See the changelog for more details:

Changelog as of Sept 03, 2010:
-- Version 1.7.2 - released: Sept 3, 2010 - correct issue created by the use of home_url() replacing bloginfo( 'url' ) per Theme Review codex page last edited Aug 31, 2010. -- Version 1.7.1 - released: Sept 2, 2010 - corrected issue with `searchform.php` template file - changed `<ul id="menu">` to `<ul class="menu">` - meta information generator handled by WordPress removed from `header.php` - CSS: for use with the default 'Search' widget - CSS: address spacing issue for comment form fields (user not logged in) ****************************** * Internet Browsers Reviewed * * ========================== * * * * Apple Safari v5.0 (Mac) * * Apple Safari v5.0 (PC) * * Firefox v3.6.8 * * Google Chrome v5.0 * * Internet Explorer v8.0 * * Opera v10.60 * * * ******************************

© 2010, BuyNowShop. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.7
2. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.5
3. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.6

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to the WordPress Download Monitor, its usefulness allows me to easily provide this link to the current version (1.4.5) which also displays a downloads counter: Multi (617)

I do have plans to update this child-theme to more current standards; and, match the version number of its parent theme, Desk Mess Mirrored. I will also be working towards being able to submit this child-theme, as well as allowing other theme authors to submit child-themes, to the WordPress Extend Themes repository within my capacity as a member of the WordPress Theme Review Team.

Although I will continue to maintain Multi here so it remains available, once WordPress.org opens the theme repository (hopefully to all themes as parents) and Multi meets all the review criteria it will reside there as its primary download source.

© 2010, BuyNowShop. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. Desk Mess Mirrored Downloaded 10,000 Times
2. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.4.5
3. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.2

August 19th I will be giving a webinar on multisite for the guys at webdesign.com. Curious? Then this one is for you. (You need a webdesign.com membership.)

August 21st I will be Skyping in to WordCamp Savannah to talk about some of the best plugins for network installs. This is also awesome, because it opens up HUGE possibilities for other WordCamps that may want a speaker who is unable to be there in person.

August 28th both Ron and I will be speaking at WordCamp Montreal. I’ll be talking about enabling the network and domain mapping, while Ron will be digging deep into code and go over how you can write plugins with the network / multisite in mind. We’ll be driving up, as it’s the closest WordCamp to where we live and a “short” 7 or 8 hour drive. Added bonus is we’ll be bringing our daughter Sarah who is studying to be a graphic designer at the New Brunswick College of Craft & Design. So if you see us there, be sure to say hi and give her plenty of advice.

• July 19, 2010 — WordCamp Montreal (0)
• June 9, 2010 — I went to WordCamp Chicago and all you get is this lousy blog post (2)
• June 9, 2010 — BuddyPress Child Themes (2)
• December 1, 2009 — More video from WordCamp New York (1)
• October 19, 2009 — WordCamp New York (1)

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Here is the recent changelog:

Changelog as of July 18, 2010:
-- Version 1.7 - released: July 20, 2010 - add License URI to style.css title block - minor change to `the_content` "more" text - css form fine-tuning - code clean up to meet WP Standards - moved default search into `sidebar-1` (a popular requested in end-user feedback) - add `custom menu` support - add `custom background` support - add `post-thumbnail` support to posts and pages - add `editor-style` support ****************************** * Internet Browsers Reviewed * * ========================== * * * * Apple Safari v5.0 (Mac) * * Apple Safari v5.0 (PC) * * Firefox v3.6.6 * * Google Chrome v5.0 * * Internet Explorer v8.0 * * Opera v10.60 * * * ******************************

© 2010, BuyNowShop. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.4.6
2. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.7.2
3. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.5

I also did an initial pass at support for new WordPress 3.0 -> WP network in SharDB. In this implementation the main site’s tables will be in the global database. You can easily set up a test install (to test your plugins, etc. with SharDB). Set up a fresh install that has the network enabled, create your database shards, then configure & install SharDB.

