I'm a blogger and web designer from Jogjakarta, Indonesia. See my other blog in Bahasa Indonesia. I love photography. Currently, I live in Jakarta.

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How to Merge Two Blogs Using WordPress 3.0 Multi-Site Feature

Now, WordPress installation in this domain (orangescale.net) powers my other blog — in Bahasa Indonesia, using WordPress 3.0 Multi-Site feature. I decided to use this method so that I don’t have to manage two separated WordPress installation. In short: orangescale.net and thomas.or.id are now using a single WordPress installation, using orangescale.net as the primary blog.

This method works on my blog, but I don’t guarantee that you will have the exact process depending your own installation:

  • First, enable WordPress 3.0 Multi-Site feature
  • You should have access to modify domain DNS record. If your webhosting provider provide “Add-on domain” feature, it should work.
  • Create a new site under First Blog, you can use any address first.
  • Export contents from blog you want to move using WordPress export feature.
  • Import the export file you have to Second Blog.
  • Copy all media files from Second Blog to firstblog.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/files/X/ (Note: “X” is the Site ID).
  • Check all settings, escpecially the image locations in your posts. Later, the uploaded media files will use this path: seconddomain.com/files/path/to/image.jpg (the path might be different). If you have broken image path, check the settings and paths again.
  • Install WordPress MU Domain Mapping plugin. Follow the instruction. It’s easy.
  • Modify Second Blog DNS settings. Basically, you need to create an A record. Point your Second Blog domain to an IP address used by First Blog.
  • Check all plugins, blog settings, and permalink.
  • Enjoy!

I don’t know whether it’s an easy process or not, but here I want to show you that WordPress 3.0 Multi-Site feature can be useful. If you’re still comfortable to manage multiple blog installations, you don’t need to use this method.

It’s not a problem-free solution, of course. And it might be tricky sometimes. For example, about the plugin activation. Which plugins should be installed ‘globally’ or ‘locally’. Some plugins might work without any modifications. Here, I still have a plugin that does not work on my Second Blog. It works well on my primary blog, but not on the secondary. So far, I’m happy with the result.

Some Notes About Enabling Multi-Site option in WordPress 3.0

After upgrading my blog using WordPress 3.0, I was thinking of taking the opportunity to have the multi-site option. Previously, I played with WordPress Multi User. So, I think it would something I’m familiar with. If you’re not familiar with WordPress 3.0 features, you can check WordPress Codex first. You can find lots of useful information there. It’s a good place to start.

Currently, this blog is already using Multi-Site feature. The setup was easy, but I want to share few things I had during the ‘migration’. By default, this feature is disabled. So, you will see no settings/option under your WordPress Dashboard menus. If you’re ready to enable this feature, the first thing you need to do is to modify WordPress configuration file (wp-config.php). Add this line of code into wp-config.php:

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

Continue reading »

WordPress 3.0 Error: Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance

I have upgraded this blog to WordPress 3.0 not long after it was available for download. Everything went without any major issues. I only use it without special hacks. One thing that makes this version a little bit different is that WordPress will bring your site offline if there is/are something not working. For example, when you’re upgrading your plugins. WordPress will temporarily bring your site under maintenance mode.

If all process were completed, you should be happy. Otherwise, you will need to do some extra works. WordPress will display this kind of error message: “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance.” You will be locked out from your admin area. Your website will be inaccessible. Solution? Easy. You need to go to login to your webhosting server, and remove .maintenance file. You can find it in your blog folder — the same location with your wp-config.php.

WordPress 3.0 Installation Process

Today, I tried the upcoming WordPress 3.0 distribution. It’s not yet released. I installed WordPress 3.0 Beta 2. I do this because I want to know whether I will have some WordPress installations upgraded or not, to find the possibilities and considerations.

The installation process is similar to the previous versions, but I think it’s improved now. After you fill in the database information, usually you will need to provide website name/title, and email address. The installation process will create “admin” as the first user, with randomly generated password. Here are some new fields during the installation process.

