Archive for the ‘WordPress’ Category

WordPress 2.1 Visual Rich Editor Easter Egg

Posted on February 2007 at about 8:36 PM by hwa

For those who are using WordPress 2.1 WYSIWYG editor, ever wonder why there are so less buttons for the visual editor? Well actually you can toggle the advance button by pressing Alt+Shift+V for Firefox user or Alt+V for Internet Explorer user.

Thanks to Chris for this great easter egg! 😀

WordPress Theme Reset To Default

Posted on January 2007 at about 1:33 AM by hwa

Upon i upgraded my WordPress to version 2.1, i encountered a few time where my WordPress theme reset to default, the one by binarybonsai.

At first i thought it’s a bug in WordPress 2.1 so i went to the support forum and try to find post with similar problem, if this really a bug then it should be a lot of people talking and complaining about it but strangely not, So i dug even deeper and found this, a post by Scott Burkett explaining what cause the problem.

Apparently most of them who face this trouble has this plugin installed, WP-Mobile by Alex King, don’t get me wrong it’s not the plugin fault, the plugin works great and do what it suppose to do, but it’s the user who didn’t read the instructions well, that’s me. 😳

While most WordPress plugins will require only the user to upload all the related files into the wp-content/plugins folder, but WP-Mobile require you to upload some other file to the wp-content/themes folder.

Anyway here’s what Scott Burkett explain about the problem:

It turns out that I had not properly followed the instructions provided by Alex in the plugin archive. Instead of following the instructions, and copying the files into the places he specified, I just unzipped them into the plugins directory and activated it. That was the whole problem – I needed to copy his “wp-mobile” theme over into the wp-content/themes directory. WordPress was trying to find it, and couldn’t, so it reverted automatically back to the default theme.

So next time read the README file carefully, and make sure you understand it! Imagine that if i report this to WordPress as a bug. 😯

WP Grins 1.3

Posted on January 2007 at about 1:04 AM by hwa

WP Grins 1.3 by Alex King just released today! The old version doesn’t work in WordPress 2.1 but this one does.

WP Grins is one of the earliest plugins that i installed into my blog, it create a line of click able smilies below your editor so that you can put WordPress smilies by clicking on them, very convenience though, instead of memorizing all the BBcode.

One of the biggest changes in this version is that it’s now become a “pure plugin” like Alex King said, before this you have to do a little hack to your WordPress files for the smilies to appear in your editor, but now all you have to do just activate the plugin and the smilies will appear below your editor. 😉

WordPress 2.1 Ella

Posted on January 2007 at about 2:20 PM by hwa

The best blogging software is now become even better! WordPress takes another lead by releasing their famous blogging software to another whole new version! The WordPress 2.1 Ella.

Although there aren’t much changes you can see from the blog main page, but you will see it in the back end part, the admin panel. First is the dashboard, the RSS feeds are now instantly load in the background. They retouched the admin panel design, not much, but enough to make you feel that u had upgraded your WordPress. 😛

The new rich text editor had improved a lot since the last major release, now you can switch between WYSIWYG mode and code editing mode on the fly while you are posting, this is extremely useful when you want to have a glimpse on how your post looks like before saving it, so i would like to recommend enable the visual editor at Your Profile.

I had updated almost all of my plugins for this new release, however there are still some plugins that’s not supported in this new version, i have to give up my all time favorite IImage Browser because the button doesn’t show up in the editor, in fact most of the plugins button doesn’t show up there, including the AdSense Deluxe drop down menu. 🙁 Other plugins like wpPaginate also doesn’t run well in WordPress 2.1, but i replace it with WP-PageNavi.

There are a lot of changes in WordPress 2.1, and here are some of them, quoted from WordPress Blog:

  • Autosave makes sure you never lose a post again.
  • Our new tabbed editor allows you to switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
  • The lossless XML import and export makes it easy for you to move your content between WordPress blogs.
  • Our completely redone visual editor also now includes spell checking.
  • New search engine privacy option allows you take you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.
  • You can set any “page” to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.
  • Much more efficient database code, faster than previous versions. Domas Mituzas from MySQL went over all our queries with a fine-toothed comb.
  • Links in your blogroll now support sub-categories and you can add categories on the fly.
  • Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project.
  • More AJAX to make custom fields, moderation, deletions, and more all faster. My favorite is the comments page, which new lets you approve or unapprove things instantly.
  • Pages can now be drafts, or private.
  • Our admin has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
  • The dashboard now instantly and brings RSS feeds asynchronously in the background.
  • Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
  • Better internationalization and support for right-to-left languages.
  • The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
  • A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled.

You can download WordPress 2.1 at here.

