Category: WordPress

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Beginning A New Project

Although I have been considering this idea for some time I only just recently started putting code to (digital) paper on a new project … and, yes, it is WordPress related. What can I say? I really enjoy working with the platform.

Now, the reasons I am writing this here:

  • I am still available for other projects … just letting everyone know this one is important, too.
  • I am approaching this project from an entirely new view point
  • I know this will be good for the community
  • I know this will be good for myself

Once I am satisfied most of the features are working in a stable alpha-code state I will be looking for some adventurous individuals …

… but, what is this new project?! Stay tuned for more information.

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WordCamp Toronto 2011

It’s Official!

WordCamp Toronto 2011 is now listed at WordCamp Central!

We have a date: November 5 & 6, 2011

We have a venue: George Brown College

We need sponsors! We need speakers! We need volunteers!

Most of all we want you to come out and enjoy a great WordCamp and learn more about WordPress and the Toronto WordPress community … and remember, even if you have never heard of WordPress before, you are more than welcome to come out and enjoy the time with us.

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WordPress 3.2-beta1

I saw the wpdevel announcement in my email this morning and also in the news block in the Administration Panels of the sites I check every morning.; and, as per my usual routine, I jumped right into upgrading to this latest nightly version.

Here is an excerpt from the official post on dot-org announcing this release:

It seems like just yesterday that we released WordPress 3.1, but it’s actually been almost three months. We’ve spent that time putting together a new release focused on performance improvements, and are ready for our first beta testers!

As always, this is software still in development and we don’t recommend that you run it on a production site — set up a test site just to play with the new version. If you break it (find a bug), please report it, and if you’re a developer, try to help us fix it.

One of the big items in WordPress 3.2 is the “fullscreen” editor for writing posts and pages … and I have to admit that I was not really expecting to make use of it, but as I write this post as a trial-run I am quite impressed! Kudos to the developers on this new feature. It may take some getting used to but I think it has a great deal of potential.

If you would like to update your WordPress self-hosted web site to the latest nightly build and help out with the testing, or simply just have some fun with the new features, please take a moment to read the article I wrote here for reference.

To make this specific to this latest version you will have to make a small modification to the the process, it’s very simple:

  1. Open the /wp-includes/version.php file in core to edit.*
  2. Change (~ line 25) $wp_version = '3.2-alpha';
  3. Go to your Administration Panel of your WordPress installation.
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “stay updated” link in the bottom-right corner. (Refresh the page if the link is not there.)

Enjoy!

To see the Nota Bene click here.Nota Bene
* This is one of the very few and extremely rare instances where I would ever suggest editing a core WordPress file. I do not recommend this for anyone that is not familiar with how to make a correct back-up of their installation; and, how to re-install WordPress if the world falls in on their heads.
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Add WordPress Required Version and Tested Up To Version

I just made my second submission to the WordPress Core Trac with the summary above. Here is a link to the new ticket #16868 … and here is the description:

The premise of this idea is for Theme authors to be able to add a reference to the version of WordPress their Theme requires to work correctly; and, the version of WordPress the Theme has been tested up to. This idea comes from the the plugin readme.txt file and some of the data that is expected to be found there.

Once implemented, further enhancements to the Appearance tab in the Administration Panels can be added to better inform end-users on the compatibility of the Theme with their current WordPress installation.

This is essentially an extension of my previously submitted ticket #16395 to “Add ‘Template Version’ for use with ‘Template’ in Child-Themes” I wrote about here.

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Submitted My First Patch

There has been some recent discussions on the Make.WordPress.org/Themes site dealing with the inclusion of Child-Themes in the WordPress.org Extend Theme repository.

Amongst the suggestions and discussion is the idea of adding a Template Version to reference the version of the Parent-Theme for which the Child-Theme has been confirmed to work with by its author.

This struck me as an opportunity to have a look in core to see if this was being addressed; or, if I could offer a patch to address the idea. Several searches under various different criteria for this idea yielded no results … I didn’t expect any.

So, I proceeded to write and submit the patch. You can read the Trac ticket here: #16395

I believe this will be a useful piece of information that can be added to the style.css header block, if accepted.

Now it’s just a matter of time … what are your thoughts? Feel free to add them here for my patch idea; or, join the discussions on the “Make” site.

Make.WordPress.org/Themes
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WordPress 3.1 beta2

Are we there yet? Almost.

Although reportedly three weeks behind schedule I am confident in updating to the lastest beta version of WordPress 3.1 (as of a few minutes ago).

Also to note, as much as I prefer the HTML tag of the editor, this post was written in theVisual tab to make use of one of the newest features allowing for easier internal linking to previously written content. So, if you are interested in upgrading to the latest beta as well, have a read of my earlier post here.

