After three days of very productive Beta testing, the DivShare Uploader Plugin for Wordpress is officially moving up to version 1.0. Thanks to everyone who helped out!

As you may have heard, the DivShare Uploader is a Wordpress plugin that turns the upload frame on your “Write” pages into a DivShare dialog, allowing you to upload a file directly to DivShare and add it to your post. No HTML, no copying and pasting — adding files and media to Wordpress has never been easier.

On Friday we released a Beta version that’s been downloaded by more than 700 bloggers, and with their help we’ve added a few features and worked out some bugs for the official release. Here’s a list of new stuff:

Additions:
• An option to switch back to the standard Wordpress upload dialog temporarily
• A version tracker to alert you of plugin updates
• Feedback from the “Update Key” form that lets you know it worked

Fixes:
• Solved some “redeclared class” errors by using Wordpress’s built-in RSS functions
• Reduced the total number of plugin files from 7 to 2
• Fixed up some navigation issues and error messages

So it should be rockin’ now for all versions of Wordpress and PHP. If you do find an error along the way, please hit us up at support@divshare.com.

DivShare Uploader, Version 1.0:

• Update: Download Version 1.1 (zip)

Once you’ve got the file, here’s a refresher course on setup:

Upgrading: Delete all your Beta files before uploading the new stuff. Directory structures have changed and it’s easy to get mixed up.

Installation: Create a directory called “divshare_upload” in “/wp-content/plugins”, and upload the two PHP files there. Then go to your Wordpress admin and activate the plugin.

Your DivShare-Wordpress Key: You’ll need a special key to give Wordpress access to your DivShare account. Generate it on your DivShare Profile page, then pop it into the “DivShare Uploader Key” section of your Wordpress Plugins admin page.

That’s it! You can upload files directly to your DivShare account and then insert them into your Wordpress editor with a single click.

As always, hook us up with all your ideas, suggestions, bug reports and usage examples in the comments. There will be more ways to integrate DivShare into your site coming soon, as well as all the other social and folder-related upgrades we’ve been plugging in recent weeks.

There’s a little more info in the plugin on the Beta announcement post, and we’ll also be setting up an off-blog home page for it soon. Enjoy!

Update: We’re out of Beta and into Version 1.0. Check out the updates and download the new version right here.

One of our goals at DivShare is to power your social experience — whether it’s on the forums, in your profile, or on your blog. Our latest upgrade is a huge step in that direction, bringing the freedom and simplicity of DivShare file hosting to your Wordpress blog.

The new DivShare Uploader Plugin for Wordpress allows you to upload files directly from your “Write a Post” page to your DivShare account, and insert them into your post with a single click. No HTML, no copying or pasting, no need to even launch a new window. Posting images, MP3s and all types of files to your blog has never been easier.

The plugin replaces the standard Wordpress upload form with a DivShare form, which is linked to your account by a special key that you can create on your DivShare Profile page. You can upload anything, just like you would on DivShare. Here’s a visual:

(By the way, I inserted that image using the plugin, and it was glorious.)

After you upload a file, you follow a link to your dashboard, where you can see all the files in your DS account — including the ones you uploaded outside of WP. Each file has a bunch of “insert” links — images allow you to insert all three sizes (full-size, 400-pixel size, or 130-pixel thumbs) and MP3s allow you to embed our Flash player into your post. For all other files, you can insert a text link that includes the file’s description and name. Check it out:

And… that’s it! No more wrangling with HTML, changing directory permissions or overloading your server when you post a popular file. The DivShare Uploader plugin does it all.

Setting it up: We mentioned earlier that you need to generate a key to give Wordpress access to your DivShare account. This is a really easy process, and it allows the plugin to hook into your account without ever using your real password. To generate your key, head over to your profile and click the “Generate Key” button at the top of the sidebar:

From there, you can pop it into Wordpress on the “Plugins > DivShare Uploader Key” page that becomes available when you activate the plugin. Here’s how that looks:

Your account will then be linked to your blog, and you’re ready to rock! For your security, you should treat your Uploader key like a password — never post it publicly like I just did. If your key ever falls into the wrong hands, you can replace it with a brand new one by clicking the button in your profile again.

What’s Next: So, you’re diggin’ it, and now it’s time to try it on your own blog. Just as we did with the Upload Progress Bar, we’re going to release the plugin in Beta mode for a day or two to let you test it on every browser and platform. Download it below, beat it up for us, and report any errors you can find in the comments. Once we’re satisfied that it works for everybody, we’ll upgrade it to the official release and let you know if you need to make any changes with your installation.

Download the DivShare Uploader Plugin:

• DivShare Uploader for Wordpress (.zip)
• DivShare Uploader for Wordpress (.tar.gz)

Hook us up with all your comments below.

And, of course, we won’t break the tradition of previewing what’s next in DivShare development. You can look out for new Folder options for file organization, as well as a searchable file “showcase” and personalized DivShare profiles, complete with a yourname.divshare.com subdomain. And there’s a bunch of other awesome stuff on the horizon, too — stay tuned to the blog for more. Enjoy!

