Troubleshooting: SoftException in Application.cpp:544

When I had problem with WordPress installation, it was about WordPress Admin Area (Dashboard) Redirect Loop, I got the solution. Today, I experienced different problem. Still related to WordPress.

Okey, I’m not going to tell you that the problem only happens for WordPress. It might happen for other platforms or applications. Read on the details, you’ll know what I mean.

When I enter WordPress dashboard (admin area), I got 404 error page. It seems that the wp-admin folder does not exist. But, it’s there. I told Lala about this, and she reminds me that I’m not the one who got this problem. (see WordPress Support Forum thread for details).

So, I checked the error log. If you’re using cPanel for your hosting account, you should find the error log there. And, I got this:

[Tue Dec 30 09:20:18 2008] [error] [client ip.address.here] SoftException in Application.cpp:544: Directory "/home/username/public_html/somefolder" is writeable by group

Okey, it’s about SoftException in Application.cpp:544. I searched for answer using Google, and I found a useful answer.

As the message says, the specified foldername has been made writable by group.
That suggests that your server’s apache configuration doesn’t allow you to make folders writable by group.
ie: you’ve got the wrong permissions set on one or more folders.
Check with your hosting company to find out what permissions you’re allowed to set.

The answer is not related to WordPress issue, but it’s a solution for the same problem. So, I checked the wp-admin folder permission again. It was 777. Okey, I changed it into 755… and voila! Problem solved.

Okey, everything is working great now. It’s a new lesson for me :)

WordPress will be much better with your help

As WordPress users, we can contribute to its development in many ways. But, if you do not involve actively in the development, you can get involved by participating in a survey.

This survey will help WordPress developers to determine which features should be on the top priority for WordPress 2.8 (and/or 2.9 and beyond) . If you’re WordPress users, it’s recommended that you’re using WordPress latest stable release: WordPress 2.7. As a WordPress user, here few things I want to have (not in a particular order)

  • Sort by column on list-type screens. It will be useful!
  • Bulk edit on other screens. If it’s similar to bulk edit for entries, that would be great.
  • Choose number of items to display on list-type screens (20/50/100). When doing a batch edit, I can edit more posts at a time.
  • OpenID in core. Even I’m not using it for my blog, I think it will be useful for those who want to have an OpenID-enabled blog.
  • Site closed/maintenance mode. When working on the design, or something is broken, I want to have my blog displays a maintenance screen. Just a simple page, but can be handled from the dashboard.
  • Improve category management. Mmm… can I have built-in category thumbnail? :D
  • User permissions based on categories. Hey, this should be great for blogs with multiple users!
  • Bundle DB backup plugin. Backup is important, so I want to have this. Also, some other DB-related management features e.g. to optimize overhead tables?
  • Better custom fields management
  • Option to delete inactive plugins.
  • More built-in plugins for special purposes like videoblogging or podcast. Can we have podcast plugin like Podpress built-in shipped in the core?
  • Built-in search and replace for posts. Actually, there is a plugin for this purpose.
  • Additional user profile fields.
  • More settings managed from dashboard (web-based). For example to disable/enable Post Revisions. So, the wp-config.php should not need to be edited.

I don’t use widget extensively so I’m fine with widget-related features. Oops.. it’s a long list. I know, those list is based on my personal preferences. You can have different wishlist. :)

This Blog is Facebook Connect-enabled Now

Last week, Facebook announced about plugins for Facebook Connect. I saw some sites already using this plugins. Some leading blogging platform like Movable Type and WordPress also have Facebook Connect plugins.

To be more spesific, here is a list of Facebook Connect Plugins available. I’m sure there will be more plugins in the future.

For this blog, I use Sociable, with some modifications — of course. I try to keep it simple. When visitors are not “connected” to this blog, there will be a brief notification. If you’re on a single entry page, and commenting system is enabled, you should see a button to “connect”. In general, the Facebook Connect-related element will be displayed in the sidebar — with the “connection status”. Right now, I’m using it and I hope I can use it for a long period. Because I made some modifications on the Sociable plugin, there might be some minor (I hope!) bugs.

If you only want to test how it works, just sign-in using your Facebook account and get connected to this blog. Anyway, this is my Facebook application page for this blog :)

New design for this blog

I have been very busy in the last few weeks, many things to do. I needed to recharge my energy. And this is the result: a new design for my blog. I created this theme for fun, at least to keep my mood in balance, to bring my mood back to the other design work.

After upgrading to WordPress 2.7 few days ago, I wanted to have some changes here, especially by taking advantages from new features introduced in the latest WordPress, e.g. built-in threaded comment. Here are some notes on my new blog design.

