WatchCount.com
Forum Replies Created
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Forum: Plugins
In reply to: Using Facebook Connect To Gain Access to wp-adminThat sounds like a fantastic idea. I don’t know if there’s a plugin for that, but there should be!
If not, sounds within the realm of reasonable coding effort – not simple, but not terribly elaborate either. Still, depends on who’s doing the coding of course.
Personally, I’m just starting to play around with Facebook Connect myself. Feel free to check back with me in a couple months and I may be able to offer a more detailed suggestion to your request.
-WCC
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: 500 Internal server error — /wp-admin onlyHmmmm…. Being that you just moved your blog, you may want to double-check things like your DNS entries, any .htaccess files, any of your host’s configuration settings… Did you move the WP DB too? You must have. There’d be settings there to look at as well.
-WCC
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: Upgraded to 2.9.1 and now Site Admin link doesn’t do anythingCan you go directly to the Admin page successfully?
http://www.YourSite.com/blog/wp-admin/
or
http://www.YourSite.com/wp-admin/
-WCC
Forum: Themes and Templates
In reply to: Where is the widget code?Depends which widget. You’d need to dig through the plugin’s code.
-WCC
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: How to give free ebooks to people?You can upload a simple eBook to your server, then link to it from within a webpage or blog post or email – just telling people to right-click and “Save As”.
-WCC
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: Moving a blog questionDoes your browser get redirected to the proper URL, or do you just see your blog displayed at the “what/etc” URL?
Sorta sounds like you might be using URL masking (usually not a good idea).
-WCC
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: Newsletter plugin??Do you mean to imply that posting to the blog will then email people? Or are you speaking about a separate, standalone email newsletter? If the latter, just look into any the large popular email service providers like Aweber.com or ConstantContact.com – that’ll be a separate service from the blog.
As for emailing posts, I think some/many people use FeedBurner.com’s services.
-WCC
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: Email not in databaseYou may wish to read up on using phpMyAdmin to peer into your WP database and see what email addresses are stored there. That may give you some insight into what’s going on.
-WCC
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: Can’t login to my admin areaPut a
.phpat the end of that URL and you may have better luck. I tried it and see a WP admin login page (but there’s also an error message there you may need to look further into.)-WCC
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: I uploaded plugins but they don’t appear on my blogKazimingi:
That error usually occurs when a changed .php file accidentally includes anything (even empty lines) after the
?>at the end of the file.Check each of the files you changed/uploaded (Theme files, Google Sitemap plugin, etc.) and make sure that for each of the files there are no newline characters or whitespace – or anything – at the end of the files. From the looks of it, the culprit might be the Peregrinator ‘functions.php’ file, but it could be another one.
-WCC
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: HTML widget pushes sidebar to bottomAny luck resolving this problem? I have a client experiencing the same issue, albeit with a different plugin.
Thanks.
-WCC
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: Tips for New Plugin Developers to Help Connect the DotsOther Tips
When plugins are installed in a blog, the Manage Plugins admin page lists each plugin with a description. That description is pulled from the header of the main plugin php file. Cool tip: you can include some basic HTML there, such as<a>link tags,<strong>for bold, and some others, to spruce up the description and hold your bloggers’ hands as you guide them to learn the ropes of your new plugin. Your plugin’s entry on that screen will likely stand out amongst the other plugins the blogger has installed since most plugins just use plain text in that description area.Version numbering: WordPress recommends (maybe even requires) that you number your plugin versions with numbers and periods instead of letters and spaces. I recommend you play it safe and use the same numbering format that WordPress itself uses: 1.2.3 — there are many good reasons for this.
While there’s a new plugin compatibility system being rolled out at this time (late 2009 / early 2010) to allow people to vote on the compatibility between plugin versions and WP versions, you may wish to declare compatibility of your plugin with earlier versions of WP. To edit those pages, you’ll first to need to establish a (free) WP Codex login – this is different from your ww.wp.xz.cn/SVN login+password.
When you’re logged in to ww.wp.xz.cn and are viewing your WP Plugin Directory page, you’ll see an ‘Admin’ tab with some handy SVN links, POT file / i18n info, and the ability to add more admin users (“Committers”) for your plugin.