• January 24, 2010 — SharDB update (8)
• December 29, 2009 — Scaling WordPress MU with multiple databases (55)
• June 24, 2010 — How to add a new Super Admin (1)
• June 23, 2010 — What is the mu-plugins folder? (18)
• June 17, 2010 — The age of Thelonious and WordPress 3.0 (8)

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Post tags: database, multiple, network, shard, wordpress, wpmu

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Here is the latest changelog.txt, too:

Changelog as of Jul 5, 2010
= Version 1.5.1 = - released: July 5, 2010 - published: July 26, 2010 - style updates for the `comment_form()` function = Version 1.5 = - released: July 5, 2010 - cleaned up code to meet WP Standards - adjusted content_width value - fixed page with comments closed message - removed feed links from header; using `add_theme_support( 'automatic-feed-links' );` - removed `legacy.comments.php` file as it is no longer referenced. - add the use of `comment_form()` ****************************** * Internet Browsers Reviewed * * ========================== * * * * Apple Safari v5.0 (Mac) * * Apple Safari v5.0 (PC) * * Firefox v3.6.6 * * Google Chrome v5.0 * * Internet Explorer v8.0 * * Opera v10.10 * * * ******************************

Now that Ground Floor v1.5.1 has been published it will go back into the queue for further updates. Given the recent changes to the WordPress Theme Review process and the features from version 3.0 that I still want to add there is more code to be written … in the meantime, Enjoy!

© 2010, BuyNowShop. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. Ground Floor 1.4
2. Ground Floor 1.3
3. Shades 1.5.1

If you are new to WordPress and are still experimenting with the permalink structure to best fit your needs, you might consider using this function to create internal links for your site. Using the URL generated by the_shortlink() will always resolve correctly, using the verbose URL of the permalink structure may cause issues if you change the structure and do not manually edit all the internal links you have previously posted.

Please note, by “internal links” I am refering to the links used within the content of a post or page on your site pointing to another post or page on your site. A WordPress installation has the “smarts” to correctly resolve the links it generates if you change the permalink structure but it will not go back and “fix” anything you manually typed yourself as part of your page or post entry.

There is great potential for the user, the designer, and the developer using this function. I recommend adding it to all themes. Here is the most basic default usage of the_shortlink():

<?php the_shortlink(); ?>

This is the code I have decided to use on this site:

<?php the_shortlink( __('Short Link'), '', ' &#124; ', '' ); ?>

… which you can see just after the comments or subscribe link in the post meta details.

Of course you can always use the ‘Get Shortlink’ button found on the page and post administration panels to get your shortlink, but making use of this single line of code allows your readers to gain that same benefit, too.

• August 2, 2009 — WordPress MU Theme Stats (3)
• June 29, 2010 — BuddyPress Author Link (0)
• June 28, 2010 — Another Featured Posts update (12)
• June 27, 2010 — Network Privacy (9)
• June 21, 2010 — Everything you wanted to know about creating a network of multiple sites in 3.0 (64)

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Just a quick preview of one of the upcoming featured changes to the Desk Mess Mirrored theme: custom menus via the wp_nav_menu() function.

The current code for Desk Mess Mirrored version 1.6 in header.php for menus is this (cleaned up for display):

<?php if ( is_home() || is_front_page()) { ?> <?php wp_list_pages( 'title_li=&depth=1&include=2' ); ?> <?php wp_list_pages( 'title_li=&depth=1&exclude=2' ); ?>
<?php } else { ?> <li><a href="<?php bloginfo( 'url' ); ?>"><?php _e( 'Home', 'desk-mess-mirrored' ) ?></a></li> <?php wp_list_pages( 'title_li=&depth=1' ); ?>
<?php } ?>

All of that code is simply replaced by this line:

<?php dmm_nav_menu(); ?>

The function dmm_nav_menu() is referring to this section of code now found in the functions.php template file:

