scriptygoddess

I recently ran into this problem – and I see an old thread on the forums about this. The last post there says to make sure you're logged in. (I can assure I was). But, that's not what was causing the problem. Here are the steps that got me to the problem:

Set up a new WordPress install. Logged in. Among a few other changes, I also changed the path for the site URL in the general settings to be the domain root (rather than the directory where WordPress was installed). I had made a custom theme with "edit this page" links… but they weren't showing up.

The reason: when I logged in the first time, the "admin" cookie that was set was specific to the directory where I installed WordPress – and did not apply to the root domain where it was now pointed. Since that change happened AFTER I was already logged in, WordPress did not update my cookie to include the root directory – so those pages could not see that I was in fact logged in.

The simplest fix is to log out and then log back in – which should set your cookies appropriately.

If you are hosted on Bluehost and you're using WordPress, you might have noticed the strange "from" address in the emails WordPress appears to be sending out. (they might look something like something@box123.bluehost.com) There is a very simple fix. The way Bluehost servers are setup, the address "wordpress@{YOURDOMAIN.COM}" needs to actually exist somehow in your account. Whether it be an actual email box, forwarder, autoresponder – either of those will work. However, do NOT set it up as an autoresponder that gives an error (that will completely shut down the emails going out). If you don't want people replying to "wordpress@{YOURDOMAIN.COM}" – you can just set up an autoresponder that says something like "Sorry – no one here"

If you don't like the "wordpress@yourdomain.com" email format either – you can change that address via a plugin like: wp-mailfrom. However, again – whatever address you set it to in there – still needs to exist in your account. So if you prefer to have the from emails be ilovewordpress@yourdomain.com; make sure there is a ilovewordpress@yourdomain.com email account, forwarder or autoresponder.

If you run any contests on your blog, and you use your comments to collect entries into the contest – you might run into some difficulty if you get a great number of comments. I was asked by Jyl (MomItForward.com) to develop a plugin that would allow her to download all comments from a post into a CSV. She's been using a very early version of this for some time and gave me the permission, when I had time to do so, to release the plugin to the WordPress community.

This plugin adds a link to the "Edit Posts" view that will allow someone with "can moderate comments" capability (Editor) to download a CSV of all comments for that particular post. This gives an easy one page view of all comments and that can be opened using Microsoft Excel (or similar spreadsheet program). You can then use something like "random.org" to pick a number, and then choose the corresponding row number to decide the winner in your contest.

I hope you find it useful/helpful.

Here's the link on WordPress' Plugin Repository:

Download Post Comments

Once upon a time, you used to be able to download all images that were on a page using the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar addon. It's been a long time since it worked correctly. You can still download regular images on a page, but any image that is called via CSS (background images, etc.) won't be included in what the Web Developer toolbar's "Images -> View Image Information" shows.

Of course there's another way – but I never knew it until recently. It's incredibly simple and built right into Firefox. Just right-click on a page, select "view page info" from the menu. Then on the pop-up click the "media" tab. That will list all the images on the page, both ones called from the HTML and the CSS.

You can click on individual image and then click "Save As" to download one in particular you want. Or if you want all of them, hold down the shift key and select all the lines. Then click "save as" to save them down to your computer.

I found this tip here: http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=212610

If you have a webpage that has an image on it – and it displays fine in Firefox, Safari, and Chrome – but in IE it's not showing up – or it's showing up with that little icon with the red "x" in it – Check to make sure the image wasn't saved in CMYK format. Amazingly enough, the other browsers still manage to display the image, but IE always chokes.

If you have Adobe Photoshop, to make this change, go to the "Image" menu, select "Mode" then see if "CMYK" is checked. If so, select "RGB" to change the color mode. Save and upload your image again and make sure you're linking to the new version.

