I first had the idea to build a rideshare form / board system around the time of release of WordPress 2.7. That initial iteration of development was a series of theme template files, lots of functions.php code, a category to store the posts and what now feels like duct-tape quality code to solve the custom field quandary it all created. WP 3.0′s custom post types and query_post meta_value parameters made the entire thing far more elegant in concept. So as my spare time has permitted I worked away at re-factoring it to be a stand-alone plugin. Today I’m happy to launch v0.1 of Idealien Rideshare onto the WordPress.org plugin repository.
The plugin creates a custom post type (Rideshares) which enables you and your community to get to where you want to go using less gas and having more fun on road trips. It has been designed towards event-based rideshares in particular so that drivers and passengers in the same city can co-ordinate their travel to whatever festival, concert, workshop, WordCamp, etc they are attending elsewhere. The admin form is easy for adding / editing rideshares for those who have access to your sites’ admin console. To make the process as easy for your extended community, this plugin also provides an exceptional Gravity Form to let anyone submit their rideshare request via the front-end of your website.
For more details I’d point you to either check out the plugin repository with it’s detailed installation instructions or the rideshare.idealienstudios.com plugin site that I setup to support it.
In case you’re wondering why v0.1, it’s because the plugin doesn’t (yet) have all the features / functionality in it that I think are worthy of a 1.0. At the moment, I’m expecting to do a big version jump when:
- The Gravity Form is added to an installation during initial plugin activation.
- You can configure the plugin via an options screen to operate in a straight date-based model or the event-based one it has initially been designed for.
- Uninstalling the plugin will remove all taxonomy and custom post rideshares.
- Registered users gain the able to remove their rideshare request when you have filled it.
- Cron job added to remove any rideshares that have expired