This script is for people who have been given an exported MT database but do not have admin access to the actual MT site. (If you have access to your MT installation, it is probably much easier to create custom export template [or “index template”] and do a little grep after. See this foliovision.com article and template example.)

To use this script, you need:

• your MT database information
• permission to move this script file to a place that can connect to your MT database

Instructions

• Download MtTaggedExport.php.
• Open the file in a text editor & edit the database login information.
• Place the file someplace that can connect to your MT database.
• Open the page in your browser. Then copy and paste the text in your browser window as a .txt file. (Or, I hear there’s this thing called Terminal that will do the whole thing with a single command.)
• Import your new file into WordPress (from the dashboard menu > Tools > Import).

Possible Bugs

• I wasn’t sure what the entry_status codes were. I guessed that 3 = “Review” and 4 = “Future”
• The tagged export file imported fine when I tried it on my local computer and on my personal site. When I tried importing it on the client dev server, there were an error in the permalink slugs. Any blog post title that contained a period, “.”, had a broken permalink slug that also contained periods. To fix, just delete the period (and any extra dashes) in the permalink. I don’t know why this happened, please comment if you do.

Notes

There may be some differences between the MT default export file and the file produced by this script:

• Sort order of categories may be different, depending on how case sensitivity is set up on your database server.
• Line breaks are created using nl2br(), sometimes it doesn’t quite match up with the MoveableType export. Extra line space is forced with <p> instead of <br /> in the comments.

The formal presentation was “A beginners overview”. There was an introduction about the many ways you can interact with the WPNYC community. Then we split off to the Genius Bar.

I was expecting a bunch of self-dubbed geniuses to be discussing advanced WP topics. Instead, it was more like Apple’s Genius Bar, with about 15 people waiting to ask the geniuses their WP questions. Most of the people seemed to be designers. There were two developers (Steve Bruner, the organizer, and Kevin Cristiano) who were very patient and helpful. Most of the questions were regarding plugins. These are not direct quotes. And the plugin spellings might be wrong.

1. “What video plugin should I use for .mov files? WP won’t let me upload anything larger than 8 MB and I’ve been converting them to .fla … I don’t want to use Youtube/Vimeo because of I want particular privacy/sharing options.”
• Jw-player plugin is standard for video, uses HTML5, free/licensed version for business. Also, JPlayer & VideoJS are recommended.
• For reducing the file size, someone recommended using an online file convertor. They said that Dreamhost provides one in the control panel.
• Some debate as to where the file size limit is set (in WP or the host’s PHP settings).
• Some debate as to whether YouTube has separate privacy settings for each video (it does).
2. “My Google Analytics plugin doesn’t work.”
• Try: Ultimate Google Analytics, Google Analyticator, Google Analytics for WP
• You don’t actually need a plugin

3. “I have problems when copying a site (say, from local to host server). I copy all the WP files, copy the database, change the all the urls in the db & edit the config file. Almost everything copies except for some miscellaneous settings, like the custom header, menus, etc. need to be reset. Why? Am I missing a step?” (This was my question )
• Did you replace all the URLs? Yes, with a sql query.
• Try Crowd Favorite’s plugin called Ramp. $100 but worth it.
• Just point the domain/change the hostfile so localhost thinks that it’s the live URL. (Although this might cause problems with testing third-party functions like analytics, twitter feeds, etc.)
• See http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/wordpress-local-dev-tips/ (uses conditionals in wp-config)
• Something about the future moving towards networks with a shared userbase & separate instances of something.
4. “My security plugin says that I have problems with x, y, z, how do I fix it?”
• “There’s a tab right here that has instructions for fixing your problems.”
• Read Hardening WordPress in the Codex.
• Use WP Security Scan plugin
5. “What social plugins do you recommend?”
• Links alpha, Twitterfeed, Autoblogged, WPematico
• Disliked: Feed WordPress
6. Something about cron, server cron, cron jobs. There’s a wp-cron control plugin. Someone has to visit your site to trigger cron.
7. “Everybody should use Google Webmaster tools.”
8. Google will ding sites running old versions of WP. Sometimes it (Chrome?) will show a warning that the site might not be safe.
9. “Why haven’t more people updated to WP 3.2?”
• It’s usually safer to wait… because of bugs & plugin updates.
• WP 3.1 and 3.2 are safe. Something about WP being ok two families back.
10. Selling themes & child themes (e.g., for Genesis). Themeforest. Next month’s talk.
11. “Best form plugin?” Gravity Forms
12. Free vs premium
• WP is moving towards not free. Takes too much time to maintain free plugins & answer questions.
• Prices are still reasonable: $60 for a theme + a couple hundred for plugins. Quality for paid stuff is better, plus you have support.
• Some people ask too many questions and are taking advantage of the WP community.
13. “Which shopping cart theme should I use for e-books/file downloads?”
• Cart66, Shopify, Marketpress. Cart66 is not recommended for retail merch.
• Definitely get an SSL certificate or use a gateway.
14. “Which SEO metatag plugin should I use?” Yost SEO, WordPress SEO, All in one SEO
15. “Why do my HTML tags get lost when I switch from the html editor to the visual editor and back?”
• That’s just what happens.
• Use the TinyMCE Advanced plugin, it will give you more options in the visual editor. It won’t be necessary to use the HTML editor (except for embed codes). Also it lets you keep the <p> tags, which will make everyone happy.
16. Best practices for staging a site
• Use Dot local
• See wp-hackers mailing list archive
• Use Subversion to keep backups of themes. Then have a cron job kickoff subversion.
• There are many scripts to move test to production.
17. Child theming: do it!
• Saves you from fixing deprecated functions with every WP update.
• Try: Genesis, Flex, Carrington, Studiopress
• New hybrid method (e.g., Devpress) allows you to activate features instead of deactivating
18. “What slider/image gallery plugin should I use?”
    Slider easing slider or Nivo with NextGen
19. “What should I use for a forum?” BBpress or Mingle
20. Post-meeting
• Graphpaper Press theme was recommended.
• Yooko theme for responsive design.
• Campaign Monitor has really good tracking for email blasts.
• “Digging into WordPress” is a good book.

