Flu Pandemic Level
Flu Pandemic Level is a WordPress plugin that will fetch the current WHO (World Health Organisation) phase of pandemic alert.
Download
Download Flu Pandemic Level (v1.3, 21/07/2010)
Changelog
Version 1.0
- Initial release
Version 1.1
- Tidied up code
- Re-tested to ensure that level extraction still works
Version 1.2
- Flu level is now cached – by default for 24 hours
- New
cachetag added so that default cache time can be changed - Added new inline tag that can be used within posts and pages to display the flu level
- New function added to output error messages
Version 1.3
- Wording on WHO site had changed so this plugin has stopped working – corrected
Installation
- Upload the entire
flu-pandemic-levelfolder to yourwp-content/plugins/directory. - Ensure the cache folder within the plugins folder is fully writable – ie. change its permissions to 777.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- There is no options screen.
Configuration
From version 1.2 a cache system is used - please read the installation notes for ensuring that the new caching facility correctly works
This plugin reads the WHO (World Health Organisation) website and fetch the current phase of pandemic alert. You can also find full descriptions for the phases on this site. The phase is a number between 1 and 6.
The phase is not displayed, but is returned by the plugin. So, to display the phase you might code…
<php echo flu_pandemic_level(); ?>
Alternatively, you can simply use the plugin to return the phase for use in some further code.
The following is an example of how it could be used, with a function_exists check so that it doesn’t cause problems if the plugin is not active…
<?php if (function_exists('flu_pandemic_level')) : ?>
<?php echo flu_pandemic_level(); ?>
<?php endif; ?>
From version 1.2, you can (optionally) pass a parameter of cache= followed by a number. This represents the number of hours that a cache should be retained. If this is set to “NO” then caching will be turned off. For example…
<?php echo flu_pandemic_level('cache=6'); ?>
Also from version 1.2 onwards, you can request the pandemic level to be listed “inline”, from within your post/page. Simply place the tag 3 within your post/page and it will be replaced by the current flu level number.
Problems/Queries
Please report any problems, or suggestions for enhancements, to me either via my contact form or by commenting on the appropriate entries on my blog.
Updates
Updates to this and any other of my WordPress plugins will be published on this blog.
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Hey great plugin its very usefull but the line “The current WHO phase of pandemic alert is” was changed to “The current WHO phase of pandemic alert for avian influenza is”
and need to be updated on the code or you get an error =)
Thanks for letting me know – I’ll get the plugin updated today.
The WHO site change again the text to “The current WHO phase of pandemic alert for avian influenza H5N1 is ” but i change the quoted line and got this “Flu Pandemic Level: The WHO page is not in the expected format.”