 // Add wp_nav_menu() custom menu support add_theme_support( 'menus' ); function dmm_nav_menu() { if ( function_exists( 'wp_nav_menu' ) ) wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'top-menu', 'depth' => 1, 'fallback_cb' => 'dmm_list_pages' ) ); else dmm_list_pages(); } function dmm_list_pages() { if ( is_home() || is_front_page() ) { wp_list_pages( 'title_li=&depth=1' ); } else { ?> <li><a href="<?php bloginfo( 'url' ); ?>"><?php _e( 'Home', 'desk-mess-mirrored' ) ?></a></li> <?php wp_list_pages( 'title_li=&depth=1' ); } } add_action( 'init', 'register_dmm_menu' ); function register_dmm_menu() { register_nav_menu( 'top-menu', __( 'Top Menu' ) ); } // wp_nav_menu() end

Notice the highlighted lines are identical which means at the default settings after updating to version 1.7 you should see no difference in how your site looks, but you are now able to set the menu links using the interface under Appearance | Menus. Also note, the menu is still set as a top-level or parent only menu. Future versions of DMM may offer drop-down menus and other options but they are not currently scheduled for a particular release date or version at this time.

All of these changes were based on the article I wrote at WPFirstAid.com titled: Upgrade wp_list_pages() to wp_nav_menu().

Enjoy!

© 2010, BuyNowShop. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.5
2. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.2
3. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.6

Let’s start with the same basic outline and list the default options for each function. We will start with wp_nav_menu() ¹ first:

wp_nav_menu( array( 'menu' => '', 'container' => 'div', 'container_class' => '', 'container_id' => '', 'menu_class' => 'menu', 'menu_id' => '', 'echo' => true, 'fallback_cb' => 'wp_page_menu', 'before' => '', 'after' => '', 'link_before' => '', 'link_after' => '', 'depth' => 0, 'walker' => '', 'theme_location' => '' ) );

We follow with wp_list_categories() ^{2, 3} which is often wrapped in a <ul class=”menu”> tag:

<ul class="menu">
wp_list_categories( array( 'include' => '', 'exclude' => '', 'exclude_tree' => '', 'child_of' => 0, 'hide_empty' => 1, 'orderby' => 'name', 'order' => 'ASC', 'use_desc_for_title'=> 1, 'number' => NULL, 'hierarchical' => true, 'show_count' => 0, 'pad_counts' => 0, 'style' => 'list', /* 'style' set to list "creates list items for an unordered list" */ 'show_option_all' => '', 'show_option_none' => __('No categories'), 'show_last_update' => 0, 'feed' => '', 'feed_type' => '', 'feed_image' => '', 'current_category' => 0, 'taxonomy' => 'category', 'title_li' => __( '' ), /* 'title_li' set to '' for menus from the default 'Categories' */ 'echo' => 1, 'depth' => 0, 'walker' => 'Walker_Category' ) );
</ul>

Here is the break-down of the wp_list_categories() default options from above:

• 'include' – not used
• 'exclude' – not used
• 'exclude_tree' – not used
• 'child_of' – not used
• 'hide_empty' – not used
• 'orderby' – not used
• 'order' – not used
• 'use_desc_for_title' – not used
• 'number' – not used
• 'hierarchical' – not used
• 'show_count' – not used
• 'pad_counts' – not used
• 'style' – not used
• 'show_option_all' – not available
• 'show_option_none' – not available
• 'show_last_update' – not available
• 'feed' – not available
• 'feed_type' – not available
• 'feed_image' – not available
• 'current_category' – not available
• 'taxonomy' – not available
• 'title_li' – not used
• 'echo' – similar to wp_nav_menu(); true versus 1 as value
• 'depth' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'walker' – see below for additional notes

Although there are great many options available to be used with wp_list_categoires() most are not used (as noted in the list above) in place of the user interface of wp_nav_menu() found under Appearance | Menu in the dashboard. The options that are marked as “not available” are currently not directly supported by wp_nav_menu() without the application of filters. The last few options remaining match up almost exactly with wp_page_nav() in a similar fashion as was shown with wp_list_pages().

Just like the wp_list_pages() consideration, the wp_nav_menu() fallback_cb option may be set to 'fallback_cb' => 'wp_list_categories'. This backward compatibility may also be addressed with a custom function as was noted, too.

Note: In most cases you would leave the wp_nav_menu() 'walker' option set to its default NULL although wp_list_categories() uses its own default walker class.

