Freelance Availability Widget WordPress Plugin

A plugin for freelancers to help manage their time more effectively.

Download Freelance Availability Widget

The Freelance Availability Widget is a plugin that is for freelancers on helping control leads on your site. It’s a bit of a boundary, and will let any potential leads know lead times before you can start work. This will help make sure that you’re starting off a new client relationship on the right foot.

It is a widget with three states:-

  • Available: This implies that you’re ready and able to start work immediately!
  • Soon: This implies that you’re soon going to be available for work, so you may want to look for your next project.
  • Unavailable: This implies that you’re not ready to look for work.

You can choose to style or what to show for each widget, so even if you’re unavailable, you can still look for work, but it’s a way to control your message on your site quickly and easily.

You can also set two dates per project, one of which is when the date changes from “Unavailable” to “Soon”, and one when it changes from “Soon” to “Available”. This happens automatically and you don’t need to do anything for this.

Installation

  1. Upload the plugin to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory or use the Add New feature.
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
  3. Go to Settings > Freelance Availablity Widget to set when you are available soon or available.
  4. Search for the “Freelance Availablity Widget” in the WordPress block editor.

Setting Up Your Widget

Setting Global Settings

These instructions are for Freelance Availability Widget version 2.0 and above

From Freelance Availability Widget 2.0 of the plugin, you are able to set up global settings within your site. Go to Settings > Freelance Availability Widget and you can choose the dates where you are available for Freelance Work or Soon to Be Available. Click “Save Changes” to save your changes.

Adding the Widget

These instructions are for Freelance Availability Widget version 2.0 and above

To add the Widget, go to any Gutenberg enabled page, post, custom post type or widget area and click +. Search for “Freelance Availability Widget”. From there you should see a complex box.

The box is split into 3 areas. The first two editable areas is the heading and text that appears if you are available, the second two is the heading and text that appears when you are soon to be available, and the last two appear when you are unavailable.

To add a button. Look in the sidebar for the additional block settings. You can set the following settings:-

  • Freelance Widget – Available
    • Available Button Link – The link that the button links to when you are available.
    • Available Button Text – The text of the button that shows when you are available.
    • Override Global Available Settings – Should you wish to override the global available date, you can toggle this on.
    • Availability Date – This is the date that is used if you have toggled the “Override Global Available Settings” on.
  • Freelance Widget – Soon
    • Soon to be Available Button Link – The link that the button links to when you are soon to be available.
    • Soon to be Available Button Text – The text of the button that shows when you are soon to be available.
    • Override Global Soon to be Available Settings – Should you wish to override the global soon to be available date, you can toggle this on.
    • Soon to be Available Date – This is the date that is used if you have toggled the “Override Global Soon to be Available Settings” on.

Shortcodes

These instructions are for Freelance Availability Widget version 2.0 and above

There are a couple of shortcodes available to be used anywhere on the site, to show the dates you are available or available soon.

  • [faw_available_date format=""] shows the global available date.
  • [faw_soon_date format=""] shows the global soon to be available date.

Both shortcodes has the “format” attribute. This is a string that uses the WordPress date format.

Styling the Widget

To style the widget, an extra class is added to the widget class (please note, you will need to make sure your widget area has individual widget classes to work. These are the following:-

  • .freelance-availability-widget is the class shown whenever the widget is displayed.
  • .widget_faw_freelance_availability_widget_available is the class shown when the “Available” widget is displayed.
  • .widget_faw_freelance_availability_widget_soon is the class shown when the “Soon” widget is displayed.
  • .widget_faw_freelance_availability_widget_unavailable is the class shown when the “Unavailable” widget is displayed.
  • .freelance-availability-button is the class shown whenever the button is displayed.
  • .freelance-availability-button-available is the class shown whenever the “Available” button is displayed.
  • .freelance-availability-button-soon is the class shown whenever the “Soon to be available” button is displayed.

By default, the button used is a WordPress Gutenberg button.

Legacy Instructions – Setting Up Your Widget

Should you not use Gutenberg, you can use the legacy widget.

When you go to Appearance > Widgets, you can add the “Freelance Availability Widget” to any area you choose. On that page, search for “Freelance Availability – Legacy Widget”.

You will have a number of headings:-

  • Available Settings apply when the “Available Date” has passed.
    • Title – Introductory text (no HTML please)
    • URL – The URL or shortcode to show your form.
    • Available Date From – The date from which to show this box.
  • Soon Settings apply when the “Available Date” hasn’t occurred, but the “Soon Date” has passed.
    • Title – The Widget title to show.
    • Text – Introductory text (no HTML please)
    • URL – The URL or shortcode to show your form.
    • Soon Date From – The date from which to show this box.
  • Unavailable Settings apply when the “Soon Date” hasn’t passed.
    • Title – The Widget title to show.
    • Text – Introductory text (no HTML please).
    • URL – The URL or shortcode to show your form.

Screenshots

Screenshot of the legacy widget on Rhys Wynne, my personal blog, showing the “Availability” state.
Screenshot of the new widget on the Dwi’n Rhys Blog, showing the “Available Soon” state.
Screenshot of the available shortcode on the Dwi’n Rhys Contact Form, with a custom date format.

Support

On Github!

This project is on github! You can see the repository here.

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