This morning we have one huge upgrade with a few smaller ones sprinkled on top — the big news: you can now name your image galleries. It’s easy to add titles to your old galleries on the dashboard, and you can also name your new ones using a new field on the upload form, which will appear when you check the “create a gallery” box. Here’s what it looks like:

Once your gallery is online, the name will be displayed just above the gallery thumbnails, as you can see below. In this screenshot you’ll also notice another feature: we are now resizing large images for faster, easier display on the site. Anything above 750 pixels will be scaled down for easy viewing, and you’ll still be able to access the original, full-size file using a “Download” link right below the image.

As some of you may have noticed, we previously used Javascript to resize large images in your browser — we made the switch because the old-fashioned way forced viewers to download a huge image (sometimes a meg or two in size) before the resize took effect. On a slow connection, it could be a real mess. Here’s the faster, cleaner solution:

Next up, we’ll check out the dashboard, where we’ve installed another fancy AJAX editing form that allows you to update your gallery titles without reloading the page. Here’s how it looks:

Standard Display:

Editing Display:

So, go give your image galleries some clever names, and prepare for some other cool gallery-related stuff, such as the introduction of file folders and MP3 playlists, in the near future. In the meantime, we also have a couple small upgrades that we can’t leave out of today’s post.

For one, we fixed a problem that no one has reported involving the order of multiple files that are uploaded together. We noticed tonight that sometimes multiple files would be uploaded out of order, so they’d appear incorrectly in a gallery or they’d be associated with the wrong file description. After a little hacking, this is all fixed :).

And, to finish off the night, we made some more changes to file flagging. You might remember that last month we added a flagging reason to the form, and now we’re taking it one step further and allowing multiple users to flag a file. This way, we’ll be able to more easily tell if 500 people think a file is breaking the rules, or if one random person clicked the button by accident.

That’s all for now! Enjoy the new gallery features, and post away in the comments with all your other ideas.

Our friends over at iTricks, a blog/podcast/news organization that covers the magic industry, are putting DivShare to work in one of our favorite ways yet. Their latest contests asks users to send in an audio description of their magic tricks gone wrong, and points them right to DivShare to host and share the MP3s.

And, of course, it works like a charm :). Here’s one of the first of several submissions users have posted through DivShare — a little weird, but we’ll allow it. Thanks to the iTricks for spreading the good word — and if you have any more cool DivShare sightings or know of a site that’s using DivShare to provide a better experience for its visitors, hit us up in the comments.

We’re really getting addicted to AJAX since we built the progress bar, so here’s the newest little tweak. On the Member Dashboard, you can now edit your file’s description without leaving the page, which makes life a lot easier when you’re adding or changing a lot of descriptions. Log in and check it out, then watch out for the upload progress bar to officially come out of beta in a few hours. Enjoy!

Since Day 1, it’s been our most requested feature, and this morning we’re making it a reality. We’re proud to introduce DivShare’s brand new upload progress bar — our favorite addition yet, and a great example of how a little AJAX can breathe new life into any site … even DivShare ;).

We’ve tested it pretty extensively, but because we’re using a lot of new software, we are going to make the new version of our upload form available on its own special page for the next day or two. That’s where you come in — we need you to test it out, beat it up, and get back to us with any errors, suggestions or other comments you have. When we’ve heard from tons of users and ensured that there are no major errors lurking behind all that fancy Web 2.0 scripting, we’ll flip the switch and make the progress-bar uploads the DivShare default.

Oh, and just in case you can’t wait, here’s a quick preview:

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to the Upload Progress Bar Beta Page and give it a try — it should treat your files exactly the same way as the old upload process, but this time you’ll see your upload percentage and progress live on the page. When you’re finished, head back here to the blog and comment away. And if you do encounter any errors (heaven forbid), please give us as much info about your browser and operating system as you can. Happy uploading!

» Try the New Upload Progress Bar

As we near our second full month of operation, we’ve got a couple cool new milestones to announce. We’re now hosting 100,000 live files, and more than 14,000 of you have registered accounts. And we just polished off our first terabyte of storage space, which means another big upgrade — our second storage server (strapped with another couple terabytes). So, keep uploading, and enjoy the new hardware!

Oh, one other thing. We’ve got a really cool upload progress bar waiting in the wings. We’ll be posting a fully functional version of it over the next couple days for you to test out. After that, we’re going social, so get your DivShare avatars ready

Stay tuned!

Check out a great article over at AZfamily.com, where Catherine Holland describes her ongoing backup woes and the online savior she has found in DivShare. It’s a long and wildly positive article — thanks Catherine!

Created and run by the good folks at Diversion Web Publishing, a Web design and hosting company, DivShare bills itself as “the Internet’s new virtual hard drive,” and promises “unprecedented freedom and simplicity.”

They just might be right.

DivShare, which opened its servers in on Dec. 18, 2006, is wicked easy to use. (Easy enough, I think my techno-challenged sister could do it.) …

Clearly DivShare is doing something right. Make that many things.

Rock on, Catherine, and thanks for linking to those pictures of your cat. For the full article, head over to the original post at AZfamily.com — ‘A cure for the backup bug.’