WordPress 2.8.5

WordPress 2.8.5 was released last night. Updates were mainly for security reasons:

• A fix for the Trackback Denial-of-Service attack that is currently being seen.
• Removal of areas within the code where php code in variables was evaluated.
• Switched the file upload functionality to be whitelisted for all users including Admins.
• Retiring of the two importers of Tag data from old plugins.

Also, if you think you may have been hit with one of the recent exploits, WordPress suggests you take a look at the WordPress Exploit Scanner plugin. Read more about the latest release here.

I updated all of my blogs today with no problems, and suggest you should to asap. Be sure to make a backup of your database as a safety precaution.

if $IE

I was working on a web project and I usually start with Firefox to test things. Then Safari, Chrome, and then IE. By the time I got to IE, I noticed that my hard work was just not viewable. Argh. So I tweeted out:

function browserCh() 
{ 
     $a = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']; 
     $IE = ((eregi("MSIE",$a) || eregi("Microsoft",$a)))==1; 

     if($IE) 
        return 'Bad Browser!';
}

I got a laugh at some of the responses.. :)

@honging : daynah, i prefer: <style type="text/css">* html body { display: none; }</style> ;)

@j_holtslander: @daynah that was kinda hot. LOL.

@robflynn43: @daynah Haha, browserCh() made me happy. You win a high five, redeemable any time you see me. =)

@ialexs@daynah :D (re: bad browser)

Embedding YouTube videos in WordPress MU

After working with WordPress Mu, I found that I was unable to embed YouTube videos into a post. Instead, WordPress MU would strip my content out without any warning. After surfing around, I found the solution here:
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WordPress Plugins for Portfolios

WordPress is a great tool you can use to build a web portfolio. Since a portfolio may have more “static pages” as opposed to blog posts, you will find yourself using the “add a new page” feature more often. I found some nice WordPress plugins that may help you organize your portfolio better.

I’m going to assume that you already know how to install and use WordPress. If not, see this great “New to WordPress – Where to Start” guide first.

• Breadcrumb NavXT add breadcrumb links at the top of your posts. To use, you need to add in a short snippet of code in your ‘page.php’ template. (Sample – See Home > Portfolio > Photography)
• List Pages Shortcode allows you to use a nice shortcode in a page and display all of its child pages. For example, adding [child-pages sort_column="post_title"] to a page will list all the child pages of the parent page. (Sample)
• Recently Updated Posts displays the last blog posts and pages you updated. It’s pretty handy since static pages need to be updates all the time. (Sample – see recently updated)
• WP Lightbox 2 displays your graphics/photography in a nice lightbox. (Sample)
• WordPress Database Backup is an easy-to-use on-demand database backup script. Since all your changes are stored in a database and not physical files, being able to back them up periodically is a good idea.

After downloading a plugin, unzip the file, and upload the content into the /wp-content/plugins/ folder of your WordPress installation. These plugins were pretty easy to install, but please read the README files first.

WordPress and these plugins should help you get your web portfolio up in no time. Be sure to check WordPress.org for more plugins.

Web Design Volume 4

I was at Costco and glanced at their magazine selection. My eyes quickly passed by all the celebrity gossip magazines and when I saw Web Design Volume 4 I quickly jumped for joy. I browsed through a few pages, and knew I definitely had to have it. There’s lots of great tips on web design and awesome step-by-step tutorials. I highly recommend getting this. I’m really enjoying the section that talks about WordPress and its history. It just brought back so many memories of my early blogging/web designing days. Michel V and b2 were mentioned in this article. Yup, that’s how WordPress all started. ;)

This bookazine is $29.99, but with a Costco membership, it’s $21.99. Enjoy!

Wordcamp SF 2009

I’m so excited to be attending Wordcamp SF for the first time! I’ve been using WordPress way before it was even WordPress and the evolution of the software has been amazing to watch all these years.

It was originally written by Michel V and called b2 (then cafelog). I use to help him beta new versions of b2. Michel moved onto new projects and stopped developing b2, and that’s when Matt Mullenweg stepped in. WordPress has come such a long way. To me it’s like watching a child grow up!

I hope to see you at Wordcamp SF 2009! It’s on Saturday, May 30th. And I will most likely organize a Tweetup the night before, so keep an eye out. :)

WordCamp San Francisco is a conference organized by the creators of WordPress for our users and developers. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. The event is open to WordPress.com & WordPress.org users alike.

Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word at PodCamp Hawaii

I was out today, so I missed all the sessions from Podcamp Hawaii! So I’m trying to catch up, starting with Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word session. I really love hearing about WordPress news.