Better? Better. Previously, I usually modify the “admin” username directly from database manager — I’m using phpMyAdmin. Some people think that it’s a good practice to remove/change the default administrator login in the system. Now, you can have whatever username for the administrator.

Previously, the first thing you will need to do after you have your WordPress installed is changing the randomly generated password, since it’s not easy to remember. Setting up password during installation should be a time saver.

I haven’t dug any other features like the multi-site, custom menus, and other things offered in this distribution. Later.

Automatic WordPress Backup (to Amazon S3)

Today, I tried another WordPress plugin called “Automatic WordPress Backup”. This plugin will help blog owners to create backup remotely to Amazon S3 service. Since I’m using it and pretty satisfied with the billing usage, I installed it at some WordPress-powered blogs I maintain.

I use one of the available buckets under my account. For this bucket, I set its ACL (Access Control List) to private, of course. After this plugin installed and activated, I only needed to put my Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.

I decided not to include all files for my backup. I only need the database and uploaded contents. After the settings were saved, I simply hit the backup button. The process depends on the disk and database usage. I found that it was pretty fast. One of my backup files was around 300 MB, and it only took less than 5 minutes to complete the process. Also, the backup file was compressed. This should be useful to cut the usage process as you only need to store a single file for each backup.

The backup files will be automatically delivered to my Amazon S3 bucket and when the process completed, I can see the backup history. To download the backup, I only need to click on the backup links.

The backup links are built using pre-signed URLs so that only the account holder (or someone who knows the URLs) can download them.

WordPress, Amazon S3 and CloudFront

Amazon Web Service Logo

In the last two days, I was working on an experiment to use Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon CloudFront together with WordPress. It’s not primary for my blog, but for my friend. There are many tutorials and good recommendation on this. Since my friend using WordPress as the publishing platform, and it is easy to integrate with S3 and CloudFront, I gave it a try. But, what is Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)?

Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. The service aims to maximize benefits of scale and to pass those benefits on to developers. (from Amazon S3 website)

Actually, using Amazon S3 might be just fine. Since I want to make experiment, I decided to subscribe to Amazon CloudFront, too.

Amazon CloudFront delivers your content using a global network of edge locations. Requests for your objects are automatically routed to the nearest edge location, so content is delivered with the best possible performance. Amazon CloudFront works seamlessly with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) which durably stores the original, definitive versions of your files. Like other Amazon Web Services, there are no contracts or monthly commitments for using Amazon CloudFront — you pay only for as much or as little content as you actually deliver through the service. (from Amazon CloudFront website)

This is my first attempt using those two service. The subscription is easy. Create an account at Amazon, fill in the billing information, and start subscribing. That’s all. After few attempts, I finally have it working. I hope it’s working without any issues. Anyway, for WordPress integration, I use Amazon S3 for WordPress plugin. Let’s wait until the end of the month to get the billing statement.

Haikumattic

I think I like the concept behind new Automattic’s website. The products and descriptions are haiku-powered. This is how they explain about WordPress.com service:

Hassle-free blogging
Even with your own domain
Freemium model

About Akismet:

Remember the days
Innocent inboxes gleam
Be spam-free again.

For complele list, go to Automattic’s site.

body_class() for WordPress Theme Designer

I just upgraded my WordPress engine to the latest version. This new version offers some improved and new features. One of them is about body_class() function. Nathan Rice has a definition about this:

The body_class() function operates in nearly the exact same manner as the post_class() function that was introduced in WordPress 2.7. The only differences are the classes it generates. The body_class() function will generate the classes mostly based on where your viewer is on your site.

I used post_class() when it was introduced in WordPress 2.7. This body_class() new function is a great addition for WordPress theme designers. Well, actually it’s not only for WordPress Theme designers, but it’s more for those who want to have/do more on the template. We can have some automatically generated HTML tags like these:

  • <body class="single postid-12">, or
  • <body class="page page-id-9 parent-page-id-0 page-template-default">, or
  • <body class="page-template page-template-tutorial-php logged-in">

See the patterns? Jump to Nathan Rice’s blog posts to read more details. In short, if you want to use this function, just modify your <body> tag. Change it into <body <?php body_class(); ?>>. That’s it!

