Monthly Archives: October 2009

WordPress Plugin Compatibility

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Have you ever upgraded WordPress only to find that your favourite plugin doesn’t work any more? Well, this may be a thing in the past thanks to the Plugin Compatibility enhancements that have just been announced. It’s a new feature in the Plugin Directory driven by user’s votes to try and identify any compatibility problems between particularly versions of WordPress and plugins. Here’s what it looks like:

It’s no box cutter for a perfect solution, but it will help warn people if there’s a problem with a particular plugin. Will be interesting to see where it’s heading.

PostBot for Android

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Here’s a great application to know about if your phone runs on the Google Android operating system (just like my HTC Magic). It’s called postbot and it’s an Android application that lets you write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your Android phone. It works both on WordPress.com blogs as well as self-hosted ones. So, it doesn’t matter if you have a business blog or one with reviews of the Blue Cross North Carolina, the application will allow you to post to your blog from anywhere in the world; as long as you have a data connection of course.

WordPress for iPhone

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Image representing iPhone as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

Here’s a great application to know about if you’re an iPhone user. It’s the WordPress for iPhone application and it’s the only iPhone app that lets you write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your iPhone or iPod Touch. It works both on WordPress.com blogs as well as self-hosted ones. So, it doesn’t matter if you have a business blog or one with reviews of the best weight loss pills, the application will allow you to post to your blog from anywhere in the world; as long as you have a data connection of course.

WordPress 2.8.5 is here

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I loaded my blog today to find that there’s a brand new release for WordPress. It’s only a point release, but this release has a huge amount of security fixes in, so it’s worth upgrading as soon as you can. The great thing with the recent versions of WordPress is that upgrading is a smooth and easy process; and this was just as easy for me as it could be. Couple of clicks, waited for a few minutes and bam, I’m on the latest version. Here are some of the things fixed in this release:

  • 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.

So whether you have a joke blog, or one which focuses on equestrian apparel; just go ahead and upgrade as soon as you can.

Help with WordPress v2.9

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WordPress 2.9 is just around the corner and there’s a call on WordPress website looking for people who want to get involved in testing 2.9. The post outlines a number of ways in which you can help, mainly with beta testing the product to make sure all bugs are eradicated before the release goes public. All products need to go through proper testing, the best diet pills in the world couldn’t go to market without FTC approval, and software is no exception. If anything, software is probably harder to test, just because of the complexity of the product and the different ways it could be used.

So check out the post, there’s a plugin you can download to help. I’ve got it installed on this blog and I’m looking forward to seeing what the new version is going to look like.

Great stuff!

A blog for Myrtle Beach

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MYRTLE BEACH, SC - SEPTEMBER 05: A lifeguard ...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I love the fact that WordPress can be used for just about anything under the sun. I just came across “Where It’s At in Myrtle Beach” which is a WordPress blog focusing solely on myrtle beach sc. The beauty of this site is that it’s using a generic blogging template, yet it’s focussed very narrowly on a particular niche. It’s mainly based on events happening in the area and is a great way to find out what’s happening in the region.

Me, I just like it because it’s a great showcase of what WordPress is good at.

BuddyPress v1.1.1

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If you’re a BuddyPress user, you should know that there’s been a point release following the recent v1.1 drop. The new version corrects a few issues namely:

  • Fixed an issue where themes designed for BuddyPress 1.0 would cause a signup page failure.
  • Fixed issues with creating and posting on private and hidden group forums.
  • Fixed missing forum topic title in activity stream entry when editing a forum post.
  • Fixed missing ability to pass an array of template files to load.
  • Fixed post new topic and post new reply links displaying on group forums, even when logged out.
  • Fixed issues with viewing paginated friend lists in the default theme.
  • Fixed issue with multiple ajax loaders on the groups and friends pages for a user when searching or clicking navigation.
  • Added username compatibility fallback setting to provide support for dots in LDAP usernames.

If you haven’t come across is before BuddyPress is an addon for WordPress MU that lets you layer a social network type system on top of your blogging platform. You can use it for whatever you like, from a scientific network, discussing the latest breakthroughs and research; all the way to a diet forum talking about diet pill reviews and trading diet tips. Download it here.