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Why Free Plugins

I write plugins for many reasons. Sometimes there is a need; sometimes it’s a Mallory-Everest exercise but every time it is with the full intention of releasing the plugin to the WordPress Extend repository. Currently I have eight plugins freely available and hosted at WordPress, and one more (which is a minor modification of another author’s plugin) hosted at BuyNowShop.com.

Although my schedule has been filled with my WordPress Theme Review Team activities of late, I still make every effort to maintain the plugins in the repository at a “current” level relevant to the current stable release of WordPress itself. I also make every effort to insure the plugins are relatively future-proof so I do not have to drop everything to update them with each new release.

I also work with feedback from end-users to add additional functionality as well. If I feel the new functionality would have widespread appeal then I add it to the plugin’s TO-DO list; if it seems unique or what I expect to be a rarely implemented idea I will suggest the end-user attempt to modify the plugin (sometimes with the necessary code changes as well); or, I may offer to make the modifications for a fee. This of course is also dependent on the end-user’s request and where they want to implement the plugin … I have been known to provide my services pro-bono if the cause is right.

I have received some donations related to my works, both themes and plugins, and I find it to be a great reward. I don’t look at the monetary value; I look at it as a reward of recognition. A donation tells me someone liked one of my plugins (or themes) well enough to express their gratitude with their hard-earned money. A simple thank-you comment or email is great, but I recognize and appreciate the extra efforts it takes to give monies, or other gifts, too.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the people that have made donations, both to myself and to all the other designers and developers that keep the lifeblood of WordPress flowing.

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WordPress 3.1-beta

I usually start much earlier in the beta releases; and, I usually do this at BuyNowShop.com but I decided to step up to the current “nightly build” of WordPress here today as it generally only take a few moments to upgrade from the current stable release.

It’s a very simple process:

  1. Open the /wp-includes/version.php file in core to edit.*
  2. Change line 11 to: $wp_version = '3.1-beta';
  3. Go to your Administration Panel of your WordPress installation.
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “stay updated” link in the bottom-right corner. (Refresh the page if the link is not there.)

That’s it, your done! Congratulations, you are now beta testing!

*N.B.: This is one of the very few and extremely rare instances where I would ever suggest editing a core WordPress file. I do not recommend this for anyone that is not familiar with how to make a correct back-up of their installation; and, how to re-install WordPress if the world falls in on their heads.
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You Could Be WPTRT

How do I get involved with the WordPress Theme Review Team (WPTRT)?
It’s really rather simple. Just follow these steps below.

  1. Subscribe to the Theme Review mailing list.
  2. Make sure you have a WordPress.org username.
  3. Send a message to the mailing list expressing your interest in helping out with Theme Reviews.
  4. A current WPTRT member will contact you (generally via a reply to your message). If you are ready they will assign you a ticket in the Theme trac and you will be on your way to becoming a Theme reviewer.

Of course, there is more to reviewing Themes as part of the WPTRT, the above is just how you get started.

Let’s have a quick look through these steps.

  1. Subscribing to the mailing list gets you involved in one of the main discussion areas of the WPTRT. It is one of the places we discuss ideas about various items that may, or may not, affect how the Theme Review guidelines are interpreted or used when reviewing a submitted Theme.
  2. Your WordPress username is a common focal point for all of your WordPress activities. If you are a Theme author, or a plugin developer, you already have one and this is the one that will be used on the Theme trac system. It could also be the username you log into the WordPress Support forums with although current members generally use their “developer” username.
  3. We need to know you are interested, although you can also log into the #wordpress-themes channel on freenode.net and chat via IRC with one of the theme reviewers as well. The mailing list is generally the more common approach.
  4. We assign the first few tickets to new reviewers just to help with the learning process. Once you have shown you understand the process we’ll make a few changes behind the scenes and you will be able to assign yourself your own tickets in trac and carry on reviewing Themes.

We expect that sometime during this process you have thoroughly familiarized yourself with the Theme Review guidelines as well as a few other relevant pages in the codex. Here are the links to the pages I always recommend reading:

NB: Just in case, I would suggest reading these pages at least once a week, although generally our intent is to not have them change very often.

Also, you should create yourself a test-bed installation; import the Theme Unit Test data (from the link above); and, install the following few very useful plugins:

I also suggest installing a plugin that writes viewable text to ‘wp_footer()‘ for testing as well, if you do not have your own preference you are welcome to download and install my BNS Login plugin.

Now, you might be asking why would I want to join the WPTRT?
There are many reasons and many ways to get involved with the WordPress community. This one will offer you: insight into how the Theme submission process works; the opportunity to influence positive change in the Theme Review guidelines; a wealth of new ideas and code possibilities; and, interactions with some of the best and the brightest current Theme authors involved with the WordPress Themes repository.

N.B.: The above “guest” post was written after a suggestion from Jeff Chandler during the 106th episode of the WordPress Weekly podcast; and was posted by Jeff at the Weblog Tools Collection site.