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At approximately 19:38:33 on December 1, 2008 Ryan Boren became the owner of the 10,000th changeset to the WordPress code. This particular code set change was a re-ordering of font families for Windows font selection that was initially patched by Matt Thomas. There has been a discussion taking place within the WP-Testers mailing list that the Bitstream font is horrible and that it needed to be replaced by Verdana. Looks like they received their wish.
By the way, the first Changeset to appear since the WordPress team began using Trac happened on April 1, 2003 (6 years ago). The changeset involved a new respository initialized by cvs2svn and the author is anonymous.
cvs2svn is a program that can be used to migrate a CVS repository to Subversion (otherwise known as “SVN”) or git. Documentation:
A hearty congratulations goes out to not only the core development team, but to all those who have submitted patches that in turn were committed to the core.
For quite awhile now, I’ve been monitoring a specific blog post from May 15th, 2007 which is a tutorial on how to migrate from Drupal 5 to WordPress 2. Many things have changed since then between both pieces of software and thus, the scripts provided on the site will not work.
Every now and then, someone publishes a comment that contains a link to an updated version of the script to work with newer versions of Drupal and WordPress. DovDox is the latest blog to publish an updated portion of the script albeit with a caveat.
Taking my usual hacksaw-and-duct-tape approach, I simply deleted the portions that didn’t work. That means my version moved all of the posts and comments to the new blog, but didn’t preserve any of their categories. Drupal’s ridiculous “taxonomy” system just isn’t easy to map onto Wordpress’s much more rational categories and tags, and in any case the hard part of the move was getting the posts and comments over.
DovDox takes the script and makes it so that the content and comments are transfered between a Drupal 5.9 installation into a WordPress 2.6 install but due to the taxonomy system, categories are not migrated. If you choose to use the script provided by DovDox, be aware that it may cause a loss of data so be sure to back up everything before you do anything.
I wanted to put the call out to the community to see if anyone knew of a script or an individual that is consitently producing a migration script to move from Drupal to WordPress. If so, I’ll edit this post and add those resources to the bottom. I’ll also try to place those resources in the WordPress Codex.
Episode 31 of WordPress Weekly featured a special 1 hour 26 minute interview with none other than Lisa Sabin Wilson, the author of WordPress For Dummies. Keith and I grilled Lisa on the topics of:
Writing a book for a piece of software which has an extremely fast development cycle
How different versions affect the publishing of the book
WordPress For Dummies The Second Edition
Lisa’s thoughts on WordPress 2.7
Lisa’s explanation on permalinks and slugs
Lisa’s take on premium themes versus free themes
much, much, more.
Keith and I really enjoyed our time with Lisa and wish her the best for the second edition of WordPress For Dummies.
Announcements: The two lucky recipients who will each receive a signed copy of WordPess For Dummies 2nd Edition are Chris Thompson and Lenire.
Here in the states, it is Thanksgiving. The time of year when most stop to think about what it is they are thankful for. In keeping with that tradition, I wanted to give my thanks to the WordPress development team but the thanks doesn’t end there. I also pass on my thanks to each and every one of you who have contributed code to the WordPress project. I’m no coder and I appreciate those who are to help guide me around the more interesting parts of WordPress. A very special thanks goes out to plugin and theme developers. You folks really enable end users to take WordPress up to the next level. I would also like to give thanks and recognize those who cover WordPress within the community. These are sites which keep users informed, provide great information, and increase the end users knowledge of what this piece of software is capable of doing. Each time I go to work on the weekend, I remind myself how thankful I am to those who produce podcasts centered around WordPress. Without these podcasts, my 9PM - 5AM shift would be extremely boring.
Despite everything that is going on within the world of content publishing, the fact remains that WordPress is still the easiest way to publish content onto the web. For that alone, I think is worthy of being thankful.
If you feel thankful for WordPress or any aspect of the project, join in the tradition of giving thanks by means of commenting. Tell us what it is your thankful for as it relates to WordPress.
This Friday at 8PM EST on WordPress Weekly, our special one hour guest will be Lisa Sabin Wilson who is the author of the book, WordPress For Dummies. During the show, we plan on discussing how hard it is to write about a piece of software that moves 100mph in print format, Lisa’s background in web design and what it is like to theme for WordPress, WordPress For Dummies The Second Edition and much more.
