Planet WordPress Canada

[WPMU Tutorials] Forum cheat sheet

February 23rd, 2010

As the merge comes closer, the forums are winding down. Most of the time, I’m only answering threads that I can do immediately without digging up additional info. That means I also repeat myself quite a bit. In the interest of making sure all those answers are in one place, here’s my cheat sheet. It’s in a text file on my desktop and I leave it open whenever I jump in the forums.

More tips;
- a link to see all the latest posts to the forums
- the right search page
- in Firefox, use the Linky extension to open all unread threads on that page. Just select down the screen, right-click, open all in new tab. Wait until they load, then grab one & start reading/answering.

godaddy WPMU info

Stopping splogs
Cookies for comments yes it says comment but it does check for splogs too.
Hash cash Same deal. Don’t let the mention of comments fool you.
Stoping spam bogs in WPMU

Timthumb and WPMU

wordpress video plugin (probably not needed with 2.9.x)

Importing a single WordPress blog into WordPress MU the direct to database method, because nobody imports like the bava, NOBODY. Use this method for large sites where the usual export /Import is too big or when you want to also pull the users and options.

Handy MU plugins in the repo:
the wpmu tag results page There’s been some interesting ones show up lately. Subscribe to the feed tag to keep up.
Sitewide Tags
Unfiltered MU
Donncha’s Domain Mapping
Blog topics to categorize the blogs
New blog defaults

How to domain map blogs A writeup I did for WP webhost. This is cpanel-specific.

How to make a page template

Donncha’s blog the original (and only) dev of WPMU

Top pages from this here blog:
Installing in a subfolder mostly for previous version, as the 2.9.x branch fixes this
Make a listing of the blogs on your site
Free ebook on how to install WPMU

500 errors and 1and1 webhost If you’re having issues installing MU there.

installing on windows

Switch to blog and showing the main blog’s nav bar on other blogs. This code goes in the other theme’s header.php file.
just before the nav bar code put

right after the navbar code put

then it will always show the pages from Blog #1.
Yes it works for other code, but fair warning – switch to blog can get expensive. Think hard before using it on sites with lots of blogs.

When your permalinks don’t work, either mod_rewrite isn’t enabled, or isn’t explicitly enabled on your vhost in apache. You’ll need this line:
AllowOverride FileInfo Options

And the last one: Check your error logs!

Random Posts

February 24, 2008 — Site of the Week: Wildlife Direct (3)
July 3, 2009 — Building a Better Blog host: Week 4, the SEO and stats edition (1)
August 11, 2008 — Domain mapping made easy (11)
February 20, 2008 — MU version 1.3.3 has object cache issues (3)
October 30, 2007 — WPMU 1.3 is finally out (1)

Need real genuine helpful support? MU Support.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

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[BuyNowShop] Shades 1.3.3

February 22nd, 2010

The latest version (1.3.3) of the free WordPress theme Shades has just been uploaded for approval by the Themes Team at WordPress.org. Here is the recent changelog for this version:

Changelog as of Feb 22, 2010: -- Version 1.3.3 - WP: added "GPL2" license statement to style.css - WP: added 'posted' to page author by-line, now reads 'posted by' - WP: added bns_dynamic_copyright() to functions.php; replaced 'copyright' code in footer.php - WP: added bns_theme_version() to functions.php; replaced 'version' code in footer.php - WP: moved wp_footer into its own 'div' - CSS: removed most empty elements - NB: Shades of Darkness will no longer be included with Shades to reduce theme size after version 1.3.3 - NB: Shades of Darkness will be available to download at http://buynowshop.com/themes/shades ****************************** * Internet Browsers Reviewed * * ========================== * * * * Apple Safari v4.0.4 (Mac) * * Apple Safari v4.0.4 (PC) * * Firefox v3.6 * * Google Chrome v3.0 * * Internet Explorer v8.0 * * Opera v10.10 * * * * IE 6 - basic functionality * ******************************

Version 1.3.3 of Shades is now live at <http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/shades>.
The WordPress.org Themes Team

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[A Fool's Wisdom] WordPress 3 Coming Together

February 22nd, 2010

The delirious pace of WordPress 3 development has been delicious!

I’ve enjoyed not being able to keep up at all.

The sprint is on to feature freeze!

There’s going to be a patch sprint of sorts for 3.0 this week. Please grab a ticket, triage, patch or test:http://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/32. The feature freeze is March 1, so everything still on that report in 7 days from now will be punted to a future release.

