I have always loved the Catfish ad script that Alex Walker of SitePoint developed. I finally got it working on a site that is not WordPress driven, but which will be soon. I used the script copy from Matt Oakes in the UK.
I decided to ask Matt to help me develop a plugin for WordPress that would allow easy carefree installation of a Catfish Ad.
What we have here is a free, beta version of the resulting plugin. I have personally tested it on a number of my own WordPress sites. Please let me know if you have any issues with it and I will try and help resolve them.
You can check out a demo at my personal blog.
Download (Version 1.0 Release Date March 28th 2009)
I am now using the Wordpress Plugin Repository for managing the versions of this plugin.
Great plugin!…Though I was having issues getting the “close” box to work. Any ideas?
The best suggestion I can offer without seeing you page is to make sure that you haven’t got two elements with the id of catfish-close. If you do, this will most likely cause the close button to stop working.
If you need anymore help you can leave another comment or email either of us.
Matt
sounds like a good plugin. How about a demo of it on this site?
There is now a link to a demo. I hope this helps! Good point!
I have “can not load catfishmanager/catman.php” error
Please tell me why it does not work on my site. Thanks
http://www.georgegao.com/erhu/
please tell me why it does not work on my site, the “close” button is on top right corner, the advert is at the bottom which does not slide in like your demo. Thanks
Have you activated the plugin? It works really easily with the default theme you are using.
I have activated the plugin and enter some sample text. Unfortunately, the catfish is showing up at the top of the page, behind content, and cannot be closed.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
http://boysbeforebusiness.com/blog
Thanks!
I have installed the plugin, activated it and put up some sample text. Unfortunately, it’s showing up near the top of the page, it’s behind the body of the blog (not in front) and the close link doesn’t work.
http://boysbeforebusiness.com/blog
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Lynda
This seems to be becoming a common problem. can you email me a zipped copy of your theme and I will see what I can do Lynda.
I too am having issues. Installed fine, it shows at the bottom fine. However it does not slide, it is just a static bar at the bottom of the page. Also, no close link.
These issues are all theme related. If you can email me your theme i would be happy to do some more testing and see what I can do.
I would be happy to email them, however I am not sure where to find your email.
I have tried the following themes and the problem appears in all of them:
WordPress 2.7.1.
iNove 1.2.3
Love the Orange
Wordpress Classic
Wordpress Default
Also tried it in IE7, IE8, Firefox, and Chrome. All are broken.
Thanks again. I think this is a great idea, would like to implement it. Be happy to donate to the cause if I can get it to work.
I have done some more testing, and I am thinking the problems are more CSS related than theme related. I will try and keep you all updated, and maybe there will be a new release sooner later than later!
Just let me know if you need help testing! Thanks!
http://MS23Blog.com
Is this the plugin used on http://www.slowpctips.com ?
As i dont see how i can make it popup at the bottom of the window like that.. with me it is just sitting in the footer of my blog meaning they would ahve to sforll all the way to the bottom to see it.
Could you email me when there is a response to this.
Also if it’s not able to do the same as on slowpctips.com could you let me know how I could do the same as that.
Thanks.
How do I get this plugin to popup at the bottom of the screen other than it just sticking in my footer..
I beleive it’s possible but failing to see how.
I am the poster from above.
Tell me something about this plugin.. what does it mean by have the {wp_footer} in the footer section of my blog.. that is not in my footer and when I put it in there the ad doesnt popup at the bottom of the screen it just stays at the bottom of the page where the user would ahve to scroll to the bottom to see it.
Thanks
Sorry for my slow replies, I have been away.
Mark: I believe it would possibly be the positions of wp_footer within the template. If I could see what it is doing I may be of more help.
John: The wp_footer code needs to be the last thing within your footer file within your theme.
Any ideas what could be wrong with my install? http://MS23Blog.com.
Thanks!
This is a common problem we are getting with custom themes. I am thinking it is the positioning of where wp_footer is called, from the limited time I have had to play around with it.
I tried disabling all plugins and switching back to the default theme, still no luck. I even tried switching to the orange theme found on your demo site, still no luck.
I just did a default install of 2.7.1. I did nothing but login and add the catfish plugin and still the same errors. http://ms23blog.com/TEST/
I see. I will have to double check what I uploaded to the repository as perhaps I did not get the right version. I should get to it tomorrow.
Nice plugin.
For me to get it to work, I needed to put the plugin into /catman/ in the plugin directory.
Initially I put it under /catfishadmanager and it refused to show properly.
I’m assuming that you have hard coded in the /catman location, since some of the links in the admin area require it.
Aaron
I will have to have a look at that. I have not had timne to do a few tweaks I think I can do. I will check out your site to see how your using it!
I just tried renaming the folder to catman as well, and it works perfectly! Thanks for that idea!
The fix to get this plugin working is the following:
1. Rename the plugin folder to “catman”
2. Open catman.php in a suitable editor.
3. Modify line 5 (it is within the comment block but WP uses this for configuration) to point to the correct URL in the admin. From: Once activated configure the options to Once activated configure the options.
Now upload the plugin and activate it. It’s a minor error but I could see it being frustrating to some.
All the best!
When I get a chance I will fix that error. Thanks for the input!
Has anyone gotten this plugin working? I made the changes that Dan Nedelko (above) mentioned, but the catfish just sits at the bottom of the page, not attached to the bottom of the screen. My guess is that the css is not properly defined, and I am hoping someone will share the correct version. It’s ashame considering this would be an excellent plugin if it worked. Thx.
Can you share with me the site your trying to get it to work on? I may be able to help.
Here’s the test site I am working off. Thank you in advance for the quick response and effort.
Oh, and I should note in addition that the “Close” button / link sits in the middle of the page outside the actual Catfish Footer box which just sits at the bottom.
It looks like it is the way the template you are using interacts with the plugin. Does it call wpfooter in the footer code? I have played with that in a few instances and managed to get it working better.
yes – - last line of footer.php calls wpfooter. I can see it there. It just sticks to the bottom. Oh well, thx anyway for looking at it.
Will you be updating this for 2.8? It does show the ad but doesn’t fade or slide it into view. Great idea though – and an idea for a future version would be to provide for a series of ads that randomly appear instead of just the one.
I saw the first slide, then it said go to admin and config, when I do so, it says:
“You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.”
Ideas?
And yes I am the admin, and yes I am loged in.
Thanks
Is this plugin still being actively developed?
I’ve done like Dan says and it works for me
. Has any one tried putting in adsense ads here?
I think this plugin is best for selling products rather than slapping some ads on it!
hey I’m trying to get this to work on the following site
elmstreetdesign.net/altn
I have tried everything i can think of, I tried calling the footer function after the body and before the html close, after the html close, before the body close, everything
it just moves the catfish to different parts of the footer.
can you guys take a look?
thanks
shawn
i just installed…used the same wordpress theme as admin…and did the fix from Dan above…it’s not working…any ideas…
Can you post a link to the site for me? Sorry for the late reply.
Now working for me too.
My site is nosolopoker.com
regards
I have had a mistake typing.
NOT working for me.
Can you check my site?
Is nosolopoker.com
Perhaps the splash ad is competing with it?