
Awesome work on this Scott! Thanks!
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sc0ttkclark
Aha, thanks for the heads up, will get that looked into and fixed
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sc0ttkclark
Best place for bug reports is in our GitHub though, feel free to add a report there when you’re able to.
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sc0ttkclark
Pods 2.0 Alpha Testing
Current Alpha Version: 35 (08/07/2012)
How to Install
First, Grab the ZIP on our GitHub, extract the contents of the “pods-framework-pods-XXXXX” folder inside and upload it into a new folder located at wp-content/plugins/pods-2.0/ (Use pods-2.0 as the folder name instead of just ‘pods’ in order to allow you to flip between Pods 1.x and 2.0 during testing)
Stay Up-to-date
As future fixes and features are added, we’ll commit them to the Pods GitHub 2.0 branch. As of Alpha 6, you can now upgrade from within WordPress directly to the latest Alpha/Beta release, which pulls from our GitHub account. You’ll see the update usually within a few hours of a commit. You can also keep an eye out for new releases by subscribing via https://github.com/pods-framework/pods/commits/2.0.atom
Bugs / Feature Requests
Testers please report bugs and suggest features in our GitHub Issues area
Alpha Information
It’s the first of many alphas, so there is still much to be done and tweaked. Please remember that Pods 2.0 Alpha is NOT production/live site ready, so do not attempt to upgrade your existing Pods installations.
Here’s a list of what you can start checking out so far in the current Alpha. Everything else is still in the works and should begin appearing in future alphas as they are finished and tweaked, but be aware there’s a LOT on it’s way!
- New UI!
- Add New Pod wizard guides you through creating a new content type or extending one
- Edit Pod screen lets you add / edit fields, and choose from many field options that are built-in (yay for not needing helpers for most common use-cases!)
- Create Custom Post Types and Custom Taxonomies, plus manage their labels / settings in the Edit Pod area
- 04/21 – Now update the plugin from within WP directly from GitHub during testing period
- 04/22 – Meta fields for Pods you create/extend now appear in the Post Type, Taxonomy, Media, User, and Comment editors
- 06/15 – Fully revamped form / fields classes, admin updates, new Widgets, new Shortcode TinyMCE Media bar button
- 06/21 – Input fields showing up throughout add/edit forms and they use the options as set in field settings; New Attachments option available for File Uploads, lets you click Add to open WP Media popup, upload/choose file, and it adds to list of files; Also new UI for plupload uploader option
- 07/09 – New Components panel, admin updates/fixes, performance enhancements using transients and object caching (reducing queries per page load)
- 07/26 – We now only have one custom table, wp_pods_rel for relationships. Pods, Fields, Pod Templates, Pod Pages, and Helpers are all stored as their own post types now. The API has been adjusted so this is transparent to the developer and you will continue to use the same parameters and API methods. Also, save_pod_item / delete_pod_item have been refactored to support the new Meta/Table storage type architecture, feel free to start testing those.
- 07/30 – We have built in field groups within our code now, leading the way for a new UI to be put together for 2.1. You can call it through the pods_group_add function, documentation coming in the 2.0 docs round.
- 08/01 – *_*_meta functions will now be overridden for fields on WP Objects created/extended by Pods. get_*_meta maps directly to the normal field method on the Pods class, which allows for relationship/file lookups and traversing multiple levels deep (related.ID, image.ID, related.another_relation.and_another.id, etc)!
- 08/07 – We’ve completely reimagined the Add New Pod screens within our new Wizard UI interface designed by RD2
Some more things to note, which mainly covers things that you may expect to work based on the above but actually aren’t in the current alpha release:
- You can install Pods 2.0 Alpha, but it will not upgrade your existing Pods data (if any)
- Documentation isn’t in there yet, there’s some scattered across and we’d love to have your help in filling it in if you believe you can contribute there. Expect a ton of inline documentation with links to guide you to get more information in the User Guide once we’re done
- Yes, we still have those ugly JS alerts, we’re still looking into a replacement that provides a better UX
Developers / Documentation Writers Wanted!
