.utility-bar {
background-color: #4cbb17;
border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;
color: #ddd;
font-size: 12px;
font-size: 1.2rem;
padding: 10px 0;
padding: 1rem;
position: fixed;
width: 100%;
line-height: .5 !important;
z-index: 1;
}a:1:{i:0;a:7:{s:16:"event-start-date";s:10:"03-04-2014";s:14:"event-location";s:15:"Someplace, USA";s:10:"event-logo";s:4:"4301";s:10:"event-type";s:5:"Event";s:10:"event-link";s:36:"http://www.company.com/";s:10:"event-time";s:0:"";s:14:"event-end-date";s:10:"03-05-2014";}}$query_args = array( 'post_type' => 'events',
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'order' => 'DESC',
'meta_key' => 'event-details',
'orderby' => 'meta_value event-start-date' );
$loop = new WP_Query( $query_args );INSERT INTO wp_term_relationships VALUES (2082,838)INSERT INTO wp_term_relationships VALUES (2082,838,0);
Amazon recently release a new product called CloudFormation. It’s basically an automated build out of several Amazon AWS products, driven by a simple XML file.
Last week the development team for WordPress came up with a list of features/bug fixes they want to include in 3.1. As with all software, the end result may differ from this list. Check it out here.
I’ve been working on a few BuddyPress projects lately, using custom themes. Actually, I’ve used a great new plug-in, BuddyPress Template Pack by Andy Peatling to help with custom themes. While this great plug-in got me down the road (it basically turns your existing theme into a BuddyPress compatible theme), there were a few things missing. I wanted to share one I solved, and how.
Once I installed the theme and started working on it, I noticed that there was white space at the top of all my pages, enough room for the BuddyPress admin bar. So I knew it had something to be missing code that wasn’t displaying the admin bar. A quick search on the BuddyPress forum site and I found the solution: Make sure the wp_footer() reference is in your template file.
My theme needed a reference to wp_footer(). There was a reference to get_footer(), but that doesn’t help the admin bar. Once I added the reference, the bar shows up as desired. I call this code snippet in the custom theme where the footer should appear.
<?php
function custom_footer() { ?>
<div id="custom_footer" class="accentBorders">Copyright © 2010 All Rights Reserved.</div>
<?php
wp_footer();
}
?>
Find more BuddyPress goodness at http://buddypress.org/support/topics/.
By the way, BuddyPress is a set of plug-ins that give your WordPress site the ability to create a community.
Over the past week I have been running a poll asking what WordPress commenting systems people like. The options were Disqus, IntenseDebate, Native – built in, or None. Here is how it broke down:
These are completely un-scientific results. I’ll continue to run the poll to see if I can get more results, and I’ll update this post, or if the overall results change, I’ll write up something new.
What I find interesting is those who answered picked the native commenting system. Some of the things I would like to know is why? With the third party commenting systems providing log-ins for Facebook, Twitter, OpenID and others, the appeal to use these Social Network links doesn’t seem to be a draw.
I don’t particularly care one way or the other what commenting systems people use. I have Disqus installed on this blog, if for no other reason than I like being able to track and manage my comments on this and other sites who use Disqus.
Here’s a thought though. It would be cool to use a Gravatar type system, where your comments are tied to your email address, pinged back to a service, and then you can manage and track your comments on a wider range of sites.
My friend Scott Lemon (@humancell) also suggested another commenting system called Echo, you get more information on it here http://js-kit.com/.
If you would like to participate in my poll, please check it out here http://ow.ly/Hxj1.
I’m asked frequently what ecommerce plug-ins I have used and recommend for WordPress. There are several options, but two stand out.
WP e-Commerce is a free plug-in and can be installed right from the plug-in section of your hosted WordPress admin tool. There are several modules for this product including drop shipping, digital downloads, members only, and an affiliate option. These modules are reasonably priced, but can add up if your trying to be cost conscious.
Support for this plug-in comes from a forum on their site. Understand that a majority of questions about product issues are answered by community members. The website also encourages you to buy a documentation file for $35. I’ve never seen this before, but I suppose it’s their way of reducing the need to answer support questions. I should also mention the documentation isn’t written by the plug-in developer, but rather a user of the product.
If e-commerce isn’t your WordPress sites sole function, I would use WP e-Commerce. It’s simplicity and feature rich free version should be enough for the casual seller. A list of features can be found here.
The next application I want to share is Shopp plug-in for ecommerce. This plug-in is not free, and you will pay for enhanced features. But the thing I really like about this product is it’s breadth of features. From the WordPress Dashboard integration to the drag and drop functionality of putting products in the shopping cart.
You’ll find advanced features like inventory management, multiple shipping types, data export for Excel and Quickbooks, and various language translations. One of the major features I think sets this product apart is the cross selling option. Like Amazon, you can give your buyers the ability to buy other products that may be related, or up sell them to something of more value. Other products in this space are rushing to implement this feature, it’s that important.
Support comes from a forum on the companies website, which seems to be pretty active. Take a look at the features here. While having to pay for modules may seem costly, these modules make the product a commercial grade ecommerce system that integrates into WordPress.
I’m finding Ecommerce is becoming a natural extension of the WordPress platform. I’ve installed both products, and find them to be the best available at this time. I would like to see these companies extend their products to work with mobile themes. As an example, if you are running the WPtouch plug-in, which gives iPhone users an elegant theme, you can’t use the shopping cart to buy products. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a mobile compliant site.
What ecommerce products have you used the integrate with WordPress? What has been your experience?
Today I learned about category templates in WordPress. There is a simple, yet rarely used feature, that allows you to display content based on a specific category. For example, if you have 10 categories, with ID’s 1-10, and you want to show your visitors something different for each of these 10 categories, you can create files with this naming convention:
category-1.php, category-2.php, and so on.
When the URL http://mydomain.com/category/coolcat is entered into the browsers address bar, and WordPress sees a category request made, it looks for a category-x.php file in the main template folder. If one exists, that will be used over the default template file. If a template file isn’t found for the requested category, the next file that WordPress looks for is category.php. This is another template default file that can be applied to all categories that don’t have their own template. If a category.php isn’t found, then the default template file is used.
One thing I discovered while trying to get category templates to work, I was entering http://mydomain.com/coolcat and expecting the category template to display. But as you may know, WordPress was trying to find a Page named “coolcat”. I struggled with this for a week, and after ripping out the small hair follicles on my head, it dawned on me I was entering the wrong URL. Remember, /category/ must precede the category name, or it just doesn’t work.
Here is a link to the WordPress Codex explaining category template.
