WordPress Tavern

Help Me Create A Case Study Template

Jeffro — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:34:56 +0000

I’ve received a good amount of feedback from folks asking me to generate case studies on the use of WordPress when it comes to large scale use or heavy modified development. I’d love to do these case studies to find out the particulars on how WordPress is used in certain situations but the problem is, I don’t know how to go about it. This idea has been circulating around thanks to John M when he made a thread about it in the forum. Personally, I would like to create a questionnaire that can be sent to these people but I’m not sure if that is the correct way to go. Furthermore, I don’t know which questions to ask when it comes to a case study. This is where I need your help. If you have ideas, questions, or anything of that sort, please post in that forum thread or here in the comments.

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Managing Comments With Ajax Edit Comments

Jeffro — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:43:36 +0000

This is a guest blog post written by Ronald Huereca, author of the blog, Ronalfy.com. He is the founder of the Ajax Edit Comments WordPress Plugin.

Ajax Edit Comments was first released for WordPress in April of 2007 in response to a reader’s frustration in leaving a typo in a comment. For the first time, anonymous users could edit their comments.

While sticking true to its humble roots to help out the anonymous user, Ajax Edit Comments has evolved into the most powerful comment manager for WordPress; for the first time, admin users could edit and moderate comments from a post.

Ajax Edit Comments 3.0 introduces lots of fixes and new features. This post will give a brief overview of what Ajax Edit Comments 3.0 has to offer from an admin user’s perspective. Alternatively, watch this YouTube video for a brief walkthrough.

Can Edit All Comments

Ajax Edit Comments 3.0 introduces a new pop-up box called Colorbox. The previous pop-up box we used was called Thickbox. Since Thickbox is no longer being maintained, I figured it was best to search for alternatives. The result? Colorbox is more elegant and loads way faster.

Edit Comments Screen

The screenshot above shows the common editing box for Ajax Edit Comments. You can edit the common comment fields, or you can switch to the “Advanced” tab to edit the comment time and the comment approval status.

The Ability to Move Comments

It happens once in a blue moon, but it’s a pain in the rear when it does: someone makes a comment on the wrong post. The old way of dealing with this is to delete the user’s comment, and then re-post it to the correct post. Rather time consuming.

The Move Comments Screen

With Ajax Edit Comments, select “Move” and you can move the comment by browsing posts, or by searching by post title or ID.

Blacklist Comments

Say you’ve received a spammy comment. This guy’s persistent and somehow he is escaping your spam filter. With Ajax Edit Comments, you can select the “Blacklist” option and add the commenter to your WordPress blacklist (found under Settings->Discussion).

Blacklist Comments Screen

The blacklist option can add the commenters name, e-mail address, URL, and IP address to the blacklist.

In addition, the Advanced tab allows you to mark as spam any comments that match your search criteria. For example, you can spam any comments that match a commenter’s e-mail and IP address. This is useful if your blog is under attack and you need to take some quick action.

One Click De-link

You’ve received a genuine comment. But the link the commenter provides is rather spammy, or isn’t work safe.

De-link Option

The de-link feature allows you to keep the comment, but remove the link the commenter used with just one click.

Hooray for Undo!

Previous versions of Ajax Edit Comments used confirmation boxes when you clicked on any of the approval options (e.g., approve, moderate, delete).

Ajax Edit Comments 3.0 gets rid of the annoying confirmation boxes and instead displays an undo option.

More Icon Choices

Ajax Edit Comments 3.0 introduces icon themes. Ever since 2.0 came out, users have nagged me about the default icon set (which I personally liked of course). With 3.0, I found several icon sets that would fit, and decided to build in a “theme” feature.

Icon Choices

Within the Ajax Edit Comments admin options, you can select from six different icon sets.

Dropdown Display

I will be the first to say that the Ajax Edit Comments interface is getting cluttered. Up to seven options could be displaying for the admin for each comment.

With Ajax Edit Comments 3.0, I decided a dropdown display would work best to conceal the remaining options. For those that don’t like the dropdown, it can be easily removed in the Ajax Edit Comments admin page.

Dropdown Menu

Conclusion

Ajax Edit Comments 3.0 is a major upgrade over the 2.0 version. The interface has been tweaked, it now includes themes and a dropdown, and there are numerous power tools for admin users.

If you haven’t already, give Ajax Edit Comments 3.0 a try.

