Use the Attachment Image!

Use the Attachment Image! allows the first attachment image associated with a post to be displayed nearly anywhere on a blog, simply by adding a special function to a loop. This plugin is a perfect compliment for magazine themes.

This plugin can include images of nearly any size, simply by using the included function. See the installation page for more details regarding usage.

To utilize this plugin, you will first need to upload use_attachment_image.php to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory on your web server; and activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.

Next, place <?php use_the_attachment_image() ?> (will include a link to the post), or <?php use_the_attachment_image_nolink() ?> (will NOT include a link to the post) in your template to include a thumbnail of the first attachment image. Note the function must be inside of a WordPress loop.

By default, this function will include a thumbnail image. To include images of different sizes, use the respective functions below. You may also use <?php use_the_attachment_image_nolink() ?> in place of <?php use_the_attachment_image() ?> here.

Thumbnail <?php use_the_attachment_image('thumbnail'); ?>
Medium <?php use_the_attachment_image('medium'); ?></p>
Large <?php use_the_attachment_image('large'); ?></p>
Full <?php use_the_attachment_image('full'); ?>
20 px <?php use_the_attachment_image(array(20,20)); ?>
Feel free to replace 20px with another specific size to best meet your needs. Note that WordPress will scale a larger image down to give you the size you desire here.

It is possible to include a thumbnail image from each post in your RSS feed. To do this, simply add this code to your theme’s functions.php file. From cd harrison.

<?php
if (function_exists('use_the_attachment_image')) {
    function insertAttachmentRSS($content) {
        global $post;
        { $content = use_the_attachment_image() . $content; }
        return $content;
    }
    add_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'insertAttachmentRSS');
    add_filter('the_content_feed', 'insertAttachmentRSS');
}
?>

See an example of how this plugin can be used.

1.02

• The code that includes the post image in an RSS feed was taken out of the plugin and moved to the readme file; as it did not previously work when it was included in a separate file from the plugin file as was suggested in the plugin instructions.

1.01

• Fixed the function name in the documentation. In a few cases, a function that did not exist was referenced. Thanks, Matias for the report. The actual plugin was not changed.

1.0

• Initial release.