Weblog Tools Collection » links

How Do You Do That?

James Dimick — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:55:08 +0000

Ever wanted to do something in WordPress but just wasn’t sure how? In my experience this happens quite often, mostly with people new to WordPress. But, even the experts run into trouble sometimes. Today I thought I’d start a series of posts which will aim to explain how to do certain things in WordPress. Hopefully this will cover anything from quick tips and simple little functions, all the way up to more complex custom code and the like. So, stick around and you just might learn something.

I think I’ll kick off the series with a couple simple ones…

Why isn’t this plugin working with my theme?

This is probably one of the most common issues I read about regarding WordPress. Sometimes even more experienced WPers can get this one wrong. Now, I’m not saying this is the solution to all problems between plugins and themes. Its just that this little bugger is often the culprit.

Try ensuring that your theme has wp_head() ?> somewhere inside the section of the document. Also, for that matter, make sure it has wp_footer() ?> somewhere in the foot of the document; Before the tag.

If your theme lacks these function calls many plugins that manipulate your theme will not be able to hook into the required areas. This can cause many headaches.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you may be better off having a coder buddy take a look at the theme for you. Or you can also contact the theme author, if the theme you use was created by someone else.
How come my URLs are yucky?

Or, “How come my URLs look like www.mysite.com?p=123 instead of www.mysite.com/my-sample-post/?”

This one is right up there with the previous question. I see it all the time. However, more and more web hosts these days support the “nice” URLs by default without requiring any extra effort. So, its just a matter of going into the WordPress control panel, changing your Permalink Settings and then saving. Unfortunately, we’re not all this lucky…

The first thing to try would be to contact your web host support and make sure they have whats known as mod_rewrite (or similar functionality) enabled on your account. If such functionality is not available on your web host, and you really need this feature, you may need to upgrade to a new host that does support it.

If your host does support it and has it enabled on your account, but it still doesn’t work, you can check that WordPress is able to write to the .htaccess file (which is where all the “nice” URL magic happens).

For WordPress, on Unix-based systems, the htaccess file should be “CHMODed” to at least 666. On Windows-based systems the procedure is a bit different. It can be different depending on your particular setup so I won’t go into that.

Basically, as was the case with the previous question, you may need to seek help to figure this out. If you don’t have a code buddy, get one! They are really great to have around. Just make sure you buy them a nice gift for their trouble.
Can I have a link to login to WordPress somewhere in my theme?

Sure! It’s actually easier than you might think…

Some themes have a link for that already. But, there are also some that seem to lack this obvious and simple feature. You can easily add this to any theme yourself. No need for any programming knowledge. Simply add wp_loginout() ?> somewhere in your theme and you’re done. Easy right?

Another nice function along the same lines is wp_register() ?>, which will show a link to your registration page (if your settings allow users to register), or a link to the WordPress control panel if you are already logged in.

Do note though that by default the link will be output wrapped inside
tags. This is so you can include the link in a list of other links, like a “meta” section. If, however, that is not how you want it to be output you can use the function like . That will simply output the link and nothing else.

An example of how to customize that is something like ', '
') ?>, which will output the link wrapped in its own paragraph. Just change the opening and closing tags in the function to make it output how you want. Dead simple!

That’s all for now… I hope it helps!

Do you have a question about WordPress? Want to see it answered here on Weblog Tools Collection? If so, please send us an E-Mail or drop a comment here. Your question just might be featured in the series!

Best Of WLTC Part 2

Jeff Chandler — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:11:06 +0000

This is part two in the best of WeblogToolsCollection.com series (view part one here). The following links are posts which were published during 2008. These posts range from special news articles, guides, tutorials, reviews, opinion pieces and more. We look forward to continue bringing you the best WordPress information from across the web and wish you and yours a very safe, happy new year.

July:

How many Queries are too many?

Evolution of WordPress: B2/Cafelog to WordPress 1.0

NEW WordPress Theme Directory

WordPress iPhone App Now Available

How to get featured in our Daily Releases

Features Planned for WordPress 2.7

August:

WordPress 2.7 Plugin Uninstall Methods

If, Then, Else

WP Plugin: “Where did they go from here” Updated

What Does the Blurb on Top of Plugins Link Mean?

Be Kind, Educate

Safest Way to Include Plugin Code in Themes

Stop Blaming The WordPress Team

Tackle Plugin Compatibility Issues While Using Popular Libraries

September:

First Look At WordPress 2.7

The Road To Automation

WordPress Weekly Is Back

Comment Spam with more Kung Fu?