Code is below with comments to explain what's going on. This code would go on your taxonomy.php page…
<?php
//get current term info
$term = get_term_by( 'slug', get_query_var( 'term' ), get_query_var( 'taxonomy' ) );
//store curent term's id as first in the array
$breadcrumbarray[] = $term->term_id;
//transfer the term info object so we don't mess it up
$tempterm = $term;
//backward crawl terms...
//if the current term in the crawl has a parent - get it's parent's id...
while ($tempterm->parent != 0) {
$tempterm = get_term_by('id',$tempterm->parent,get_query_var( 'taxonomy' ));
// and store it in the array
$breadcrumbarray[] .= $tempterm->term_id;
}
//now reverse order the array so it goes from parent to child...
$breadcrumbarray = array_reverse($breadcrumbarray);
//now we'll loop through our array to display each item in the parent to child order and with links...
$isfirst = true;
foreach($breadcrumbarray as $termid) {
if (!$isfirst) echo " » ";
$isfirst = false;
// get all the info again for the current term id in the array
$terminfo = get_term_by('id',$termid,get_query_var( 'taxonomy' ));
//show links for all terms except the current one..
if ($terminfo->term_id != $term->term_id) {
//get the URL for that terms's page
$url = get_term_link( $terminfo->name, get_query_var( 'taxonomy' ) );
echo '<a href="'.$url.'">'.$terminfo->name.'</a>';
} else {
echo $terminfo->name;
}
}
?>

I couldn't see an easier (or built in) way to do this… if there is, do let me know. Seems like it's a simple thing that shouldn't require so much code…

By Guest Author: James Mowery

With the explosion of web usage over the past decade, the online applications that users have access to have become more sophisticated as each year passes. While 'internet time' is even faster than the proverbial 'dog years', one recent development has radically altered online applications and will continue to do so for some time.

Dubbed 'Ajax', this technology allows for a web application to make asynchronous method calls to perform certain tasks without refreshing the user's browser. To the user, it may appear that the page changes as they use it, or there may be progress indicators such as 'loading' graphics or something similar.

While the technology that allows this to occur isn't actually new, the availability and ubiquity of broadband internet access, along with wider browser support for advanced Javascript programming, has made it extremely common. Here are some specific points that anyone looking into creating Ajax-enabled applications to make sure they aren't just introducing something that happens to be the latest fad.

First, consider how many times your users may have to do something in the application, for example, clicking a button, which normally may cause the entire page to reload. By working to limit those types of actions to Ajax methods, the user's navigation experience will seem faster, as they don't have to wait for the page to refresh.

Sure, there is still some time for the page to update, but showing the user a progress bar or some other similar indicator makes the time seem quicker. It should also be noted that Ajax methods that update small parts of the web page should not just seem faster, however. Since less data is being passed back and forth across the wire to the user's browser, it will actually increase the application's speed.

Consider, however, being careful that trying to do everything in the application within a single screen may not be the best way to go, either. Some screens simply need a different layout in order to make sense to the user. By carefully deciding which navigation elements should be moved to Ajax and which should not, you will improves the accessibility and usability of the entire application.

About the author: James Mowery is a computer geek that writes about technology and related topics. To read more blog posts by him, go to laptop computers.

A quick post to deal with a problem I've come across again and again. I think I see the issue now, and wanted to make a note of what I *think* I'm seeing. I've also seen some complain about this same problem too.

When you use wp_nav_menu() to create your nav bar, it will automatically add a container div that wraps around your navigation (which is presented in an unordered list). However, maybe you don't want that div there. According to the codex, you should only have to create your nav with 'container' => false to get that container to go away, but for some reason, on what was seeming like random occasions, it would have no affect.

Well, I realized that the reason for this is because I had not yet set up my menu specifically. As soon as I went into the admin, created a menu, and assigned it to the same location wp_nav_menu() was calling, voila! The container went away.

I understand that if there is no menu set up yet, that wp_nav_menu() resorts to calling wp_list_pages(), but it should still pay attention to the arguments passed to the original function. However, it definitely seems like it is having issues. Not sure if that's a bug or not, but now I know (or at least I THINK I know) what's happening and how to fix it.

Reference: WordPress 3.0.1

WordCamp Utah was a great experience. I was told the presentations would be up on WordPress.tv someday. As soon as mine is up there, I'll let you know. In the meantime, if you'd like to see the slides from my presentation, they're up on my website. Not sure how much sense it all makes without me explaining it all, but until the presentation is up in its complete form, it's better than nothing.

I'm proud to announce that I'll be speaking at WordCamp Utah 2010. My session will be about using WordPress as a CMS – I'll be referencing various projects where I have done so and explain how and what I did. Registration is now open, so I hope you'll be attending too. I'm still putting my presentation together and would love to know what questions you have on this topic that you hope would be answered.