This Thursday is Thanksgiving here in the states. On Friday, I want to give my thanks to those of you who continue to show your support while telling your friends about the show and downloading it on a regular basis. On Friday, we will be giving away two signed copies of WordPress For Dummies 2nd Edition. Lisa will sign the copies and ship them once the new edition has been published. So how will we give these away?
One book will be given away to a lucky caller while the other copy will be given away to a lucky recipient in the chat room. So be sure to join us live this Friday, for a fun filled discussion related to the book as well as WordPress. (Special thanks to Lisa for donating the two signed copies.)
Keith, Andrew, Jacob and I discussed the news of the week. In fact, I tried to break the world record by opening up as many cans of worms as possible within a 60 minute period. You’ll have to listen to the show to hear if I was successful.
Ad Copy:
WordPress Weekly is brought to you by the fine advertisers on WeblogToolsCollection.com. Without their continued support, this show would not be possible. If you are interested in advertising on WordPress Weekly, please contact me at wpweekly at gmail dot com..
We encourage you to leave a comment whether it be feedback, questions, rants, or corrections then tune in and see if your comment made it on the air! To send us feedback via email, conect us at wpweekly at gmail dot com.
Plugin Of The Week:
Jeff -WPTuner – WP Tuner for WordPress is a powerful and easy way to answer hard questions about why your blog is slow or cranky. What’s causing the slowdown? Is it a plugin? Is it your host? This plugin will help you find out. Used with a bit of common sense, this powerful plugin helps blog administrators as well as software developers improve their WordPress blog performance - One caveat with this particular plugin is that it’s not for the faint of heart. While I was able to understand what the plugin was showing me, it may not be that obvious to you. Be sure to read the plugins readme file and the associated help documents before using it.
Keith -Comment Approval Notification - This WordPress plugin will send an email to comment authors once their held-for-moderation comment is approved.
The WolfHound Segment:
Bill needs some help working with WordPress. He came away from WordCamp Dallas excited to use the software but has run into a few roadblocks and thus, needs our help. So to help Bill out, we have created the WolfHound segment because we know that not everything we cover on the show is addressed to a specific audience. I’ve been told numerous times by new comers who listen to the show that the content flies over their head. If this sounds familiar, this segment is for you.
The Short History Of The Blog And Near Term Goals:
Here is a quick history of Bills blog. - Installed a late 1.x version and have been updating along the way and experimenting with themes. Just recently I finally installed Akismet after I starting get hit with spam. Being that I still considered it to be “in work” I never really let the world know it was out there. I guess you could say that I have two sets of goals. One being near term and the other long term.
First, the near term goals.
1) Get my logo to work on my chosen theme (Chameleon 1.0 by Ainslie Johnson)
2) Only have most recent articles (2 max) appear on front page
3) Settle on what should be considered “must-have” plug-ins
Listen to the show to hear our responses. If you disagree and feel you can help Bill out better than we did, leave a comment with your tips and suggestions.
Announcements:Lisa Sabin Wilson, Author of the WordPress For Dummies book is scheduled to appear on November 28th.
WPWeekly Meta:
Next Episode: Friday November 28th, 2008 8P.M. EST
Over the past few weeks, I’ve witnessed many discussions throughout the WordPress community pertaining to the version number of WordPress. Many think that because of the reworked user interface and the large number of features that this version (2.7) will contain, this should allow the software to be bumped up to version 3.0
I asked the WP-Testers mailing list to see if I could get a word from either Ryan or Matt to tell me if 2.7 would remain or if it would be bumped up to 3.0. Jane Wells chimed in saying that Matt doesn’t want to skip version numbers anymore, and that there will be ten increments between integers, so 2.9 > 3.0, not 2.9 > 2.10. Yes, 2.7 is a major change, but the numbers are based on timing, not volume or significance of change.
So there you have it. WordPress 2.7 will be, WordPress 2.7. 2.8 will arrive then 2.9 then 3.0 etc. The feature set has no context when giving it a version number label.
While were on the topic of version numbers, it’s important to note that typically, versions such as 2.7, 2.8 are major releases that usually contain new features or UI improvements. The incremental releases e.g. 2.7.1, 2.7.2 usually contain bug fixes as well as security patches. One last thing to note regarding version numbers. Each major release of WordPress is named after jazz musicians the team admires.
I hope this clears up some of the confusion regarding WordPress versioning.
