Official word on WordPress theme licensing
The great debate on the GPL (GNU Public License) and its pertinence to WordPress themes has been going on for months, but it seems the issue may be finally be laid to rest, thanks to the response of the Software Freedom Law Center on the matter.
Matt Mullenweg quotes the whole thing on the WordPress Development blog, but he has a a one-sentence summary for it too:
PHP in WordPress themes must be GPL, artwork and CSS may be but are not required.
Of course Matt points out that a WordPress theme would be pretty useless without graphics and CSS, and therefore now that they’ve launched the Commercial Themes Directory, they’re requiring 100% compatibility with the GPL. Meaning everything, including graphics and CSS, must have no restrictions on usage. Again, the GPL license does not require themes to be free of charge.
Official WordPress Commercially Supported GPL Themes Directory launched
Here’s the big lesson on the opening of the official WordPress Commercial Theme directory (also under WordPress Extend): it’s possible to make money off a commercial theme while still having a GPL license, which in turn, means you’re supporting the WordPress philosophy of making everything accessible to everyone.
While our directory is full of fantastic themes, sometimes people want to use something that they know has support behind it, and don’t mind paying for that. Contrary to popular belief, GPL doesn’t say that everything must be zero-cost, just that when you receive the software or theme that it not restrict your freedoms in how you use it.
So now that’s all cleared up, time to submit your premium theme—although I think we should stop using the term for good and use commercial instead, especially since there are a number of the “premium” themes that are free. Here’s the list of guidelines for the theme directory:
- Distribute 100% GPL themes, including artwork and CSS.
- Have professional support options, and optionally customization.
- Your site should be complete, well-designed, up to date, and professional looking.
- Include a haiku about yourself to be included.
A haiku? Now there’s a requirement you don’t see everyday.
WordPress Plugin: Injection Attack Protector
There are a lot of types of security breaches that threaten your WordPress blog, and spam/malware injection seems to be the most popular of the lot. Fortunately there’s a plugin that helps prevent that called the Injection Attack Protector. This script allows to you to scan your site for possible injection attacks and even a heal tool for the compromised files.
Make sure to follow the given instructions for the plugin to work properly. You’ll need to know how to create a password-protected folder on your site and edit certain files thru a text editor.
Download Injection Attack Protector
WordPress seminars in Davao from July 3-4
Heads up, Mindanao folks! There are two WordPress seminars coming to your area—Davao City, to be specific—this July. WordPress for Bloggers and WordPress as a CMS. Fees vary from Php150 (students) to Php450 per person. Here’s the sked:
SEMINAR 1: WORDPRESS AS CMS
Date: 3 July 2009 (Friday)
Time: 5:00 – 8:00 P.M.
Venue: Lane Systems conference room, Wheels n’ More Drive, J.P. Laurel Ave., Bajada, Davao City (in the compound where Urban Club & AutoShop are located)
Fee: ?450 per person
This seminar will tackle the fundamentals of the WordPress engine: the templating system; built-in PHP functions for delivering & manipulating content; design elements; introduction to theme & plugin design. Installation and maintenance best practices will also be included. Prerequisites: PHP, XHTML & CSS.SEMINAR 2: WORDPRESS FOR BLOGGERS
Date: 4 July 2009 (Saturday)
Time: 2:00 – 6:00 P.M.
Venue: PhilNITS Lab, 5/F Mintrade Bldg, Monteverde cor. Sales Sts. (this is the building where DTI-11 is located; at the ground floor is PNB)
Fee: ?300 per person | Student rate: ?150
The seminar for bloggers will feature advanced coverage on WordPress deployment & utilization: how to make the most out of your self-hosted WordPress installation. Important topics: theme management; plugin management; SEO basics; introduction to the world of server hosting. Bonus topic: AdSense integration and optimization, c/o Lyle Santos.
Sign up here. How I wish there were something like this in the metro! We’ll have to be a little more patient for the upcoming WordCamp Philippines, then.
WordPress 2.8.1 Beta 2
The second beta of WordPress 2.8.1 is already out. This comes just days after the download counter for WordPress 2.8 crosses 1 million, just 12 days!
The list of bug fixes in this beta are mentioned here.
