The Largo theme comes packaged with plugins original created by NPR for Project Argo. In some cases we have made minor modifications to these plugins to ensure compatibility with the Largo theme so we recommend using the included versions. When you activate the Largo theme you should receive a message at the top of the WordPress admin dashboard that prompts you to install required and recommended plugins.
We strongly recommend installing at least two of the plugins developed by Project Argo (you can read the documentation for all of their plugins here).
- The Argo Media Credit and Slideshow plugins will enable better support for photos and galleries within the Largo theme. Documentation for the media credit plugin and slideshow plugin can be found on the Project Argo site here and here, respectively.
- We have also modified the Argo Navis DocumentCloud plugin to make it work a bit better within a responsive layout. We recommend using the version of the plugin that comes packaged with the Largo theme, but the instructions for how to add a DocumentCloud document to a post from the Project Argo site are still valid.
- The Argo Links plugin is a great way to collect links from around the web and create link roundup posts. We have not made any modifications to this plugin so it will work exactly as documented on the Project Argo site.
- The Argo Audio Player will enable you to easily add embedded audio to your posts. Depending on your specific needs you might prefer using a plugin called PowerPress to support podcasting or hosting your audio on SoundCloud and embedding the SoundCloud player. Documentation for the Argo Player can be found here.
- And finally, the Argo Jiffy Posts plugin enables support for embed.ly’s oEmbed API. This allows you to easily embed content in WordPress posts using nothing more than a URL. Note that embed.ly is not a free service (pricing information here) but might be worth considering if your organization plans to embed a lot of third party content and rich media on your site.
In addition to the Argo plugins, we have included a curated list of other plugins that will enable various functionality that many news organizations might find useful. Note that while we have tested these plugins with the latest version of Largo and WordPress, they are developed and maintained by their respective third-party developers.
- Akismet is a widely used WordPress plugin to protect your site from comment and trackback spam. Activation of this plugin requires an Akismet API key which you can obtain for free from http://akismet.com/wordpress/
- All in One SEO Pack is one of a couple SEO plugins used by many WordPress users to ensure their sites are well-optimized for search engines. Two common alternatives are Platinum SEO Pack and WordPress SEO by Yoast.
- Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps will create a sitemap index of your site that you can then submit to Google (and Google News) and other search engines to maximize the visibility of your content. Documentation for this plugin can be found on the plugin website.
- Clean Contact allows you to add contact forms to pages on your site. Largo comes packaged with a customized version of the plugin that, once configured, will let you add a contact form to any page on your site with the use of a simple shortcode. You can find documentation for this plugin in the WordPress plugin directory.
- Disqus Comment System replaces the default WordPress comment system with a more robust alternative that includes more community features and enhanced moderation capability. This plugin requires a Disqus account to activate but the setup process will walk you through creating one and adding your site. Documentation can be found on the Disqus website.
- Edit Flow adds advanced workflow features to WordPress including the ability to manage additional user roles, editorial comments and an editorial calendar. Documentation can be found on the Edit Flow website.
- W3 Total Cache is an advanced caching plugin for WordPress that will improve the load time of your site and help your server to better deal with large traffic spikes. Caching is heavily dependent on your server setup, and while W3 Total Cache is one of the most powerful (and flexible) WordPress caching solutions out there, if it does not work for you WP Super Cache is another popular alternative.
- WP Google Ad Manager (documentation) is one of a few plugins that enable you to easily ad Google Ad units to a WordPress site. Note that incorporating ads into a responsive design can be tricky (and is rapidly evolving) so if your site does use Google Ad Manager or another ad network you may have to experiment some with different ad size and placements to get it to work well within the Largo framework.
- Winer Links is a simple plugin to automatically add paragraph level permalinks to your posts so that visitors can share a direct link to a particular section of a story. This plugin is a bit rough and can take some tweaking to get it to work properly, but you can find documentation and installation instructions here.