Now that the bulk of the work for organization, structure, and UI has been done for Pods 2.0, we’re in need of developers/writers to contribute to the project. Please contact me at the following e-mail address if you’re interested in contributing, please only e-mail me if you have used WordPress extensively and are very familiar with Pods: scott (@) podsframework dot org
You can also contribute by “forking” our GitHub branch, making your changes / adjustments, and then submitting a “pull request” to have it reviewed for inclusion in a future Alpha release.
Donations Are Always Welcome
Don’t forget that if you’re not blessed with the ability to code, you can always donate to the Pods Framework project and help fund development and future features.
Like it? Hate it? Oh no WTF?
Reply with your comments on the UI so far! Try to keep bugs out of the discussion and on GitHub so they can actually be fixed
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kaiiser
Haven’t had it out for a ride – just got your note on G+. Kool that alpha made it!
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derekpunsalan
Nice to see the Alpha available to play around with. Great job. As great as custom post types can be, the ability to customize a site with Pods was almost frictionless. In the kickstarter email you mentioned something about notifications / updates. Are the emails going to stop – meaning subscribe to the blog for updates?
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sc0ttkclark
It’s always a good idea to subscribe to the Blog posts and comments on this site, or even follow me us on Twitter. However, I’ll continue to be sending e-mail newsletters to everyone (including everyone who has donated in the future/past) as major updates are released so everyone who literally has a vested interest can know as things happen.
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lancebutler
On the new UI…… (My Mind == Blown)
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vingogly
The GUI seems to be organized in a much more logical and intuitive fashion … if I weren’t so busy I’d download the Alpha and give it a try. Looking forward to seeing what’s on those other tabs.
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htlcnn
It seems to me that pods 2.0 processes longer than pods 1.12.4. Does pods 2.0 final behave the same?
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sc0ttkclark
Which part are you referring to processing longer? We haven’t enabled the transient/caching layer in 2.0 yet so there is a lot that will speed up very fast.
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htlcnn
the Pods Setup page is loaded slower in the 2.0 alpha than 1.12.4. Except that, ajax works as fast as the stable version.
pods 2.0 is really a revolution. I’m looking forward to it. Keep on your excellent work. Thank you!-
sc0ttkclark
Caching is getting put into the API this week, so thing should finally be speeding up.
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Halvard
Will 2.0 include a matrix-type field, similar to the Matrix add-on for ExpressionEngine?
This is something I’m becoming more and more dependent on — so much that it’s turning into a deal breaker!
Here’s the Matrix add-on: http://pixelandtonic.com/matrix
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sc0ttkclark
That’s planned for 2.x, we’ll try really hard to get it into 2.0, but we won’t implement it if we can’t find a more usable implementation than we’ve seen elsewhere for administration.
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Halvard
OK – have you seen the Matrix implementation?
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sc0ttkclark
I haven’t yet, are you offering for me to take a look at one of your sites to see how it works?
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htlcnn
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM in /home/htlcnn/public_html/wp/wp-content/plugins/pods2.0/classes/PodsForm.php on line 428
how can i fix this? Pods alpha 14 on wordpress 3.4, php 5.2.17. Thank you.-
sc0ttkclark
Update to Alpha 15 and let me know if you have any further issues.
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htlcnn
I still get that error, but on line 430.
I installed Pods 1.14.2 and created a pod, then disable 1.14.2 and got the error when activating 2.0 alpha 15. -
htlcnn
Tested on localhost, php 5.3.8. Alpha 15 activated without any error. But my hosting provider (host gator) only has php 5.2.17. Does Alpha 15 require php 5.3?
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sc0ttkclark
That wasn’t the plan, there should be a very limited amount of issues with PHP 5.2.x, so I’m very interested in maintaining compatibility. Could you by chance provide access to the site you’re testing Pods 2.0 Alpha 15 on so I can attempt to fix? I don’t have any PHP 5.2.x environments available right now. You can e-mail me at scott@podsframework.org
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sc0ttkclark
Fixed, thanks for the access!
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Tech Stuffs
really awesome work,l’m waiting for release.
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sc0ttkclark
Pods 2.0 Alpha to be released by New Years, doing a big code sprint (solo) until Saturday evening. See you on the other side!
bjornet is discussing. 
htlcnn, and 6 others are discussing. 
bjornet 8:23 pm on September 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I really appreciate you for showing this, this example helps me as developer to set a decent pricetag on my work and of cause understand the tremendous amount of work you guys have put into Pods.