March 9th, 2010
Thematic is a theme framework developed especially for Wordpress websites. Created by Ian Stewart in 2006, the aim of Thematic is to simplify the whole concept of creating themes for Wordpress. Thematic is also aimed at providing themes that are search engine optimized so that websites get better coverage from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Thematic has 13 widget areas available at the user’s disposal. Previously, widgets can only be placed at the sidebars but now, with the help of this framework, users can place their widgets at any of these 13 areas. This also makes designing a lot easier as users will have to browse through fewer files and use widgets instead.
Given along with Thematic is a blank theme which the user can develop on. It gives the skeleton of the website and what the user needs to do is to put in some meat and skin into it (meaning the designs, etc.). A good designer and developer wouldn’t take a long time to get used to the Thematic framework as it is easy to navigate through.
Thematic is highly recommended for any Wordpress designer. It will save the designer a lot of time when there is a need to create a new theme. The fact that it works perfectly with Wordpress and is SEO optimized gives it an edge out of the basic Wordpress themes.
Tags: thematic framework, thematic sites
Posted in WordPress Plugin, WordPress theme | No Comments »
March 8th, 2010
BuddyPress gives a whole new life to Wordpress. And why wouldn’t it? Through BuddyPress, users can talk with each other through methods available in social networking websites. Only here, users will be able to talk amongst bloggers instead of every random soul in the universe.
Installing BuddyPress is easy. All there is to do is to go to the Dashboard, click Add new plugins and search for BuddyPress. Click on install and then activate the plugin. Voila! You’re good to go. However, keep in mind that before installing BuddyPress, make sure that the permalink settings is turned on. This is important as one of the BuddyPress requirements is having permalinks on.
Like any other Wordpress installation, BuddyPress has a lot to offer in terms of plugins as well as themes. BuddyPress also has its own extend website that hosts multiple plugin for the social networking layer of Wordpress. As of date, there are about 125 plugins for BuddyPress and most of them aren’t still stable. However, that shouldn’t put the users off in trying it as they will most probably not encounter much problem with these plugins provided by third-party developers.
WPMU Dev also has a lot of themes as well as premium plugins for BuddyPress. However, the premium section of WPMU Dev requires the user to be a member of the website and this isn’t free either. Think of it as a much needed investment for a successful website. The cost for the membership can be as low as $35 per month for a 1-year access or $79 per month for a month worth of access.
Although BuddyPress is still in the developing stage, it has gone through a lot of hard work and dedication by its developers. In fact, Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg has also commented on BuddyPress in his website and endorsed it as well.
Tags: buddypress, buddypress plugin for wordpress, wordpress buddypress
Posted in WordPress Plugin | No Comments »
March 6th, 2010
BuddyPress has certainly been a hit for Wordpress MU users. What the program does is that it creates a social networking layer along with the Wordpress MU so that users within the network can talk and keep updates with each other much like a social networking website.
However, version 1.0 of BuddyPress was somewhat limited. It was only available for those having Wordpress MU and normal Wordpress users were unable to use it. Installation was also a bit difficult for non-tech users and those that want to use BuddyPress 1.0 will have to use a theme that is compatible with BuddyPress.
Andy Peatling, the man behind BuddyPress, recently uncovered a new version which is BuddyPress 1.2. BuddyPress 1.2 allows installation to be done not only in Wordpress MU websites but to normal Wordpress.org websites as well. Installation was also made simple as it now can be done in just three simple steps.
A new default theme was also launched along with BuddyPress 1.2. It looks very trendy and is a great improvement from the previous version. Not only that, activity streams are also made a lot more powerful and is the center of attention for the new version of BuddyPress.
Wordpress users that would like to check out BuddyPress can do so at buddypress.org.
Tags: buddypress, buddypress 1.2, buddypress update
Posted in WordPress Plugin | No Comments »
March 5th, 2010
Recently, a new way of subscribing was launched and it was called PubSubHubbub or PuSH for short. It is an extension to the renowned Atom and RSS feed. However, PuSH works a lot faster and users subscribing to feeds through PuSH will get their updates as soon as the article or content is published.
