First off talk with the client and find out their needs.

1. Time frame for completing the website
2. What is needed with the design. ie. Do they already have their own logo, company colors etc…
3. Draw out the major sections of the website. This usually means doing the layout of the front page and sub pages. If they are going to be running a blog I will have to create a 3rd template for the blog postings.
4. Once drawn out do a mock-up of the pages in photoshop in a psd file. Try and keep all pages in one file with each page in separate groupings. This helps keep all the information in one file and makes cutting up the photoshop file much easier later on.
5. Install WordPress using their famous 5 minute install.
6. Create 3 files. Index.html, page.html, and post.html in the root of the directory where you installed wordpress. Doing this will allow you to template the major components.
7. Check that your mark up is valid. I recommend doing this every 30 lines of code to make sure that you catch any mistakes you made. While the W3C doesn’t officially support doing “LOCAL” checks you can do it using Web Developer Tools inside of FireFox. You can download web developer tools here. This will not only check your HTML/XHTML and CSS.
8. I am assuming you know a bit about WordPress. If not, I would recommend that you go and buy the book “Digging into WordPress”. Once you have the three main templates created you only have copy and past the main areas into the template folder.
9. You’re now done and made a lot of $$$

Good luck!

One great benefit of using Linux, Apache, and other open source software is that you can modify the code to make it perfect for your business. But open source licensing restricts how you distribute the modifications.  Here’s what a CIO needs to know about open source licenses.

Most open source software licenses have two provisions in common:

No limits on personal use, unmodified redistribution, or internal re-use. You can use the software as-is on your own, redistribute it, or modify it from source for your own use. This makes most every open source application immediately useful as an in-house productivity booster: you don’t pay anything to use it, no matter how many seats you deploy it on. And as long as you restrict the software to in-house use, you can modify it freely and keep the modifications confidential.

No warranty. You use the software entirely at your own risk. This is not always a comforting thing to hear, which is why any major open source software deployment should be cared for by a consultant or a full-timer to ensure it works.

Many licenses add two other stipulations:

Restrictions on redistribution of modifications. If you modify the software and redistribute it in binary form, you have to also release the source code for your changes. This prevents the software from being incorporated into a commercial product (or a web service) without the creators’ consent.

Derived works are under the same license. Any software you create by modifying the source of an open source licensed program has to be re-released under the terms of the same license.

Provisions vary greatly between licenses. The MIT/BSD licenses, for instance, doesn’t require redistribution of modifications; the Apache license doesn’t require that derivative works be relicensed under the same terms.

Now let’s have a look at the top five most commonly-used open source licenses and their implications. I’ve derived this list from a list of top 20 open source licenses as tabulated by Black Duck Software’s Open Source Resource Center, which tracks the usage of open source in many ways. Remember that this isn’t an exhaustive overview of open source licenses generally – there are many others not listed here, but they are typically variations on these five.

GNU Public License

The GNU Public License (GPL) and its derivates are the most widely-used free/open source software licenses around. That makes them a source for a great many powerful and useful applications. But “free” doesn’t always mean “do as you please.”

The rights granted under the GPL are at their core quite simple. You can use the software as-is for any purpose, without paying anything. But if you modify the source code and publicly release a version based on those modifications — that is, if you create a derivative product for public use — you must also release the changed source code under a matching license. Any programs you create from GPL-ed source must also be released as GPL. (This restriction doesn’t apply to programs written in a GPL development environment; those can be licensed any way you see fit.)

There are other provisions, but that one premise remains consistent across versions of the GPL: you must give back to the community any changes you make that are intended for public consumption.

The GPL comes in a few different iterations. Version 2 of the GPL, or GPL v2 for short, is the most commonly-used version of the license and works essentially as described above. Version 3, or GPL v3, adds (among other things) a provision involving software as a service: you can’t take a GPLv3 product, modify it, and then only release it in the form of a web service without also releasing your changes in source code form. For a good way to understand what you can and can’t do with GPLv3 software, the law firm De Bandt Keustermans and Van den Brande has created a bullet-point rundown[PDF] of GPL v3’s restrictions.