Download WordPress 2.8.1 Beta 2
Create your own WordPress Dashboard Widgets
Did you know that you can tweak your WordPress Dashboard with custom Widgets? Take note that this is different from the Widgets feature you can use on your blog. WooCamp has a nice two-step tutorial on it:
- Copy the given code in the blog post
- Modify the given code for specific functionality for your widget
Easy-peasy! Another great way to customize the backend of WordPress-powered sites, especially if you’re using it as a CMS for clients and friends.
Matt’s State of the Word at WordCamp SF 2009
Video of the annual State of the Word, delivered by Matt Mullenweg at Automattic-hosted WordCamp San Francisco 2009, is now up at WordPress.tv. It’s also embedded above for your easy viewing pleasure.
For the uninformed, the State of the Word is a fun little presentation on WordPress, of course, to see how far it’s come and what’s in store in the coming months. You might remember that one of the biggest highlights in this State of the Word was the announcement that WordPress and WordPress MU are going to merge, so now those who weren’t at the event itself can find out exactly how Matt said it.
Those who are looking for text-based summaries of the State of the Word, check out the press coverage links on the homepage of WordCamp San Francisco 2009.
Win a mobile broadband modem, domain registration & hosting, Bob Ong books from Tinig.com
Buwan ng Wika comes early this year with the launch of Tinig.com’s writing contest entitled Wikang Filipino sa Panahon ng Twitter.
Ayon kay Gat Jose Rizal, na ang kaarawan ay ipinagdiwang natin kahapon, “ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita, mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda.” Ngunit sa panahong ito ng Twitter at iba pang makabagong kagamitan sa pandaigdigang komunikasyon, lalo na sa Internet, ano ang papel na ginagampanan ng ating sariling wika?
Very good question. In fact, it feels inappropriate to even write this blog post in Filipino.
But anyway, the mechanics are simple: register at Tinig.com and submit an essay with 500-700 words discussing the importance of the Filipino language in this modern era. Entries should not have been published elsewhere (including blogs). Deadline is on August 19, 2009.
US government cracks down on blogger giveaways
Although not applicable to the Philippines, it helps to be aware of this: The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing more stringent guidelines on the way bloggers accept certain perks, which usually equate to writing blog posts about them.
The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.
[..]
Existing FTC rules already ban deceptive and unfair business practices. The proposed guidelines aim to clarify the law and for the first time specifically include bloggers, defined loosely as anyone writing a personal journal online.
This is not a new issue, really, except that the US government is now looking into what should be considered legal based on arbitrary ethical standards. Which, of course, is not a black and white matter especially in the blogosphere.
Bloggers complain that with FTC oversight, they’d be too worried about innocent posts getting them in trouble, and they say they might simply quit or post less frequently.
“It would always be better for bloggers to self-police,” said Robert Cox, president of Media Bloggers Association in New Rochelle, N.Y. “We have laws on the books. They apply to everybody, not just people who write blogs.”
Yuli Ziv, who writes a fashion blog from New York, is working on one such effort at self-regulation, helping craft an ethics policy for about 15 Web sites as part of the Style Coalition started in January to help bloggers become more professional.
“It’s been an issue, regardless of the FTC,” she said. “It’s about trust.”
The safest route is to practice full disclosure at all times, which a lot of the pay-per-post and similar online advertising companies require anyway.
One can only wonder how the Philippine government will deal with this once they hear about it.
WordPress 2.8.1 Beta 1
Almost two weeks after the big release comes the first beta of WordPress 2.8.1. The bug fixes are listed here, which includes memory fixes and added security.
Instructions for upgrading from WordPress 2.8 to WordPress 2.8.1 beta 1 can be found here. If you still haven’t upgraded to WordPress 2.8 and are more of a cautious user, you might want to wait until WP 2.8.1 comes out.
WordCamp Philippines theme and plugin developer profiles
Calling all Filipino WordPress theme and plugin developers! WordCamp Philippines is compiling a list of developer profiles and plans to feature them on a special section on their website.
As part of our activities running up to WordCamp Philippines 2009, we’d like to feature you right here. Wouldn’t it be great to have a section on this site containing all Filipino contributors to the further development of WordPress? Once we have enough of you guys in the database, we’ll publish a Philippine WordPress Developers section on WordCamp.ph.
Tangkilikin ang gawang Pinoy! This is a great next step in strengthening the local WordPress community. Sign up here.