Post by Email for WordPress-powered Blog

Recently WordPress hosted service introduced a new featured call Post by Email. It’s like Posterous. This new feature is available for WordPress.com users. If you’re using WordPress.com, head to Post by Email detailed information.

But, what about self-installed WordPress? This feature is already in the distribution for long time ago. But, I think most people prefer posting in standard way. If you need to blog/post by email into your self-installed WordPress, I think you should try Postie. The feature is similar like what hosted WordPress users have, but of course, you need a little extra work. If you’re experienced with your self-installed WordPress, it should not be difficult to have this plugin work.

WordPress Automatic Upgrade and Default Theme

Last few weeks, I worked on a WordPress theme design. But, it was the first time I used default as its theme folder. If you use WordPress, you might know how WordPress will deal with default theme folder. It will be used if something goes wrong with the theme. For example, you’re working on a theme file, and it’s broken, your WordPress theme will be automatically reverted to the default folder.

I chose to use default folder because I always want to have this theme loaded. But, I found that it was not the best decision to make. Why?

It’s about WordPress automatic upgrade feature. When WordPress 2.7.1 was available, I upgraded using its web-based upgrade system. Click on the automatic ugprade button, and voila! Latest version was installed. BUT, it will overwrite my theme files, which are located in the default theme folder. Luckily, I still have the backup. So, I re-uploaded the theme files into different theme folder.

WordPress Plugins Search and Comment Threading

Finally, WordPress now offers a better search engine for its plugin directory. It is using Sphinx right now. But, it does not search plugins by authors and tags. It only reads all information from readme.txt file which is delivered in every plugins uploaded to directory.

Another improvement — well, I think I should call it “feature” — is that WordPress.com is now supporting comment threading feature. This feature is included in the core if you’re using self-hosted WordPress 2.7.1. Since WordPress.com seems already upgrade to the latest version, we can now use this feature also. Just go to Settings and choose Discussion from your WordPress.com dashboard.

Troubleshooting: Can’t Login After WordPress Upgrade

Today, I was helping my client upgrading her WordPress-powered blog. He was using WordPress 2.6.x series. I upgraded using the standard procedur, and I thought the whole process was painless. But, it was not. I could not access its “Dashboard”. The login screen was there, but when I entered the username and password — I was 1,000% sure that I typed a correct combination — nothing happened.

Few months ago, I had a problem with the “Redirect Loop”. I made a speculation: removing all plugins under wp-content/plugins/ directory. Of course, after I made sure that I had the list of all active plugins. After that, I tried to login again, and voila! I continued re-installing all plugins needed. Problem solved.

The first maintenance release for WordPress 2.7 is ready to download. Using the auto-upgrade tool from the dashboard, it should not be painful. I’ve upgraded, and it only took few seconds. :)

About Facebook Connect for WordPress

I installed Facebook Connect as an experiment for this blog last week. With some modifications, it works fine here. If you’re using WordPress and want to try Facebook Connect, here are few things you might need to know. Anyway, I’m using Facebook Connect 0.9.9 plugins for WordPress. It’s recommended to use the latest version. When I write this post, the newest version is 1.0.

When Facebook users are “connected” to your blog, it means:

  • They will be registered to your blog as “Subscriber” in your WordPress system. Some account information — from Facebook — will be inserted. They are “Full name” and Facebook Profile ID.
  • The usernames will be a combination of FB_ prefix with profile ID. So, you will have usernames like these: FB_1015647304, FB_1226611178, FB_678048415, etc.
  • The “Website” field will be their Facebook profile page.
  • Biographical Info will be derived from Facebook profile based on the data at the time they’re connected.
  • Email address will not be inserted as user profile data. Connected users can edit their profile (edit display name, email address, website URL, etc) by signing in to your WordPress Dashboard. This will make them supply their email addresses.
  • Facebook profile images will be used as avatars.

Right now, I have some questions (for myself) about this Facebook Connector plugin.

