WordPress
30.12.2007
WordPress 2.3.2 is out, and we’ve just recently upgraded this site accordingly. The list of bug fixes can be checked here.
Standard Upgrade Procedure
The usual upgrading process goes like this:
- Backup everything in your site (files and MySQL DB).
- Deactivate plugins.
- Get the latest WordPress files and overwrite the old files. Deleting first instead of overwriting is also encouraged.
- Visit the wp-admin/upgrade.php page to auto-upgrade the database structure.
- Check permalinks structure and update .htaccess if necessary.
- Reactivate all plugins.
- Done.
The Sneaky Way
Now, just as an experiment, I tried another way to upgrade this install my way. As a disclaimer, I don’t recommend anyone to try this. It’s just an experiment, mmkay?
So, this is what I do:
- Backup everything.
- Deactivate plugins.
- Download the latest WordPress files.
- Overwrite only the files changed from previous version. The list of revised files for this version can be found both here or from the WordPress Trac diff here. For future versions, I’m sure the changed files will be mentioned as well.
- Visit the wp-admin/upgrade.php page to auto-upgrade the database structure.
- Permalinks and .htaccess shouldn’t get changed I’m sure. Heck, I didn’t overwrite it! But it’s always a good thing to check.
- Reactivate all plugins.
- Done.
Everything seems to be doing fine after I did this. Well, you can read this, can’t you?
Pro and Cons
Pro:
- Good if your connection is slow. Only upload a few files instead of the entire WordPress files.
- Can learn the inner workings of WordPress a little more.
- It’s a bit more risky and challenging, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Cons:
- Must be extra careful when overwriting. Gotta have the correct files to upload.
- It’s a bit more risky and challenging, if you’re against that sort of thing.
Other Notes
- After reactivating WordPress Stats plugin, it asked me to input my WP API Key again. This bugged me a bit, afraid that my old stats is already gone. After entering the API Key again, I found that the stats does not duplicate (i.e.: it seems to resume the previous stats), so hopefully nothing goes wrong. I will need to check more whether the traffic actually updates or not (note: the Stats get updated about once in 3 minutes—although my personal experience says 10 minutes).
UPDATE:The Stats plugin works. So, it seems that the key re-entering thing does not break anything.
- Also note that Akismet does not ask for API Key upon reactivating. Hello, Automattic?
- It would be a good idea to use Maintenance Mode plugin during the upgrade process. We apologize for any weirdness you get during our recent upgrading attempt.
Lexicon
29.12.2007
In this new Lexicon category, we will try to explain various web design terms in a collection of short, easy to understand articles. This is our first entry. Have fun learning with us!
Breadcrumb
In the science of web accessibility, breadcrumb is a form of navigation links designed to show user their current location inside a website. This is an example from Yahoo! Directory:
Also notice that the breadcrumb structure is similar with the URL format:
All items in the breadcrumb is hyperlinked, except for the current page, which is bolded to emphasize the “you are here effect”. For maximum effect, the breadcrumb is better placed on the top area of the page. And, if the page is quite long, placing another breadcrumb at the bottom is also a good idea.
The term “breadcrumb” came from the story Hansel and Gretel, where they left a trail of breadcrumbs to help them return back to home. Their breadcrumbs were then eaten by animals, causing them to get lost, but that’s another story.
Asides
29.12.2007
New announcement regarding the fate of Netscape Navigator. We don’t really use Netscape much, but if it means less browser to check compatibility issues with, we’re pretty much happy about it.
Asides
27.12.2007
The Magazineer
A blog for people who love, and make, magazines. Powered by WordPress. With an absolutely gorgeous theme.
WordPress
23.12.2007
Magazine style WordPress theme is quite an interesting concept to learn: how do you change from a regular blog look into a magazine look? Magazine style, especially on its home page, got quite a lot more things to show compared to a simple blog home page.
So here is the monster list of magazine style WordPress themes made by many awesome designers out there. It’s very interesting looking at how people create their themes and use various tricks, plugins, and clever hacks to achieve that magazine look. Whether you’re just out to find a new theme for your blog, or you want to learn the inner working of such themes, here we go!
Free Themes:
Paid Themes:
Stats:
Free Themes: 14
Paid Themes: 17
This post will be updated whenever there’s a new theme available (and there’s time for me to actually update it, yeah).
Design
22.12.2007
Sometimes I think that designing can also be like playing LEGO. Give me the pieces, the shapes, the blocks, and I’ll do my best to arrange them into something cool yet usable.
So, this is the list of the various blocks that would fit into an online magazine’s home page. I definitely would use this as reference, and hopefully it’s useful for you guys too.
First, the obvious ones:
- Title and description
- Navigation bar
- Search Form
- Footer
Next, the custom blocks:
- Featured article. A big, differentiated block with big images and excerpt of the magazine’s current top article
- Also featured/previously featured articles. Could be a list of three or more articles with smaller thumbnails, smaller header, and so forth, compared to the single, featured article above.
- A glimpse of the most recent articles on each categories available. Mostly just list of titles with date of publication.
- Popular articles. Either visit count-based or reader rating-based.
- Multimedia. Featured video, podcast, and so forth.
- Latest reader comments.
- Advertising spot(s).
- List of categories.
- List of archives based on date.
Also remember that the above are just common blocks and they might very well be modified to fit your needs. Why just one featured article, for example? Maybe six is the way to go. Who knows.
Another point of interest is thinking how these blocks can be presented. Use DOMTab to put more than one blocks in one space, displaying only one block but still allowing visitors view the other blocks by clicking on the corresponding tabs (it’s much easier to check the DOMTab site and see the effect in action). You can see this effect being used tastefully on The New York Times, Small Potato’s magazine-styled WordPress theme, and basically various other places.
It’s probably a good thing as well to feature your readers somewhere on the front page. A list of the most valued contributors of some sort (those who comment the most, or who send the most articles, and so on). There are plenty of different things to try, so experiment and have a lot of fun!
Asides
20.12.2007
Nater Kate nailed it in Molly’s post about the news:
i just got goosebumps
And so did I. Honestly. It’s always great to hear good things about Internet Explorer. It’s so rare that I think it’s also worth mentioning that the announcement at IE’s official blog actually generates positive comments from people. All in all, congratulations to the IE team. Not only IE8 gave us a hope once again, it’s also very possible that a two point difference in version will render IE6 obsolete.
For the unitiated, Wikipedia has a good explanation on Acid2 Test. Firefox 2 fails Acid2 test, but version 3 will support it correctly. The current Firefox 3 beta 2 does fail the test, but it seems to be a failure on Acid2’s side, not Firefox. See this for more information.