MTV Asia blogger contest
MTV Asia, in cooperation with Nuffnang, invites all all bloggers to be part of their trendy blogging squad, which means taking part in lots of MTV events around the world and enjoying lots of goodies. To join:
We believe that words speak volumes, and if your writing oozes with confidence, sass and personality, don’t languish in the background, let your opinions shine! Express yourself and be the voice of MTV Asia as one of our official bloggers.
Categories for submissions include VJs & Celebrities, Lifestyle & Fashion, Gadgets & Gaming, and Music & Entertainment. Deadline is June 30, 2009. Enter here.
Protect your WordPress blog with these plugins
With WordPress 2.8 out, that means it’s upgrade season for us. That also means older, unupdated versions of WP more vulnerable to attacks. Keith Dsouza of Weblog Tools Collection has a list of recommended anti-spam and antivirus plugins to help improve security on your blog:
Anti-spam WordPress Plugins
- Akismet
- WP-SpamFree Anti-Spam
- WP-Hashcash
- WP reCAPTCHA
- Math Comment Spam Protection
Security WordPress Plugins
- WP Security Scan
- WordPress Exploit Scanner
- AskApache Password Protect
- TTC WordPress Security Tool
- Secure WordPress
- WordPress Firewall
Check out the blog post for details and download links to each of the plugins listed above. Got any more plugins you can recommend? You can never have enough!
WordPress plugin developers still need good business model
There’s been a lot of talk about how to earn money from WordPress themes, including whether or not such methods comply with the GPL it possesses. Now it’s the plugins that need addressing. Kevin Eklund of ToMuse discusses this issue in depth.
Many developers reach a point at which they are simply unable to continue long-term support their plugins. This is largely due to the maintenance and support costs incurred for their plugins which far exceed the revenue generated by the donation based business model which most plugin developers utilize.
He then lists alternative business models for developers: premium, freemium, paid support, and ad-supported.
WordPress is a flourishing community and a potentially good source of income, so we have high hopes for the hard working folks who have made the publishing platform as beautiful and flexible as it is today.
Matt Mullenweg’s “the way I work” Interview: Filipinos treated him like a rock star
Check out this interview by Inc. Magazine with Automattic chief Matt Mullenweg on how he spends his day working on WordPress. That includes working from home (they’re a virtual company but have an office in San Francisco), tuning out all distractions through music, and traveling around the world—mostly to attend WordCamps.
He then shares a neat little anecdote about his trip to the Philippines last year (check it out on page 2):
In the Philippines, people treated me like I was a rock star. After the camp was over, I spent two hours taking pictures and signing autographs. People were like, “Will you sign my laptop?” “Will you sign my badge?” “Will you sign my body part?”
(Yes, we love you that much, Matt!) It’s nice to know us Filipinos have made that much of an impression on him. But really, it’s also about how far WordPress has come—now on its 6th anniversary, this publishing platform is absolutely huge and adored by everyone.
For WordPress, we’re trying to set up a community that will be around 10 to 30 years from now, that’s independent from the whims of the market. I feel like the nonelected benevolent dictator: It’s my responsibility to meet as many users as possible and direct the software project in a way that reflects their interests. Last year, I probably met 2,000 or 3,000 people who make their living from WordPress. We want to be like Google, eBay, Amazon — they all enable other people to make far more money than they capture. And that’s ultimately what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to create a movement.
My mom started a blog a couple of weeks ago. Six years into this, and we finally made it easy enough for my mom to use.
Here’s to 6 years more!
Philippine pride is alive and well on the internet (Happy Independence Day!)
It’s the 111th Philippine Independence Day today, meaning there’s no better day to take pride in our heritage as a nation. If you’ve been keeping tabs on online Pinoy culture, however, you’ll notice how we don’t need to wait for June 12th come around to celebrate all the things that define who are as a people, big and small.
Let’s start with our lovely flag, the elements of which has inspired clothing lines, magazine covers, and every Pinoy-centric campaign you can think of.
Of course it does help with big companies like Google and Yahoo! join in the festivities too.
Speaking of festivities—food! Lechon, balut, isaw, taho, mangoes, bananas, rice, or the biscuits called Filipinos, our love for our delicacies is found around the world, websites included.
June 12th is also a time to remember how our heroes, from Rizal to Ninoy, fought and died for our country. Apart from reverence, there seems to be a different kind of fascination with our ancient elders. There’s a LOLcat version of Mi Ultimo Adios and a series of Noli/Fili meets the Katipuneros and Propagandistas here and here, Facebook-style.
