Looking for a popup that will automatically open after a specified amount of time? Then check out my Simple Auto Delay Popup WordPress plugin.
As featured on netchunks.com
Here’s my first WordPress plugin; blood, sweat, and tears have gone into making this simple thing. The function of this plugin is to easily create a simple popup window like so.
I figure there’s got to be a bunch of bands/musicians using WordPress that need an easy way to create a popup music player to showcase their songs without having visitors go to a separate page of the site.
*This plugin is compatible with WordPress 2.8 and above.
Installation
- Download and install/activate this Simple Popup plugin.
- Adjust settings in the options page.
- Use.
Usage
Shortcode
Create a popup link in by using this shortcode within the post or page editor:
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Shortcode Attributes
- url = ‘*The url you wish you popup. The only required attribute.’
- width = ‘The width of the popup in pixels. Overrides the width set in the options screen.’
- height = ‘The height of the popup in pixels. Overrides the height set in the options screen.’
- class = ‘Add a custom class to the link (simple_popup_link is added to each link by default)’
Popup Links in Template Files
If you would like to use the shortcode in a template file simply call it like so:
<?php echo do_shortcode('[popup url="http://popupurl.com']LINK TEXT[/popup]'); ?>
An image can be used as the link as well:
<?php echo do_shortcode('[popup url="http://popupurl.com']<img src="http://imageurl.com/image.jpg' />[/popup]'); ?>
Widget

Options Screenshot

Changelog
2/23/09 – Version 2.0 – Now has an option for toggling scrollbars, a widget for easily adding a link to the popup in your sidebar, and a template tag for adding a link wherever else you might want one! Roll it!
11/1/09 – Version 3.0 – Added support for multiple popup links. Now has the option to position the window on the screen. Removed widget.
11/3/09 – Version 3.1 – Brought back widget with easier usage!
1/15/10 – Version 3.2 – With the help of Rich added ability to use multiple popups in the widget and window centering support.
8/17/11 – Version 4.0 – Added the ability to change dimensions of individual popups via width & height attributes in the shortcode. Also added a ‘class’ attribute so you can add a custom class to the link if desired.

I have a few enhancements I am needing that others may also find useful:
1. We want our radio player to pop up on a configurable delay after the site loads no matter what page they hit in WordPress.
2. We only want the popup to launch one time, so they can browse the site and listen to our music without multiple pop-ups happening.
3. If they close the pop-up to stop the music, but continue to browse the site, we don’t want the pop-up to launch again until they leave the site and come back some other time.
Doable and if so how, when, and how much?
I want this exact functionality as well. any plans to make this happen? thank you! Your plugin is the best for this, but I’d prefer to have visitors not be required to click to launch the music player I’m embedding in the popup.
“…but I’d prefer to have visitors not be required to click to launch the music player I’m embedding in the popup.”
Is there a way to do this please?
Hey guys, this functionality is available in my new ‘Simple Auto Delay Popup’ plugin.
Check it out: http://www.grimmdude.com/wordpress-simple-auto-delay-popup-plugin/
Hallo Garret
It could have been so good…
Could not get it to work – running wp 2.9.1 – it just opens up a new tab in the browser…???
Am I going crazy – I think I am.
Cheers
Stokko
OK I was crazy! – I took away the px in height and width. And it works! My bad…
Thanks – the world is waiting.
stokko
is there a way i can use like a hard-coded link?
i’ve tried the <?php simple_popup_link… but didn't work.
i'm making a link from a table that is inside a widget.
so i can't use the widget funcion, and the [popup ...] doesn't work either.
is there some other way i can make it work?
thanks
I recently downloaded and installed version 3.2 from the WordPress plugin site (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-popup-plugin/) and noticed that the admin “options.php” file is missing from the archive.
Hence when administering your plugin from the admin side you can not update/save your settings.
Hi John, you may be missing the options page because it’s called simple_popup_admin.php Options page isn’t working for you though? What version of WordPress are you using?
2 quick questions. I just installed the plugin and works perfect with wp 3.2.1, but I can’t seem to find the “options” page … me too
2nd question … can I get a popup from a menu button?
thank
options page is located at Settings > Simple Popup Plugin. Not exactly sure what mean by your second questions, but the plugin comes with a widget where you can easily add popup links to your sidebar, or anywhere else in your theme that supports widgets. Hope that helps,
-Garrett
Can I use an image for the pop-up link instead of text?
