Easy Content Units WordPress Plugin

Author: Keith

26 Jan

Last week John Lammerton announced the launch of Easy Content Units (ECU), if you haven’t already signed up and had a play with them I suggest you do so now as they are awesome.

These days the majority of my websites are on WordPress and even though ECU embeds pretty easily into a wordpress article I got to thinking there must be an easier way, so I looked at what plugins I was already using to embed elements into posts and decided that Youtuber fitted the bill, so a bit of hacking with the code and I came up with wp-ecu the output of which you can see below.

Click here to download the wp-ecu zip file.

Instructions

Edit the file wp-ecu.php

change ecu_mid=3 to your own id number or I will get the commission

Installation

1. Upload ‘wp-ecu’ to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Usage

To embed one of your Easy Content Units in a post enclose the content units ecu_uid like so

[ ecu]77[/ecu ] (remove the spaces I had to put them in to stop it parsing)

where 77 = the ecu_uid

This is an alpha release and not been thoroughly tested, I would appreciate if you could leave feedback below, or if you modify the plugin please send me a copy to have a play with, one thing I would like to see in a future release is an options page to save having to edit the file wp-ecu.php before uploading, if anyone can write something that will do the job it would be great.

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Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Tools, Wordpress

33 Responses for "Easy Content Units WordPress Plugin"

Mark (2 comments.) January 29th, 2009 at 12:01 pm 1
Hi Keith, I downloaded the wp-ecu zip file, unzipped it and uploaded to my ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory but when I go into my plug-ins section there is no sign of it. Any ideas?
Keith January 29th, 2009 at 12:16 pm 2
Sorry Mark you are the first, what version of wordpress are you using?

Did you upload the entire wp-ecu directory or just wp-ecu.php ?
Mark (2 comments.) January 29th, 2009 at 12:29 pm 3
Hi Keith, WP 2.7 and I just uploaded the file as it came downloaded (it contains the readme.txt and php file).
Keith January 29th, 2009 at 2:08 pm 4
that should work, you should be able to see it at bottom plugins page, will need activating

if its not there the page could be caching clear cache and reload page
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Ken Trueman (1 comments.) June 6th, 2009 at 10:48 am 9
Hi Keith, thanks for the plugin.
This is just what I have been looking for to use on my new affiliate blog.
I will report back soon with some feedback.
Best from
Ken.
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Alex (2 comments.) June 28th, 2009 at 2:42 pm 11
Hi, just downloaded and installed the plugin and it is working fine!

Here is my test unit:

http://theenglishchillicompany.co.uk/chilli-shop/by-chilli-product/chilli-seeds

One thing – the formatting is not quiet as it is in the ECU portal. Is this because my Theme is over-riding the formatting?

Thanks for this – really useful

Alex
Fakhrul Alam (1 comments.) June 29th, 2009 at 2:09 pm 12
Hi team,

You have made a creat system to track all affiliate links but I was looking for dgmpro deep links but can’t any from this system. If you guys know any way to find deep links please let me know it.

Thanks
Alam
http://www.xrangeglobal.com
Easy Content Units (4 comments.) June 30th, 2009 at 12:02 pm 13
Hi Alam

By using ECU your dgmPro deeplinks are inserted for you.

If you would like to create your own deeplinks, this can be done on the datafeeds page within dgmPro, click on the Easylinks link, and from there you can start to build your deeplinks.

Hope this helps

Jason
Easy Content Units (4 comments.) June 30th, 2009 at 12:05 pm 14
@ Alex

Yes occasionally we have found themes can override the styling on the units. We are developing something that will tell the unit to ignore the site’s css and keep the formatting on the unit. Keep an eye out on our Twitter page for an update to when this is ready

Best wishes

Jason
Adam July 1st, 2009 at 1:06 pm 15
Keith,

Great plugin and thanks for you work on this.

At present you can add the ECU units into a wordpress post, but what if I want to call it in a category or sidebar for example, is there a simple piece of code to do this?