PremiumThemes.net Club Membership Giveaway

Jeffro — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:09:36 +0000

In the market for some new themes? If so, you can easily put yourself in the running to obtain a PremiumThemes.net club membership. PremiumThemes.net is a commercial GPL theme club which provides great support and designs all under one up front package price. I’ve worked with Bhavesh to obtain five theme club memberships to give away (Thanks Bhavesh!). That’s a total giveaway price of around $2,000.00. So what’s the catch?

Here is what I’m looking for. If you were in control of WPTavern.com, what would you do with it? Your answers can be serious or they can be playful. I’m more interested in the serious ones though. Each person who leaves a comment will be assigned a number that will be put into a random number picker. The numbers that are chosen will receive the theme club membership. Comments will be open until next Friday so get cracking! Oh, and if you could, please spread the word.

WPWeekly Episode 78 – CoPress And The FairField Mirror

Jeffro — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:42:09 +0000

In this sleepy edition of WordPress Weekly, (since I was awake for 20+hours) I had a chat with Joseph Cefoli who is the guy in charge of The FairFieldMirror.com and Daniel Bachhuber of CoPress, a company specializing in the migration from College Publisher while also providing managed hosting. During the interview, we discussed a number of topics including the trials and tribulations of migrating 7,000+ articles from College Publisher into WordPress, the manual labor involved, the various plugins in use on the site and much more. I find the stories of migrations such as these to be interesting since they usually consist of painful experiences that were overcome.

Ad Copy:

This episode of WordPress Weekly is sponsored by WPClassroom.com. They have announced their next class called WordPress For Beginners will be held on Wednesday November 11th @ 6-9pm EST use the coupon code wptavern to take $5.00 off the price.

WordPress Tavern Listener Poll:

This Weeks Poll Question Is: Should WordPress Change The Blog Nomenclature Within The Backend?

Picks Of The Week:

Jeff – WPWorldMap.net – WPWorldMap.net is a cool website where WordPress users from all across the world can register an account and place a marker above their general location since the site is made up of an embedded google map. It’s a great way to see if their are any awesome WordPress folks in your neighborhood.

This Weeks Trivia Question

Which forum software was the first to use CSS based layouts rather than tables?

WPWeekly Meta:

Next Episode: Tuesday, November 10th 2009 8P.M. EST

Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: Click here to subscribe

Length Of Episode: 1 Hour 3 Minutes

Download The Show: WordPressWeeklyEpisode78.mp3

Listen To Episode #78:

Should WordPress Change The Blog Nomenclature Within The Backend?

Jeffro — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:55:05 +0000

Been awhile since we’ve had something to vote on but I’ve finally found a topic where we you can weigh in on one side or the other. Recently, there was a discussion on the WordPress Hackers Mailing list that discussed the idea of changing the blogging nomenclature found within the administration panel of WordPress. The line of thought is that WordPress is constantly being used for more than just blogging but it will never be taken seriously as a powerful CMS until the blog nomenclature is removed in favor for something more generic. As for myself, I’m fine with both sides but I lean slightly more in favor of switching the words to something more generic because by having the word blog splattered everywhere in the backend, it gives the sense that WordPress is only meant for blogging and nothing else. That may have been the case when the project was lifting off the ground but these days, WordPress is powering some pretty hefty sites that blow blogging out of the water. It’s a simple change that I think would have a big impact on the software especially as it relates to perception. What do you think?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Quick Update On My Where Abouts

Jeffro — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:51:37 +0000

Just wanted to provide a quick update on what’s been going on. To make a long story short, going back to 35+ hours at the store from 4am to 12pm is taking it’s toll on me. On the side, I’ve been trying my best to put up at least one post a day on weblogtoolscollection.com as part of my second job but even that is proving to be difficult. WordPress stuff is hard for me to get into recently, especially as it relates to the wordpress weekly podcast. I don’t plan on abandoning the show or this website but work on it with regards to postings and such may be far and few between for the rest of this year. So, I have three jobs that I’m working and it doesn’t take long to feel like crap everyday, especially when good sleep is hard to come by. This all sucks because I’d love to get back to what I’ve been doing for the past few months but money dictates I do other things.

I have an interesting idea for a site redesign/rearrangement that falls in place with my idea of what the wordpress.org portal should be like. Wptavern will be my testbed for this idea to see how it pans out. No word yet on when it will be finished but I’m excited about it.