Template tags

Still related to template tags, I try to take advantage from the way WordPress produces CSS selectors. Here is an example. Open index.php in default theme folder, you should see this for the entry loop:

<div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">

The code above will produce something like this:

<div class="post hentry category-services category-sites category-www category-webdev tag-htaccess tag-facebook tag-linkedin tag-service tag-twitter tag-url" id="post-1026">

Do you see the pattern? It will produce some post classes on the entry data (categories and tags). This function is called post_class(). By this, we can customize how each entry (inside the loop) should be displayed, just work with the stylesheet.

If you want to make you theme compatible well with WordPress 2.7, just head to Migrating Plugins and Themes to 2.7 article at WordPress Codex. There are some other useful information for theme designers — and also for you as bloggers.

Continue reading »

WordPress 2.7, Upgrade, Plugins and Some Other Notes

I just upgrade my blog to WordPres 2.7 stable release, code name “Coltrane”. Since I have been using WordPress 2.7 branch — I only upgraded from WordPress 2.7-RC2 released yesterday. And, the built-in core updater is VERY useful. I took only less than 10 seconds to upgrade. Nice!

wp27-upgrade1 wp27-upgrade2

So, if you’re using WordPress for your blog/website, it is time to upgrade. You’ll love it. :) As usual, if you do not want to take risk, backup your database first. Just in case you want to go back to your “current” WordPress version. After that, get WordPress 2.7. Anyway, related to this new version, if you have time, there are some notes. At least, these are for me. It might work for you too.

Continue reading »

WordPress 2.7 Admin Color Scheme

WordPress 2.5 already provide two types of color schemes for dashboard. They are “Classic” and “Fresh“. By default, you will have the “Fresh” color scheme. It’s light shades of blue. If you like the darker blue, you can switch to it by choosing the “Classic” style. If you haven’t touch this area, this setting can be found on your profile page. Just click your name on the top right navigation.

wp26-scheme

In WordPress 2.7, we can do the same. The color schemes available to choose are “Blue” and “Gray” (default).

wp27-scheme

Right now, I choose the “Blue” scheme. Look at these picture for color scheme comparison. Continue reading »

WordPress 2.7 Preview

WordPress.com users are very lucky. If you’re one of them, get ready for the new WordPress 2.7 experience. On Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 8pm Eastern Time (8am, Friday in Jakarta), you should see a brand new dashboard at WordPress.com. If you use the self-hosted version like me, you need wait. I’m still not sure about the release date, but it says “sometime in December 2008“. A Christmas gift? :)

I already use the development version here (WordPress 2.7-RC1-10015), so if you’re interested, here are some screenshots. About new features, navigations, and other new things, please head to WordPress official blog for complete details.

WordPress-2.7-Dashboard Continue reading »

Pownce, Textpattern 4.0.7 and WordPress 2.7-RC1

Here are some news I noted for this few weeks.

Pownce is acquired by Six Apart, a company behind Movable Type, Typepad, and also VOX. I got the invitation in July 2007. After that, I did not use it regularly. What’s next? Well, the news says that Pownce will be taken down on December 15th:

We’ll be closing down the main Pownce website two weeks from today, December 15th. Since we’d like for you to have access to all your Pownce messages, we’ve added an export function. Visit pownce.com/settings/export/ to generate your export file. You can then import your posts to other blogging services such as Vox, TypePad, or WordPress.
For our Pro members, we’ll be emailing you soon with more information about your Pro account. (source)

Let’s wait about this acquisition. Integration with other Six Apart’s products like VOX or TypePad? That sounds interesting.

Now, about TextPattern. TextPattern 4.0.7 was released last week with some feature enhancement. The tag parser looks great.

Last but not least, WordPress 2.7 Release Candidate 1 is available. I tried it on this blog, and it looks great! I like the new dashboard, the designs, element placement, and more. Blog management should be fun. I feel that. Great!

WordPress Upgrade Using Changed Files Only

WordPress is known for its fast development. But for some people the upgrade process can be painful. I mean, not the “press the upgrade button”, but the download source, and uploading. If you have slow internet connection, you know what I’m talking about.

But, why not using another mechanism: just upload the changed files — compared to the previous version. By this, we do not have to upload and replace too many files. I used this scenario when I upgraded this blog to WordPress 2.6.3. Since it was only a maintenance release, I only needed to upload 2 files.

WordPress 2.6.5 was released last week. If you want to upgrade from WordPress 2.6.3 to 2.6.5, you can try this: upload the changed files only. All files are available from WordPress Trac. Go to the bottom area, and you should see “Zip Archive” link there. Download it, extract the zipped files, and upload them. Well, I don’t use this on this blog, since this blog is using the 2.7 distribution. Anyway, in the coming WordPress 2.7, the upgrade process should be easier. The upgrade button is there. Yay!

Running on WordPress 2.7 branch

I just upgraded my blog to WordPress 2.7-beta1. I took the risk to use the beta release. The upgrade process run smoothly without any issue. The biggest changes are on the Dashboard interface. It took for few minutes to explore the brand new design. But, since I have started using WordPress from the Subversion, I have no problem with that.