Andrea & I have had a fantastic time at every WordCamp we have attended and we enjoy meeting other people who use WordPress. If you have never been to one, this will be a great one for you to attend. Whatever you are doing with WordPress, you can be sure that you’ll have a chance to talk to others who have been or are interested in doing the same

• August 10, 2010 — Mark your calendars (0)
• June 9, 2010 — I went to WordCamp Chicago and all you get is this lousy blog post (2)
• June 9, 2010 — BuddyPress Child Themes (2)
• December 1, 2009 — More video from WordCamp New York (1)
• October 19, 2009 — WordCamp New York (1)

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Post tags: montreal, wordcamp

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Like the last post in the series we will look at the default arguments used by each function, starting with wp_nav_menu() ¹:

wp_nav_menu( array( 'menu' => '', 'container' => 'div', 'container_class' => '', 'container_id' => '', 'menu_class' => 'menu', 'menu_id' => '', 'echo' => true, 'fallback_cb' => 'wp_page_menu', 'before' => '', 'after' => '', 'link_before' => '', 'link_after' => '', 'depth' => 0, 'walker' => '', 'theme_location' => '' ) );

The following is a default “menu” version of wp_list_pages() ^{2, 3}, often wrapped within a <ul class=”menu”> tag:

<ul class="menu">
<?php wp_list_pages( array( 'sort_column' => 'menu_order, post_title', 'include' => '', 'exclude' => '', 'exclude_tree' => '', 'child_of' => 0, 'show_date' => '', 'date_format' => get_option('date_format'), 'title_li' => __(''), /* 'title_li' set to '' for menus from the default 'Pages' */ 'authors' => '', 'echo' => 1, 'link_before' => '', 'link_after' => '', 'depth' => 0, 'walker' => '' ) ); ?>
</ul>

Here is the break-down of the wp_list_pages() default options from above:

• 'sort_column' – not used
• 'include' – not used
• 'exclude' – not used
• 'exclude_tree' – not used
• 'child_of' – not used
• 'show_date' – not used
• 'date_format' – not used
• 'title_li' – not used, see below for additional notes
• 'authors' – not used
• 'echo' – similar to wp_nav_menu(); true versus 1 as value
• 'link_before' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'link_after' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'depth' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'walker' – same as wp_nav_menu()

Similar to wp_page_menu(), the ‘sort_column’, ‘include’, ‘exclude’, ‘exclude_tree’, and ‘child_of’ are replaced via the end-user’s specific choices. The ‘show_date’ and its related ‘date_format’ option, as well as the ‘author’ argument, are not available within the default wp_nav_menu() structure. Once again, the balance of the default options in wp_list_pages() matches the defaults found in wp_nav_menu().

Also consider setting the wp_nav_menu() fallback_cb option to 'fallback_cb' => 'wp_list_pages'. This backward compatibility may also be addressed with a custom function as posted by Nicolas Kuttler.

Note: If the 'title_li' => __('') option was being used it may also require the removal of the wrapping <ul> tag in the existing menu structure created with wp_list_pages().

Have you heard?

Dave of ThinkDave.com summed it up the best:

1. Bill Erikson sent out a Tweet explaining that WordPress had dropped him as a developer because he suppports Thesis (they feel Thesis violates the GPL).
2. A bored 12-year old in Elbonia injected some malicious code into the Thesis 1.7 and 1.8 Beta releases, so that anyone installing the theme from these downloads got infected. It’s fixed now
3. Matt smacked Chris across the face with a wet fish, suggesting he doesn’t know how to code (how many times has a WordPress site been hacked, Matt?)
4. Chris shouted at Matt for an hour on Mixergy.
5. Matt sounded bored, like he was reading from a script his lawyers prepared.
6. Chris challenged Matt to a duel in the highest court in the land.
7. Matt said he might just do that.
8. Andrew Warner gave up trying to convince (a) Chris to go GPL with Thesis, and (b) Matt to leave Chris alone.
9. #thesiswp trended on Twitter and everybody from me to a dodgy affiliate in Delhi chimed in with an opinion that at the end of the day, doesn’t matter one little bit. Even so: [Read the rest of Dave's Post here]

For those panicking about their Thesis Installation

Nothing to fear – this could all fizzle away or land in courts for years on end. WordPress isn’t about to stop Thesis from working, nor could they according to their own license. And Thesis isn’t about to just leave WordPress – they can’t. So things are pretty well stuck for the time being. Your Thesis-ified sites are safe.