That’s not the only kind of nostalgia we Filipinos enjoy on the Web. We can watch all the retro TV commercials and telenovelas on demand. And if that isn’t your thing, we’ve got present-day stars to watch too: Charice Pempengco, Manny Pacquiao, Arnel Pineda, Christine Gambito, the Philippine All-Stars, the Cebu inmates, Apl.de.ap, Nicole Scherzinger, Batista, and more.
Finally, perhaps the most important part of the Philippine revolution online are the different causes and movements to better our nation. From reactions to controversies like the De la Paz-Pangandaman golf incident and the Great Book Blockade of 2009, to politically-motivated initiatives like No to Con-Ass, to grassroots sites like Ako Mismo and One Tama.
Happy Independence Day, everyone!
WordPress 2.8
Six months after the release of the previous version comes WordPress 2.8 codename “Baker”, with the slogan “cool, smoother, simpler blogging”. Matt writes that the latest version is a nice fit and finish release for WordPress with improvements to themes, widgets, taxonomies, and overall speed
:
- Load pages, particularly styles and scripts, faster
- Browse and install themes from the Theme Directory from the WordPress dashboard (just like plugins)
- Edit theme and plugin code with syntax highlighting using the CodePress editor
- Enjoy more user-friendly Widgets with a revamp of its interface
- Use Screen Options to every page in the dashboard
- And more!
Backup your database and files then hit “update now” in your dashboard. Don’t forget to check out the video above!
WordCamp Philippines 2009 on September 19
The votes are in and a date has been set for WordCamp Philippines: it’s on September 19, the third Saturday of that month. Mark your calendars!
No final word on the mini WordCamp that will be held in Davao, but it will most likely take place a week before.
Finally, the organizers request everyone who will be talking about and tagging the event that they use #wordcamp-ph.
Philippine Blog Awards 2009 on October 9
That’s right folks, preparations for this year’s Philippine Blog Awards have begun and two things are now set in stone: the date, October 9, and the venue, Megatent Events Venue (30 Meralco Ave., Bgy. Ugong, Pasig City).
For those who missed last year’s event, check out the night’s highlights courtesy of Buddy Gancenia:
The Philippine Blog Awards 2: Awards Night Highlights from BUDDY GANCENIA on Vimeo.
WordPress 2.8 Release Candidate 1
Almost there folks! WordPress 2.8 now has a release candidate available for download. Check out the changelog for a list of modifications since beta 2. It’s June 8 and only a couple of days left before the final version ships.
According to the announcement, “With Release Candidate 1, we think WordPress 2.8 is ready and complete.” Will you hold out until then, or grab this one anyway?
What’s new with WordPress 2.8
Here’s another post that checks out some of the new features in WordPress 2.8. If you’ll go through the comprehensive write-up, you’ll observe that a lot of the improvements lean toward usability, accessibility, and performance optimization, which in turn improve one’s overall experience with WordPress. Example:
JavaScript files properly registered via the appropriate script API can now be placed at the bottom of the page. In most cases this is preferable, because JavaScript blocks parallel downloads (browsers need to evaluate it before proceeding) and can delay the time by which a page is usable and also the time by which the rendering is complete. So, unless a JavaScript file needs to be at the top, it can be moved to the bottom for better performance.
Important announcements from the #wordpress-dev IRC meetup
A few heads-up announcements regarding the future of WordPress development at the #wordpress-dev IRC meetup:
- WordPress 2.8 target release date is June 10, next week.
- WordPress 2.9 will require MySQL 4.1.2. (Might be good to start contacting your webhost this early to see if yours is compatible, or can be made compatible within the coming months.)
- Upgrading to PHP 5 from PHP 4 is highly recommended and will pushed for in the future WordPress upgrader. (Another thing to ask your webhost about.)
- In case you want to check out the IRC meetup, they’re held weekly every Wednesday at 9 pm UTC.
Very useful information to help you prepare for future versions of WordPress. Although WP is pretty easy to deal with when it comes to web hosting requirements, it doesn’t hurt to know about these things even if you’re an ordinary blogger.
WordCamp SF State of the Word and Q&A with Matt Mullenweg
Aside from the merging of WordPress.org and WordPress MU, many other announcements were made during WordCamp San Francisco’s State of the Word, delivered of course by Matt Mullenweg. Check out the summary posted by The WordCamp Report, including this Q&A.