There are a few incomplete tasks out there that need to get done to finish implementing new features (both small ones on that report, and the major 3.0 features). If you’re interested in helping but aren’t sure where you can, venture over to #wordpress-dev.

Andrew Nacin on wpdevel, Feb 22th, 2010

Jane Wells puts up a “Patches Welcome” sign on a “a handful of small UI enhancement tickets that are low priority for the hardcore devs, but that I’d still like to see make it into 3.0.” Jane will “try to post a couple of pet tickets each day throughout the sprint week that is coming up.”

Better, stronger, faster blog network creation and management will be huge!

Mostly I can’t wait for the twenty ten theme, and the slow death of the (poorly) justified text that may have been the Kubrick themes only shortcoming.

PS. Emphasis above and below (bold) is all mine.

PPS. WordPress 3 will look so good in the title of the next technical book you write

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2010 Update: Jane has posted “Menus, the Merge, and a Patch Sprint!“ with details on the WordPress Development Blog, including the tidbit that WordPress 3 will have much improved menu management.

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[Desperately Seeking WordPress] news- Feb 20

February 22nd, 2010

The Best Brush Fonts for your Designs

Go see Web Designer Depot this week for the most awesome brush fonts. These are only 5 of the 20 listed.

We’re Giving Back

As you know, I resell HostGator web hosting servers. More specifically I resell the space that I rent on their servers. And I am able to offer it to you at a great rate ($20 annually) and provide service second to none. (not that I brag or anything.) Plus, I actually set up your email for you and other services, so if words like “CPanel” make you squirm, come see momma. :) That was totally off point -

HostGator is making a $100,000 donation to the Red Cross for Haiti initiative.

Do you want to get involved – go to the Hosting for Haiti website.

I know you(we) already spend our money on the hosting but it is nice to know the company you’re investing in, isn’t it? As for MOI, and My Little Company we made a $200 donation to the Red Cross fund.

How about you?

Did you get involved yet? In this case, it is a ’something’ is better than nothing.

Shrink-O-Matic

FREE TOOL for making those images from your camera SHRINK into something palatable for your website! This is the neatest thing EVER. You install Adobe AIR first, and then install this program – but don’t fret! You click “INstall now” and it runs through the adobe air installation, AND the Shrink-O-Matic program – and you do – NOTHING. Cool, right?

I tested it out -

I dragged a pic from my camera card and
dropped into the box that says, oddly enough, “Drop images here”.
It disappeared.
I went hunting/
I found it in the same folder (camera memory card) except renamed and SMALLER.

Settings -

Set where you want the image to go when its disappeared.
Set the name format for the renaming.
Set the size of the outcome picture.

Price $0.00 Get it here.

Have a great week!
Cathy

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[Desperately Seeking WordPress] I’ll show you mine if you show me yours!

February 20th, 2010

One of the things that gets away from me is my desktop. Not my real desktop, which is my lap most days, (donations toward a proper chair can be made directly) but the computer’s desktop. When you start up your computer there is the starting screen – that is the desktop. And if you do any amount of downloading or uploading or typing, you can end up with quite a mess on there – all my most commonly used programs are on there, my windows vista sidebar, calendar, pretty picture, commonly used files, recent downloads, a few files, and a few zipped things which I haven’t managed to open yet.

That’s me. What about you? Are you a bit OCD about your desktop? Or does it get the best of you too? If you want to share your desktop tips and tricks (or woes), I’d be so tickled to have company. Let me know in a comment so I can check it out!

Here’s my completely unabridged, un-touched-up desktop this morning:

Desktop

Show me yours, if you dare!

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[BuyNowShop] Desk Mess Mirrored 1.4.6 Live

February 18th, 2010

Confirmed by this email message:

Version 1.4.6 of Desk Mess Mirrored is now live at <http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/desk-mess-mirrored>.
The WordPress.org Themes Team

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[BuyNowShop] Desk Mess Mirrored 1.4.6

February 17th, 2010

I just uploaded to WordPress.org the latest version of the free theme Desk Mess Mirrored. There were only a few changes as noted in the changelog.txt file:

Changelog as of Feb 17, 2010:
-- Version 1.4.6 - added "GPL2" license statement to style.css - CSS: added 'p a img' element to remove linked image borders - WP: added bns_dynamic_copyright() function to footer.php - WP: Modified navigation links at bottom of pages ****************************** * Internet Browsers Reviewed * * ========================== * * * * Apple Safari v4.0.4 (Mac) * * Apple Safari v4.0.4 (PC) * * Firefox v3.6 * * Google Chrome v3.0 * * Internet Explorer v8.0 * * Opera v10.10 * * * * IE 6 - basic functionality * ******************************

Enjoy!

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[BlueFur.com Web Hosting] WordPress Wednesday: WP Google-buzz

February 17th, 2010

Social networking and social bookmarking can be fantastic sources of traffic for your website. You’ll notice that many blogs take advantage of various plug-ins and design customizations that capitalize on Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, and countless other services. One of the newest social services to hit the Internet, as you know, is Google Buzz.

Not surprisingly, the first of many WordPress plug-ins has been developed to connect your blog to Google Buzz. Called WP Google-buzz, this plug-in comes from the same developer who created Twitter Goodies, All in One Webmaster, and WP Archive-Sitemap Generator. That’s a pretty strong pedigree, wouldn’t you say?

With this Google Buzz plug-in, you can choose from a variety of Buzz-related icons to embed in each of your blog posts. Some of these are just the Buzz logo, whereas others can have a blue text box that reads “Buzz this.” You can choose to have this icon displayed at the beginning of the post, at the end of a post, or with a manual insertion code to use with your theme files.

Among the features that may appear in future releases of WP Google-buzz are nofollow attribution, pop-up window options, and new Buzz buttons. More information can be found at Arpit Shah’s site and the free download can be found in the official plugin directory on WordPress.org.

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[BuyNowShop] Adding Dynamic Copyrights

February 16th, 2010

We will be adding to all of our themes our latest optimization, the bns_dynamic_copyright() function.

WPFirstAid.com recently wrote a post covering the inclusion of this dynamic copyright function into most any theme. This added functionality will be included with the next update of each of our themes.

Using the get_post() function, bns_dynamic_copyright() essentially finds the blog’s first post; makes note of its date; then creates a copyright notice that takes into account the year in the date of the first (read: oldest) post to recognize the lifetime of the blog.

Here is the code to be placed in the functions.php file:

function bns_dynamic_copyright() { /* Get all posts */ $all_posts = get_posts('post_status=publish&order=ASC'); /* Get first post */ $first_post = $all_posts[0]; /* Get date of first post */ $first_date = $first_post->post_date_gmt; /* Display common footer copyright notice */ _e('Copyright &copy; '); /* Display first post year and current year */ if ( substr($first_date,0,4) == date(Y) ) { /* Only display current year if no posts in previous years */ echo date(Y); } else { echo substr($first_date,0,4) . "-" . date(Y); } /* Display blog name from 'General Settings' page */ echo ' <strong>' . get_bloginfo('name') . '</strong> '; _e('All rights reserved.');
}

… and here is the line of code to replace the old static copyright notice:

<?php bns_dynamic_copyright(); ?>

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[Desperately Seeking WordPress] Newsletter-Style Week-In-Review

February 14th, 2010

For Your Readers:

You will learn lots from these little slides, but your readers, whether pro- or anti- Twitter will appreciate this. This is a slideshow, 140 slides, with one tweet on each one – that is 140 characters – easy peasy. They are the best wisdom and guidelines for twittering. It will answer the “Why-on-earth-do-you-do-that?” types, and be eye-opening for the newbie tweeter. http://zubeta.com/twitter-M.html

For Design Inspiration:

It seems that every time I go site-surfing to find a graphic, I stumble upon more great designing websites and online magazines. My reader is chock full of them. And to be honest, I still only go to my fave’s: webdesigndepot, freelanceswitch, and smashing magazine. Those are the ones I can’t live without. HERE is the list of websites on the Smashing Magazine’s “Network” launched last Nov. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/the-smashing-network/, most of these are already in my reader, and some are just brilliant. Now they are all compiled on the front page of smashing – no more hopping around for the good stuff!!

For Your Business

There are hundreds of you signed up to receive updates via email or reader. And since I only get a few questions per week through the contact form here and even fewer comments, I simply need to ask - Who are you? What would you like to know about WordPress?

See the newsletter this month for my survey – and as a thank you for participating, I’ve purchased this exclusively for you- ”Press Releases & Template” – it is full of everything you need to know to fully realize the marketing value in press releases. I learned a lot while reading this and intend to use it on this site. Click here to go directly to the survey.