What is the GPL and why the fuss?

It is my understanding that the GNU GPL (General Public License) basically says that the source code of whatever you create must be available, and it is your choice whether you sell or give away your creation. The only restriction is that the GPL is passed on with any copies or derivative works.

WordPress’s position is that any theme or plugin created for WordPress is a derivative work and therefore MUST be licensed by the GPL as well.

Chris Pearson, and Thesis’ position is that his creation is not derivative and he can license it any way he pleases. And he pleases to make money. (As do we all!)

This is a problem, because Matt Mullenweg sees this contradiction as unethical and stunting the growth of the open source community by ‘taking away’ the thesis code from the GPL.

Whats with all the testosterone?

It has become a bit of a pi$$ing match, because Chris Pearson is a bit of a hot head. And I mean that in the nicest way, but seriously? I dont follow him on twitter any longer because he was making remarks years ago ‘in good fun’ that were just infuriating me. But I digress…

How do our themes measure up?

Unless otherwise requested, we use StudioPress themes as our preferred framework. They are licensed by the GPL in accordance with WordPress’s official position on their licensing. Studio Press offers their framework and themes for a fee. Under the GPL, I am free to just take that code, and give it away from my site here. The only restriction is that it contain a copy of the GPL as well.

Our themes? The majority of each theme is released under the GPL, because we use StudioPress, and as such, we are required to license our derivative works the same way. So theoretically, you could take what you purchase from DSWP, post it on your site, and let people take it – as long as they maintain the GPL on it.

The Exception to the Rule

The only thing that I can license separately are the images that we create and the css files that are separate css files from the StudioPress themes. So it gets a bit technical. But anyhow, it doesn’t really make a difference if I slap on a different license, most people want me to do that work for them, and each website to be customized to their specifications.

Strictly, Cathy Speaking

I suppose I’m old school, or I simply don’t understand the ‘freedom’ the GPL offers, but I’m a fan of traditional business models – you do GREAT work, and then people will pay for it. You do exceptional work, and people will pay more. You have great customer service, people will tell their friends. Seems kind of straight forward to me.

So you want a StudioPress theme for free?

You wont get it here. Sorry.

I will only distribute their GPL themes with my own modifications for a fee, and (regrettably) under the GPL license. Once it is yours, you are free to do with it as you please, except for the images and css files. But all my fabulous clients, value the theme that they have paid top dollar for, and will keep it locked away to be safely on display on their site alone.

The Trends for the Future

If Matt and the GNU GPL folks get their way, software will become more and more open-source. It will be available for the good of everybody, where anybody can contribute to create the best possible experience for the end user. The thing that you can’t package and license is the technical support. More and more, developers are offering technical support as a service, either packaged with a software product or alone. And for me, that is the most exciting part.

The exciting thing about WordPress is that for the life of your website, it can now be upgraded with the click of a button, extended with plugins, and content created by yourself. It brings website development into the hands of the everyday internet user. And where those users need an extra hand or dont want to be bothered with their own website, we are always here to assist in any way we can.

This post will be dealing with function arguments in common between wp_nav_menu() and wp_page_menu(). Follow-up posts will be covering wp_list_pages() and wp_list_categories(). I will not be covering the specific use for each function’s arguments; the idea is to help show how these options correlate to one another.

Let’s start with the full default of wp_nav_menu() ¹ explicitly displayed:

wp_nav_menu( array( 'menu' => '', 'container' => 'div', 'container_class' => '', 'container_id' => '', 'menu_class' => 'menu', 'menu_id' => '', 'echo' => true, 'fallback_cb' => 'wp_page_menu', 'before' => '', 'after' => '', 'link_before' => '', 'link_after' => '', 'depth' => 0, 'walker' => '', 'theme_location' => '' ) );

Followed by the same explicit defaults of wp_page_menu() ^{2, 3}:

wp_page_menu( array( 'sort_column' => 'menu_order, post_title', 'include' => '', 'exclude' => '', 'show_home' => false, 'menu_class' => 'menu', 'echo' => true, 'link_before' => '', 'link_after' => '' ) );

Now onto updating wp_page_menu() to wp_nav_menu(), which turns out to be rather simple.