Instapundit which is one of the most highly trafficked political blogs on the net recently confirmed that they have switched from Movable Type to WordPress. The site doesn’t appear to be hosted on the WordPress.com VIP network but instead, is using a self hosted install of WordPress 2.6.3. Hat Tip to Doug Stewart. (10)
Keith, Andrew, Mark and I discussed the news of the week. With guest contributions to the show, we went in-depth on a number of topics including the icon survey and much more. Don’t forget to tune in to hear our plugin picks of the week. Come back next week for more action packed WordPress discussions!
Ad Copy:
WordPress Weekly is brought to you by the fine advertisers on WeblogToolsCollection.com. Without their continued support, this show would not be possible. If you are interested in advertising on WordPress Weekly, please contact me at wpweekly at gmail dot com..
We encourage you to leave a comment whether it be feedback, questions, rants, or corrections then tune in and see if your comment made it on the air! To send us feedback via email, conect us at wpweekly at gmail dot com. In this weeks episode, we covered a comment that was submitted to the blog on a previous episode. We also answer a listener question regarding how to let visitors submit stories to a website without being a registered user.
Plugin Of The Week:
Jeff -WP Advanced Code Editor – Integrates the EasyArea advanced code editor into WordPress. This adds real time syntax highlighting, line numbering, full screen editing, and more to the code editor to the “Add New Post” and “Add New Page” screens. After installation, make sure that the WYSIWYG editor is disabled. WP Advanced Code Editor is not compatible with the WYSIWYG editor. The entire syntax code editor (called EasyArea) was written entirely by Christophe Dolivet.
Keith -Ultimage Google Analytics - Automatically enables the use of GoogleAnalytics’ urchin tracking technology to pull together web stats
WordPress Job Of The Week:
Job published on November 12th 2008. The job description is as follows:
Hello, My name is Dave and I write a pop culture blog called NineDaves.com, out of the NYC area (Flatiron District). My server is Yahoo, and I’ve been with WordPress since I started the blog in July 2008. Since then, I’ve had the same WordPress version. I’m interested in upgrading to a more current version, but I’m nervous. Despite the fact that WordPRess offers detailed “how to’s,” I’m still worried that I don’t understand things properly. Rather than have someone just do it for me, I would like a WordPress expert to teach me to fish.
So - would you be interested in showing me how to upgrade my WordPress before I mess something up and lose all my work? I’d prefer someone to meet me in person and show me how to do it, so if you live in the NYC area, that’s perfect! If not, I can set up a WebEx and phone call.
John Kolbert of Techlyzer has produced a great screencast explaining how to create the collapsible and movable option boxes within the WordPress 2.7 write new page/post screens. The tutorial starts off by creating a dummy plugin which you then add functions to which give it the draggable/collapsible options within the Administration panel. John provides a sample plugin to use as well as a link to the article on the Codex that explains the add_meta_box function.
This tutorial is mainly for those aspiring plugin authors as well as for those who would like to add this type of functionality to their own plugin. John should rename this video to add_meta_boxes explained in plain English because even I understood and learned a thing or two. Final though is that I would absolutely love to see more screencasts like these in the future and have them embedded into their respective Codex articles. How cool would that be?
Even though WordPress works pretty well out of the box, there is still a number of optimization tips that can be accomplished to make WordPress function that much better. Vladimir Prelovac has done an excellent job describing ten optimization tips that you can use on your own WordPress installation. The tips and techniques range from optimizing database tables to implementing caching. There should be at least one or two tips within this article that everyone can implement on their own blog.
Here is a sample for you to chew on:
Tip #1: If you are expecting a Digg Front Page you are likely to exceed your current limit of maximum concurrent MySQL connections which is among the prime reasons a site failing a Digg traffic spike.
You can prepare by increasing this number to about 250 using this line in the config file.
Will the Core Update feature in WordPress 2.7 work on your webhosting account? One way to find out is to view the new article in the Codex entitled “Core Update Host Compatibility“. This article serves as a central location to discover whether or not the Core Update feature works with a specific web hosting company. The article is divided up into three sections and lists webhosting companies in alphabetical order:
Working Hosts, No Issues
Works With Caveats
Doesn’t Work
Keep in mind that:
It is important to note that the update feature will not work when updating to Version 2.7, but rather will work for Versions released AFTER 2.7 (e.g. upgrading from 2.7 to 2.7.1)!
If you discover during the beta test period that the core update feature works on your webhosting account, please add the company to the Codex article within the appropriate section.