Replace -
with -
<?php simple_popup_link("/wp-content/themes/gazette/musicplayer.php","”); ?>
where you replace “yourwebsite/image.jpg” with the actual URL of your image.
Oops, the code got parsed out of the comment. Simply put a standard html image tag in place of the LINK TEST HERE. Then replace the double quotes around the URL of the image with single quotes and remember to put a “/” before the “>” of the image URL end tag.
Hi Borderorder
I very much appreciate your sharing how to use and image with this plugin but unfortunately i am quite stupid and your explanation went over my head. Is there any way you could simplify it for me. Thanks Robin
Like this…
<?php simple_popup_link("POP UP LINK HERE","”); ?>
Oh… the html got erased. Okay, copy this code but change [ ] to
[?php simple_popup_link("http://thcanada.com/radio/player.html","[img src='http://juliatest.thcanada.com/wp-content/themes/dreamyblog5/dreamyblog5/images/radio.png'/]“); ?]
Im with Robin on this one. Hate to be negative, but you guys are ASSUMING we know way too much, and please get your sh&* straight by knowing that code gets parsed when you comment.
@Border – there is no “LINK TEST HERE” to reference above where you typed that, sorry, I dont know what to replace
@feeprinz – change [] with what?
Try this for using an image with a link to the popup:
Just replace those urls with the actual link and image url you’re using. Hope that helps.
-G
Garrett, thanks for that, but it still didnt work.
http://www.becomingafosterparent.com/test-signup-form
that is the page I am testing it on, and that is what shows up (just the code)
Jesse, this tag is to be placed in the template files; not in a post.
Garrett
thanks’
Jesse
Garrett
thanks’
Jesse
Hi Jesse,
The instructions for this plugin above (in the original post) specify this as a ‘template tag’. This should answer any questions you have about templates: http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Templates
I’m afraid I’m completely lost. For a plug-in that’s described as “Simple” it doesn’t seem so simple to me, and I’m not exactly a newbie.
Could someone please explain exactly where I put the shortcode? For example, if I create a page or post, specifically where do I put the shortcode? I tried entering it into the html of the post, but the whole code shows up rather than just the text link.
Plus, there is no widget available to me to put into the sidebar, so that’s not even an option for me.
I’m sure this is a great plug-in, but maybe you need to omit the word “Simple”. This is by far the most difficult plug-in I’ve ever tried to use.
Thanks,
Shawn
Hi,I want to use an image in place of text,
Please suggest me th way
thx
Hi,I want to use an image in place of text,
Please suggest me th way
thx
this works perfectly for pop up of page when clickin on image:
http://demoblog.ajaydsouza.net/2009/02/27/testing-open-browser-window-plugin/
Hi
I just tried your great plugin and wanted to point out a slight problem – and the fix for it. If – when inserting the code on the page or post – you copy and paste a URL into the code instead of typing it in manually the pop up won’t work.
I was inserting a particularly long URL so it seemed a lot easier to copy paste – is there any other way to fix this? – Thanks again – I love the plugin. Robin
Smart quotes is the only problem in cutting-pasting. The quotes around your hrefs must be normal double-quote character. I cut and past, then just dumb down the smart quotes.
hi thanks for the great plug in.
I’m just wondering on my pop up tap bar is still show up but not yours I want to take it out. is there anyway i have to check?
and is there anyway to use image as a place holder?
let me know,
Thanks.
Hi,
Thanks about the links I didn’t read comment.
how to open a post im popup?
My idea is to have a link that when clicked open the content of post in a popup.
Only the contents, without menus, etc..
tks
How to center the popup window?
nevermind “To center the popup window, set both distance from top/left to 0″
I have the music player to popup a certain area. but I want another popup window to be centered. Anyway to have different configurations, or once it is set, it is set for all popups to be the same sitewide?
I love this plug in, it’s exactly what I need, but there seems to be something a little janky with it and I can’t for the life of me see what I might be doing to make it this way.
I have a website where I want users to be able to open windows. I have several links (about 60) that I want to link to a pop up window.
I’m at about linking 12 of them, and for some reason if I add anymore links, my whole page will render blank. I’ve tried typing it in, copy and pasting, I’ve double and triple checked my codes to make sure I’m not missing a character, and it’s all correct. However, like I said, if I try to add anymore then the 12 links I have on my page it’s all rendered blank.