Some highlights:
- Lots of changes that caused “minor revolutions”: return of Quick Post, threaded comments, 1-click upgrades, etc.
- WordPress core focuses on speed and simplicity, then “let the people do whatever they want”
- WordPress themes and the GPL still a big issue
- WordPress is the fastest growing skill on Elance
- WordPress.tv
- WordPress 2.8: coming soon! New features: rewritten Widgets, theme directory built into admin, CodePress syntax editor, multiple galleries per page, per page options for plugins, improved language support
- WordPress 2.9 to focus on under-the-hood improvements
For more links, catch this round up by Weblog Tools Collection.
WordPress and WordPress MU to merge!
Update (06/03/09): Matt himself left this comment:
While WordPress.org-the-website will include more BuddyPress features, that was a separate announcement from the elimination of MU and bringing its code into core WP.
Update (06/02/09): Lorelle VanFossen has a different interpretation of the cryptic merger. It’s anybody’s guess at this point, it seems.
At WordCamp San Francisco, where Matt Mullenweg delivered his annual State of the Word keynote, he announced that WordPress and WordPress MU (multi-user) will be merging in the near future. Apparently he told users to “watch out for version 3.0″. There weren’t many details given during the event, which means we’re left to speculate on how this merger will actually happen.
Still, WordPress MU has been less accessible to the ordinary users compared to WordPress given its feature requirements. And BuddyPress, which runs on top of WordPress MU, is a very appealing CMS for those interested in building communities and social networks. So integrating multi-user features into the WordPress is great news.
Philippine Right of Reply bill will cover bloggers
Representatives Mong Palatino and Bienvenido Abante confirm that House Bill No. 3306, also known as the Right of Reply bill, will cover websites, emails, and other electronic devices. Meaning, blogs are included.
Palatino noted that Section 1 of HB 3306 states, “All persons, natural or judicial, who are accused directly or indirectly of committing, having committed, or are criticized by innuendo, suggestion or rumor for any lapse in behavior in public or private life shall have the right to reply to charges or criticisms published in newspapers, magazines, newsletters or publications circulated commercially or for free, or aired or broadcast over radio, television, websites or through any electronic device.”
“The bill, therefore, would not only affect media outfits and journalists but also all website owners, website masters, e-mail account holders and other netizens who are not necessarily media practitioners,” said Palatino who has been a blogger since 2004.
Palatino believes this is “Internet censorship and suppression of freedom of speech and expression” and encourages both bloggers and texters to oppose the passing of this bill in Congress. Abante says people will have to refer to the specific implementing rules and regulations, especially for cases such as blogging.
Considering commenting systems are a default feature in blogs and anybody can start his own blog anyway, one wonders if the Right of Reply bill should be applicable, even feasible, on the Web.
WordCamp Philippines 2009 is coming!
Preparations for the second ever WordCamp Philippines have begun, as announced by Blogie Robillo and the rest of the Mindanao Bloggers. It’s pretty early to tell what this event will be like, but we’ve got several pieces of information already, like the tentative venue (Asian Institute of Management), another mini WordCamp in Davao, and a new website, WordCamp.ph, courtesy of dotPH. Expect an organizational meeting within the coming week.
How can you help? Easy peasy:
We are now calling for volunteers for the various committees (logistics, tech, food & refreshments, etc). If you would like to be a speaker at WordCamp, let me know! And if you have suggestions on topics to be presented / discussed at WordCamp, do leave a comment right here.
Are you excited yet? I know I am! New to WordCamp? Check out how last year’s went down.
7 reasons to get excited over WordPress 2.8
Clint Maher lists 7 reasons we should look forward to WordPress 2.8. Search for and install themes within the WordPress admin, manage tags more easily, customize the dashboard components, and so on.
Of course there are many other new features in WP 2.8, including under-the-hood improvements most users won’t notice, so why not give the beta version a spin? Just make sure you’re either in a testing environment or all your files are properly backed up if you’re using it live.
How to set dynamic body IDs/classes in WordPress
Perishable Press lists 9 different ways you can “label” your <body> element using PHP and WordPress—very useful for development themes with special features depending on where you are in a WP site. A lot of them are derived from theme development experts and popular theme frameworks like the WordPress Sandbox.
The 9th way must be mentioned here: when WordPress 2.8 comes out, things will become much easier since it now has the body_class() function. More info about that here (since there’s no page on the Codex for it yet).