WordPress 2.0.7 And bbPress 0.75

Posted on January 2007 at about 1:12 AM by hwa

Today WordPress just released it latest version, WordPress 2.0.7, this release is mainly focus on security fix in a PHP bug, the FeedBurner issue in WordPress 2.0.6 also solved in this version. Other changes are:

  • Security fix for wp_unregister_GLOBALS() to work around the zend_hash_del_key_or_index bug in PHP 4 versions less than 4.4.3 and PHP 5 versions less than 5.1.4 with register_globals set to “On.”
  • Feeds now properly serve 304 Not Modified headers instead of mismatched 200/304 headers (a.k.a. the FeedBurner bug).
  • Backport of another 304 Not Modified fix from WordPress 2.1
  • Deleting WordPress Pages no longer gives an “Are You Sure?” prompt.
  • After deleting a WordPress Page, you are now properly redirected to the Edit Pages screen.
  • Sending an image at original size in Internet Explorer no longer adds an incorrect “height” attribute.

You can download the latest version of WordPress at here, or head over to Mark’s blog to get the necessary upgrade file if you are upgrading from WordPress 2.0.6.

Mark also mention in WordPress development blog that the next major release of WordPress (WordPress 2.1) will be out soon by the end of this month.

Other than that bbPress 0.75 also released today, same like WordPress 2.0.7 one of the major fix is the PHP bug. To download latest version of bbPress please go here.

Continue On Fighting Spams

Posted on January 2007 at about 10:28 PM by hwa

Remember the fighting spams article i wrote the other day? So far my spam forces are doing well, they reduced the spam a bit and my wp-comments-post.php not as flooded as last time.

However today i read something from Lorelle VanFossen’s blog where she talk a little bit about Bad Behavior, the following quote makes me want to install Bad Behavior:

Bad Behavior is a unique comment spam fighter. It’s goal is similar to Akismet and Spam Karma, but Bad Behavior stops known comment spammers from even getting into the door of your blog. It turns them away before they get a chance to post by testing IP addresses and other criteria to determine if they are human or machine, and shoots down the machines and known enemies of blogs.

Yes i need something like that, a first layer defend, a spam fighter that will stop spams even before it touch my wp-comments-post.php. 😈

What Is FlatPress?

Posted on January 2007 at about 5:00 PM by hwa

I remember that few years back, where people just get to know PHP, and CGI was still ruling the internet, back at that time many web application was using a very special kind of primitive database, called flat-file database.

A flat-file database is a kind of database that is made from text, mean that you can open and see what is inside the database by using any text editor, there’s no complicated SQL command or whatever, just a simple text file, and all your data are stored into this text file. Well, basically that’s the idea.

But of course there’s a drawback with flat-file, a major one is flat-file database is extremely slow.

So what is FlatPress? FlatPress is a version of WordPress that doesn’t require any MySQL database, it use flat-file database to store data. This could be very useful if you are looking for an economic web hosting plan, or you can even find a free web hosting to host your WordPress as long as it support PHP.

According to NoWhereMan, the FlatPress developer, only the simplest plugin will work with FlatPress, however Akismet and some simple theme will still work with FlatPress.

Fighting Spams

Posted on January 2007 at about 10:53 PM by hwa

Spam really drive me crazy! 😡 Few days ago my host sent me an email telling that my wp-comments-post.php is under attack, the server was flooded and they have to CHMOD it to 000, causing visitors unable to comment in my blog. Out of desperation and frustration i installed Spam Karma 2. 😡

Actually before this i already have Akismet, and it’s doing a great job in fighting spams, Akismet filtered almost all of my spams, since i install Akismet until now, only a few spams get through Akismet, this is good, but i need more than that. 😡

Although Akismet filtered the spams, however my wp-comments-post.php still get flooded, this is because Akismet only let the spam goes into moderate mode, it doesn’t really stop the spam from coming in. So i went out and search for more.

Now i’m inviting Spam Karma 2 to join my forces, hoping that it will help me to fight spams, and yes my spam did reduced, now everyday i receive around ten spams or more, this is very good. But i want the spam to be stopped once and for all, not giving it a single chance to touch my wp-comments-post.php.

I’m still observing whether the spammers still flooding my wp-comments-post.php or not, hopefully it’s not, but if yes, then i will invite more into my forces and by then let’s see who will win this time! 😈

bbPress 0.74

Posted on January 2007 at about 2:15 AM by hwa

Just about one hour the WordPress 2.0.6 released, here come the bbPress 0.74!!

According to the main site, these are some of the changes:

  • init hook has been changed to bb_init for better compatibility with WordPress.
  • When users are deleted, they’re really deleted now.
  • Somewhat simpler installation procedure. When installing, you’ll also be informed if any of those little configuration variables are incorrectly set.
  • A place to store options in the database! Woo!

To find out more about the release, you can go to Aditya’s blog to look for the overall changes.

WordPress 2.0.6

Posted on January 2007 at about 2:50 AM by hwa

Around 5 hours ago WordPress had released it latest version, WordPress 2.0.6, according to Matt this release include a very important security fix and as usual everyone is recommended to upgrade to this latest version, other changes are:

  • The aforementioned security fixes.
  • HTML quicktags now work in Safari browsers.
  • Comments are filtered to prevent them from messing up your blog layout.
  • Compatibility with PHP/FastCGI setups.

There’s a new anti-XSS function called attribute_escape() and also a new filter called query which will allow you to filter any query during runtime. Head over to the download section to download WordPress 2.0.6.

As for me, the internet is still slow and i’m having hard time to log into my FTP, have to wait some time until i update mine. 🙁