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What is New With WordPress 2.7.1?

March 23rd, 2009 · WordPress, WordPress Upgrades

WordPress 2.7.1 was released on February 10, 2009, and it fixed 68 tickets.  Here is the full set of changes between 2.7 and 2.71. I’ve received this update notification of WordPress 2.7.1 within my WP-admin for a while now. I’ve always waited for a few weeks to see everything is OK.

For the previous versions I’ve always upgraded my WordPress blog manually. Today I attempt to do the same thing so I hit the manual button, but to my surprise that my blog was upgraded automatically instead. I am thinking, “Is this a bug?” Or “Did I do something wrong?” I am wondering that anybody has the same experience as me. I hope I did not screw anything up. Good thing is I’ve always backuped my site.

For people who have versions earlier than WordPress 2.7.1, you have to upgrade your version to this new one manually. But first you have to find out whether your theme, plugins, or anything related to this upgrade are compatible or not. Then proceed to download WordPress 2.7.1 here.  For instructions of how to upgrade to it, follow this link here.

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Monetize Your Blog With a RSS Plugin?

January 18th, 2009 · Blogging Tools, ClickBank, How to, Make Money Online, WordPress, WordPress Plugins, WordPress Tips

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I recently found a very useful RSS plugin that will allow you to monetize your blog with it. It will permit you to place  RSS feeds below each of your articles. With it you can now promote eBay’s products, ClickBank products, and any other affiliate products that allow you to generate RSS feeds with. I am so excited that I want to share this great tool with you.

 

This simple RSS plugin is called FirstRSS. Download it from its owner’s website. Did I mention that it is Free? After that unzip that file and upload it to your blog’s directory like this: /public_html/wp-content/plugins/. (assuming that you are using self-hosted WordPress blog too).

One drawback that I found out so far is you can only be allowed to show its default feeds which is 10. I don’t know about you but I think 10 feeds for an article is too many. I want to show less than 5 feeds or at most 5 feeds. Here is the solution for that:

  • Log in to your WordPress admin erea.
  • Click on Plugins/FirstRSS/Edit.
  • Before you attempt to make any changes, make sure you save a copy of it.
  • Find the following codes in firstRSS.php:

    foreach($rss->items as $item) {
    $title = $item[title];
    $link = htmlentities($item[link]);
    $desc = $item[description];
    if ($title != ”) $disp .= “\t<b><a href=’$link’>$title</a></b>\n<br />”;
    if ($desc  != ”) $disp .= “\t$desc\n<br />”;
    }
  • And replace them with the codes below:

    $i=0;
    foreach($rss->items as $item) {
    if($i < 5) {
    $title = $item[title];
    $link = htmlentities($item[link]);
    $desc = $item[description];
    if ($title != ”) $disp .= “\t<b><a href=’$link’>$title</a></b>\n<br />”;
    if ($desc != ”) $disp .= “\t$desc\n<br />”;
    }
    $i++;
    }

This will allow you to control how many RSS feeds you’ve preferred. I like to display [rsspara:URL] instead of [rsslist:URL] below my post because [rsspara:URL] will allow me to show not only links but images and descriptions of the products as well. Make sure you get a RSS url from any affiliate site you’ve participated and replace the URL with the feed’s url that you’ve got. If you’ve done it right, you will see an example just like the one above.

Another drawback is that it shows what category and keywords with a logo in its feeds. I don’t like that. I am still searching an answer for it. I’ll keep you posted once I find the solution.

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How to Change Your Cutline Theme’s Background Color?

December 28th, 2008 · How to, WordPress, WordPress Themes, WordPress Tips

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Although Cutline is not compatible with WordPress 2.7, I don’t plan to change it because I have customized this theme a lot for my blog. I upgraded my blog to WordPress 2.7 not long ago, I don’t see anything wrong with it yet. Maybe time will tell. Here are the steps that I’ve followed to change the background color in my Cutline theme - by the way I am using Cutline 3-Column Right:

  • Log in to your WordPress 2.7 admin area.
  • Expand Appearance (at the left side bar)if it is collapsed.
  • Click on Editor/Stylesheet(style.css), find body { background: #fff; and chang #fff to be any other color you like.
  • Now the problem is that your entire blog page color will be changed to whatever body color you’ve chosen. You need to find the following codes and add background: #fffff to the end of each code (change fffff to be any other color you prefer). See the changes below:

    #container { width: 970px; margin: 15px auto 0 auto; background: #fffff }

    #content_box { width: 970px; text-align: left; float: left; clear: both; background: #fffff }

    #content { width: 500px; padding: 0 20px 0 0; float: left; background: #fffff }

    #sidebar { width: 210px; padding: 0 0 0 15px; float: left; background: #fffff }

    #footer { width: 970px; padding: 1.2em 0 0 0; border-top: 2px solid #ccc; float: left; clear: both; background: #fffff }
  • Now if you check your blog, you will find out that your navigational bar background color is still the same as your theme’s body color. Search the following codes and do the same procedure as above step:

    ul#nav { list-style: none; width: 950px; padding: 0 10px; background: url(’images/hr_dot_black.gif’) repeat-x; border-bottom: 3px solid #000; float: left; clear: both; background: #fffff }

    ul#nav li { padding: 0.85em 40px 0.7em 0; font: bold 1.4em Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; float: left; background: #fffff }

    ul#nav li a, ul#nav li a:visited { color: #000; text-decoration: none; background: #fffff }

    ul#nav li a:hover { color: #000; text-decoration: underline; background: #fffff }

    ul#nav li a.current, ul#nav li a.current:visited, ul#nav li a.current:hover { color: #090; text-decoration: underline; background: #fffff }

    ul#nav li.rss { padding: 0.85em 0 0.7em 0; float: right; background: #fffff }

    ul#nav li.rss a { padding: 0 18px 0 0; background: url(’images/icon_rss.gif’) 100% 50% no-repeat; background: #fffff }
  • The last thing you need to do is to give your template some left and right margins. How can you do that? Find the code and see the changes I’ve made for you:
    #content { width: 468px; padding: 0 15px 0 15px; float: left; background: #fffff }

    • I also find out that I needed to change the number in my footer section. See the change below:

    #footer { width: 955px; padding: 1.2em 0 0 0; border-top: 2px solid #ccc; float: left; clear: both; background: #fffff }

Now go to check your blog again. Did it come out the way you like? Hope you enjoy it.

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