How to create Widgets in WordPress 2.8
Justin Tadlock has a nice tutorial on the new way to create WordPress Widgets in WP 2.8. You might remember that in the upcoming version of WordPress the admin interface for Widgets has been revamped, but the method of developing Widgets has been updated as well.
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the steps of setting up a widget, its settings form, and displaying it on your site. At the end of the tutorial, you can download an example plugin to build from. Of course, you can apply this to your themes as well.
According to him, coding a widget is much easier this time because you just have to extend the WP_Widget class. The tutorial also gets into advanced widget controls and display settings.
WPSeek, a WordPress search engine & reference
What started out as a Firefox add-on is now a full-blown standalone search engine for all things WordPress. WPSeek returns content from WordPress Codex documentation, useful code snippets, Google search results, Support Forum discussions, and your own notes. All in one place. Thrown in some AJAXy autosuggest goodness and you’re all set!
Depending on your web browser of choice, you can add the website as a custom search engine. There’s also an API, a Firefox Ubiquity plugin, and finally an Adobe AIR desktop client in the works.
Theme and plugin authors will definitely find WPSeek immensely useful. And if you’re just learning the ropes of WordPress, it’s definitely worth a visit.
WordPress 2.8 Beta 2
WordPress 2.8 Beta 2 is out. You can check out the changes made since the first came out here. But as always, the Codex is your reference for the major changes since 2.7.
Achieving ultimate SEO satisfaction with WordPress
Andy Beard has an extremely detailed article on tweaking WordPress themes and plugins to achieve real SEO satisfaction on your blog. He tackles two key elements, first link priority and referential integrity, and covers a lot of tips that will be of great interest for theme and plugin authors with an SEO slant.
I don’t think there is one “premium” WordPress Theme that doesn’t claim to be perfect for SEO “out-of-the-box”, so I thought I would bash some theme developer heads around and maybe knock some sense into them.
[...]
That doesn’t leave WordPress SEO plugins off the hook, there isn’t one plugin that gets beyond 60:40 or with some tweeking possibly 70:30, depending on what factors you feel are important, or are aware of.
As for bloggers looking for that “perfect” SEO theme or plugin, don’t be so easily convinced—it takes a lot of tweaking to get optimum results. Of course, he also talks about the simple solution: while making great content is top priority, you still need to “think like an SEO & Marketer”.
25 examples of WordPress as a CMS
Noupe has compiled 25 unique uses for WordPress as more than a blog, but a full-blown CMS.
Among those mentioned is the Ford Autoshow website, which is one of the examples Karla Redor used in her talk (under the same topic) at last year’s WordCamp Philippines. Check out the whole list and take down notes—the possibilities with WordPress are endless, and you’d be surprised with the features some of these sites have.
dotMobi WordPress Pack
The dotMobi WordPress back is a jampacked suite containing themes, widgets, and plugins that you can use to make your WP-powered site fully compatible with mobile devices. All courtesy of the dotMobi network.
The pack contains the following functionality:
- Mobile switcher to detect mobile visitors and provide an appropriate experience
- Base mobile theme for quick-and-easy XHTML-MP compliance
- Extended mobile themes so you can unleash your mobile creativity
- Transcoding and device adaptation to optimise the mobile experience
- DeviceAtlas integration for world-class adaptation
- Mobile admin panel for when posts can’t wait
- Mobile ad widget to make you some money
- Barcode widget to help users bookmark your blog
Wow, they really thought of everything, from site appearance to administration to monetization. The Web is going mobile, so why not add these extra features since dotMobi makes it very easy for you to do?
Download dotMobi WordPress Pack
Instant Install WordPress
Instant Install WordPress is a small PHP script that downloads and extracts the latest WordPress version on your site server. Once uploaded all you have to do is call it (e.g. http://www.yoursite.com/easywp.php) and it will ask for details to fill out the configuration file, then installs WordPress. This basically winds down installation time from the famous 5 minutes to just about a few seconds!
(Note: This tool was first called EasyWP but the creator discovered it had the same name as an existing plugin.)
Download Instant Install WordPress
WordPress 2.8 Beta 1
WordPress 2.8 is coming! Technically, it’s already arrived with the release of this first beta. If you’ve been absolutely impatient about it, download away. If not, you can wait a few more days until it hits gold.