Perhaps I’m doing something my eyes just aren’t catching? Any advice? The page in question is located here:
http://seedbank.populuxe.ca/?page_id=11
Thanks so much for any insight you might be able to provide!
Hi Kelly. I’m having the same problem. Did you ever get it figured out?
Unfortunately no, I’ve resorted to using links just to a simple page. Still hoping for a fix though because I’d love to be able to use this plug in.
Hi Kelly & Jason, are you guys still having this problem? I think it should be resolved now.
-G
Hi,
Your plugin seems perfect for what I want to do. However, when I insert a popup link in a page, as shown in your instructions, it simply links back to the page from which the popup is launched. So I just get the same page I’m already on, inside the popup window. For some reason its just going to the source page, instead of what I put in url=’xxx’ on the page. I’m using WP 2.9.2 and can’t figure it out. My code points to an HTML page that I want to popup, but even on mouseover it just shows the address of the page that the link is on, not the address I put in the code. Any ideas?
I apologize. I have since figured it out. I looked at the HTML view and discovered that when I pasted in the address, it had pasted the html code to make it a link. So instead of url=’xxx’ it was (modified so it wont be code) url=”a href=”xxx”xxx/a” and that appears to be what was messing it up.
Is there any way to make the text wrap in the popup? I have a text file that pops up but it doesn’t wrap so you have to scroll horizontally…
Hi just install the plugin… its activated on the gallery page and nothing simply happens.
anyone would know why?
thank you
http://www.fredevents.com/event-gallery
Hi Quentin, thanks for checking out the plugin. See the above post for instructions on how to use it.
Works fine in Firefox and Safari. For some reason, in Internet Explorer, the popup window can’t be expanded.
Any ideas?
Hi Folks,
Simple issue i’m sure. Well not even an issue more so incompetence.
I’m trying to link the popup plugin to the permalink and have no idea how this would be done!
Example:
<a href="<img src="/images/clickhere_icon_darkgrey.gif” alt=”" />
Many knowledge of Javascipt is absolutely nil, and I got someone to implement the wordpress. I just did the initial design.
Happy help would be hugely appreciated. manythanks,
Dan
Hi Folks,
Simple issue i’m sure. Well not even an issue more so incompetence.
I’m trying to link the popup plugin to the permalink and have no idea how this would be done!
Example:
<a href="<img src="/images/clickhere_icon_darkgrey.gif” alt=”" />
Many knowledge of Javascipt is absolutely nil, and I got someone to implement the wordpress. I just did the initial design.
Happy help would be hugely appreciated. many thanks,
Dan
hello,
I was trying to put the style option in to change the color of the link like you do with but nothing seems to work?
Is there a way?
[popup url="http://www.mywebsite/mylink.pdf" style="color:#00F" ]Brochure[/popup]
Instead of getting a popup window, it opens a new tab.
Is anyone else getting this? How do I fix that?
flygirl,
It probably means you have javascript turned off.
And it CAN vary by browser or browser settings. If the popup fails, a new tab or full window is the fallback.
My javascript is enable
What kind of music player are you using with your demo? I like it and I want to use it
Thanks
I’m using this one http://musicplayer.sourceforge.net/
You sir are truly a legend. This is exactly what I was after
How to open a post im popup?
My idea is to have a link that when clicked open the content of post in a popup.
Only the content, without menus,header etc..
tks
hello i found this information in spanish for my problem. is the best solution.
http://ayudawordpress.com/plantillas-personalizadas-page-template/
I need the code so when I click on an IMAGE, it pops up a link. not click on a LINK and popup an image..
search in the plugin directory a plugin like ngg galery.
or simple pop up image, is the same, but for images.
thanx for this very simple and cool plugin.
is there a possibility to start my popup automatically when i open a specific site instead of clicking a link?
thanx for feedback
I hope not.
I hate those. Google hates those. You really don’t want to do that.
I agree. Using popup’s in this manner just annoys site visitors and drives them away…
I can’t seem to get this to work! I placed the appropriate tag in my footer.php file, and all it does is open a new tab! It won’t open a small popup window at all.
Hi,
The pop-up is exactly as I needed after migrating my site from html page to WordPress.