There are som new settings and the more handy dasboard. Some personal highlights:

  • Quick access links — expand the link groups. If you think the navigation eats too much space, you can easily move to the icon-style navigation.
  • Hide/show menu elements — For example, when viewing list of comments, you can easily hide the details you don’t want to see e.g. comment posting date. There is a “Screen Option” link on the top navigation on some pages.
  • Quick entry edit — If you only want to edit the title, post status, author, password, categories, tags, comment/trackback and timestamp, you do not need to edit using an entry screen. Just click on the “Quick Edit” link, and save. If you’re using Manageable plugin, you know about this feature. It’s built-in now.
  • Threaded/nested comments — Settings are available from dasboard. You can have upto 5 levels of depth.
  • Paged comments — you can now break comments into pages. Remember WordPress Paged Comments Plugin?
  • Closing comments for older entries
  • Plugin Browser/Installer — I wrote about this before.
  • Date/time-related settings is easier to understand — You can select from the pre-defined values or create custom formats.
  • Sticky post — If you like to have a sticky post on the front page, you can have this feature from the core. You can have this feature using WP-Sticky plugin.

Anyone using the beta version? If so, you should see more new features/improvements there… or probably some bugs.

I like it so far. And, for WordPress theme designer, it’s time to learn about new template tags and structure. Right now, I am still using WordPress theme built for 2.6.x, will modify it when I’m using the new features. Congratulation for WordPress developers!

WordPress Apps for LinkedIn

We can add WordPress application for LinkedIn now.

With the WordPress App, you can sync your WordPress blog posts with your LinkedIn profile, keeping everyone you know in the know. Once added, you can filter your posts with a special LinkedIn tag and even display your personal WordPress Gravatar (global avatar). Updates are automatically sent to your network for instant notifications and gratification. (WordPress Apps details)

This application is available for both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress.

WordPress 2.6.3

I just upgraded my WordPress to the latest version: WordPress 2.6.3. This is a maintenance release, anyway. Since I like to have the most updated WordPress, I have no reason not to upgrade it.

This release fixes some security vulnerability. To make my life easier, there are only two files to upload: wp-includes/class-snoopy.php and wp-includes/version.php. Easy.

WordPress Troubleshooting: WordPress Admin Area (Dashboard) Redirect Loop

Yesterday, I helped one of my clients with her WordPress-powered blogs. When I tried to find the solution — using search engines — I could not find any exact solution.

Problem overview

Okey, here’s the problem: When I tried to login to WordPress dashboard — not WordPress.com, but self-hosted — I always got these errors:

Redirect Loop
The browser has stopped trying to retrieve the requested item. The site is redirecting the request in a way that will never complete.

The browser has stopped trying to retrieve the requested item. The site is redirecting the request in a way that will never complete.

  • Have you disabled or blocked cookies required by this site?
  • NOTE: If accepting the site’s cookies does not resolve the problem, it is likely a server configuration issue and not your computer.

I’m not sure what caused this problem. I thought it was my browser (Firefox), but I got the same problem on other browsers.

Continue reading »

Sandbox is now available for Movable Type

For WordPress users, Sandbox is probably one of the theme tools. Using Sandbox we can customize the theme without getting bothered with WordPres template tags, which are in PHP. We only need to deal with the CSS file.

Remember about last year Sandbox design competition? Okey, if you like working the Sandbox, and you want to have it for your Movable Type installation, here is a good news: Movable Type users can have the Sandbox for their template. It is available via plugin. This plugin is coded by Beau Smith — he works for Six Apart.

Continue reading »

Plugin Installation in WordPress 2.7

Currently, it’s easy to upgrade WordPress plugins from the dashboard for WordPress 2.5+ version. Compared to the old method, it’s much easier because we can upgrade the plugin using a single-click. Well, not a single-click, but at least you do not need to run any FTP software.

In the coming WordPress 2.7, it’s not getting easier for users, but also for developers. There will be a page called “Install Plugins” (the name might change). Here, we have a page displaying many related sub-menus about plugins like: Search Plugins, Upload a Plugin, Featured Plugins, Popular Plugins, Newest Plugins, Recently Updated Plugins. You can figure out what they mean, right?

For example, on the “Search Plugins” page, we can search plugins available from official WordPress Plugin Directory. We can narrow our search by “terms” (or keywords), tags, and also plugin author. We can also narrow our search using tag clouds provided. The search feature will give us list of plugins with the following details: plugin name, version, rating, and description. We can directly choose to install from this page. Very easy!

What makes it even better is that we can find out more details just like when we read plugin details from WordPress Plugins Directory. If we click on the plugin table row, there will be an inline popup providing information about the mode detailed description, installation guide, FAQ and also screenshot. The bottom line is that we can have plugin information without leaving the dashboard.