Here is the break-down of the wp_page_menu() default options from above:

• 'sort_column' – not used
• 'include' – not used
• 'exclude' – not used
• 'show_home' – not used (see bonus section below)
• 'menu_class' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'echo' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'link_before' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'link_after' – same as wp_nav_menu()

First off ‘sort_column’, ‘include’, and ‘exclude’ are replaced by the end-user’s choices using the UI of wp_nav_menu() found under Appearance | Menu in the dashboard. The balance of the default options are the same in wp_nav_menu(), with the exception of 'show_home' => false which is the “bonus” content.

Upgrading from wp_page_menu() to wp_nav_menu() may be as easy as a simple find and replace operation.

In the mean time, you can download my updated version: WP125 Ads Plugin (100). If you have issues with it, please post those issues in the support thread linked above. I won’t be attempting to do other bug fixes or CSS changes.

• July 21, 2010 — Theme Stats Updated (0)
• June 29, 2010 — BuddyPress Author Link (0)
• June 28, 2010 — Another Featured Posts update (12)
• June 27, 2010 — Network Privacy (9)
• June 21, 2010 — Everything you wanted to know about creating a network of multiple sites in 3.0 (61)

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Post tags: Plugins, WordPress 3.0

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If you have a MySQL database, a simple mysqldump command can save the database as a file and you can potentially e-mail it to yourself if it’s small enough. With or without the dumped database file, you then have to back up the rest of the files. Dropbox is a creative solution, but an easier and more direct solution is to use Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, otherwise known as Amazon S3. S3 is a service that’s part of the much hyped cloud computing, a land of seemingly infinite data and virtualized resources. Amazon S3 is cheap, well-documented, robust, easy-to-use, and there are many good scripts to interface with S3. It is more than just a good backup option, but for this post I’ll only talk about it within the context of backups.

Amazon S3’s costs are pay-per-use / pay-as-you-go and are split into a few categories:

• Storage: starting at $0.15 per gigabyte
• Data transfer in: Free until November 1, 2010; usually starting at $0.10 per GB
• Data transfer out: starting at $0.15 per GB
• Put and similar requests: 0.01 per 1,000 requests (if you have lots of files this will be the initial input)

Account management in Amazon breaks this down really well into minute details. My blog is relatively small, as I’ve only accumulated about 100mb of files in 4 years and the database is less than 2mb compressed. My monthly cost for daily and weekly backups is less than 20 cents.

Here are a few ways to get the most out of using Amazon S3 for backups:

• Back up only what you need to. Most CMSs let you place all your modifications in one or only a few places. In the case of WordPress, if your entire site is contained in plugins, themes, and uploads, you might only need to back up the wp-content/ folder, since you could restore the rest of the site from a downloaded instance of WordPress.
• Look into some of S3’s extra features, such as versioning and access control by IP as discussed in its FAQ
• Although Amazon S3 claims to be designed to provide “99.999999999% durability and 99.99% availability of objects over a given year”, it could still fail at the same time that your server fails. To mitigate this already-small risk, you could back up to multiple S3 regions, or look at a supplementary backup service such as Rackspace Cloud Files
• To actually access the backed up files, you can use the web-based AWS Management Console to view and download files, make them publicly accessible if needed, create “buckets” (top-level folders, which you can store in different physical locations). One of the more useful tools is a Firefox plugin called S3Fox Organizer, which lets you do much of the same stuff in a familiar explorer-like, two-panel interface (where you can drag-and-drop between your local file system on the left and the remote files on the right):

If you need a step-by-step process to using Amazon S3 starting with the sign-up process, check out this post. Below are my notes on how to use the free s3sync and s3fs tools for the actual backup process. Both assume that you’ve already created a bucket via the AWS Management Console or S3Fox Organizer, although you can also use both tools to create buckets.

s3sync

s3sync is a script written in Ruby. Ruby is usually installed on Linux servers and is easy to install if needed.