Notes

• WordPress NYC Meetup
• WPNYC.org

You could try to establish file naming conventions, or you could stop being a masochist & modify the function. All that needs to be changed is a .* to [^>]*.

Here is the complete catch_that_image() function with the fix (it goes in your functions.php file):

function catch_that_image() {
	 global $post, $posts;
	 $first_img = '';
	 ob_start();
	 ob_end_clean();
	 $output = preg_match_all('/<img.+src=[\'"]([^\'"]+)[\'"][^>]*>/i', $post->post_content, $matches);
	 $first_img = $matches [1] [0];

	 if(empty($first_img)){ //Defines a default image
		  $first_img = "/images/default.jpg";
	 }
	 return $first_img;
}

Call the function wherever you want in your theme files:

<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>

Easy!

Notes

• Original code & quick instructions from WPRecipes
• WordPress.org forum discusses the function: Retrieve first image from post
• A short explanation of how the code works from Smashing Magazine: 10 Useful WordPress Loop Hacks: #10. Create A Loop Of Images

Go to Edit > Menus… Then, in the first drop-down menu, select “Photoshop Defaults”.

Notes

• John Nack from Adobe explains why this happens.
• Chris Koerner provides a custom menu file to solve the menu problem.

After much tweaking, everything looks amazing — legible even! You go to ‘Save for Web & Devices…’… and your carefully kerned text turns light and fuzzy and unreadable. You try sliding up the jpg quality, adding gif colors, and rubbing your eyes. But the type still looks off.

This is because Ai is rasterizing the text with its default anti-alias settings. You can change these settings to improve the appearance of type. Go to Effects > Rasterize, and you will be given three options for anti-aliasing in a drop-down menu: None, Art Optimized (Supersampling), and Type Optimized (Hinted).

Here’s how the different settings look at 100%:

200%:

After setting the effect, you can change the object’s anti-alias settings in the Appearance panel. (If you are the decisive sort, you can permanently rasterize the object by going to Object > Rasterize.)

And now your banner ads will be readable & beautiful again! Those people with ad blockers are truly missing out!

Notes

• Adobe help page: “Set anti-aliasing options for type“
• Sometimes non-text objects also need their anti-aliasing settings tweaked. Here is an example from Real World Illustrator: “To anti-alias or not to anti-alias? That is the (blurry) question…”.
  ]]> http://www.mhsiung.com/2010/03/anti-aliasing-text-in-illustrator/feed/ 3 http://www.mhsiung.com/2010/01/adding-intensedebate-to-pligg/ http://www.mhsiung.com/2010/01/adding-intensedebate-to-pligg/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:31:37 +0000 Melissa http://www.mhsiung.com/?p=133 Continue reading →]]> IntenseDebate is a commenting system. Pligg is a social bookmarking CMS.

  By installing IntenseDebate, your Pligg site will lose the ability to connect users with their comments. However, your commenters will be able to tie their comments to their accounts on Facebook, Twitter, IntenseDebate, etc. These notes apply to the Pligg Wistie template.

  To add the IntenseDebate comment section:

  1. Copy the comment section snippet code from IntenseDebate > Sites > YourSite > Tools > Reinstall.
  2. Find <div id="comments"> at the end of story_center.tpl.
  3. Delete the Pligg code up to the end of the </div>.
  4. Paste the IntenseDebate code inside the comments div.

  To add a comment link with the current comment count on the front page:

  1. Copy the comment link snippet code from IntenseDebate > Sites > YourSite > Tools > Reinstall.
  2. Open link_summary.tpl and find <div class="storyfooter">.
  3. Replace all the code from <span id="ls_comments_url-{$link_shakebox_index}"> to </span> with the IntenseDebate code.
  4. Make these edits to the IntenseDebate snippet:
     var idcomments_post_id = 'http://www.yoursite.com' + '{$story_url}';
var idcomments_post_url = 'http://www.yoursite.com' + '{$story_url}';

  By the way, how is Pligg working out for you? Please comment with a link to your Pligg site!

  ]]> http://www.mhsiung.com/2010/01/adding-intensedebate-to-pligg/feed/ 4 http://www.mhsiung.com/2009/11/limit-wordpress-search-scope-to-blog-posts/ http://www.mhsiung.com/2009/11/limit-wordpress-search-scope-to-blog-posts/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:47:44 +0000 Melissa http://www.mhsiung.com/?p=89 Continue reading →]]> When using get_search_form(), WordPress returns results from all pages and posts. To force WordPress to return results only from posts, copy & paste the code below into your theme’s function.php file. Create a new function.php file if you don’t have one.

  <?php
  function SearchFilter($query) {
       if ($query->is_search) {
            $query->set('post_type','post');
       }
       return $query;
  }
  add_filter('pre_get_posts','SearchFilter');
  ?>
  

  To limit the search to page content only, change line 4 to $query->set('post_type','page'); .

  Notes

  • This code is altered from problogdesign’s “3 codes for a far better WordPress search page” (code #3) & a lot of trial and error.
  • To create other filters, see line 1156 of query.php (in wp-includes folder) for a list of keys.
  • WordPress documentation on customizing queries
  • There are also plugins that will let you customize the search scope (and exclude pages by id). This is a popular one: Search Everything.
  ]]> http://www.mhsiung.com/2009/11/limit-wordpress-search-scope-to-blog-posts/feed/ 0