I thing you can is add the ability to control the size of each pop-up.
The current pop-up is universal. Which means, all pop-ups will have the same size.
I suggest you creat another version where we can control the pop-up size from the pop-up code that we place in the posts.
For example:
[popup height="300" width="600" url="http://www.popupurl.com"]Link Text Here[/popup]
You can change size
Hi,
If I have 3 pop-ups in a single page or post, how do I set different sizes for all 3 of them?
1 with 300 x 500
1 with 500 x 500
1 with 100 x 100
In the Plugin Settings, I can only set a web site wide universal size for every pop-up
What I’m trying to figure out is how can I set difference sizes for all pop-ups.
hi, thanks, was hoping for a pop up that auto comes up for end of yesr donations, also the paypal links goes in german and does not work anyhow, thanks for oyur help!
Hi,
I have the popup working and it is great. I want to hide the URL completely. The Location Bar checkbox is unchecked in the settings and the main URL box is not showing. However the URL is showing in the grey bar at the top. Is there a way to remove this?
Marco,
HOW do you change the size of individual pop ups?
I need it to do exactly the same as Azman AR as outlined…
Cheers
Neil
Just installed the plugin now, and I can’t get a link to open in a new window – it just opens it in a new tab.
I’ve tried it across Firefox and Google Chrome with the same result, using the bundled widget, and the template tag.
Is this a known issue?
Thanks.
i install the plugins.. the popup work fine but why there got “[rps]” word just beside the link? how to remove it? please advise
Hi there,
do you know how I can create a gmap link for a Google map to popup?
I am using your plugin right now for Google maps, however, the popup opens the entire browser window, with the map….I would like it to open the map only.
any suggestion?
it works very well, by the way, thanks!!
Hi Elaine,
SF vocalist, cool! You sound great. I’m in SF too, have a band called Great Bowls of Fire. Google may have a script on the map that makes it open in a full window, which I think will be problematic to try to resolve. I do have a plugin for embedding maps if you want to try it out for your needs: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-static-google-maps/ Also check out Google’s API for creating maps, they have a lot options that may be suitable for you. http://code.google.com/apis/maps/index.html
-Garrett
how do i make the win pop to appear automatically?
Sincerely
JIm
Hi there,
I am looking to put a dynamic link in this for use with twitter. So this is kinda the idea that i want to do.
<?php simple_popup_link("http://twitter.com/home/?status= - ”,”Tweet this post”); ?>
Sorry went screwy, here is a pastie http://pastie.org/1786888
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your feedback. Give this a try:
< ?php simple_popup_link("http://twitter.com/home/?status=".get_the_title()." - ".get_permalink($post->ID),"Tweet this post"); ?>If that pasted code gives you problems here’s the pastie:
http://pastie.org/1792209
That works perfectly. Thanks so much.
Going out on a limb here for help. Normally pretty tech savvy but this player is not working out for me. I downloaded it off wordpress but then it says to install it into the /wp content folder.
I don’t know what or where that is, so that’s my first problem…
Hi Lauren,
Thanks for your comment. The wp_content folder is a folder on your hosting server which is included with the WordPress installation. These days though WordPress comes with the ability to install plugins from the plugin manager which you can access from the dashboard of your blog. Basically you just want to search for ‘Simple Popup Plugin’ and click install.
For more info on this check: http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins_Add_New_SubPanel
Hope that helps, please let me know if you have any problems.
-Garrett
I seem to get the URL location bar whether I have the “Location Bar” option set or not in the Simple Popup Plugin options screen. This is with WP 3.1.1 and Simple Popup Plugin 3.2 and using both Firefox 3.6.16 and Chrome 10.0.648.204.
Fred,
The newer browsers force that as a matter of security, even when a page or link specifies no location bar. I don’t think you can do anything about it.
Hi I am trying to use the plugin to popup a separate music player….im trying to allow visitors the ability to have the music playing w/o interruption while simultaneously browsing other areas of the site…..any suggestions?