As you can probably tell from the title, this episode features quite a bit of discussion surrounding WordPress 2.7. Not to worry though as there are plenty of other things that Keith and I discuss such as our favorite feature in WordPress 2.7 Beta 1, the WordPress showcase, whether or not Drupal can beat WordPress, and near the end of the show, Anthony Cole called in and gave us the 411 on WordCamp Australia which is taking place on November 29th and November 30th.
Ad Copy:
WordPress Weekly is brought to you by the fine advertisers on WeblogToolsCollection.com. Without their continued support, this show would not be possible. Those of you who continue to download the show and share it with friends, your continued support is appreciated. If you are interested in advertising on WordPress Weekly, please contact Mark Ghosh via this contact form.
We encourage you to leave a comment whether it be feedback, questions, rants, or corrections then tune in and see if your comment made it on the air!
Plugin Of The Week:
Jeff -Custom Permalinks – Custom Permalinks is a Wordpress plugin that gives you ultimate control over your site structure. Lay out your site the way you want it. Set the URL of any post, tag or category to anything you want. Old permalinks will redirect properly to the new address.
Keith -Feed Entry Header - FeedEntryHeader provides you the ability to protect your content online. Many of us have had the experience of seeing our content posted mysteriously on someone else’s website word-for-word. It usually happens by having someone grab content from your RSS feed and slap it into their blog. (Bloody splogs!) This plugin provides you the ability to customize a header to be placed at the start of each article in your feed to help ensure that sploggers are pointed out, and links back to your original post are included in the splog’s repost.
WordPress Job Of The Week:
Job was posted on October 30th, 2008 by Mark Ghosh. The job description is as follows:
We are looking for a web and graphics designer for a popular blog. Ideal candidates include artists and designers with experience in working on WordPress, who have a fair amount of experience in designing graphics with a flair for modern colors and styles and the ability to conceptualize and produce web experiences from the ground up. Experience with SEO, web usability, semantics and
ethical and effective marketing also required. PHP programming experience not as important. If you want to work with us, you need to wow us with your portfolio. Individuals and design houses welcome. Our promise is to give you the ability to flex your design muscles, provide outlets for your creativity and a lot of exposure for your work. If we like your work, we will get back with you and talk about costs and timelines under NDA.
If interested please contact mark at wltc dot net
WPWeekly Meta:
Next Episode: Friday November 14th, 2008 8P.M. EST
While the U.S. Presidential election has come and gone, there are still plenty of things to vote for such as WordPress Ideas. WordPress Ideas is used as a central location where users of WordPress from all across the world share their ideas on how to improve the software, plugins to integrate, etc. At this time, the idea of Easy Updating Of WordPress leads the pack with 910 votes and a rating of five stars. As it turns out, this will be one of the features in WordPress 2.7 known as Core Upgrade. Next on the list is Open ID Integration. Although there are plenty of plugins that easily provide this functionality, considering the amount of steam the idea has, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in a future version of WordPress.
In order to participate in the WordPress idea center, you must have a WordPress.org user account. This will enable you to create ideas, rate ideas and comment on ideas that have already been submitted.
Examples of ideas that have been implemented into the core of WordPress:
So while many within the WordPress community may think that they have no voice concerning the direction in which WordPress is heading, that thought couldn’t be farther from the truth. The fact of the matter is, you do have a voice. Ultimately, the decision is up to the team on whether or not to include an idea into the core of WordPress, but with a grassroots effort, you can easily make your idea known.
Normally, we usually keep a maximum of two posts a day that are published on WeblogTooolsCollection as a means of keeping your dashboard from being overcome by us. However, considering that the following security bulletin has been published concerning the plugin (WP Comment Remix) and it won the WeblogToolsCollection plugin competition, I felt it was important to pass along this security bulletin to you.
According to the bulletin that was published by Chxsecurity.org version 1.4.3 contains the following vulnerabilities:
SQL Injection: caused by unsanitized variable “p” in the ajax_comments.php file.
Cross Site Scripting: This affects authenticated and unauthenticated users.
Cross Site Request Forgery: the form generated through wpcr_do_options_page lacks the WordPress wp_nonce security function.
These vulnerabilities are considered HIGH risks however, the latest version (1.4.4) apparently addresses these issues. If you are using this plugin on your blog, be sure to upgrade it to the latest version.
Episode 31 of WordPress Weekly featured a special 1 hour 26 minute interview with none other than 
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