The LGPL, or “Lesser GPL” (also now in version 3), allows software under that license to be linked to and included with any other kind of software, be it free or commercial. It’s typically used for libraries or executables where the output is passed directly to other programs, and where the creators don’t mind its proper re-use in commercial applications.

Examples of GPL software: The Linux kernel (GPLv2); the OpenOffice.org productivity suite (LGPL v3); and the VLC media player (GPLv2).

Recommendations: Any modifications intended for public re-use need to be released as source code, with additional restrictions applying for GPL v3 software.

MIT/BSD License

The MIT and BSD licenses, also known as “permissive” licenses (sometimes “three-clause” licenses), could hardly be simpler. They consist of a copyright notice, permission to use the code as long as the copyright notice is left intact, and a disclaimer of fitness (no warranty, express or implied, etc.). The BSD license spells out the terms of attribution a little more explicitly — it requires notice of copyright to be retained in the binaries as well as the source. You are not obliged to release the source code for any derivative versions, just leave the copyright notice intact.

Because the MIT/BSD licenses are almost totally unambiguous, and software written under their terms has almost no practical restrictions on its use, such software has been re-used in everything from simple web scripts to full-blown commercial software. Mac OS X and the current Windows networking stack, for instance, both use BSD-licensed code — all perfectly legit, since re-using MIT- and BSD-licensed code in commercial apps is well within the intended scope of the license.

To that end, any code released as MIT/BSD can be re-used in most any context: as part of an internal project, as part of something for commercial or noncommercial release, and so on. Just remember to give credit where it’s due.

Examples: The original X Window system for UNIX; Ruby on Rails; and the Mono development platform class libraries are all MIT-licensed. The jQuery library for JavaScript is also dual-licensed under both the MIT and GNU GPL licenses. The family of BSD operating systems (for which BSD licensing was itself named) all use the BSD license, as well as Yahoo!’s YUI library. The Python language is released under a custom license that resembles the MIT/BSD licenses in that the main restriction is that you cannot remove the copyright notice from the code.

Recommendations: You can use MIT/BSD software as-is or modified in any context, public or private.

Artistic License

Originally devised by Larry Wall as the licensing terms for the Perl programming language, the Artistic License (currently in a 2.0 release) resembles the GPL v2 license but with some slight differences in how changes must be released.

You can use and redistribute unmodified Artistic License software without restrictions. You can also modify the original from its source, but you cannot redistribute it without doing one of two things: a) publicly release the changes in source form along with the modified program, or b) give the changes to the program’s original copyright holder. This way you’re not obliged to give changes you make to everyone, just the author—who can then optionally include your work in future releases of his product.

There are a few other restrictions: for one, the derived work cannot prevent users from installing or running the original version. But the redistribution policy is the most important one.

Examples: The Perl programming language, of course.

Recommendations: Any modifications for public use need to be either released as source to the public or provided to the copyright holder of the original code.

Apache License

Another license that was originally devised for a specific piece of software (in this case, the Apache web server), the Apache license is closest in spirit to the BSD license. You can redistribute modified versions of the software under completely different license terms. The main restriction is that every licensed file must have attributions, copyrights, or other similar notices preserved intact, and changes to any files (whether binaries or not) have to be documented in the modified version.

Examples: The Apache web server; the CouchDB document-oriented database system; and the SpamAssassin email filter.

Recommendations: Modifications should be annotated when released for public use, but there are otherwise few restrictions on repurposing Apache-licensed software.

Mozilla Public License

The Mozilla Public License, or MPL, works as a hybrid of the BSD and GPL’s approaches. MPL-licensed works can be combined with other proprietary software, as long as any MPL-licensed source code files are not intermixed with proprietary code.

For instance, if you have an MPL program that consists of a single C++ file, you could modify that one file freely and re-use it in a proprietary program. But you couldn’t make it part of another C++ source code file in the proprietary work; you’d have to keep both C++ files separate, and any changes made to the MPL-licensed file would have to be released to the public.

Examples: Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird. The Mozilla license has also spawned a few derivatives—the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL), for instance, which has been used for OpenSolaris and other Sun projects.

Recommendations: Keep careful control over source code licensed as MPL, but remember that it can be re-used in proprietary programs where needed.