Cheers

Adam
Alex (2 comments.) July 4th, 2009 at 12:52 pm 16
@ Jason

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated
Keith July 4th, 2009 at 1:26 pm 17
Hi Adam

I’ve not yet worked out how to get the results into the sidebar or category pages.

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be greatful
Adam July 6th, 2009 at 9:58 am 18
Hey Keith,

Thanks for getting back to me. I will have a look around and see if I can find anything that may help you…my programming skills are very limited!

Cheers
Potato ricer (1 comments.) August 20th, 2009 at 1:17 pm 19
hi.. its seems my site is messing with the styling ofthe content unit. Strangely if i embed a normal easy content unit rather than using the pluggin its fine.. very weird.

Problem is on this sit: http://www.potatoricer.org.uk

thanks
Keith August 20th, 2009 at 1:26 pm 20
Very strange Potato Ricer not come across that happening before
Mkcoy @ SellYourMobile (2 comments.) October 5th, 2009 at 1:34 am 21
Do hope you get my comment and publish it for genuine reasons. Would really like to master this datafeed stuff and get this pluging workin good for wordpress. on my site at Compare Mobile Phone Recycling

Mkcoy
Mkcoy (2 comments.) October 5th, 2009 at 1:36 am 22
Hi Im really sorry for leaving lots of comments. I left one but it didnt show up like my 2nd one has. In it I asked what parts specifically do you need to change other than the ecu_mid=. Do you need to edit anymore parts because its not showing the right ECU unit.
Keith October 5th, 2009 at 8:52 am 23
hi Mkcoy

send me the page with the unit on and i’ll take a look use contact form http://www.keithbond.co.uk/contact/
Matt (1 comments.) November 2nd, 2009 at 11:54 am 24
Hi Keith – thats a great wordpress plugin as I was looking for just that, nice and simple! Thanks
ebby November 11th, 2009 at 5:10 pm 25
Your plugin is the boom, i have been using it for almost a year and am pleased.

One other thing, is ecu availiable for USA websites? I need this pricing plugin in dollars with usa retailers incorporated. Hopefully it should not be too much work, already half of your current affliates networks support usa retailers. The 80% 20% split version will be cool.

cheers
Easy Content Units (4 comments.) November 11th, 2009 at 5:26 pm 26
Hi Ebby

Roll out for US Merchants should be early 2010, stay tuned to ECU for news when it’s available.

Best wishes

Jason
ebby November 11th, 2009 at 5:44 pm 27
Awesome Jason, am looking forward to it.
Joe February 8th, 2010 at 11:48 am 28
A couple of comments

1)Im using wp 2.9 and the links are not generating – it justs says javascript void and brings a blank page when clicked on.

2) It would be good to be able to place in a widget – i have tried in a text box widget but it doest work and just shows i.e. [ecu]77[/ecu]
Keith February 8th, 2010 at 12:10 pm 29
without seeing the unit on your site i cant identify the problem

I have not looked at adding units to widgets so can’t comment on that point
Richard (1 comments.) March 3rd, 2010 at 4:13 pm 30
Great plugin Keith.
I used it to solve a really annoying problem I was having – how to embed multiple ECUs into a tabbed system on a single page – i.e. one game, multiple platforms such as in http://www.gamehawk.co.uk/games/top-games/cod-6/. In some tabbed systems the ecu code was messing with the tabs. Your plugin acts like an i-frame! Anyway thanks.
Khaleel April 14th, 2010 at 4:00 pm 31
Thanks for filling the internet with more spam and affiliate sites!
Naomi from Cooker Hoods (1 comments.) September 12th, 2011 at 12:39 am 32
Thanks for this plugin. Truth is, I lost faith in ECU as I did not like the finished product each time I built a site. So your plugin made it better. Thanks
Emma (1 comments.) September 25th, 2011 at 2:58 pm 33
Quite lovely plugins