Upcoming WordPress 2.7

WordPress 2.7 Composing Post Screen

I just downloaded new files for the upcoming WordPress 2.7, and gave it a try. You do not need to worry, because it will not be available in the next few weeks (Schedule: November 10, 2008). So, you do not need to upgrade near the future. I’ve wrote an initial post about WordPress 2.7 before. Here are some changes I found. This is not final, many features/designs might change later.
Continue reading »

24/7 Support from WordPress.com Team

wpcom-team

A good news from WordPress.com team. Now, they offer 24/7 support for WordPress.com.

Not long ago, our team was online 9 a.m to 4 p.m. PDT to answer your questions and keep your blog running smoothly. Soon after, we brought it up to 24-hour support, five days and week, so those across the country and across the globe wouldn’t have to wait for their answers.

Just make sure you contact them using contact form provided. As WordPress.com users, we can also help their support team. Here’s how:

  • Read the FAQ page. This area covers many information you might need/want to know about WordPress.com. If you do not find solutions for your problems or questions, do the next action:
  • Visit WordPress Community Forums. They’re really helpful.
  • You can also join WordPress IRC Channel. It’s #wordpress on Freenode server.
  • If you want to learn more about WordPress, WordPress Codex is also available 24 hours/day.
  • And, if you have some friends using WordPress, you can ask him/her first. It should be easy to find other WordPress users near you. :)

WordPress 2.7

After upgrading to WordPress 2.6, I found no big problems. Everything looks fine. There are already many features offered, but do I use them all or try to get benefits from them? I don’t think so. I only use some some basic blog features. Do you? Well, no matter how many features, I do not think that most of us — at least me — do not use them all, only the basic things. The point is: I can do blogging in ease.

When I visit WordPress Codex page about WordPress 2.7, there are some (again!) features that might be available for the coming release. It’s still a proposal, anyway. What features that interests me? I think I like some of them, and will use it if they’re available.

  • Sitemaps by default — Right now, we can have a sitemap using Google XML Sitemaps Generator. I hope I understand it right. If this kind of sitemaps can be available by default, this should be great.
  • Batch editing of posts — Is it something like what Movable Type already has for long time? Assigning multiple entries into categories, adding tags into multiple entries. Like this? Okey, [this is good]. :)
  • Comment threading — Currently, I do not use this feature. This can be done using a plugin. But if it’s available in the core, this should good because this kind of capabilities can be useful in a conversation (in comments).

WordPress 2.6 Upgrades

Today, WordPress 2.6 is available with code name “Tyner”. You can read what features shipped in this version at WordPress Development blog. I have been following WordPress 2.6 since the beta release from Sub Version, and it looks good. So, I upgraded my WordPress install right away. The upgrade process — from WP 2.5.1 — was smooth, without any issues. If you not using the latest version, it’s time to upgrade.

Probably, there are few things to consider before upgrading like plugin and compability. I was there too. If you have plugins that are not supported in the latest version, and you need them so bad, you probably need to wait until the patches are available. Luckily, I have all installed plugins work great here. If you’re still not sure, please do a complete upgrade mechanism: Backup everything. Not only the database, but also the entire WordPress files. It should not be difficult.

After upgrading, I made some adjustments on the settings. For example, the Remote Publishing Settings, and let’s not forget about some other features. If you haven’t touch your wp-config.php files, there are some other settings managed from the configuration file like Post Revisions and some security definition settings. Anyway, WordPress 2.6 has full support of SSL in the core and it has the ability to force SSL for security. Read Ryan Boren‘s post about SSL and Cookies in WordPress 2.6.

So far, my favorites are the Gears for faster browsing experience and Press This. The “Press This” is really smart!

For example, if you click “Press This” from a Youtube page it’ll magically extract the video embed code, and if you do it from a Flickr page it’ll make it easy for you to put the image in your post.

If you like posting short entries in your blog while browsing, make your life easier by this feature. Just drag the link — you can find it on the entry creation page — to your browser toolbar. Want to try it? Download WordPress 2.6 now.

Remote Publishing Settings in WordPress 2.6

wp-bclient

WordPress Remote Publishing Settings, under Settings | Write.

If you’re using desktop blogging client to publish your content, and you’re using latest WordPress version (2.5.1), you should have no problems at all. But, if you upgrade to WordPress 2.6, you should adjust some settings. I tried to publish using a regular method (setting up a blog, pointing to XML-RPC gateway, inserting username and password) for WordPress 2.6-beta3, and I got something not working properly.

The problem occurs because we need to enable the Remote Publishing settings first. For WordPress 2.6, go to Settings | Writing, and choose the appropriate settings. Without having these settings enabled, we are not able to publish entries using remote publishing method.

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