  • Can they “disconnect” from my blog? I don’t see an option for this. The only thing I can do to “disconnect” them from my blog is by deleting their account in my WordPress system.
  • Some Facebook users have been connected. And then, what? What’s the benefit of being “connected”? I know, it’s like creating a small community for a blog. But, what’s the other benefit?

I will leave Facebook Connect here for now. But, I’m thinking of removing it later. Anyway, Facebook Connector is not a bad plugin. It’s great piece of plugin to make connection between your WordPress-powered blog and Facebook.

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.

WordPress.com is Gears-enabled now

wpcom-gears

If you’re using WordPress.com service, you probably notice that there is a new link in the upper right of dashboard navigation. It says “Turbo“. This is a new feature offered by WordPress.com, telling that WordPress.com is Google Gears-friendly website. In my other blog (using WordPress from SubVersion), I already enabled this. And, I can take benefit from this.

So, what is it all about? If you enabled this feature (this will work if you have Gears supported browsers like Firefox 1.5+, and also Internet Explorer 6.0+) and also have Google Gears installed:

  • We can have all images and other web components from WP admin area stored into our PC. By this, we can speed up our access to WP admin area and also reducing unneccessary web traffic.
  • All downloaded files will be used everywhere in the admin area.
  • We will have another great experience :)

This feature is not available for self-hosted WordPress 2.5.1. But, it will be a new feature for the coming WordPress 2.6. It will be great if this Gears can be made available for WordPress 2.5 via plugin. Possible? Well, if you use WordPress.com service, you can get this feature earlier.

Stop spammers and unwanted traffic

If you have your blog installed in your own webhosting account, there is another nice strategy to combat spammers and also unwanted traffic by Donncha O Caoimh (he is a WordPress developer). It’s because sometime antispam plugins like Akismet or TypePad AntiSpam are not enough. They can blocked comments, but do they also block unwanted traffic? I mean, they can filter comment spams, but that’s after the spammers’s comment being processed by the system (blog engine).

I think the approach offered by Donncha is very useful. Right now, I use another method to fight the spammers (and also unwanted traffic). For my WordPress, I have TypePad AntiSpam and Yawasp (Yet Another WordPress Anti Spam Plugin). I decided to remove WP-SpamFree for now. It’s a great plugin, anyway. But, sometime it caught real readers from sending comment, just because their browser settings are not cookie-enabled.

About dealing with unwanted traffic (it’s not directly related to spams), I use hotlink prevention using .htaccess. Another method is by having list of IP addresses in my .htaccess. I got the IP address from antispam plugins. If I got spammers, I just put their IP address into my ban list. I have some of them.

By this, I have less visitors (if I checked from my webhosting analysis tool). Probably, it’s because it checks all visitors (spammers and human). But, I’m fine with that. I think I will try the strategies mentioned by Donncha now.

How’s your wp-config.php file?

WordPress relies on wp-config.php file to connect to database. Here, there are some basic settings about our WordPress installation like database-related information and language interface. When we upgrade our WordPress installation to new release, we can have our WordPress blog running without problem, even without touching wp-config.php file.

But, in some release, there are some new settings that should be — well, I’d rather say ‘recommended’ — added. For example, WordPress 2.5 introduced a new setting called SECRET_KEY. Read more about this new at Ryan Boren’s blog or WordPress Codex.

Do you have those setting in your wp-config.php? If not, it’s time to add it.

For the next release, there will be another new settings that can be added. So far, there will be WP_POST_REVISIONS. It’s related to Post Revisions feature that will be introduced in WordPress 2.6. Since I have taken the decision not to use that feature, I will turn this feature off for my coming upgrade. So, right now — I’m still using WordPress 2.5.1 — I added a setting to disable Post Revisions feature in my wp-config.php.

It’s always a good idea to have wp-config.php has the recommended settings, according to WordPress version we’re using. It’s never too late to fix your configuration file.

Set the order of WordPress Pages

Using WordPress, we can make non-post content easily. This non-post content is known as “Pages“. It is also easy to display the created pages, using wp_list_pages template tag. We can also manage the order of pages — when displayed in our blog — using sort_column argument inside wp_list_pages. For some people, it should be easy. But, can we do that in easier way? Yes, we can.

