This morning I checked in the initial version of a new plugin: In The Loop. This one generated from a request I got from a user of another plugin of mine, K2 Hook Up. Since the K2 Hooks don’t extend into ‘The Loop’the part of the WordPress theme that loops over all the posts to display your blog entries, he still couldn’t fully liberate his theme from all of his modifications.

So in between bites of left-over turkey and pie, I coded up this solution over the long Thanksgiving weekend and released it this morning.

Much like K2 Hook Up, In The Loop provides input boxes in the admin that accepts any HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or PHP code. You can place unique code before or after every post, and each location gets its own options on whether to show on Teasers, Single Posts, Pages, and/or your Feeds. If you combine this with conditional tags, you will have an extremely powerful way of selectively showing code with your posts, and still not have to edit any of your theme files.

It may seem a little weird that I coded up a new plugin at the request of one person. I’m such a big beliver in not hacking your theme, especially if you are using one that is updated often, that it just made sense to do it. You want to leave your upgrade path clear of modifications, so that you can always keep up to date. If there is friction you’ll be less likely to upgrade. I’ve ‘been there, done that’and vowed never to repeat that mistake again.

Plus given that the plugin has been downloaded almost 100 times in less than 24 hours of being out in the wild is any indication, Robert@PNG is not the only one interested in being in the loop. This also makes it my fastest growing plugin to date so in the end it was totally worth it. Thanks for the inspiration, Robert!