Stream videos at Ustream

What I’m really excited about is WordPress 2.7, Automatic Updates, and BuddyPress! Check out the session, it’s very interesting.

WordPress 2.6.2

WordPress 2.6.2 is out. There are security updates fixing the dangers of SQL Column Truncation and the weakness of mt_rand(). For a full list of bug fixes, go here.

WordPress Visual Editor

Wow, my name was mentioned on The Neal Show! Thanks Jeff! Thanks Neal!

As for the media upload problem, it may be the Visual Editor breaking the code. I remember embedding a flash video once and my post just kept breaking every time I edited it. I ended up turning the Visual Editor off so I can paste HTML code without the editor changing it.

If you’re still running a WordPress version older than 2.5, you can turn off the visual editor by doing this:

• Go to the “Users” tab, and find your author (usually ‘admin’).
• Click on “Edit.”
• Uncheck “Use the visual editor when writing. (See image above.)
• Click on “Update User”

This will then give you only the basic buttons when editing.

WordPress Image/Media Uploader Error

I just upgraded to WordPress. 2.5.1. But I can’t seem to get the WordPress Image Uploader to work at all. I keep getting this error in both version 2.5 and 2.5.1:

And it doesn’t look like I’m the only one either!

I’ve tried all the fixes, but only one worked for me. I ended up removing the flash uploader entirely. If you’d like to do that also, try this.

1. Download this No-Flash-Uploader plugin.
2. Upload it to your plugin’s directory
3. Activate the plugin.

And now you should be able to upload images. Worked like a charm. No use making a simple process harder. ;) You can only upload one image at a time anyhow.

Now that this is sorta fixed, I’ll start updating all of my blogs!

Jeff’s tweet motivated me to get to the bottom of this. ;)

Mysql: Comments in Fields

I never really noticed that you could create comments in your mySQL fields until now. My co-worker recently upgraded one of the web servers to have phpMyAdmin – 2.11.5.1, and the forms made the “comment” field more visible to me.

Below is a very basic table for “locations.” This simple table is for demonstration purposes only. ;)

Click on the image for a zoomed in view.
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WordPress 2.5 Released

Yay! WordPress 2.5 is out! Go updated! :) I will have to do that later today. :) Their new website design is very nifty too!

WordPress 2.5 RC2

WordPress 2.5 RC2 is coming! Check out the video about the new features! I love the cleaner new look.

WordPress 2.5

WordPress 2.5 looks great! I can’t wait until it’s released.

WordPress 2.3 Beta 1

WordPress 2.3 Beta 1 is out, but is only recommended to advanced users. It’s a rough version and extensive testing will be needed.

SYLK Error

Ok, I found the answer to my annoying problem.

I generated an Excel file using PHP and populated the cells with data from Mysql. The first few times worked fine, and then I started to make the Excel file ‘pretty.’ I added headers to the top, and the first field was called ‘ID’ for the id number.

Then I started getting this strange “SYLK: File format is not valid” error.

I found this which explained that if a CSV file starts with an upper case “I” or “D,” this error will occur. So I changed my header to ‘id’ and that fixed the problem!

WordPress 2.2.1

How funny… I just finished upgrading all my blogs to WP 2.2 a few days ago, and now WP 2.2.1 is out. heh

WordPress 2.2.1 is now available. 2.2.1 is a bug fix release for the 2.2 series. Since 2.2 was released a month ago, the WordPress community has been improving fit-and-finish by identifying and fixing those little bugs that can be so annoying and by fine-tuning some small details. The result is a nicely polished 2.2.1 release. The full list of bugs fixed in 2.2.1 is available here. Here are some highlights.

Full Code Press

Now this is my type of Olympics! I found a website called Full Code Press which is a competition to buy a website within 24 hours. Pretty neat.

What is FullCodePress?

It’s a geek Olympics! Web teams take each other on to build a complete website for a non-profit organization in 24 hours. No excuses, no extensions, no budget overruns.

BlogRovr

I found this great website a few days ago called BlogRovr.

BlogRovr is the perfect companion for blog reading. Tell Rovr which blogs you like. From then on, as you browse, Rovr fetches from them stories that link to the what you’re browsing and shows them to you right on the page.

It’s pretty neat, especially since I don’t have too much time to browse all the blogs I’m interested in. It also allows your to import your list of blogs via OPML file. So I exported all my blogs from my Google Reader, and imported it into my BlogRovr. :D Try it out and let me know if you like it.

WordPress Plugin: WP-DB-Backup

WP-DB-Backup is one plugin you should get for your WordPress blog. It allows you to back up your blog database easily with just one click.

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