I’ve recently upgraded to version 3.3.1 and noticed a nice feature that would be great for our non-Wordpress savvy clients – creating a tour of how to use WordPress.
I’ve used the Yoast SEO plugin for a long time and they’ve added a tour feature, which when you click the next buttons it goes through the various features (see screenshot):
Is it possible to create a custom tour of WordPress on how to add pages, posts etc and create our own help content to go with it.
I’ve got a standard set of plugins I tend to use so the tour (if possible) would need to jump through both the standard WordPress setup as well as all the different plugins.
UPDATE:
I’ve dug around the web and found the following code. This will create a one off pointer that you can put custom content in. The only problems are that the popup appears with every reload even when it’s dismissed (is there a way to improve the usability of this?) and also it’s a one off window rather than a tour.
Just use Firebug to find the div you want to attach the pointer to.
/*
Display custom WordPress Dashboard Pointers alerts
Usage: Modify the $pointer_content message to the message you wished displayed
*/
add_action('admin_enqueue_scripts', 'enqueue_custom_admin_scripts');
function enqueue_custom_admin_scripts() {
wp_enqueue_style('wp-pointer');
wp_enqueue_script('wp-pointer');
add_action('admin_print_footer_scripts', 'custom_print_footer_scripts' );
}
function custom_print_footer_scripts() {
$pointer_content = '<h3>The Works http://www.teamworksdesign.com</h3>';
$pointer_content .= '<p>Welcome to your custom WordPress installation. Please navigate to the settings page to change your site preferences</p>';
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
jQuery(document).ready( function($) {
$('#menu-posts-events').pointer({
content: '<?php echo $pointer_content; ?>',
position: 'left',
close: function() {
// This function is fired when you click the close button
}
}).pointer('open');
});
//]]>
</script>
<?php
}
If you look at this plugin I wrote as a demonstration on using pointers, you will see how to create them and have them close correctly:
https://github.com/Tarendai/WP-Pointer-Pointers
This plugin creates ‘pointer pointers’:
WordPress Pointers API is for core use only, some thing might be changed in API and that can cause your plugin site break or errors. You should avoid using then until API will be standardized and ready for plugin/theme use.
Konstantin Kovshenin wrote great introductory post about Pointers, that you might find interesting to read. Introducing Pointers in WordPress 3.3
Mark Jarquith has written a plugin, called WP-Help.
From it’s description:
Combine that with a service like screenr or some YouTube WP how-to tutorials, you can bring an easy guid & tour to your users.
Make an option
add_option()with a bool (false).At the begin if the option is false else show the tour.
And at the end of the tour set the option to true, So it won’t show again.
If possible set an ajax event when the dismiss is clicked to set the option to false.
Let me know if you get it running (or not)
pointers: