Posts filed under 'WordPress'
Sounds a bit technical that..
In fact, not at all, just another word press plugin, that allows me to alter the number of archive, category posts on the archive, category page. Doesn’t sound like much, quite a dry post really. You was perhaps hoping I’d be off on some crazy rant about anti-matter explosions, or dimensions just out of the range of our visual cortex, No such luck today, Just a link to CQS plug for future reference.
I will post an update in a couple of weeks to show where the plugin is applied and how it works, but for now the project is still in the sandbox/construction phase. Soo see you out there. Bye
For now to expand the consciousness another computer generated fractal image.
October 6th, 2007
Working it out
A little background. My blog, like many is currently set by default to display 10 posts on the page, I like this configuration, as I considered from the perspective of a random viewer there would be enough interesting content accessible from a quick scroll to grab the attention. (a few pics, a bit of text)
What I didn’t realize until recently was how search engines work and pages are indexed. In fact I still don’t, but I have made a couple of interesting discoveries.
Where to begin, I guess to get it straight I’ll start with my first web site Central12.
If I type central12 into google search, I will get a link to a post I made when starting this blog concerning the fate of the central12 site.
http://www.oikofugic.com/blog/archives/2006/12/19/central12-moved/
I am obviously happy to find this link here, and consider my efforts to achieve this once so illusive goal worth while.
The search request central12 brings up the link to the specific post I made about central12 as it should.
However if I do a google search for the following,
‘It’s a plugin mashup’, which is the title of a recent post, the search engine brings a link to my blog, oikofugic.com/blog, rather than to
http://www.oikofugic.com/blog/archives/2007/08/12/its-a-plugin-mashup/
which would obviously be preferable.
This I believe is the case because the first post has dropped off the front page, therefore it’s existence in cyber space is independent of the site index and thus gets crawled individually?
So I don’t know if there is a way around this little problem, apart from setting the blog to display only one post on the front page.
I have not noticed this until recently, as have only now begun to explore the realms of analytics.
I initially thought the situation might have arisen out of my dabbling in the code, changing the permalink structure in conjunction with a trackback spam blocker - experimenting with various other plugins. I know not..
Any Ideas out there.
September 12th, 2007
Tangled up in plaid
Scrobbled Queens of the.. this was first track. I am wondering what to follow.
It is strange, using the Last fm music interface, you type a band and you will 100% always get that band first track, but then some random track hits you in the teeth. Ahh, can sometimes be a rewarding experience.. luck of the digital learning about you draw.
Here goes..
Born of a broken man Rage against the machine. Skipped it Velvet revolver, not sure, will let it ride. She builds quick machines.. like it
Since then we have had the strokes REM some weird other stuff, helping me in my quest to find a viable plugin to exclude category.
Eagles of Death Metal Solid Gold. got to laugh, just sayin today how I’m not overly impressed, will see what this track has to offer. Recognize it. I hold up my hands. It’s a tune.
Update
Got this new plugin ‘Advanced Category Excluder’ to work from these guys Cheers.
Beth Orton Nice Came from the route of Kate Bush. Cat Power, mellow female artistsss. I’m loving this route Peter Gabriel Lazarus raised. up uP UP>>
Bugger, had my link to last post, so if I post a non picture post I will link to wrong place, as I have just noticed after Queens of the Stone Age post. What I need is ‘get last post from specific category plugin’ Show me the link. Show me..ee
Another Update
Solved the problem, found the plugin, Love it when a plan comes together, although I am surprised anything works at all with the amount of dodgy customizations on my part. Any how here it is if you need similar. Customizable Post Listings classic little bit of code. Hats off.
You just need to add a little code to where you want the desired effect. He has a number of built templates and examples. I tweaked around a little to get it working, cos I know not what I’m doing, ended up with this.
<?php c2c_get_recent_posts(1, "<li>%post_URL%</li>", '15'); ?>
The numbers in the above are:
1 = no. posts to be displayed. I just want the last one.
15 = no. of category. My Daily Photo is listed as 15, this can be found from dashboard-manage-Categories.
That’s it.
September 8th, 2007
Playing around with plugins
Using a combination of plugins to achieve the goal
The goal is..
Objective: to place code in the page and have mini applications working within the parameters of the page
To that end I have mashed a few plugins together and will now try and explain why, that is before I forget myself
Initially I just wanted to be able to add things I had learnt or wanted to explain in the blog post page.
For eg. I followed a tutorial See previous post
I had to at the time take the example out of the wordpress loop, I couldn’t find a way to add the necessary code to the head section of the page without that code residing in every subsequent post I made. See auto generated content in previous highlighted post.
So another plugin to the rescue, sometimes they sound great , but don’t always live up to expectations, this is not one of those. It does what it says, But I still have struggles, and be aware I do make things difficult for myself.. You know I am just playing around here, nowt too serious.
To add a link to a style sheet specific to the
particular post I am writing is easy using the box generated, which appears under your post text box
<link href="mystyle.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
So adding the above style sheet link to the add headers box will generate that link, but obviously does nothing to any links that are in the core wordpress index template. These links remain. and I’m wondering now why I am bothered
At this point I have kind of realized that it isn’t a mashup really at all, but to go back would be folly. I kind of wanted to get into what I had done, and why. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
A new page template
Nice tutorial on Binary Moon
I made new page template as shown below, but created a new header..header1.php and had the template call that.
<?php
/*
Template Name: Uniqu
*/
?>
<?php
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);
require('header1.php');
?>
<div id="content">
</div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
Why, and for what purpose would you do that
Deleted the style sheet link that is why
And we come full circle..
hello Mr.Plugin, I think I need to add a new unrelated link here.
Could be css, javascript, whatever.
At the end of all that I have test page, not done anything with this yet, but in combination with another ‘add page plugin’ and ‘keep page from main navigation plugin’, we have an option from the web interface to be able easily to add unique content and style to the blog on the fly.
I will have to re-write this..
August 12th, 2007
It does the job of adding the relevant information to the top of your post pages, I think this will help in getting some exposure for this humble little blog.
Buzzing, I think I have found what I was looking for initially.
This link is for another plugin, (I think) Check this out for adding custom headers.
Going back to the plugin being discussed.
Title, adds title in the title field of your posts page.
I think the description is what is the visitor sees when a search engine search has been processed, or to clarify, from the creators
own words.
Description
Your META description often gets used as the snippet of your page that Search Engines provide on their results list. This way, your description often is the first thing (besides title) a potential visitor sees. This makes it very important to craft your META descriptions very very carefully.
Keywords, adds the meta tags, so make them unique and interesting I guess.
I have to just include a disclaimer, being that all that I chat about here, is mostly learning, and experimental, and possibly full of detritus, feel free to let me know.
See you out there..
August 8th, 2007
Asynchronous Javascript And XML
I at this time know nothing, and am following a tutorial I found whilst looking for a tutorial on AJAX.
From Tizag I begin this latest endeavor.
I love learning new stuff, in fact it is why I am here but the jargon does tend to lead me down a road, which inevitably takes me away from my original pursuit.
Asynchronous, What the..
1 : not synchronous
2 : of, used in, or being digital communication (as between computers) in which there is no timing requirement for transmission and in which the start of each character is individually signaled by the transmitting device.
Here is the finished page. A nice tutorial I think.
It’s funny how your understanding shifts through time. A couple of years ago I thought that my web development and understanding was almost complete because I was learning css. I had reasonable layout and graphic design skills, and was all set to bring the money home producing web sites for local businesses etc. How wrong, I began to see the emergence of the dynamic site. Sites that allowed visitor feedback, and interaction. I wanted some of that action, but initially didn’t understand how it was accomplished. Some time later I discovered the blogging platform wordpress which runs this site.
I am telling you this because I find myself again wondering how best to achieve what I did manually with my first site central12, that is to have unique meta information for individual pages (the static wordpress page, such as ‘about’ or ‘contact’ and the post pages generated when a single post is created.)
Apart from the search engine optimization reason for doing this, I also wanted to unclutter my pages.
This only became desirable after doing the above tutorial, and having the working example on a separate page as opposed to working within the page as in the example on tizag. It is is possible to link to the javascript and php files in the header of the page, but causes the crux of the problem.
Because wordpress pulls content for pages from a template.
header
index
sidebar
footer
Any code that is added to the header will appear on every generated page. Creating individual templates for every new project kind of defeats the object of an auto generated site. So I need a plugin, or a solution that will allow me to have unique meta information on individual pages (static and dynamic) this way I can add link to javascript, php files and have key words in the page header that are specific to that particular page. So this is next on my to do list.
Anyway, back to the subject in hand, which is this AJAX tutorial, and why I am doing it. The truth is I’m not 100% sure. Recently I have heard, and am beginning to understand that the use of AJAX in your code allows communication with the server without the page having to re-load. This is always desirable, not only is the end product smoother for the site user, but site will also be faster.
Really though, the main reason in this pursuit is just to add another facet to my programming/web designing skills. I am not even sure how integrating AJAX into my coding will benefit me at this time, however I am open to change, whilst simultaneously building my knowledge base.
I will write more on the subject as I complete more tutorials.
Update
Check out these plugings I found here, for adding meta information, and custom headers.
August 5th, 2007
This plug in, I will give details at the end allows the author, that is me to place code into the body of an article.
This will be used to demonstrate how certain styles or coding are achieved, without the code being rendered by the browser.
<h1>Typical heading</h1>
If I had typed the above ‘Typical heading’ enclosed in the h1 tags without the aid of the plug in the browser would have rendered the ‘typical heading’ in a large font and not displayed the h1 tags.I have noticed whilst playing with this the last few minutes that the code needs to be added in normal editing mode. If in html mode the program adds p tags and generally messes things up. Also if saved (published, and re-visited to edit the program kind of reverts and you loose your code edited sections. I am gonna finish this off with a link to the plugin page. I think issues found might be attributed to my setup rather than the plug in which seems to work.
Code markup
Note: Uncheck the ‘Use the visual rich editor when writing’ box, found in users - your profile.
July 12th, 2007
Google Personalized Homepage
I have read a few blogs and articles today about googles new personalized style. I was quite surprised at some of the reactions and comments I read. Not all in favour that is. Each to their own i guess, I for one really like it. I get the same functionality as before, the classic google search box usually the starting point of any browse session. Prior to the change I would hit msn and check my hotmail account, read delete etc, then check blog for spam with the ever decreasing hope that someone out there might have posted a real comment. One day at a time the gurus tell us.
I would log into adsense, followed by Analytics, logging in with different passwords, now everything is in the one place it helps keep things organised. Initially I could’t find a way to add url’s onto the home page, but after looking through the tools section of the ‘add stuff ‘ i found bookmarks.
You just paste your desired links into the little pop up box. The layout is modular, so you can delete, or move them around to display the page to your requirements. There are literally hundreds of these add ons You can also add extra tabs allowing futher categorisation. A few fifferent themes to choose from, and I’m sure loads more to investigate. So what do you think, any other features i should know about?
May 12th, 2007
I have been reading an article on the sitepoint forums
The article concerning traffic, or indeed the lack of to the authors website. I am in a similar situation, looking to my stats daily and seeing no page impressions.
Time to go PROACTIVE
Quality content is a must, that’s a given. I know I personally am not gonna stick around if the subject is uninteresting, or it is regurgatated old news.
That being said, I have been paranoid at the mere possibility that someone might actually read any of this, which to be fair can often stifle the creative process.
Signed up to del.icio.us, not in the game yet.
and the above services, I guess we’ll just have to see how it pans out.
Also started an account with google analytics.
I’ll put some data up soon, to keep tabs on progress.
I’m sure it will become clearer as I write more often, strategies to be considered, time essentially to be set aside for the writing of content that might be worthy of reading.
Some Initial Results
I have some results from my first week, not quite sure yet how to fully utilise all the information from these stats, to get the most benefit from the programme.
I think the majority of visits, are from source, being me, and there is a lot of material to look at and interpret.
If you look at the pie chart below however, there are a few encouraging results.
So it seems bloghop and blogararma have kicked in since I signed up good news, although as I previously mentioned, am not quite sure what all this means in terms of generating visitors.
One of the contributors to the forum suggested that one post at a time was the way forward, and I think that is to be my main strategy from now on.
April 22nd, 2007
Nice little on-line application
I came across this today
At first I didn’t think there was anything revolutionary about it, but when I read the comments asociated with the post that brought me to it, I realised it’s potential.
On-Line photo editing suite
It’s free, very easy to use and a fast method for those often time consuming tweaks we have to perform on graphics to make them more aesthetically pleasing.
Beta Version
It’s new, and we are in test mode, and all features are currently available. looks like some of these will be lost when the full package is released. Never-the-less, the functions that look like remaining are worth consideration in there own right.
Rounded corners
I for one love this kind of app, just makes the job easy,
Add Border
Inner and outer borders, very nice feature, comes with hex. colour input, so there is no messing trying to match shades.
Loads of other more standard stuff
Crop, resize, sepia, black and white etc.
I think it’s main potential lies in the situation that occurs when a site for a client has been designed, and you the designer hand over the reins.
The site as your project, you have become immersed in, and know intimately is out there.
Don’t break the layout
Thus far I havn’t faced this scenario, but I imagine the situation is likely to occur when a graphic is uploaded to a site that exceeds the containg div’s dimensions, things will burst, folks will not be happy your design did not automatically compensate.
To the future and beyond my kindred.
March 31st, 2007
Trials and tribulations
Read part 1 and part 2
With the recent upgrade release of wordpress, version. 2.1.1, a security hole has been found.
Long story short: If you downloaded WordPress 2.1.1 within the past 3-4 days, your files may include a security exploit that was added by a cracker, and you should upgrade all of your files to 2.1.2
Longer explanation: This morning we received a note to our security mailing address about unusual and highly exploitable code in WordPress. The issue was investigated, and it appeared that the 2.1.1 download had been modified from its original code. We took the website down immediately to investigate what happened.
It was determined that a cracker had gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, and had used that access to modify the download file. We have locked down that server for further forensics, but at this time it appears that the 2.1.1 download was the only thing touched by the attack. They modified two files in WP to include code that would allow for remote PHP execution.
This is the kind of thing you pray never happens, but it did and now we’re dealing with it as best we can. Although not all downloads of 2.1.1 were affected, we’re declaring the entire version dangerous and have released a new version 2.1.2 that includes minor updates and entirely verified files. We are also taking lots of measures to ensure something like this can’t happen again, not the least of which is minutely external verification of the download package so we’ll know immediately if something goes wrong for any reason.
More from the wordpress blog
So it was a little annoying, as I had recently installed the new version and was working on the site I have been describing in the last couple of posts. I considered taking a chance with the installation, but in the end I couldn’t justify it.
The upgrade
Retracing my steps. Fortunately and only a fairly recent habit was to note my progress, so I had the info at hand to play with.
Fired up blix again, for the base, old habits etc, used one of the new features of wordpress to create static home page. Pages not showing. Fix mentioned previously.
Using another destination for all posts, I ended up with two home page links. The static one just created and the default. This as mentioned in an earlier post was due to the nature of the blix special functions, so I had to modify the code a little more.
I also took out this little section of the nav code, as I assumed the static page feature would take care of the pathways:
Check graphic below:
I deleted the highlighted section, and things seem to be going ok again.
March 11th, 2007
feel like I’m starting over
Please read for intro: Wordpress as a CMS
I have to document this in cyber land, or the chances are I will forget, or not be able to decipher my hand written notes.
So I have my basic design, and I’m using the Blix theme, because I am already familiar with it, as it provides the scaffolding for this blog.
With that in mind, and the fact that transmuting the theme to my will in the first instance was, lets say a task doing it all again for a new and totally different project presented more challenges.
There is out there a fairly heated debate as to the best platform for building dynamic sites. I like wordpress, but I also like corel photopaint opposed to photoshop, I guess it’s just the old familiarity.
The details
I have intergrated the design with Blix and all seems good.
What I want to begin with is a static front page, but also have that page easily updatable by the client.
Small sites I have done in the past have always been down to me to update, so to have a non-designer come in with additions and customisation in mind presents some accesibility issues.
So back to wordpress, I think the interface is reasonably intuaitive, and if problems arise I can be on hand to guide the way.
How dy’a do it?
Firstly: As basic as possible I copied the index.php file and saved it to a spans.php (whatever) this would allow me to use that template for created pages for the semi-static side of the site.
Secondly: Copied the index.php and saved it orig.php, so I have it in case of meltdown.
Thirdly: Deleted the posts loop from index.php so I can use all the good stuff without the clutter hitting the front page by default.
Please note, at this point I would love a highly qualified mentor!!
Update
Been playing in code, I have the feeling again, when things begin to come together.
I am at this point going to show how to use WS_FTP LE
I think it might come in handy GO..
Latest News and Updates
The project I’m working on as mentioned above required a static front page, and I have outlined how I planned to achieve this. Well anyway it didn’t work, i geuss it has something to do with the blix extended page functions, which ironically was the route of the probelm I am about to describe below.
Introducing the latest version of wordpress
Wordpress 2.1
I came across this whilst browsing for a solution to the static page quest. I was delighted to see that the latest version of WP came with the option to make a page static, (to take it out of the loop), and designate post pages to another location.
Excellent i thought and checked to see what dreamhosts’ version was. 2.1 to upgrade or install, and since the project is on the table in it early stages I thought i’d give it a shot.
Again it didn’t work, worse than that any created pages were not showing in the nav bar. I assumed it was to do with the tinkering on my part in customizing the design to mine.
A destryed database later and a reinstall and the same problem. What’s going on. flipped through a couple of themes and the navigation worked as expected. So it’s a blix thing. Major pain in the ass. It is to do with the extended special bx-functions.php. Not even begin to dabble with that code. So it has to be a new base theme, or a fix.
The fix
Not fully tested yet, but in early stages seems to work.
Check this development blog here for more details, and futher possibilities.
February 20th, 2007
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