The latest features of WordPress 2.8 are documented here. Lots of admin improvements and hopefully, few additional features that will break existing themes and plugins.
WordPress.com lets you post by email
Still on the WordPress.com front, there’s a new feature called Post by Email, which does just what it says: it lets you create and publish new posts straight from your email account.
All you have to do is check out the secret email address assigned to you under My Blogs, then send your blog post to it, and watch it show up on your blog. Formatted text and attached images are all detected. In fact, if you upload multiple images, a gallery is created for them!
If this hasn’t whetted your appetite, here’s a quick run-down of Post by Email features:
- Transcoding of any video files supported by the WordPress video player (mp4, mov, wmv, avi, mpg, and m4v).
- Automatic removal of standard signature blocks, with support for manual removal of other signatures.
- Add your email addresses directly into your address book using downloadable vCards. (You don’t even need to remember the address!)
- Automatic notification of a published email post.
- Conversion of YouTube URLs into embedded videos.
Also check out the Post by Email support page for advanced features like shortcodes you can use in your email.
I can’t wait to see all of these features on self-hosted WordPress.org blogs. Although blogging by email is already supported, it’s not quite as streamlined as this.
VideoPress launches on WordPress.com
VideoPress is a new upgrade feature created by the Automattic team for WordPress.com that lets users create high-definition streaming video for their blogs. It’s also great for video podcasting since it crunches all the necessary work you: videos are iTunes and Miro compatible, and they play in the right frame rates you uploaded them with.
Although there’s no official word yet on when this will be available for self-hosted WordPress sites, you’re advised to create your own WordPress.com account to take advantage of the plugin and then embed the created videos on your WordPress.org blog.
Plus, the VideoPress framework is open source, so we can expect to see more free-flowing improvements to it in the future.
Get to know the “rockstars” of WordPress
The term “rockstar” has been pretty popular in the WordPress community but how this site has taken it to a whole new level. It’s not your typical showcase of well-designed sites rocking WordPress, but of people! Specifically, individuals who have done a great job in improving the WordPress brand, whether as designers, developers, or evangelists. Which is why you’ll probably recognize a lot of the names and faces on WeRockWP.
And if you don’t, time to get to know them!
Use one WordPress installation on multiple sites
Here’s an interesting experiment: how would you like to run a single WordPress installtion of multiple webistes? Duane Storey tried just that and the details are all here.
There are a lot of other reasons why you might want a single WordPress install for multiple blogs. First, if you make backups of each blog’s data from time to time, you might end up with a complete WordPress package for each website you host, even though ultimately 90% of those files are identical (basically only themes, plugins and custom content vary). Second, if you run a hosting server with a PHP caching engine (which most do), it’s likely that the cache keeps track of data using the complete path to the file, which ultimately means the cache effectiveness will decrease proportional to the number of sites (aka WordPress installations). If all the installations on a server shared one common WordPress install, you’d only have to cache that one set of PHP files — effectively you could keep WordPress in a compiled state in memory for all of your sites.
The caching argument sounds very compelling. The key to the setup is having a more flexible wp-config.php file, coupled with some URL remapping. Check out Virtual Multiblog for WordPress for a similar approach.
Sounds complicated? Or exciting?
Top 5 podcasts about WordPress
PimpMyWordPress has compiled a comprehensive list of the best WordPress-related podcasts out there today, complete with iTunes subscription links and everything. What’s more, most of them are done weekly, so just imagine the amount of dedication these WordPress fans have. Doesn’t it make you love the WP community even more?
If you can’t get enough of WordPress and want to take things to the next level, or if you’re dying to get to know some of the more revered members of this community, check out these WordPress podcasts.
WordPress Plugin Competition 2009
Weblog Tools Collection is back with its annual WordPress Plugin Competition, the breeding ground for some of the most useful plugins in the community, e.g.:
- 2008 grand prize winner: WP Comment Remix
- 2007 grand prize winner: OneClick
- 2005 grand prize winner: Vhosts and Secure Login
The rules are pretty much the same as the previous years, so check out these steps for participating this year. Join here.
Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2009
The Philippines’ Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2009 Writing Project is back. All you have to do is write a post detailing your top 10 emerging influential blogs for the current year. Take note of the following cut-off dates:
- Featured blogs must have been created no earlier than May 1, 2008
- Blog posts can be updated until August 2 but you must notify the writing project organizers
- Deadline for submissions is on July 30.