WP-Plugins.net – This seems to be an old site no longer maintained, and at some point replaced by the new, current shiny WP Plugin Directory. Probably not worth your time submitting there, but who knows.
Still developing your plugin? Check out these common plugin coding mistakes.
Wrap-Up
Ironically I don’t have an appropriate blog to post this tips list on, so I’m dropping it here on the forums. You are more than welcome to copy all or part of it to your own blog for better visibility, provided that you credit WatchCount.com as the author, and link back to either this thread, or to our plugin. (Feel free to make minor edits to correct or clarify any of the above.) Likewise, if any WP admins are reading this and feel this could even stand alone somewhere else within the WP.org site, please gimme a holler or follow up below.Thanks, everyone! 🙂
-WCC
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: Tips for New Plugin Developers to Help Connect the DotsReadme.txt Tips
Your readme.txt file is what defines just about everything that appears on your WP Plugin Directory page – the Description, Installation, Screenshots, FAQ, etc. It also defines plugin compatibility with different WP versions. It’s mostly just a plain text document, but you can add some basic formatting features (bold, italics, links, lists, etc.) by using a streamlined markup language cleverly named ‘Markdown’.The Description part of readme.txt is what’s displayed on the main/first page of your WP Plugin Directory pages. Naturally, you’ll want to put some good thought into exactly what you have to share there as you inform visitors what your plugin does. But, also know that many bloggers discover plugins right from the Install Plugins admin pages which allow them to search the WP Plugin Directory right from within their very blog. In that case, they first see a summary of your plugin — which is roughly the first 1-2 paragraphs of your readme.txt Description section. So, keep that in mind as your formulate what to say in your Description, as you may only have the first 60-or-so words to capture their attention.
While there’s a documented syntax used within readme.txt to display screenshots inside your WP Plugin Directory page, there aren’t many (any?) formatting options. You may wish to consider instead just linking from that area to your website where you can go hog wild with screenshots and other demos.
Plugin Installation
If your plugin is finally listed in the WP Plugin Directory, bloggers can install the plugin right from within their blog’s Install Plugins admin pages. They’d find your plugin via an inline Directory search, then click “Install” once or twice and their blog handles the download + installation internally. There’s no need to bother folks with FTPing plugins and such, unless they have an earlier version of WP.As an alternative (such as if you’re not listed in the WP Plugin Directory), you can offer the option to download the plugin .zip file, and upload it into the Install Plugins page in their blog. They’ll need a newer version of WP to avail themselves of this feature (probably 2.7+).
Plugin Upgrade
Assuming your plugin is listed in the WP Plugin Directory, upgrading is best done right from within the Manage Plugins admin page, with but a simple click (or two). That’s all. While I’m not completely sure of what happens behind the scenes, I would image that simple file replacement is all that is done, with your new plugin files overwriting the old ones. (Naturally you’ll need to make sure your plugin is written to interact with the blogger’s WP DB properly after it’s been upgraded.)For plugins not listed in the WP Plugin Directory, I’m not sure the best way to guide users into a clean plugin upgrade, aside from file replacement via FTP. The “upload a .zip file from within WP method” seems to fail on trying to replace the plugin files, citing that the plugin “already exists” (…yes, it does, and we want to replace it with a newer version…).
Forum Tag
In the WordPress Plugins and Hacks forum, you get a special tag reserved for you — the “SVN string” mentioned earlier. AFAIK, if anyone posts a new thread/topic in that forum with the first tag being that string, then the Topic Title gets prepended with “[Plugin: Your Formal Plugin Name Here]” for easy review. This all happens automatically when clicking the “Got something to say?” link in the sidebar of your WP Plugin Directory page and is meant to give quick access to support threads about your plugin within the larger Plugins and Hacks WP forum — as if you had your own subforum there. (Example: our WP forum tag.)(…Part 4 continued below…)
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: Tips for New Plugin Developers to Help Connect the Dots“Trunk Method”
The common method of publishing your plugin is to “tag” (define) a formal release version of the plugin, amongst all the other historical versions of that plugin that you’ve uploaded to SVN for development, testing, or release. From your WP Plugin Directory page, people can see and download earlier versions of your plugin that you’ve tagged.However, another strategy exists: You can opt to make only the latest version of your plugin available by abstaining from tagging your releases, keeping the latest/current live version in your SVN ‘trunk’ folder (don’t put your dev/test version there!), and noting your readme.txt file with “Stable tag: trunk” instead of “Stable tag: 1.2.3”. You might like the simplicity of this method in keeping only 1 version of your plugin available for download.