Looking forward to wordcamp NewYork next week which will be a welcome relief. That’s all on this front, hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

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Congrats jjj

Jeffro — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:46:52 +0000

There is some great news for those involved with or following the BuddyPress project. Andy Peatling announced today on the development blog that John James Jacoby aka jjj has been added to the BuddyPress core development team which brings the total to two members. Anytime I’ve done a show about BuddyPress or needed to ask a question or two in the BuddyPress IRC channel, John has been around to listen or try to push me in the right direction. Congrats to him for being added to the core team for one heck of a project. This is a huge step forward allowing Andy to remove some of the development weight off his shoulders.

WordCamp Phoenix On Friday The 13th!

Jeffro — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:17:48 +0000

If you really want to get your WordPress fix during the weekend of Friday the 13th, consider attending WordCamp Phoenix and then WordCamp New York on the 14th and 15th of November. WordCamp Phoenix is being held at the Arizona Grand Resort which ought to be a blast on Friday the 13th from 8am – 5pm. For speakers, they currently have confirmed Matt Mullenweg, Merlin Mann, John Hawkins, Brent Spore, and Dave Moyer from the WordCast Podcast. The event is one day only and from what I can remember, may be the first ever one day weekday WordCamp. If you know of any others, tell me in the comments.

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WPWeekly Episode 77 – WordCamp New York Pre-Game

Jeffro — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:03:19 +0000

This episode of WordPress Weekly focuses on the upcoming WordCamp New York event being held on November 14th and 15th. Jane Wells joined me on the show to tell us all about the planning stages of the event and what to expect. We also talked briefly about WordPress 2.8.5 as well as what to look forward to in WordPress 2.9. If you are planning on attending WordCamp New York, I highly encourage you to give this episode a listen.

Ad Copy:

This episode of WordPress Weekly is sponsored by WebDevStudios.com. Webdevstudios covers all different aspects of web development whether it’s search engine optimization or, providing you with an e-commerce solution. If you need to take your site to the next level or even make the switch to WordPress, get in touch with the folks at Webdevstudios.com

Stories Discussed:

WordPress 2.8.5 Released
The Immediate Future Of bbPress
Compatibility Checks

WPWeekly Meta:

Next Episode: Tuesday November 3rd, 2009 8P.M. EST

Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: Click here to subscribe

Length Of Episode:

Download The Show: WordPressWeeklyEpisode77.mp3

Listen To Episode #77:

WordPress Dev Chat For 10-22-09

Jeffro — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:55:39 +0000

Upgrade notification in core

The consensus is that it will not happen. However, Lynne Pops idea to change the first default post in a new install of WordPress to something that contains useful information will likely happen. No update email in core. Use the mailing list. Improve the copy in the first post to give hints and tips like subscribing to the list.

Trac voting

I was responsible for this question. In trac, each ticket has an up or down arrow where people can vote yes or no with regards to their approval of the ticket or to get it in core. As I suspected, the votes mean nothing and the up or down arrows are for decoration.

Multiple custom image sizes with retroactive image reprocessing

Leogermani wrote a patch that adds the possibility to add multiple custom sizes in addition to the core thumnail, medium and large. It also lets you regenerate all the thumbs, in case you changed any size. A few folks were not too keen on the rebuilding effect on previous images the patch would include and it won’t make it into 2.9. However, an edited patch looks good for 3.0.

Mailing lists

The recent WordPress Security thread on the hackers mailing lists ruffled a few feathers of long time members. So, the idea was to create a mailing list for what some deem as useless discussion. There will be a renewed effort to state what the hackers list is meant to be used for in terms of the discussions and content. Westi and others may act as more of a figure head as well. Enhancing this page is a good start which covers mailing list etiquette.

#WordPress ops

Thank goodness this simple thing is over and done with. Matt has added the following people as ops to the WordPress IRC channel. sivel, Viper007Bond, bazza, MarkJaquith, Ozh

Trac configuration

This had to do with enabled XMLRPC into Trac but it’s above my level of comprehension so if you’re interested, the conversation picks up here.

How To Participate:

If you want to suggest a topic to be discussed at the next meeting, you can by visiting the WordPress development updates blog. If you would like to participate in the chat next week, install IRC or an IRC compatible client and connect to the following IRC server.

chat.freenode.net or any random server on the Freenode network and then join this channel at 5PM Eastern time or 9PM UTC Thursdays. The meeting day was changed to accommodate European users.#wordpress-dev.