Plugin Name

NOTICE: THIS PLUGIN HAS BEEN ORPHANED AND IS NO LONGER ACTIVELY UPDATED OR SUPPORTED. ALL CODE IS OFFERED "AS IS" Assignment Desk is an editorial tool for news organizations using WordPress as their content management system. The goal of the plug-in is to make community engagement with the news production process easier and more efficient. The plugin allows community members to submit tips or story ideas to the news organization, and volunteer to help with the story in various ways, while preserving editorial oversight. Once story ideas have been approved, Assignment Desk allows users to participate in the reporting of a particular story. An editor may assign specific roles (e.g. photographer, writer) to the user as well as limit those eligible to contribute by user type (e.g. first time contributor, regular contributor, professional journalist). Community members can vote their support for story ideas that have either have not yet been assigned or are in production. They can also give feedback on stories in progress. Assignment Desk hopes bring any community member into the story production process in a structured way. But it could also be used to manage a large staff of professional or semi-pro contributors and distribute assignments to them, while permitting them to suggest ideas, as well. More details can be found at (http://www.openassignment.org/)

This section describes how to install and configure the Assignment Desk.

1. Download the plugin from WordPress.org
2. Upload it to the wp-contents/plugins directory of your website.
3. Activate it. The first time you activate the plugin, the Assignment Desk will install a default set of contributor types, contributor roles, and assignment statuses.
4. Optionally install Edit-Flow. Assignment Desk has been tested with 0.6.3. Edit-Flow gives us several editorial tools with enable a fully integrated newsroom workflow. Installation of this plugin is highly recommended.
5. Optionally install Co-Authors Plus. Assignment Desk has been tested with 2.1.1. Co-Authors Plus allows us to assign multiple users to a post as authors. Multiple authors can then edit the post. Installation of this plugin is highly recommended.
6. Optionally install Adminimize. Assignment Desk has been tested with 1.7.7. Adminimize allows you the ability to hide certain boxes on the post edit screen based on the users user type. The Assignment Desk is not dependent on this plugin.

Further configuration information is available on the website http://openassignment.org/configuration/

0.9.5 (Mar. 28, 2011)

• WordPress 2.9.2 is no longer officially supported
• Fixed a number of error notices
• Support for Edit Flow v0.6.3
• Bug fix: Double quotes no longer break field subscriptions
• Bug fix: Only include datepicker.js and supplemental field if pitch form is enabled
• Bug fix: No fatal errors when filtering posts in manage posts view with Edit Flow disabled
• Disabled filtering by assignment status on manage posts view

0.9.4 (Feb. 7, 2011)

• Bug fix: Don't apply Assignment Desk functionality when a writer is previewing a post
• Bug fix: Allow admin to create new assignment statuses and use them in proper contexts (thanks meganknight!)
• Bug fix: Only show Edit Flow custom statuses as an option if enabled
• Redirect the pitch form to the same URL instead of depending on a session key

0.9.3 (Jan. 10, 2011)

• Bug fix: In WP 3.0+, Assignment Desk metadata filtering shouldn't show up on the manage pages view.
• Bug fix: Unpublished pitches shouldn't override published posts with certain permalink settings.
• Bug fix: Properly check for Edit Flow version for users who are still on v0.5.3

0.9.2 (Nov. 17, 2010)

• Support for Edit Flow v0.6 and custom editorial metadata: http://www.editflow.org/2010/11/10/edit-flow-v0-6-custom-editorial-metadata-and-the-story-budget/
• Bug fix: Show all accepted user roles on upcoming assignments dashboard widget
• Temporarily disabled sorting by due date on manage posts view and all pitches view
• Disabled display of Edit Flow editorial metadata in manage posts columns

0.9.1 (Nov. 9, 2010)

• Bug fix: Check if due date is set before trying to convert it to a string

0.9 (Oct. 31, 2010)

• Redesigned dashboard widget to more closely follow WordPress UI
• Cleaned up columns spacing on Manage Posts view
• Sorting on the all pitches public-facing view alternates between ascending and descending values
• Sort all pitches by the number of volunteers
• Pagination appears if there are more than 10 public story pitches to view
• Various hooks before load and before form save for alternate forms of authentication
• Bug fix: Users can now add a Co-Author when Assignment Desk is enabled
• Bug fix: Editors can now add participants when Co-Authors is disabled

