Trying to restore a large MySQL Backup?

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Owen

Imagine you had a car site and needed to load MySQL with a big database or car prices so that you can provide a search against this data. Well, imagine the database is so large that it won’t load for you. This can happen if you have a database that’s a bit larger than your server can handle.

I had a bit of a problem today trying to get an 8Mb backup uploaded into MySQL. The problem was caused by the fact that phpMyAdmin was timing out when I tried to import the database. I tried breaking it down into smaller sections but a couple of the tables just had too many rows in them. Just as I was about to bang my head against the wall, I came across BigDump, a MySQL upload tool that staggers the uploads allowing you to upload dump files up to 50Mb in size.

Spotty Theme

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Owen

I’ve been playing with some ideas for a new site and using a theme called Spotty. It’s not like the theme has severe acne or anything like that; but it has a dotty like design in the page header and footer. Unfortunately it doesn’t have all the features I wanted (images and floating areas in the post content for example); and while I could update the theme to do all those things, well, sometimes it’s easier to pick a different one and start over.

Anyway, I’ll let you know once the site is live.

Optimise your WordPress Performance

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Owen

photo credit: jefferyalbergo & the neon cat

I came across a great article that talks about some performance improvements that one can put into place on a WordPress blog. The headline things to look at are:

Enable WordPress caching
Use a caching plugin like WP Super Cache
Minimise the number of high performance plugins
Turn on MySQL caching
Tweak your PHP settings

Just keep in mind that you don’t need to be looking at these things until you’re receiving hundreds of thousands of hits a day. But it’s good to know in case you notice performance issues on your blog. You don’t need slimming pills to make your blog lean and mean. Just implementing a few tweaks can make a world of a difference. Read the complete article here

WP Hide Dashboard

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Owen

: Image via Wikipedia

Do you ever open up your WordPress blog to let your subscribers set up and modify their profile? Well, if you do, you might want to lock down your blog a bit to stop them from wandering around. This is where WP Hide Dashboard comes in. Just like it’s a good idea to get rid of blackheads before going out on a date, it’s always a good idea to hide extra functionality before letting visitors mess around with your blog.

One for the toolbox methinks.

Blogging on the move

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Owen

: Image via Wikipedia

Did you know that you can now post new content to your WordPress blogs using your phone? You can use the mobile apps for adding new posts, moderating comments or uploading media to your blog. So, you could be sitting down at lunch and knock up a quick post. Or sitting on the bus and moderating that comment about acne pills. It’s all about flexibility to work on your blog when and where you have time available. There are mobile applications available for Android, iPhone and Nokia platforms, so you have a selection of different software to try.

Download your apps and give them a try:

WordPress 2.9.2

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Owen

There’s a new drop of WordPress which fixes a small bug some of you may have been exposed to. Here are the details of the fix:

Thomas Mackenzie alerted us to a problem where logged in users can peek at trashed posts belonging to other authors. If you have untrusted users signed up on your blog and sensitive posts in the trash, you should upgrade to 2.9.2.

You can upload directly from your blog if you have a recent version. It doesn’t matter if you have a blog about jokes, or one that reviews all types of acne lotion, it’s always worth being on the latest version of WordPress, just to avoid any issues.

Twitter Tools

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Owen

If you’re a Twitter user, there’s a plugin you should not be without. It’s called Twitter Tools and does an excellent job of integrating your blog with Twitter. To tell you the truth, I use it on all my blogs so that every time I add a new blog post an automatic tweet gets generated to tell everyone about it.

The plugin has a number of other features too, such as generating a blog post with all your tweets on a scheduled basis and letting you tweet right from your administration screen. To me, it’s as important as getting the right office furniture for your office, this plugin is one of the essential bits that should go on every blog.

Writing a plugin

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Owen

Have you ever written a plugin for WordPress? Well, if you’re interested, there’s a guide on the WordPress Codex that should get your started. Bear in mind though, that this just scratches the surface of what you need to know to develop your own plugins. Before you even get started, you need to learn a bit of PHP, then learn about the ecosystem. It can be a bit like banging your head on ping pong tables sometimes .. you hit a bug and nothing seems to work. Then you find a solution and it’s all up in the air again.

If you think you might be interested in all this, check out this collection of 100+ Massive WordPress Tutorials

Looking for a new theme?

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Owen

If you’re looking for a new theme, there are a number of theme directories that can help you find what you’re looking for. One interesting one is Top WP Themes, a collection of WordPress themes that are great for any circumstance. There are themes you can use for plain blogs, themes you can use for ecommerce sites; themes you can use to sell ballet shoes and themes you can use can use to sell Baldwin hardware; themes to set up a college blog , or themes to set up a celebrity blog.

Check it out, you may find something exciting.

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Monthly Archives: February 2010