While open source licenses have a great deal in common, there are important differences. The software produced under those licenses can almost always be used as-is – it’s when you create derivative works from them that the restrictions of the license come most into play, and require the most attention. But those restrictions shouldn’t keep you from evaluating open source as a powerful asset.

Why does making an offline version make sense? What happens when some developers develop their themes in undocumented ways, customize plug-ins by directly editing the files, or make changes to the base code of WordPress instead of using the functions.php file?

You might also want to do upgrade testing. Does your theme support automatic updates? If the update get’s applied does it effect the look of the website? Does it break it? Want to work early on that Christmas theme with posts from your website?

You might think all you would have to do is to copy the files to the new offline server, Export the MySQL data and then import. Unfortunately this normally doesn’t work due to WordPress hard coding several things in the database. You could also go through the database, edit it directly and so everything points to the write place and I have seen it work. Then again I have seen when people missed something and it either killed the blog right away or and upgrade later get botched and website turns into one big white screen of death.

The ideal way of doing it

The best way of creating an offline version is to make sure that you have downloaded the same version you are running on the website. If you can’t download the same version upgrade your online version first to the latest and greatest. Then install WordPress on the machine you want as the offline development server. For me it is my laptop because I take it around everywhere I go. on

Install the offline version of WordPress

I am assuming going to assume as few things from you:

1. You have setup the hosting server
2. You have copied the WordPress install files to the same server
3. You have already setup a user/database for the WordPress blog in MySQL
4. You have installed WordPress a few times before and don’t need a really in depth overview.

Go to the web folder where you installed WordPress. You should be walked through a wizard style setup. Click “Creat a configuration file”.

Click “Let’s go”.

Enter your information. Keep in mind even though your machine is offline you should take security into consideration. You Database and Username should NOT be the same. Your password should contain Upper/lowercase letters and a few numbers to mix things up.

You should get something like this if you entered everything correctly and setup the MySQL user properly.

Enter the blog info and then hit “Install WordPress”.

You will be shown a username and a temporary password. Make note of BOTH of them!

Log in with the user info:

Now is a good time as any if you want to reset the password that you were given at install.

You should make sure that it is easy to remember but it also should be a strong password.

Good work! You are half way there!

Exporting from the live WordPress

Go to the Live WordPress site and log in:

Go to the Tools menu on the left hand side and click on “Export”.

Make sure “All Authors” is selected then click “Download Export File”.

Click Save. I would recommend just save it to your desktop. It shouldn’t be that big of a file.

Going back to the “Offline” site click on “Import” from the Tools menu. Then click on “WordPress” import.

Click on the Browse button and select the XML file that you saved to your desktop. Before click on the “Upload file and import” make sure that you have a good connection. I do recommend that you do the upload on a LAN line especially if the wireless signal you are using is weak.

Make sure just to tell WordPress to leave all the users alone which is the default setting for the users.

Make sure to check off “Downlaod and import file attachments and hit submits.

This will take a bunch of time if there was a lot of files. You will see each file listed on a line and numbered.

You’re now required to copy the theme folder from the Live server to the “Offline” server.

Any Plugins will needed to be downloaded and setup.

You are done!

Here’s a copy of the theme Chris made:

BLANK WordPress Theme created by Chris from CSS Tricks

Here’s a link to the original Blank WordPress Theme.

Unfortunately when there are so many different computer configurations with software and browsers it’s  almost impossible for people to have the same experience across all platforms.

After looking at several options and their prices:

• Flash – $699.99 from Adobe’s website
• Flash converter programs – Ranged from $29.99->$129.99
• JavaScript – Free – Probably above the head of most entry level webmasters/end users. Too much work to maintain.
• WordPress plugin – Free – Easy to use.

I decided that I would test of the wordpress plugin.

Example of WPaudio Plugin

To start off with here’s what you will get once you follow my steps:

Xavier Rudd – 01 The Letter (clip)

Pre-requisites?

1. High enough WordPress permissions to install plugins.
2. Install “WPaudio MP3 Player”.
3. Have at least one MP3 to upload to the server.