The PuSH technology is open source meaning that anyone can use it for free. How it works is that it pings a hub to say that there has been an update in content and then users subscribing through the hub will get these updates almost real-time.
PuSH support was turned on in more than 10.5 million blogs in Wordpress.com. The best thing about this plugin is that it works out of the box and it requires no additional configuration. Much like the RSS feed inside Wordpress.
Wordpress.org users on the other hand, can grab the PuSHPress plugin developed by the team behind Wordpress. This plugin differs from the ones made available by third-party developers as it has a built-in hub whereas plugins from third-party developers usually do not have a hub built-in the plugin.
Tags: pubsubhubbub, PuSH, subscribe PuSH
Posted in WordPress Guide, WordPress Plugin | No Comments »
March 3rd, 2010
Like many web application on the Internet, Wordpress isn’t bulletproof. There may be times when there are holes in the coding of the website and once found out, these security holes will be rendered useless through a security update or patch.
However, even if Wordpress is bulletproof, its plugins may not be the same. That is why it is absolutely necessary to update not only the software but all the other plugins and themes available on the website.
One way of doing so is by going to the Wordpress Dashboard and under the tools, click upgrade. If there are any plugins that needs to be updated, kindly do so as the updates are probably better than the outdated ones.
Another way is to reinstall Wordpress all over again. This includes reinstalling the theme and plugins. However, as for the contents, users can use the export and import feature to make backups and to restore them to their original state. This is to ensure that there are no backdoors or any other files that are used for hacking which may have been added in the site’s directory by unwanted people.
Tags: securing wordpress, wordpress security
Posted in WordPress Guide | No Comments »
March 3rd, 2010
Recently, Automattic, the company behind Wordpress, published a Wordpress application for the Wordpress user. There are new updates made for the application and this includes statistics, videopress as well as push notification.
These updates are some of the highly anticipated updates for the mobile Wordpress user. The push notification allows users to get updates on their website while the statistics would show the number of page views and some other analytical information.
The statistics application is available through the Statistics for Wordpress plugin which can be downloaded at the plugins website in wordpress.org.
In addition to that, the new update also gives out support for Videopress, a feature that is already available for both the Blackberry and the Android version of Wordpress.
It may take a while before the application may be approved by Apple. Until then, those that are interested in getting this application will have to wait until Apple approves it. The new Wordpress for iPhone is said to be comparable with both the Android and Blackberry versions.
Bear in mind that the Wordpress for mobile devices are quite basic and will only allow users to edit or create new posts. Should they wish to view their website, they will still have to use the browser in their mobile devices.
Tags: iphone wordpress, wordpress for iphone, wordpress for iphone update
Posted in Wordpress Mobile | No Comments »
March 3rd, 2010
A new feature has emerged to those that have their sites hosted on Wordpress.com and this is the Publicize plugin. It allows posts that are created by the users to be submitted automatically to their Facebook, Twitter and/or Yahoo pages.
This plugin will greatly decrease the time of submitting the posts to different websites as everything is done automatically. Should the writer wishes to exclude the posting to any of these three social networking site, they may can just untick one of the three buttons at the edit page or add new page in their Wordpress panel.
For instructions and more info on this great new addition to Wordpress.com, check out http://en.support.wordpress.com/publicize/
Tags: auto submission yahoo, publicize
Posted in WordPress Plugin | No Comments »
February 23rd, 2010
New plugins and updates emerge every now and then. A lot of these plugins help the user a lot in simplifying their task of creating content or to appease their audience.
Online Backup – We simply cannot stress how important a regular backup is to any site. To use the plugin, users will have to register as a free user to utilize 50 MB worth of space from Backup Technology. Users can also create schedules as to when the backups will take place.
Mloovi Blog Translator Widget – It is now possible to get audiences that speak different languages through the help of this widget. In fact, the widget supports a whopping 52 languages.