- Featured blogs of the week on Influential Blogger will begin on May 16.
- A final review of posts will be made on August 5
Ten participants stand to win $100 each. Read the complete mechanics here.
WordPress Plugin: A Year Before
A Year Before is WordPress plugin that displays titles of blog posts that were published a specified time ago. For example, display posts exactly a year ago, or something more recent like a month ago.
You can insert the code for this plugin into your theme files or use the sidebar widget provided.
Force WordPress theme CSS changes immediately
Theme authors: if you’ve been tweaking a WordPress site’s CSS file, the changes you’ve made usually don’t immediately show up for the blog visitors without a forced refresh. The reason: web browsers usually keep cached copies of site files. Mark Jaquith has a neat fix that allows you to grab the latest version of the CSS file and override the cached one automatically.
Just use this line of code in your header.php file:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/style.css?v=<?php echo filemtime(TEMPLATEPATH . '/style.css'); ?>" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" />This automatically updates the
?v=part every time you modify the file. Boom. Now everyone instantly sees your changes.
This should also work for other files like your Javascript files.
Designing for WordPress screencast series
Alex Denning of Nometech.com has launched a screencast called Designing for WordPress, a three-part series that teaches you how to go from a static HTML web design to a full-fledged WordPress design, all in glorious video.
Designing for WordPress is something that a lot of people want to learn how to do. But don’t know where to start. Why? There aren’t too many great tuts out there for people wanting to get started with WordPress theme design. In this screencast we’ll be converting HTML to WordPress: a great place to start for any aspiring theme developer.
If you know a fair amount of HTML and want to go into WordPress theme design, this video should be a good place to start. Watch out for the succeeding parts too!
BuddyPress 1.0
The 1.0 release of the WordPress MU-powered social network BuddyPress has finally arrived. If you will recall we’ve mentioned BuddyPress a couple of times before, and Matt even talked about it during last year’s WordCamp Philippines.
Here’s how Matt Mullenweg describes BuddyPress:
BuddyPress is an official sister project of WordPress. The idea behind it was to see what would happen to the web if it was as easy for anyone to create a social network as it is to create a blog today. There’s been an explosion of social activity on the web, it’s probably the most important trend of the past few years, but there’s been a dearth of Open Source tools that enable the social web.
Vote on the WordPress admin header and navigation design tweaks
Several members of the WordPress community have volunteered to make tweaks to the WordPress administration panel and now it’s time for you to vote.
For those who haven’t been keeping track, read this background story.
Okay, so here’s the deal. Modifying the nav/header to be a little nicer is was a last-minute design idea, and if it can’t be worked out in the time we have left before 2.8 (which is very little), we’ll just wait until 2.9 to work on it. But! If someone comes up with something the community really likes and it doesn’t break any of the design guidelines for the rest of WordPress, we could sneak it in.
The poll will close at 8pm New York Time or 2am UTC. Here’s another chance to have a say in the development of WordPress!
WordPress Plugin: p2pConverter
p2pConverter converts posts to static pages and vice versa. Once installed, this functionality is available in both the Edit Post/Page and the Posts/Pages screens. Additionally, you can set which user roles can use this converter.
If you want to convert a Page or a Post to the either, click that button. Or you can click the Convert button while editing a Post or Page right next to the Delete and Publish buttons.
WP.com now redirects to WordPress.com
Matt Mullenweg has announced Automattic’s recent purchase of the wp.com domain, which now redirects to WordPress.com. He also asked users of the hosted WordPress platform what they should do with the domain, and in this age of microblogging, built-in URL shorteners seem immensely useful. Some people are also saying they should just come out with its own microblogging service altogether.
Of course the top answer in the comments would have to be using wp.com as a shorter alternative for blog URLs. Over at The Blog Herald, Thord Daniel Hedengren points out that a bigger issue here: a branding problem between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
Users are having a hard time understanding the difference between WordPress and WordPress. I keep getting questions about how to do this or that for their WordPress blog, and “why can’t I ping that service?” and so on. Because far from all WordPress users that are looking to enhance their blogs understand that they are using the hosted version - wordpress.com - and not the stand-alone one, of course being wordpress.org.
You know what you have to do, Automattic, and I’ll spell it out for you just so we’re really really clear on this.
Rebrand wordpress.com to wp.com.
Now please.
What will WP do?
