Solving the Authentication and Plugin Errors After an Upgrade to WordPress 2.5

March 31st • 11 Comments • Under: WordPress • Tags: plugins, WordPress

The upgrade process to WordPress 2.5 was as smooth as it can possibly be — simple, fast and without a single error message. However, there were a few problems that became apparent only after the upgrade. This article will explain those issues in detail and show how to solve them. Here is a short list of problems solved:

1. When trying to log-in after the upgrade, the following error message is displayed: “You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.”
2. Yet Another Related Posts plugin returns “Fatal error: Call to undefined function merge_filters() in … includes.php on line 73”.
3. Popularity Contest plugin returns “Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error” when reactivated.

Read more »

WordPress Plugin of the Year: PHP Speedy

March 28th • 2 Comments • Under: WordPress • Tags: plugin, WordPress

Although we are not even close to the middle of 2008, I can honestly say that PHP Speedy (designed and developed by Leon Chevalier) is the plugin which the WordPress community has been waiting for since the very first day.

Download it, install it and watch your blog load faster than you have ever imagined (even with that huge chunk of other plugins you have installed). Fantastic job, Leon!

Podcast of the week: WordPress Weekly

February 9th • 3 Comments • Under: Podcast of the Week, WordPress • Tags: blogging, podcast, suggestion, WordPress

If you are a WordPress user, you should definitely check out the WordPress Weekly podcast hosted by Jeff from Jeffro2pt0.com. It covers the latest and greatest in the world of WordPress — from news, plugin and theme reviews to general discussions about the online publishing.

The show is recorded live every Friday evening at 21:00 EST using the TalkShoe recording platform. It follows the round table discussion format where apart from the panel of guests also any of the listeners can call in and have their own say about the topics being discussed. Read more »

WordPress Plugin: Custom Function Widgets

February 4th • 21 Comments • Under: WordPress • Tags: blogging, plugin, WordPress

Many of the WordPress plugin authors don’t offer widgets, but only raw PHP functions (or hooks) which you have to insert into the theme’s template files. As the number of functions increases it becomes harder to manage it all, especially if you decide to uninstall some of them or add new ones.

It is especially inconvenient for those who are not so savvy, or don’t want to edit theme files. Moreover, if one decides to change the theme, the edits have to be repeated all over again.

Therefore, I made this Custom Function Widget plugin which allows you to create sidebar widgets without ever touching the theme’s files and use these widgets in any theme you like. Read more »

Take-away photo and image positioning CSS styles for blogs — idea for a plugin

January 28th • 5 Comments • Under: Design Suggetions, WordPress • Tags: css, WordPress

After reading Kim’s comment regarding the Morning Racer theme, I had an idea of how to achieve a consistent image and photo placement in a WordPress blog even if you decide to change the theme.

The solution would be a plugin which would provide a “standard” set of CSS classes for styling different image (and other element) positioning.

The great thing is that you could use these CSS classnames with any theme you like as long as you have the plugin enabled. It would be also possible to specify a prefared classname prefix (for example, kd-wide, mo-withborder-a or pa-image-a) so that the plugin’s CSS doesn’t mess with the theme’s CSS. It could also contain CSS styles for lists (like the “flat” and “spaced” ones used on this blog), “important” messages, etc.

A kind of a portable image positioning thing. And you wouldn’t have to learn new CSS classnames or image layout ideas offered by different theme authors.

What do you think? Maybe you have a suggestion of other items (apart from images and lists) that you would like to have special styling.