Author Buzz UK members can now get their hands on a new plugin – AB Custom Post Meta. For now, the plugin is exclusive to Author Buzz blogs.

AB Custom Post Meta is a simple plugin that adds a new widget to display custom post data.

When you write a post on WordPress three is the option to define custom data. People often use it to add what they were reading, watching, feeling, etc. at the time they wrote the post. This sort of thing:

• Reading: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
• Listening to: AC/DC
• Feeling: Happy but tired

Normally you need to make sure that you have a theme that supports custom fields. Otherwise, all that information remains hidden. Which is a pain because not so many themes do support custom field values.

Not anymore. Now if you want to add “Feeling: Happy” and “Reading: Good Omens” or whatever to your posts, then you can be sure that information will show up and be seen. Best of all, you get to decide where it will appear.

If you don’t define any fields then the AB Custom Post Meta widget is smart enough not to waste your readers time trying to show up. It will only produce something if (and only if) there is something to share from the post.

Additionally, because the custom field data is often used by other plugins, any data that starts with an underscore will be hidden. So “_my_secret” would be secret while “you should hear this” would be shown to everyone.

If you want to use the new widget, AB Custom Post Meta is available to install from your blog’s admin area.

If you have any questions about AB Custom Post Meta then you can get support on the Blogs and Blogging forum.