WLTC Reader Survey Results

October:

Revolution Theme Going Open Source

Ian Stewart On Child Themes – Part 1

Ian Stewart On Child Themes – Part 2

Where Is That Settings Page?

Tutorial: Creating Custom Write Panels in WordPress

Moderate Comments From Your Desktop

Scary WordPress Moments

November:

Are your theme’s comments WordPress 2.7 compatible?

We’re Not Done Voting Yet

This time, it’s personal

Why 2.7 Is Not 3.0

Giving Thanks

Drupal 5.9 To WordPress 2.6

December:

Another WordPress Milestone

Enhanced WordPress Theme Generator

A Long Look Back

easyComment Firefox Extension

Mastering Your WordPress 2.7 Theme & Admin Area

2hr Interview With Matt Mullenweg

WordPress Forum User Guide

Best Of WLTC Part 1

Jeff Chandler — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:13:13 +0000

As most of us know, WordPress development happens at a record pace and trying to keep up with everything is a daunting task. However, the team here at WLTC does a great job filtering all of the WordPress related content on the web to bring the best to you. During the course of a year, this content adds up. Some of it being news posts, how-to guides, reviews, breaking news, etc. So, since it’s near the end of the year, I thought I would take a trip through the WLTC Archive and revisit come classic posts from 2008.

This series is broken up into two parts. The first part covers the months of January-June while part two takes care of July-December. When you browse through the links, let us know which one was your favorite or perhaps, which one has been the most helpful to you.

January:

Install WordPress Locally 1 Of 2

Install WordPress Locally – Part 2 Of 2

Uninstall – Is There Such A Thing?

WordPress Plugin Uninstall Tool

Uninstalling Conundrum Part 2

What Makes a WordPress Theme Premium?

Suggestions For Plugin Standards

Configuring WP Permalinks

Plugin Authors: Organize Bug Reports and Feature Requests Using the WordPress Plugin Repository

Mobile Phone optimized WordPress

WPTeX: WordPress to pdf ebook with LaTeX

What Is WordCamp?

February:

Trackbacks: Still Useful?

WordPress as a Contact Manager

Adding Your Plugin to WP Extend Plugins With a Mac

WordPress Lingo

ModSecurity, WordPress Admin and “Method Not Implemented”

WordPress 2.5 Demo Site

WP Plugin: Embedify

Printer Friendly Codex

New Twist on Premium WordPress Themes

Reformatting WordPress

Interview With WPThemerKit

March:

Gravatars and WordPress 2.5

Add WP Search Engines To FF

WordPress Theme Forecast

Who Comments on Blogs, and Why?

Managing Trackbacks and Pingbacks in Your WordPress Theme

Prepare For WP 2.5

Colorful Future For WP 2.5 Admin

Where You Download a Theme Matters

2.3 to 2.5 Database Changes

10 Plugins To Combat Comment Spam

WordPress 2.5 Released

April:

FAQ on WordPress 2.5

WordPress 2.5 Upgrade Guide(s)

Ultimate Guide to the WordPress Loop

May:

Create Your Own Admin Color Scheme

Error Management for WordPress Plugins

A Unique Monotone

Theme Designers And Print.CSS

15 Websites and,or Services I’d Actually Pay For

Chronological Order of Comments on a Post

Automattic Turns 21

How To: Avoid Duplicate Posts

24 Ways To Contribute To WordPress

Dashboard Widget Manager – Video Review

Removing Width/Height from the Image Uploader

Ajax Edit Comments Part Deux

June:

b10Gg3r$ aR3 DaNg3r0u$

31 People To Follow On Twitter

Plugin Deactivation Issues Solved With Actions and Filters

Comment Remix – Video Plugin Review

Hiding Advertisements For Single Posts

The Ownership Of Comments

All In One SEO Lives On

What is the simplest WordPress blog you’ve seen?

How to: Offsets and Paging

Comment License Made Easy

How Much Would You Pay?

3 Under Rated Plugins

What You Need To Know About WordPress 2.6

Part 2 will be published on Sunday, December 28th.

Shortcode Generator

Jeff Chandler — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:29:55 +0000

Julien of Webinventif has created a shortcode generator for WordPress. Shortcode is like BBcode in that it provides the ability to use shortcuts to execute a block of code, rather than having to write out the block of code time and time again. Julien has made use of the new API calls within WordPress and with his shortcode generator, makes it easy as 1,2,3 to create your own custom shortcode. Although everything has been written in French, this generator looks promising. If anyone could translate this generator into English, I think there would be many WordPresser’s who would be grateful.