There are 3 main steps to start using s3sync.

Download and extract the script

You can currently download the latest version of s3sync at:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/ServEdge_pub/s3sync/s3sync.tar.gz

Then, you can extract the file through your control panel or with a simple tar command:

tar -zxf s3ysnc.tar.gz

Create a configuration file

You’ll need to make a copy of the included s3config.yml.example file. It is very simple and has only two required lines:

aws_access_key_id: your_access_key_id
aws_secret_access_key: your_secret_access_key

You can get both the access key ID and the secret access key on your account when you sign in to Amazon Web Services. Go to Account > Security Credentials.

As for where to place the configuration file, take a look at s3config.rb. Line 15 shows:

confpath = ["#{ENV['S3CONF']}", "#{ENV['HOME']}/.s3conf", "/etc/s3conf"]

So you can either place the s3config.yml file in a self-defined environmental variable (if you have command line access); or in your user’s home directory (usually /home/yourusername/.s3conf/s3config.yml) or in etc/s3conf/s3config.yml. If all else fails, you can just edit s3config.rb and hardcode a path!

Run the script

Before you set up your full backup, you can test that your credentials and connection are working properly by listing the buckets on your account. The command is simply:

./s3cmd.rb listbuckets

Note that s3cmd.rb needs to have executable permissions. If you don’t have command line / shell access to your server, you likely have access to a control panel where you can set up a cron job to execute s3cmd.rb. Just make sure that the cron job either refers to the full path where s3cmd.rb sits, or that it first changes directory (cd) into the folder to which you’ve extracted s3sync.

If all is well, you can then run the full backup script and then set up a cron job to back up your files daily and weekly (or at whatever frequency you’d like).

/path/to/s3sync/s3sync.rb -r /path/to/your/site theblog:daily

The command would back up your site to an existing bucket “theblog” under a sub-folder “daily”.

s3sync can also do many other Amazon S3 management tasks. Check the well-detailed README file for more information.

s3fs

s3fs is a simple solution for VPS and dedicated servers that enables you to mount an Amazon S3 bucket via a local FUSE file system. You can thus access your backup and sync it more or less locally.

(A quick note to VPS users — first, make sure that FUSE has been installed on the hardware node of the VPS setup! Your hosting company will have to do this for you. Otherwise, you might struggle with errors that seem to be file permission related (“fuse: failed to open /dev/fuse: Permission denied”) but that are in fact not simply chmod, chown, or user group fixable!)

If needed, install the fuse, fuse-devel, and curl-devel packages on your server. If you’re on Red Hat, Fedora, or CentOS, you can make use of yum:

yum install fuse
yum install fuse-devel
yum install curl-devel

Then, download and extract the latest s3fs source files from the s3fs website. You’ll have to compile the source, but that’s usually a simple “make -f Makefile” command. Then, move the s3fs binary into /usr/bin and you’re ready to mount the Amazon S3 bucket!

/usr/bin/s3fs name_of_bucket -o accessKeyId=aaaa -o secretAccessKey=aaaa /mount_path


As noted in the above s3sync notes, you can get both the access key ID and the secret access key on your account when you sign in to Amazon Web Services. Go to Account > Security Credentials.

You can use the friendly rsync command to produce daily, weekly, or other frequency of backups:

rsync -av --delete /path/to/your/site/ /mount_path/daily


It’s not an unusual scenario for our customers to create a new version of a theme, install it separately, and then activate it. Often this also allows reverting to the old version of the theme if something unexpected happens at launch.

In this scenario, it’s often easy to check for the existence of a new option, migrated, or other seed data, but sometimes you want to do something like:

global $pagenow;
if ( is_admin() && 'themes.php' == $pagenow && isset( $_GET['activated'] ) ) { // When theme is activated this code runs. // Still be defensive if you need to be, and check if // your baby is already born
}

Hat tip Frank Bültge.

The plugin is already looking fantastic Mitcho style, and he’s just getting started!

Go to http://shrimptest.wordpress.com/ to download, try it out, and provide feedback.