Plugin Download
A few things about the big red “Download” button on your repository/directory page: SVN will automatically wrap your files into a .zip file for download, so you never need to deal with zipping yourself. Also consider linking your “Download now” link on your own website to this WP-hosted .zip file instead of maintaining your own separate .zip file. It looks like the download counter for your plugin will still increment when downloads of the SVN-hosted .zip occur from your own website.Also know that if you tag your releases, the download zip filename will include the version number, which can obviously change if you release upgrades. Example:
http://downloads.wp.xz.cn/plugin/stats.1.6.zipIf you use the “trunk method” above, your download zip filename will continue maintaining the same name, such as:
http://downloads.wp.xz.cn/plugin/stats.zipMore SVN Tips
When you use your SVN client (like TortoiseSVN) to connect to Subversion, it’s recommended to connect via HTTPS instead of HTTP for improved security.While you may have subdirectories for your plugin’s .js/.css/etc. files, place your main plugin’s .php file directly into the root ‘trunk’ folder.
Know that (as I understand it) the entire plugins repository is completely public for read-only access; you’re only asked for your password when you “Checkin” or “Commit” your plugin files for updating. You, and anyone, can download other people’s plugin files from the repository, including previous versions that may not be officially tagged as public relases and appear on the directory page. Consider everything that you upload to SVN to remain available to the entire world, until the end of the world.
When you first get granted access to SVN, your plugin will also be assigned a certain string, like “wp-my-plugin-name” that defines your plugin in a number of places in the WordPress plugin universe. It’ll appear as part of your SVN URL, your WP Plugin Directory page URL, the download .zip filename itself, your forum tag, and perhaps a few other places. As far as I can tell, it’s a streamlined version of the plugin name you first mention in your original WP plugin submission request. For example, if you initially call your plugin “NewStuff.com Super Cool Fun Widget”, then the string derivation assigned to you will probably be “newstuffcom-super-cool-fun-widget”. Just something to keep in mind as you name your plugin.
(…Part 3 continued below…)
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: domain redirectYes, you can do all of that (I do it myself, but not from article marketing).
Firstly, realize that when an organization (such as an article directory) states “no affiliate links”, that may also imply “no automatic redirects to affiliate links”. It just depends on whether they are forbidding the ugliness of affiliate links, or the practice of article writing for affiliate marketing purposes. You may want to look into that further.
What I do – and what you may want to do – is get a hosting package, such as at GoDaddy, that allows you to connect in multiple domains to 1 account. You assign a new folder on your server for each domain. Then, you’d place 1 file, index.php or index.html, in that folder, and that file would play the role of your redirect and/or tracking.
Ok, what to put in the file… If you know any HTML or PHP, you can use meta-refreshes, or a php 301 header redirect, or javascript redirects to send the visitor on their way. As for tracking, you can get a script to track it internally, or if you don’t want to mess with that, then use a 3rd-party click-tracking service, and redirect through that to your ultimate affiliate link destination.
For example:
In article resource box: http://www.YourDomain4.com ->
Your index.php redirect script: -> http://www.ClickTrackerInc.com/?customer=123&dest=789 ->
Your ClickTracker account: -> http://www.YourMerchant.com/?affiliateID=youridhere ->
Your Merchant’s tracking: -> http://www.YourMerchant.com/landingpage.php ->Come to think of it, in your index.php file, use a 301 redirect to ensure that the referrers are passed to your tracking service.
I heard a rumor that bidurl.com does some kind of tracking. Sorry, no time to investigate myself, but if it doesn’t, there are tons of other services that do.
Here’s the code for a 301 redirect in php:
<?php $Link = 'http://www.NextDomain.com/cool-stuff.html' ; header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently') ; header('Location: ' . $Link) ; exit(); ?>Hope that helps!
-WCC