After a nearly four-year run at version 2, the HCSB Verse of the Day plug-in has been updated to version 3. The latest version available is 3.0.1, which contains a quick fix that was found just after I had released version 3. When you see that “.0.1,” just think, “Oh, this was written by a human!”

Major changes in this version include:

• The addition of “(Plus)” to the name, as this version supports five different translations - in addition to the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), it now supports the English Standard Version (ESV), the New King James Version (NKJV), the New International Version (NIV), and the King James Version (KJV).
• A new settings page, where you can select the version.
• A widget, that will drop right in any widget zone.
• The replacement of several function calls that have been deprecated in the WordPress API over the past 3 years and 8 months.
• Formal dropping of support for PHP 4, following WordPress's lead in 3.2.

While a lot of the code is different, if you only used the template tags, you should notice nothing different with this release. You can download HCSB Verse of the Day (Plus) 3.0.1 at the WordPress Plug-In Directory, or upgrade on the WordPress Plug-In Administration Page in your blog.

I have released version 2 of HCSB Verse of the Day, the WordPress plug-in that provides a verse or passage each day, using the reference provided by BibleGateway.com. I also completed the required files for the WordPress Plug-In Directory, so it can be downloaded from there.

New in this version…

• New Tag - There is now a tag votd_hcsb() that puts out the heading, the text, the reference, and the credit line all in one. This will simplify the template modification required to implement the plug-in.
• Custom Tag - There is a separate file where you can specify a separate group of tags, and the votd_hcsb() tag will utilize it instead of its default. This also means that, even if future versions change the default, the custom tag layout will be used.
• Two Versions - WordPress (and most plug-ins) must be compatible with PHP version 4. However, if your web server is running PHP version 5, there is now a PHP 5 version included. It incorporates the object-oriented enhancements in PHP 5.
• Options Revamped - Since I initially wrote the plug-in, I've learned that WordPress allows an option to be an array. So, to streamline its usage, the options are now an array, and only require one row in the database instead of five. There is also a file to clean up the old options.
• Bug Fixes - BibleGateway.com changed the way they display multiple passages (ex. “Matthew 1:13, 17-19”); version 2 has a fix that makes that work again.

As always, if you encounter any problems with the plug-in, just let me know and I'll try to help. Enjoy!

I have used a hack in the theme of my personal site for a while to obtain the “Verse of the Day” in the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) version. With things that I've learned about plug-ins, I decided to take a stab at creating a plug-in to do this work. That way, if I changed themes, I wouldn't have to hack the new one they way I've hacked the current one.

The fruits of my labor is the new HCSB Verse of the Day plug-in for WordPress. It uses the reference from BibleGateway.com, then gets the text from their regular website. (They do not provide the service, citing copyright restrictions.) How to use the plug-in, along with my justification on copyright grounds, is in the top of the file's comments. If they're not clear, certainly post comments here and I'll address them. (I do plan to submit the plug-in to WordPress.org - but, they require a specific README file format that it will take me a bit to put together.)

votd_hcsb.txt - HCSB Verse of the Day 1.0 (UPDATE: It is in the plugin directory now.)

To install it, download the file, rename it “votd_hcsb.php”, and upload it to your /wp-content/plugins directory. Then, enable it, and add the template tags to your theme - that's it!