Good Reads this Sunday

Finally a pretty to-do list & project manager in one

Thymer Task Manager

I’m happy to report that Desperately Seeking WordPress has been growing this year again thanks to wonderful hard-working clients like yourselves. Along the way, we’ve experienced the usual growing pains and some mountains (at least they felt like it to me)! Last week, I discussed my mountain with Kelly Hancock from Faithful Provision. Just talking about my challenges (in the form of business processes), helped me to realize I needed some project management software. Gmail, google docs, and Toggl weren’t cutting it any longer. (See the interview with Kelly.)

I’m very happy to announce our partnership with Thymer. If you’re looking for some help getting organized Thymer has offered 10% off for our community with the code DSWP.

WordPress Weekly Review

WordPress Logo

WordPress 3.0 is out. Read my recommendations and cautions for upgrading at “Should you upgrade right away or wait a bit?”

An explanation of all the new features with snippets for you to copy/paste into your theme from Six Revisions.

Prettier Buttons for Affiliates!

Desperately Seeking WordPress

I have pretty buttons for Desperately Seeking WP to replace the brown/orange ones. If you have my button on your blog, I’d encourage you to change it to my new and improved logo! I really appreciate each and every one of you who spreads a good word about me! (I have to fill up my new project manager!)

Here’s the code for you to copy:

 <a href="http://desperatelyseekingwp.com" title="Desperately Seeking WordPress"><img src="http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll40/o2cathy/logo-square.gif" title="Desperately Seeking WordPress" alt="Desperately Seeking WordPress" width=200 height=200 /></a>

Specials for July

Consultations are over 50% off for the month of July – find out if a new design (or ANY purchase) is worth the money! Consultations include in depth discussions on the following topics:

• goals for the coming month, year, and long term
• your audience
• analysis of website’s current effectiveness
• brainstorming new ways of reaching your audience and/or increasing readership
• tailored recommendations for new growth

The consultation discount code is in the newsletter for July – and so is an exciting announcement!! If you want to receive the newsletter sign up in the left hand sidebar right away! The July newsletter will be out mid-week.

—————————————————————————————————–

Looking for someone to build your clients’ websites? Turn your design into a WordPress site? Or just take care of all the techie stuff for you? Submit a Request for Quote.

Following is the recent changelog:

Changelog as of June 12, 2010:
-- Version 1.6 - released: June 12, 2010 - added Belorussian language files by Patricia Clausnitzer at http://pc.de - WP: general code clean up to meet WP Standards - WP: updated comments.php to use comment_form() function; old comment form will be removed with next theme revision (post WordPress v3.0) - CSS: increased default font size to 14px - CSS: minor adjustment for BNS Plugin styles and 'ul.children li' property - CSS: add "YUI Reset" and "WordPress Rules" (and necessary adjustments) - Removed unused graphics: comh2.png; flickr.png; footer-mozliia.png; footer-wp.png; socialbck.png; and, twitter.png. This will not affect existing installations as updating will not remove any existing files. ****************************** * Internet Browsers Reviewed * * ========================== * * * * Apple Safari v5.0 (Mac) * * Apple Safari v5.0 (PC) * * Firefox v3.6.3 * * Google Chrome v5.0 * * Internet Explorer v8.0 * * Opera v10.10 * * * ****************************** -- Version 1.5.1 - released: Apr 23, 2010 - published: Apr 28, 2010 - each file noted with its last updated version starting at version 1.5 - WP: correction to widget definition in functions.php and sidebar.php -- Version 1.5 - released: April 18, 2010 - removed `show_avatar` function (not used) - reviewed for compatibility with WordPress 3.0 - using `add_theme_support` added: `post-thumbnails`, `nav-menus`, and `automatic-feed-links` - added BNS Modified Post function (requires WordPress 3.0) - WP: added third widget area to sidebar - WP: adopted default widget code as standard - CSS: removed 'text-align:center' property from 'widget' class - additional modifications to meet current guidelines as found at: http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development_Checklist.

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Related posts:

1. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.5
2. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.7
3. Desk Mess Mirrored 1.4.6