How to install the “WPaudio MP3 Player” plugin

1. Log into your wordpress application.
2. Click on Plugins
3. Beside the “Manage Plugins” title there should be a “add new” button. Click it.
4. Search for “WPaudio MP3 Player”.
5. Click install
6. You will see WordPress download and install the software. By default it should also activate it automatically.
7. Go to the WordPress Settings Menu (Under Tools)
8. Click on WPaudio
9. Check off both boxes. (Convert all Mp3 links & Handle Audio Player Tags).
10. Click Save changes.

Here are some screens from the different steps

How to use the “WPaudio MP3 Player” plugin

1. Create a new post
2. Click “Add Audio” button
3. If you don’t have any mp3’s uploaded do so on this screen.
4. If you have already uploded the file just click media library
5. Click Show
6. Click Insert into post
7. It won’t look too special yet. Remember in the setup I got you to check off those two boxes? That was the real magic.
8. Once you are done with the post hit “Publish”.
9. Check out the post online.
10. You’re done!

Just incase that was too small to read for you here is the same info written out but doesn’t look as nice

404.php (STANDARD)

Error page, served up when someone goes to a URL on your site that doesn’t exist

archive.php (STANDARD)

Page that displays posts in one particular day, month, year, category, tag, or author

archives.php (Special)

Page template that includes search form, category list, and monthly archives (requires page using it)

comments-popup.php (Junk)

If you enable popup comments (obscure function), the comments link will use this template

comments.php (STANDARD)

This file delivers all the comments, pingbacks, trackbacks, and the comment form when called

footer.php  (STANDARD)

Included at the bottom of every page. Closes off all sections. (Copyright, analytics, etc)

functions.php (Special)

File to include special behavior for your theme.

header.php (STANDARD)

Included at the top of every page. (DOCTYPE, head section, navigation, etc)

image.php (Special)

If you wish to have unique pages for each of the image on your site (for credits, copyright)

images (STANDARD)

FOLDER – Keeps all the images that make up your theme in one place

index.php (Core)

This is typically the “homepage” of your blog, but also the default should any other views be missing

links.php (Special)

Special page template for a home for your blogroll

page.php (STANDARD)

Template for Pages, the WordPress version of static-style/non-blog content

rtl.css (Special)

A special CSS file for your optional inclusion to accommodate “right to left” languages

screenshot.png (STANDARD)

This is the image thumbnail of your theme, for help distinguishing it in the Appearance picker

search.php (STANDARD)

The search results page template

sidebar.php (STANDARD)

Included on pages where/when/if you want a sidebar

single.php (STANDARD)

This file is displays a single Post in full (the Posts permalink), typically with comments

style.css (Core)

The styling information for your theme, required for your theme to work, even if you don’t use it

Returns the description of a category defined in the category settings screen for the current category (Posts > Categories).

Usage

<?php echo category_description( $category ); ?>

Parameters

$category (integer) – The numeric ID of the category for which the tag is to return the description. Defaults to the current category, if one is not set.

Examples

Default Usage

Displays the description of a category, given its id, by echoing the return value of the tag. If no category given and used on a category page, it returns the description of the current category.

<div><?php echo category_description(3); ?></div> 

*Note* – if there is no category description, the function returns a br tag

Using Category Slug

Displays the description of a category, using a category slug.

<?php echo category_description(get_category_by_slug('category-slug')->term_id); ?>

With Category Title

<div><strong><?php single_cat_title('Currently browsing'); ?>
</strong>: <?php echo category_description(); ?></div>

To begin the tutorial, make sure that there is a  functions.php in your theme folder. If it is already there GREAT! If not you will have to create this file yourself. Just open notepad or any other code editor to start a new file. Put this code into that file :-

<?php
if ( function_exists('register_sidebars') )
register_sidebars(2);
?>
*NOTE* – If there is a file there delete everything and just paste this info into the file. Save the file as functions.php and put it in your theme folder. This piece of code actually tells WordPress to register two sidebars for you (See register_sidebars(2) in the code). If your theme has more than one sidebar, you will find the functions.php file already present in your theme folder. You just have to edit the number to your requirement and save the file. You can increase this number if you want more sidebars and if your theme’s layout can accommodate it. Now, when you go to your WordPress admin section and browse to the widgets under the menu item called presentation, you will see two sidebars listed there. You can drag your widget items into any of the sidebars.

