The purpose of this plugin is to group tags or categories from the WordPress dashboard. This allows queries that fetch terms to use ‘term_group’ as a sort order and and display them in a semantic way in archives and individual posts.

For example,

If we have three groups of categories for size, color and object, then categories displayed as

Small, Green, Table

Big, Blue, Chair

are more readable than

Table, small, green

Chair, big, blue

How to use  this plugin?

1. Install and activate the plugin from WordPress plugin repository.

2. Visit WordPress Dashboard -> Posts – > Categories. You will find an additional field called ‘group’ to add the group number.

3. Add this code where you need to display the categories by group order.

$args = array('orderby' => 'term_group', 'order' => 'ASC', 'fields' => 'all');

$terms = wp_get_object_terms($post->ID, 'category', $args );

$count = count($terms);

if($count > 0){

echo 'Posted in <ul id="catlist">';

foreach ($terms as $term) {

echo '<li><a href="'.get_term_link($term->slug, 'category').'">'.$term->name.'</a> .</li>';

}

echo '</ul>';

}

4. You can group and display tags in a similar way. Just use the word ‘tag’ instead of ‘category’ in the code above.

We made this by modifying the Term menu order plugin by James Lafferty. Thanks, James.

Hope  you find this useful. Please do share your comments and rate the plugin.

Download the plugin now

Plugin release: Tag or Category term_group Order from Ravidreams - WordPress Services

Six emerging trends regarding Premium WordPress plugins:

1. Premium WordPress plugin markets

Like ThemeForest does for premium WordPress themes, these allow people to sell and buy premium WordPress plugins

WP Plugins: The WordPress App store from Incsub

Code Canyon: The WP plugin market from Themeforest.

2. Premium WordPress plugin makers

Like StudioPress and WooThemes, they sell premium WordPress plugins from a single company or developer.

Plugin Buddy from the iThemes.

3. Premium WordPress CMS plugins

Plugins that turn WordPress from a blog to a custom CMS for various needs like job portals, classifieds, review sites, e-commerce etc.,

WP Review

WP Job Ads

4. Pro version of popular free WordPress plugins

Many of the popular free WordPress plugins receive very poor or no donations considering the hard work done by developers. This model will benefit  them and will give them market lead as they already have a loyal user base. This is very good for the WordPress community too as it will keep the best of the developers active. Many of the features they develop may come into free versions. Or, it will give them the motivation to develop more free plugins for the community.

All in one SEO pack – Pro version

WP Touch Pro

5. Premium WordPress plugins for regular needs

These plugins offer more options and control than the plugins available for free.

Gravity Contact form

6. Premium WordPress plugin support

This idea is quite interesting. Instead of selling plugins, they are selling support ! And they are paying an affiliate commission for the original authors too. Awesome

WP Help Center

Can you spot more trends? Let me know. Ultimately, the future looks very bright for WordPress. I am happy

Premium WordPress Plugins from Ravidreams - WordPress Services

2. Subscribe to comments – Gives an option in each post for your readers to subscribe to comment notification by email.

3. ScribeSEO – Premium plugin that gives search engine optimised copywriting advice.

4. Yoast SEO plugin – Best and exhaustive WordPress SEO plugin. Better than All in one SEO plugin.

5. Contact form 7 – To place a contact form.

6. NextGEN gallery – Best WordPress gallery plugin.

7. Simplepress – Inbuilt forum.

8. Akismet – To block spam. Must have.

9. Google Analytics for WordPress – To insert Google Analytics code.

10. Backupbuddy – Premium plugin that does shceduled backups for whole website including wp-content folder. Delivering to Dropbox is a great addition.

11. qTraslate – For offering manual translation.

12. Broken link checker – To find and fix broken links. Having live links is good for SEO and user experience.

13 . WPtouch Pro – Premium plugin for displaying mobile and iPad friendly themes.

14. Social profiles widget – To show good sized social profile icons in your sidebar.

15. WP Touch Pro – For mobile friendly display.

16. Scribe SEO – For optimising your content for search engines.

17. W3 Total Cache – For speeding up your websites.

WordPress plugin usage best practices:

* Try not to use more than 10 plugins.

* Deactivate and delete unused plugins.

* Use only the plugins from trusted sources. It is good to test them in a beta site first.

* Do not use more than one plugin to have same functionality. For example, do not have two plugins to track stats or backup.

* Always keep your plugins updated.

Useful WordPress Plugins from Ravidreams - WordPress Services