Check out this post http://www.grimmdude.com/how-to-create-a-popup-music-player-using-the-simple-popup-plugin-for-wordpress/
hi
I love your popup plugin, and have been using it with great succes for about a year. Just recently I updated to ie9. Now, when I navigate to my website and click on a popup link, I get both a popup *AND* a the same page in a whole new window, which of course defeats the purpose. Will all ie9 users see this? Can I stop it? See for yourself, e.g. here http://letstalk.uk.net/about-me/
any help appreciated
Jon
It does support anchor text? I tried to put it in the footer.php but it wont work..:(
Anyhelp?
this is great plugin. I want to know a thing. I need to pop-up only video using this plugin. Is there any way to do that.
Yeh – just embed the video into a plain html document (no headers or footers) and make the height and width of the window the same as the vid in the plugin settings.
I found this pop up great…i just want to know whether i can popup a form?
Hi Anon, sure you can popup a form. Just create an html page with the form in it and pop up the url of that page using this plugin.
Great plugin
Defo something the the core installation of wp is missing.
Is it possible to add pseudo link classes to these? I know I could style the a {} css, but I would quite like separate styling for the popup links.
Thanks
Hi… Today I tried your plugin and it solved my problem, but now I have another one.
What I am doing is launch an audio file in the popup window, and I want it to start playing immediately. In IE it does, haven’t tried Firefox, but when doing it from Chrome, it asks me to download the file instead of play it…
the file is wma format
any hint?
Thanks!
Hmm it’s hard to say exactly, but maybe try the Audio Player plugin? http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/audio-player/
Thanks Garret, but last night I found the solution. I switched to MP3 format, and now I get it to play directly from the links. (Seems like Chrome doesn’t like too much the wma format)…
HI,
I’m really glad I found this great plugin!
One thing I might have missed: is there a way to show this popup as a modal “in-page” popup, rather than opening a new window? Ie the same way as the “Autopopup” shows its content?
This plugin just makes a new window popup which is great for playing music in the background of a page. If you’re looking for a modal popup that automatically opens you could use my Auto Open Popup Plugin, otherwise there are quite a few lightbox plugins you can use for simple link -> modal popup functionality.
Version 4.0 – Added the ability to change dimensions of individual popups via width & height attributes in the shortcode. Also added a ‘class’ attribute so you can add a custom class to the link if desired.
Hi Garrett,
I’ve been waiting for this custom sizing since my first comment here on November 19, 2010. .
Awesome effort.
A big THANK YOU !!!
PS : I can’t seem to find the donate button…
Hi. Trying to use your plugin on page with a list of about 20 games. It is working fine for the first 10 or so but when I add to many the page seems to break. Can’t identify why, but basically the way its breaking is the wordpress template will load but none of the content for the page will show up – i.e. the header, page title, footer etc shows but not the text on the page. If I only have few links it works but if too many it breaks.
Hi Kat,
Interesting, someone else had this problem and I thought I fixed it with the new release. Let me take a look and see if I can fix it for you.
-Garrett
Just installed Simple Popup. WOW! That was simple, thanks.
hi
why i got an error here?
<?php echo do_shortcode('[popup url="http://popupurl.com'/popup‘); ?>
i put this in my template file – it says syntax error..
pls. help
<?php echo do_shortcode('[popup url="http://popupurl.com'/popup‘); ?> –> i mean this
Hi John,
Your syntax is a little off. It should be like this:
Minus that space before the first ?php
-Garrett
Hi, I am trying your plugin on a site in development on a multi-site install on this page: http://betterwebsitebuilders.com/robynsnestpm/tenants/
I think I have the correct short code as follows:
[popup url="http://betterwebsitebuilders.com/robynsnestpm/?p=65"]I. OCCUPANCY POLICY[/popup]
But the pop-up does not go th that url – it just goes to the same page the shortcode is on… any ideas?
Hi Harmony,
It looks like your shortcode should work correctly. Maybe try adding www to the url; http://www.betterwebsitebuilders.com/robynsnestpm/?p=65
Let me know if that works out for you.
-Garrett
Hello Garrett,
first off ! Thanks for that awesome plugin!
I use the widget to display a popout link in my sidbar.
I have round about 60 categories.
Now to my problem.
Is there anyway to get a popout link assigned to a specific categorie?
e.g
i wanna show “popout link 1″ in my sidebar only for categorie id23, id 30 and id 45.
“popout link 2″ should be shown in other categories.
Do you think that can be done?
Shorty
Hey there great plugin, loving it…
but was wondering if you could make it possible so that the pop out window CANT be expanded but CAN be scrolled down?
thanks,
wes