Simple Twitter Feed has seen far more downloads and use that I ever imagined. I thought I’d be the only one using it, and in my wildest dreams a couple of other people. Since I posted it on WordPress.org 4 days ago I’ve seen over 850 downloads. I know other Twitter plugins have far more, and that’s not what this is about. I’m just happy to see people using something I built.

While the code was fairly trivial to write, I did learn a few things about WordPress along the way. I’ve always used WordPress, and even done a few custom things with it. But writing this plugin has taught me a few things about the API that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. Things like using Transients for caching, and the make_clickable() function to make URLs into links in a string.

With all that said though, I’m happy to announce the release of version 0.5 of Simple Twitter Feed. In this version I’ve added an option to the widget that allows you to specify how many tweets you want to display. Since the initial release this is the first feature that I’ve added. The rest of the updates have been to the code, and was mostly designed to make caching more reliable.

From here on out, I’ll be releasing bug fixes and patches. However, the pace of development will slow as I go back to focusing on other projects. I have a couple features that I’d like to add, but it won’t be for a few weeks.

If you do find a bug, post either in the support forum on WordPress.org, or contact me via this blog. You can do that by posting in the comments here, or by using the form that you can find on the Contact Me page.

Thank you for your ongoing support! Keep checking back to this blog for updates not only on Simple Twitter Feed, but on other plugins that I will be releasing soon!