Now comes the part where we actually build the sidebars. If your theme has only one sidebar, try to locate a file called sidebar.php in your theme folder. If it is already there rename it to: sidebar1.php. In this example, where we are trying to modify the theme for two sidebars, let’s rename sidebar.php to sidebar1.php and make a new blank file called sidebar2.php. Put this code into sidebar2.php and save the file :

<div>
<ul>
<?php if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar(2) ) : else : ?>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>

So, we have the two sidebars ready but they have not been placed in the index.php file yet. Both these sidebars need to be called from the index.php file in order to include them in your theme. Just open the index.php file from your theme folder and locate the code that calls your sidebar file (sidebar.php earlier). It should look something like :-

<?php include ('sidebar1.php'); ?>

Edit this code and change the words sidebar.php to sidebar1.php.

This takes care of the first sidebar. Now take a look at the index.php file carefully and find a suitable place to insert the second sidebar. This might involve modifying your layout or adding new divs. Once you find a suitable place, place the following code there :-

<?php include ('sidebar2.php'); ?>

Save the index.php file and now preview your theme. You will see all the widgets that you placed in both your sidebars appearing on your website. If you have not placed any widgets yet, you will not see any change. There might be alignment errors but you will have to fix them yourself. You can add more sidebars in a similar way to your WordPress theme. I hope this tutorial helps some of you.

List of the main Functions for all parts of a WordPress page:

<?php get_header(); ?>
<?php have_posts(); ?>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

URL for default style sheet in WordPress which is located: (http://server/wp-content/themes/theme_name/style.css )

<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>

The name of the website name:

<?php bloginfo('name'); ?>

The root of the theme directory. ( http://server/wp-content/themes/theme_name/ )

<?php bloginfo('template_url')?>

Root of the wordpress site:

<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>

The title of the page/post:

<?php the_title(); ?>

Next/Previous Post Link functions:

<?php nex_posts_link('Older Entries') ?>
<?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries') ?>

The content of the page/post:

<?php the_content('&lt;p class="serif">Read the rest of this page &raquo;</p>'); ?>

Display the category decription:

<?php echo category_description( $category ); ?>

The time at which the page/post was posted

<?php the_time('l, F jS, Y') ?>

Display the pages of the WordPress website. You can also include or exclude certain pages:

<?php wp_list_pages(); ?>
<?php wp_list_pages("title_li=&include=2,3,22,41"); ?>
<?php wp_list_pages("title_li=&exclude=2,3,22,41"); ?>

*NOTE* to find out what the page number is log into WordPress admin section and go to the “Pages” section. If you hover over the “Page Title” at the bottom of the webpage in the status bar you can tell what the page number is ( If anyone knows how to do this any better please let me know ) :

How to limit the number of posts in “the loop”. In this example I chose I wanted to only show 4 posts per page. I went even further by telling the “Query_posts” to only look for category 17 which on my website is my recipe category. This line MUST be inserted BEFORE “the loop”.

<?php query_posts("cat=17&showposts=4") ?>

Eternal Info

*NOTE* If you can’t find what you need here you can always check out check out the Official WordPress Function Reference page.

What do the old version look like?

What does the new one look like?

How did I find out?

Well sometimes the best things in life come to you because of a fluke. This one is no exception. I had just finished installing Windows 7 on my laptop. Google’s site was having issues loading (it was on their end). When ever their servers go down Google it seems puts you back in the classic “http://google.com/ig” page. Because the first thing I do when setting up a computer is setting up my default page I hit “use this link as the default homepage”.

I never thought anything of it. I noticed that after a few days on my laptop I was still getting my old “IG” page. Where as my desktop and every other machine was not.

That got me thinking? Is it a cookie? I deleted all the cookies and that did not make a difference. I then looked at the URL in my browser. The first thing I noticed there was that there were a bunch of server side commands added on to the URL.

I then typed letter for letter the URL on my laptop into the URL on my desktop. Voila! That machine was now using the old theme. I then tried it on another machine just to make sure. I tried it on a Windows XP machine at work and it worked the exact same way.

So, if you want to get back the old “http://google.com/ig” type this:

http://www.google.ca/ig?hl=en&source=iglk

Is the “?hl=en&source=iglk” that makes the difference.

What do you think. Do you like the new or old version of the web page?