There is a plugin called My Page Order. It will help us reorganize our pages, especially when we have many pages. We can do it using drag-and-drop interface.

We can also manage the page order of sub-pages (if any). I use this plugin for my blog (using WordPress 2.5.1), and it looks good.

XML Sitemaps and All in One SEO Pack for WordPress

  • XML Sitemaps are available for WordPress.com-powered blogs. What all WordPress.com users need to do to get this feature? Well.. nothing. It’s already done automagically. (source)
  • All in One SEO Pack is not dead. Right now, it is compatilble with the latest stable release of WordPress (WP 2.5.1). If you heard about the news that it will not be developed anymore, we do not need to worry now. It has a new home.

WordPress 2.6 Features

The coming WordPress 2.6 (scheduled to be released on August 7th, 2008, or July 7th, 2008) will have more features. Most of you probably heard that about the probably-most-well-known Post Revisions feature. But, there are some other features that should be highlighted. Here are some of them I find (using WordPress from SVN, revision 8094):

Post Revisions

WP 2.6: Post Revisions

Using this, our WordPress will save a copy of our post everytime you edit it. We can take benefit when we want to revert our post. We can also compare or show diffs from two revisions. Wiki users should be familiar with this. This Post Revisions feature will be shipped and activated by default. If we think that we do not need this, we can deactivate it easily. Just add define('WP_POST_REVISIONS','0'); in our configuration file (wp-config.php). More info about Post Revisions.

Google Gears supports

WP 2.6: Google Gears support

Description from ticket #6965 tells about this:

First run. Support for Google Gears managed offline storage. The patch adds all static files used in the admin interface to a single offline storage. That speeds up page loading a lot, as it serves virtually all requests for static files from the computer’s HD instead of the network. So instead of 50-60 requests to the server on some pages, there are only 2-3.

There will be a new small link on the top-right navigation. It says “Speed up!“. Learn more about Google Gears.
Continue reading »

WordPress Upgrade: 1.5.2 to 2.5.1

Yesterday, I helped my client to upgrade some of her WordPress-powered blogs. When I ugpraded WordPress — mine, friends’ or clients’, I found it very easy; and the process run smoothly. The only difference — when I updated my client’s — was that it was a big-jump upgrades: from WordPress 1.5.2 to 2.5.1. I used the standard procedures: backup, backup and backup. Not only the databases, but also the core files. Luckily, my client does not have many plugins installed.

In short, all worked without problems. It took one simple click after uploading the new files — sweet!

TypePad AntiSpam Looks Great

After having TypePad AntiSpam installed in my blog, I noticed that it works very well. I had more than 240 spams filtered by this plugin. I’m satisfied with the result.

But, I decided to deactivate it, and go back to my previous spam protection tool: WP-SpamFree. It does not mean that TypePad AntiSpam is bad, it’s not about that. But, I just want to have those spammy comments get into my comment list (in my dashboard). I just want to have them blocked before they go into my comment post script. That’s all.

‘cannot yet handle MBCS in html_entity_decode’ error on WP-DownloadManager

I am currently working on a WordPress-powered site. One of its features is a download section. After comparing some WordPress plugins, I decided to use Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan‘s WP-DownloadManager.

When I use that plugin on WordPress 2.5.1, I got an error. It’s something like this:

Warning: cannot yet handle MBCS in html_entity_decode()! in /home/.../wp-downloadmanager.php on line 308

Is it a bug? It seems that I got this error message because this plugin needs PHP 5 (I still use PHP 4). Since many hosts having PHP 5-enabled (even it does not always installed as the default version), it should not be that difficult to solve this issue. All I need to do is making all .php files are treated as PHP 5 files. Okey, this is a straight forward solution: add a new line in your .htaccess file. You should find it in your WordPress directory, if not, just add this line:

AddType application/x-httpd-php5 .php

And, the problem solved.