Here is a screencast showcasing the generator in action.

Shortcode generator from WebInventif.fr on Vimeo

Configuring WP Permalinks

Jeff Chandler — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:41:02 +0000

Quite often, we hear of the terms (permalinks or pretty permalinks) which can also be called SEO-friendly URLs. These URLs are not only SEO friendly, but I believe they are human friendly as well. By default, WordPress uses URLs that look like a mishmash of letters and numbers with a few question marks mixed in for good measure. These types of links are frowned upon by search engine spiders and as a human being, they are also hard to read.

Fortunately, WordPress provides a way for us to change this linking structure to something understandable. WordPress calls these Permalinks. Permalink settings can be configured a number of different ways. One of the ways to quickly configure permalinks is by choosing one of the Common Options. These common options include:

Default – http://www.domain.com/?p=123

Date and name based – http://www.domain.com/2008/01/15/sample-post/

Numeric – http://www.domain.com/archives/123

There is no sense in using the default option so choose either Date and name based or Numeric if you don’t feel like tinkering with the Custom Structure.

The custom structure of the permalinks settings area allows you to customize the way permalinks are displayed by using any combination of the following permalink tags.

%year% – 4-digit year (for example, 2008)

%monthnum% – 2-digit month (for example, 01 for January)

%day% – 2-digit day (for example, 15)

%hour% – 2-digit hour of the day (for example, 20 for 10PM)

%minute% – 2-digit minute (for example, 50)

%second% – 2-digit second (for example, 24)

%postname% – Text separated by dashes which usually ends up being the post name. (for example, configuring-wp-permalinks)

%post_id% – The unique, numerical ID of the post (for example, 124)

%category% - The text of the category name that the post is filed in (for example, how-to)

%author% – Text of the post author’s name (for example, ronald-huereca)

Example of custom structure in use:

Custom Structure: /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/

Link Output: http://www.domain.com/2008/01/16/

Make sure that you include the back slashes at the beginning of the custom structure, after each tag and at the end. This will ensure that WordPress writes the correct rules in the .htaccess file via mod_rewrite.

For my own blog, I seem to have done fairly well in the search engines by using the Custom Structure method and using the %postname% tag. I can’t say for sure which combination would do better or worst for search engines. The only thing I can suggest is that you configure your permalinks to look whats best for you.

WARNING

Changing the structure of your permalinks affects all of the permalinks on your blog. This is important to know because search engines will have indexed posts on your site via their permalinks. If you change the permalink structure mid stream, you will end up invalidating all of those links.

What to do if you don’t have a .htaccess file?

If you notice that you don’t have a .htaccess file within the same directory as your WordPress installation, you can create one by first creating a blank .txt file and saving the file as htaccess.txt. Upload this file via FTP to the same folder that houses your WordPress installation. Once the file is uploaded, set the permissions to the file as 666. Next, rename the file to .htaccess. Now you should have a blank .htaccess file for which WordPress can write the proper permalink rules to.

Servers That Don’t Use Apache Or mod_rewrite.

If the webhosting server you are on does not have the apache module mod_rewrite enabled, you can still use the permalink settings in WordPress by placing index.php in front of any custom permalink tags.

For example: /index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/

Equals: http://www.domain.com/index.php/2008/01/16/

Using index.php in this way eliminates the need for a .htaccess file.

I hope this little primer on how to configure your permalinks within WordPress was helpful. I’ve seen too many blogs out on the net that have yet to take advantage of this awesome feature. As I’ve said before, using any sort of permalink structure is better than the WP default. Not only is it beneficial in terms of SEO, but it also makes it easier for human beings to see at a glance, what a particular link is pointing to without having to visit the page.

If you use the custom structure aspect of permalinks, I’d be very interested in knowing which configuration of permalink tags you have chosen to use and why.

Weblog Tools Collection » links

How Do You Do That?

Why isn’t this plugin working with my theme?

How come my URLs are yucky?

Can I have a link to login to WordPress somewhere in my theme?

Best Of WLTC Part 2

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:

Best Of WLTC Part 1

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

Shortcode Generator

Configuring WP Permalinks

*WARNING*

What to do if you don’t have a .htaccess file?

Servers That Don’t Use Apache Or mod_rewrite.

WARNING