0.8.1 (Oct. 14, 2010)

• Bug fix: Voting system now pulls values from hidden inputs and jQuery generates the entire request
• Bug fix: Voting text displays properly based on the number of votes

0.8 (Oct. 11, 2010)

• Re-wrote voting to store data in a custom table. This will make for easier lookups and help address performance issues when scaling. Vote button is now an AJAX-y link, a la Quora, and degrades gracefully. Error message appears if the user isn't logged in.
• Only avatars appear under the headline. Option to disable vote avatars by setting the number to display to zero.
• Post meta box includes the age of the pitch
• Sort pitches by age in the manage_posts view
• Internationalized JS messages
• Customizable message to logged out users when viewing a single pitch

0.7 (Sept. 27, 2010)

• Editors can restrict the roles community members can volunteer for on a pitch by pitch basis
• Pitches display post_status instead of the assignment status
• Optional email notifications to user-defined recipients upon successful pitch form submission
• All pitch form fields can be required if desired
• Displays the user contribution stats on the user profile view
• Shows a registration link on the pitch form if user registration is open
• Bug fix: Hide the tags field on a pitch if its empty
• Bug fix: No longer shows participant action buttons to contributors in the post meta box.

0.6.1 (Sept. 16, 2010)

• Fix a duplicate function declaration ad_settings that caused an error.

0.6 (Sept. 12, 2010)

• Pitch form shows to all visitors by default. If user isn't logged in, a username and password field appears at the bottom. Pitch form also has customizable success message, and saves form data if submission is invalid.
• Volunteering form moved to single post page and includes descriptions for each user role.
• Pitch metadata appears in initial assignment email to end user.
• Assignment details are accessible in the dashboard widget.
• Bug fix: Assignment notification emails are no longer sent multiple times in a row.
• Bug fix: Users can now comment on posts with status of 'draft' or 'pending'. Ability to enable or disable the comment form on unpublished posts is now functional as well.

0.5 (Sept. 7, 2010)

• Hide Assignment Desk functionality if post is published
• Ability to show or hide the_content for a story in progress
• Logged-out users can now properly see posts which haven't been published
• Filter all pitches by normal post statuses, contributor types, or sort by post date, due date, or votes
• Volunteering can be restricted to defined contributor types
• Ability to sort by due date, votes, or number of volunteers in Manage Posts view
• Filter by assignment status UI in Manage Posts has UI similar to normal post statuses
• Styled the listing of contributors in the post meta box and improved markup
• Setting for changing the text of the voting button

0.4 (Aug. 24, 2010)

• Pitch form offers customizable labels and descriptions for every field
• Pitch form supports Edit Flow due date field with jQuery datepicker
• Voting functionality built; admin has ability to define text for vote button; avatars shown for those who have voted
• Columns in users view calculate total words, average words, pitches, and volunteer count
• Nonces on all the forms
• Default settings implemented
• Moved pitch form settings to its own view; no data migration
• Moved public-facing functionality settings to its own view; no data migration

0.3

• Manage Posts - Can filter by assignment_status
• Manage Posts - Can filter by eligible contributor types
• Manage Posts - Added an eligible contributor types column.
• Added default terms in custom taxonomies on plugin activation.
• Remove user_type id from all users if term is deleted.
• Added a simple dashboard widget that shows pending assignments.
• Users can accept or decline pending assignments.

0.2

• Enable pitch forms, add a form to any post or page, and allow the following fields: title, description, category, tags, location, volunteer for roles
• Pitches get saved to WordPress with post status of 'pitch' if Edit Flow is enabled, 'draft' if Edit Flow is not enabled
• Define assignment statuses and the default status for new pitches (e.g. 'new', 'approved', 'rejected'). Refactored this to use custom taxonomy API.
• Define contributor roles (e.g. 'photographer', 'writer'). Pitch submitters can volunteer for a role and editors can add people to an assignment. Assigning functionality is only partially functional, however.
• Define contributor types (e.g. 'community member', 'student') and indicate which can take an assignment. Default for new pitches is all. Refactored this to use custom taxonomy API.
• Settings page now uses the WordPress Settings API

0.1

• First implementation from Spring 2010. Significant refactoring planned for the next release.