Download Current Version:
New install This is always the latest version of Verse-O-Matic.
About the Plugin:
This WordPress plugin displays a single random verse from a list of verses stored in the WP database. Each verse can also have its own defined link going to anything the user desires: the specific verse in a specific translation, a set of verses, an online tract. I’ve set some examples in the default installation, but the user can customize their own.
Also, the Verse-O-Matic has a “translation bar” that can be toggled on or off. This will link to the specific verse in the ESV (English Standard Version) on www.gnpcb.org/esv/, and the NIV (New International Version), KJV (King James Version), AMP (Amplified Bible), and NLT (New Living Translation) on biblegateway.com where the user can do side-by-side analysis.
There is also an optional “translation bar” that will link to other Bible translations of the displayed verse. The translation bar will automatically not include the translation of the verse displayed. For example, if the translation of the display is KJV, then KJV will not be a choice in the translation bar. It will, however, show KJV if the verse displayed is not KJV.
Installation:
- Copy verse-o-matic.php to the /wp-content/plugins directory.
- Go to Plugins in the WP admin to activate the plugin.
Done. You now have Verse-O-Matic installed and activated, ready for use. All that is left is to put it somewhere on your site.
Note: the first time you activate the plugin, it will automatically run its installation procedure, creating an additional database table in your WordPress database:
- wp_vom
(or replace wp_ with the prefix you have selected for your WordPress database. If you are not sure what this means, don’t worry, the Verse-O-Matic installs the appropriate prefix based your settings. You will, however, need to know what this is should you choose to uninstall the Verse-O-Matic and delete the table.)
Customization:
Once the plugin is activated, you can manage the verses and settings by selecting the Settings menu on the WordPress Admin Menu and then selecting Verse-O-Matic from the submenu.
* Display Method
This was a new feature in version 3.1.0. This allows you to toggle the way the Verse-O-Matic displays verses. You can choose from the following:
- Random – This is the original function. Displays a verse chosen randomly from the list on each page load.
- Daily Random – Displays a random verse each day. The first page load of a new day will reset a new random verse automatically.
- Daily Specific – Works as a VOTD (Verse Of The Day) script. Set the date field yourself. The verse-o-matic will display the appropriate verse for that day. The date is edited in the verse editing form (see “Managing Verses” below) but this field only shows if you have “Daily Specific” selected in the settings.
- Static Specific – You can set any verse to display until you change it.
* Static ID
This is only of use with “Static Specific” Display Method (see above). Set the ID of the verse you want to display (this can be found in the verse list). Setting it or leaving it NULL (default) does not matter if the Static Specific Display is not selected.
* Alternate verions lookup
Verse-O-Matic has a link bar at the bottom that will link to alternate translations of the displayed verse. It uses Good News Publishers for the ESV and Bible Gateway for all others. The default setting for this translation bar (Turn on alternate version links?) is “Yes”. If you do not want this feature to show, turn this to “No”.
The translation bar includes 5 translations right now and will leave out the one that is in the displayed verse. However, if the displayed verse is not one the included translations, it will display all five. If you want to limit the width of the translation bar to 4 so it is consistent in these cases, leave “Limit number of alternate version links?” set to “Yes”. (The example verse in the default install comes from “The Message” translation.)
* Managing verses
You will notice in the admin panel that you can manage the verses that are already in the database. Select “edit” to edit the verse or change whether it is visible or not. Select “delete” to delete a verse from the database.
* Add a verse
The admin provides you an easy way to add the verses you want to display. This form is pretty self explanatory. IMPORTANT: For the translation bar to parse correctly, use 1 and 2 for books like 2 Corinthians (as oppsed to II Corinthians or 2nd Corinthians). If you turn this feature off, this nomenclature does not matter. Also, the translation bar does recognize certain standard abbreviations of book names, i.e. Gen for Genesis.
If your verse is multiple verses, use a ‘-’ in between the verse numbers and no spaces. John 11:25-26 has been provided in the default install as an example.
The link feature for each specific verse allows you to link to anything you want. You could link back to a translation, or you could use this to link to a tract or something else. If you do not want a link, you may leave this field blank and no link is generated. Also, you can link some verses and not others, as you can see from the installed examples.
Display the Verse-O-Matic:
If you have a widget enabled theme, you can drag-and-drop the Verse-O-Matic onto your sidebar using the Widget Admin Panel. Otherwise, you can continue the “old fashioned way” by calling the following function:
verse_o_matic();
If you are calling this in raw html (i.e. you are outside of php delimiters < ?php ?>) then you will need to place this inside the php delimiters.
Well, that’s it. I tried to keep it simple for n00bs and open enough for php hacks. I hope you find it easy to customize, install, and use.
The page to check for upgrades is butlerblog.com/verse-o-matic/. Note there is a link to this page built in to the Settings area of the admin so you can check to make sure you have the most recent version.
Hi! I’m getting an error when I try to add verses. Any idea why it’s doing that and how I can fix it? Thanks!
Hi,
I have list of 366 quotes, dated one for every day of the year. Some are bible verses but not all.
I have a few questions:
1 – Do you think I can disable the chapter and version portion, and also the ‘:’ ?
2 – Since I have the my list in an excel file, Is there a way to import them, in xls or csv?
3 – I noticed that the year is required, what happens “next year”? does the plugin pull from the same day but previous year?
Jose – yes, you could probably just take out the variable $verseRef as that is what is put together for outputting the constructed verse reference.
Importing from an excel file would need to be managed via a database management tool such as phpMyAdmin.
That’s a good question about the year. I didn’t really conceive of a rotational loop so to speak where you would just put in a year’s worth of information and it would cycle continuously. I would say that as it is written now you would need to re-do the dates yearly, but you might be able to make some modifications code-wise to ignore the year.
God bless your efforts with Verse-O-Matic.