Update: Put AddType application/x-httpd-php5 .php in the first line in .htaccess file. Here is mine:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

After that, create a new php file e.g. myphpinfo.php and include this line:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

This will display about PHP version (affected by .htaccess).

TypePad AntiSpam is here

typepad-antispam

Right, I have enabled TypePad AntiSpam plugin in this blog. It’s another antispam plugin created by Six Apart — a company behind blogging applications like Movable Type, TypePad, and VOX. I heard about this plugin few days ago, and it seemed promising, at least TechCrunch found it useful. :) Actually, I’m happy with my antispam plugin installed in my blog. Currently only have Akismet and WP-SpamFree (read my post about this). It works great, and I’m happy. WP-SpamFree has caught more than 2,100+ spams, and it seems Akismet does not need to do its job at all. Okey, it does but only a little — I only had less than 5 comments in moderation because WP-SpamFree thought that they’re not spam.

I’m curious about this new spam plugin. This plugin works for WordPress 2.3.x, 2.5.x, Movable Type, and Typepad (of course!); and it’s built based on WordPress Akismet plugin by Matt Mullenweg. The installation process is very straight forward. After having the API Key. Using WordPress, we can have API Key for our Akismet plugin by creating an account at WordPress.com. For TypePad AntiSpam plugin, we can get an API key by registering at TypeKey. The registration is free. Since I already had a Typekey account, it tooks few seconds to get my API key.

Continue reading »

WP-SpamFree, a great plugin to deal with blog spams

When I jumped to WordPress from Movable Type, my first must-have plugin was Akismet. Those who use WordPress must be familiar with this plugin. Besides Akismet, there are many plugins and methods available like Spam Karma, Defensio, Bad Behavior, and many more.

Then, I found another plugin besides Akismet. It’s WP-SpamFree (official site) And, it seems that it works much better than Akismet. When using Akismet, the spam comments (and trackbacks) are moderated, so they are there in our dashboard. WP-SpamFree has a different methods. It blocks the spammers before sending any information through comment post form (and trackback). And, I have to say that I almost have a zero spams in my dashboard. No more “x comments in moderation”.
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WordPress and My Blogging Productivity

After moving from Movable Type and WordPress, I feel that my blogging productivity is increasing. I mean, I have more posts this month. Yeah, probably it’s not about the engine. It’s probably about the spirit of blogging. But, for me… if I have to be honest, WordPress has its own role for me. How? Here are some factors:

  • Writing an entry should be easy. The point is getting an entry composing screen. How fast you can reach that screen? The word “fast” here is always closely related to some factors like internet connection, document size, etc. I feel that WordPress is a lightweight application (compared to Movable Type, for example). So, I do not have to wait longer to start typing.
  • Now, it’s time to write an entry. Using WordPress, I can do it easily. WordPress only offers two types of composing style (rich-editor and HTML mode). If I want to upload a picture, it’s not difficult at all. Well, I like the upload photo mechanism in the previous release. But, I am fine with the current schema.
  • Entry formatting! I like when I can have a good and clean HTML tags in my entry. When I write an entry in both visual or simple mode, I can always have a good HTML outputs.
  • I can use a desktop blogging tool. Rignt how, I use BlogDesk. And, related to the previous point. It just works. Period. When I insert a photo from my desktop publishing tool, it will be uploaded in the right place, without thinking whether it’s placed properly or not.

It has been a month. And, I feel comfortable.

WordPress 2.5.1 some nice plugins, Identicons and more

Oh My Grid, free WordPress Theme

Today, I released a WordPress theme. This theme is called Oh My Grid. I designed this theme based on theme I use for my blog. If you run WordPress 2.5, you should find no problems — if you found one, let me know so that I can fix it.

For more detail, go to Oh My Grid project page. (theme demo).

Cinila.com redesigned

My girl just redesigned her blog. Great job, La! Currently, her blog is running on WordPress 2.5.

WordPress MU Hosts

http://wpmuhosts.com is a list of sites powered by WordPress Multi-User, just in case you want other alternatives than wordpress.com. Currently there are more than 80 sites. You can add yours too if you want. (via)

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