Wordpress Exploit Scanner – This exploit scanner scans every files and folders in the user’s Wordpress directory. If there are any files that are potentially harmful, the scanner highlights these files and leaves the user the choice of whether keeping them or to delete them. It is an excellent tool to boost the security of any Wordpress blogs.
Top 10 – The Top 10 plugin shows some of the most viewed post in a particular period. The plugin received another update by its developer, Ajay, recently and Some minor modifications were made to the latest version (1.6.1).
Grooveshark – This plugin allows the user to stream music from Grooveshark. In addition to that, it also allows the user to post links for music on Grooveshark.
Tags: new plugins, updated plugins, WordPress plugins
Posted in WordPress Plugin | No Comments »
February 20th, 2010
Wordpress is a great content management system. It is easy to use and can be modified to a great length if one is adept at doing so. However, to be able to do this, users must know Wordpress from the back of their hands and what great way to do that than by reading some books about the magnificent content management system.
Wordpress for Dummies.
The Dummies series are one of the best books a person can ever get and so is the Wordpress for Dummies. It covers Wordpress in great length so that the user will fully understand about the structure of the software.
How to Be A Rockstar Wordpress Designer
Incorporating a great cover, this book is certainly one of the best in the market especially for Wordpress designers (or their wannabees). However, the book assumes that the reader has full knowledge regarding HTML/CSS so it is worth learning those before anyone actually grabs this book.
David Busch’s Quick Snap Guide to Photoblogging with WordPress: An Instant Start-Up Manual for Creating and
Promoting Your Own Photoblog
Photoblogging is something that is done by a lot of people today and why not? It’s entertaining and pleasing as well especially when all the work is complimented by other people. Doing it right requires skills and this book teaches the essential skills of photoblogging through Wordpress.
These are just some of the many books that are available for Wordpress. However, all of these books require the user to learn at least some of the many web programming languages. Therefore, it is best to be equipped with the knowledge of these programming languages so that these books can be read with ease.
Tags: content management system, Photoblogging, Wordpress Books, Wordpress for Dummies
Posted in WordPress Guide | No Comments »
February 20th, 2010
Wordpress is one of the most famous blogging CMS on the net. The CMS is truly flexible as it has so many plugins as well as themes available at the site. Some themes are paid while others may cost some cash. However, users can be sure that paid themes have exclusive features that most free themes do not come with. Designers of premium themes also bundle in some of their unique plugins with every purchase of their theme and this may benefit the user in many ways as well.
Some sites do not charge by the theme but instead, they offer memberships in terms of monthly, biannually or annually. Every month, the designer of these sites will publish at least one premium theme for the users. So basically, those with a yearly membership will get at least 12 new themes in addition to the other themes made previously.
Below are some of Wordpress most famous membership sites:
- WooThemes – Every month, there will be at least 2 new themes published by this membership site. An initial fee of $125 for a standard membership or $200 for the developer membership is charged when a user applies for the membership. After that, a recurring fee of $15 for standard and $20 for developer membership are charged to the user’s account.
- Elegant Themes – Elegant Themes on the other hand is a lot cheaper as compared with WooThemes. They charge a fee of $19.95 annually. Currently, there are more than 30 themes inside. It is certainly a cheap solution for premium themes.
- WPMUDev – WPMUDev premium section is dedicated to the Wordpress Multi-User version. It offers a large number of themes as well as plugins with at least 3 plugins and 1 theme made every month. It offers 3 different membership plans which are $79/monthly, $159 quarterly and $419/yearly. A great site to go especially for those running Wordpress Multi-User
Tags: Elegant Themes, WooThemes, WPMUDev
Posted in WordPress theme | No Comments »
Thematic is a theme framework developed especially for Wordpress websites. Created by Ian Stewart in 2006, the aim of Thematic is to simplify the whole concept of creating themes for Wordpress. Thematic is also aimed at providing themes that are search engine optimized so that websites get better coverage from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
