Must have WordPress plugins

Posted on December 24, 2011 by wong

WordPress installation always ended with its plugins installation too. Some have a lot, some have a few, depend on the need of the site. But some are just essential plugins that help build up a better website as a web owner. I personally don’t use too much plugins, so…

Akismet

Akismet
Or any other plugin that can block spam comment. Akismet is so far I tried the best. Other plugins doesn’t work well. Just get yourself an API code from registering yourself to WordPress.com.

Back WP Up

I changed from WP DB Backup to WP Instant Backup to the most current Back WP Up. WP DB Backup doesn’t work well with large database. WP Instant Backup doesn’t have schedule backup and doesn’t work well with the latest WordPress 3.3 version. All come down to Back WP Up.

WP Optimize

WP Optimize
Almost all my WordPress site has this plugin. Optimize the database once I post an entries. What it does is… Optimize your database. Delete the spam comment, and as a bonus, you can change your username.

Contact Form 7

There is a dilemma in between Fast secure contact form form and contact form 7. I personally prefer contact form 7 more. It is just too easy to customise to my needs.

WP Super Cache

Let’s just be honest, WordPress, is a bbit of memory hog script. There has been numerous problem with memory, resources overusage, and all that, happen in share hosting the most. So cache is super duper important. Although W3 Total Cache too is highly recommended, but in user friendliness, WP Super Cache still win my heart.

Yoast WordPress SEO

oast WordPress SEO
Only if you are looking to optimise your WordPress with search engine. This is one important plugin for business website. I just fully utilise it few weeks ago for a client’s site. It works like charm. It does help the ranking.

The reason I don’t use much plugins is that I too afraid of over using the resource (though I’m running in a VPS). Keeping thing simple and low is always a good choice, unless there is no choice. Plugins like related post, commenting system and etc are just a memory hog for me, not to mention slowing down my site with all those JQuery plugins. I prefer to make those built-in so I can personally compress those JQuery plugins.

Personalised WordPress framework

Posted on December 20, 2011 by wong

I’m sure if you are a WordPress theme developer, or work a lot around WordPress, you’ll have your own set of framework, a personalised framework, and only you understand it. Well, I do, in fact I have a few. Just so I can consistantly work around what needed and what not. The year end is near, have to spear time out for checking and paying term life insurance again. Also the time I check with my framework, lots of work, without pay

I always tried to make the framework work easier for me. This is my way:

Theme Options

Something just static, like adding Google Analytics code. It has become a numb in website. Even a web newbie knows that too, I don’t know why. So creating a theme options helps remove the time to copy-paste the code. You can find some tutorial around the net.

Shorten the name

Shorten name

Make sure it is easy to implement what you have on your theme options. Shorten the name, create another my_functions.php files and place all the reusable options there instead. So you can easily add when needed in any project.

Have as much as possible

Custom functions

Yes, built what needed and what don’t needed first. I have ALL WordPress core hooks ready in my functions.php. You can get a lot of custom functions from Digging into WordPress blog. I have a copy too

Keep backward compatibility ready

Though it is always recommended to upgrade WordPress when new version is out, but not everyone is comfortable with it. Some even still have 2.8 with them (how we missed the old layout). I always have 3 version of WordPress ready and make sure all developed themes work well with all 3 version, and yes, from time to time, I will forgot about browser compatibility.

Time to check with the upgrades

WordPress for better future development

Posted on December 8, 2011 by wong

Working with WordPress is great, but it will be much greater if one can have it all files and folders organised nicely. I don’t always expect a returning client, so I always make sure what I’ve made is easy for the next guy. So organising my WordPress theme files and folders are what I always do.

Folder it

Folder
Make it clear what the folder is about and where to find it. Since I work a lot with responsive nowadays, so another styles/ folder is created. Everything in includes/ folder will be the extra functions and taxanomies.

Name all the functions

Function naming
This is very important for myself, I get to forget them from time to time. But it is always good to have them named, so we can better understand what it does. I find a lot of premium theme (though was named as “Developer” package) doesn’t name them.

Hide the not needed link

Remove link
There are lots of useless thing in WordPress admin panel. When was your last time using the “Links”? Or “Media”? I hide them when working on a project. Just so they don’t go “What is Links do?” and I will have to explain something that is never going to be used.

There you go. That is just my way of working around WordPress. Yeap, was rushing a work on a premium WordPress theme and didn’t take much time for rest, smoke frequent increased, caffeine added a lot more. Gosh, I need a rapid opiate detox soon if this keep going.

Approach to one-page web in WordPress

Posted on November 20, 2011 by wong

One page web design has a little myth: Not dynamic enough. However, it is still possible to be dynamic using WordPress. Recently I found 2 ways to work-around it. 1: Widgetize the content area; 2: Page extract.

1: Widgetize the content are

I think there is no need much explanation on this one. Just create widget for specific area:

However, widget area doesn’t give you much “Dynamic” impact. The lack of visual editor, the need to use HTML tags and of course uploading an image. It will be a lot of job to start off, though updating is easier. That’s why I discovered another approach, the page extract.

2: Page extract

Time to revisit WP_Query again. Notice that is has pagename=my-page-name ready when query WordPress loop.

<?php
$the_query = new WP_Query('pagename=contact');

while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
	echo the_content();
endwhile;

wp_reset_postdata();
?>

There I can query some pages I need on that one page. This can help editing the layout content, I gets all the visual editing, media uploading and etc. Just as per post/page editing. It helps a lot when creating for a client.

On part of the custom menu, it is like normal. I’m using <a name=""></a> approach, so instead of normal drag-and-drop, I go with custom link:

Moving from WordPress to Blogger

Posted on November 17, 2011 by wong

Recently I was thinking about cutting my VPS resources. So I thought about moving some leisure blogs to blogger, the free blogging platform that does all maintenance for me So here are some steps to work around the exporting and importing tasks.

Step 1

Prepare everything:

WordPress admin panel
WordPress 2 Blogger XML converter
Blogger.com account/blog

Step 2

Exporting WordPress posts. Due to the limited size WordPress2Blogger converter can do (1MB), if you are moving a WordPress blogs with few years of entries, or maybe more than 230 posts, you need to export them in batches, to make sure the file size is less than 1MB.
WordPress exporting

Step 3

Converting WordPress XML to Blogger XML. Just go to WordPress2Blogger.appspot.com and convert the file(s).

Step 4

Importing to Blogger.com.
Blogger import
Blogger importing

That’s all!

Note: There might have some trouble with the converter, make sure the XML you exported from WordPress doesn’t have some weird looking type in there. Well, you can always check it when the converter comes out with error message, check the XML if you see error message.

wongpk

blog of a borneo web designer

Category Archives: Wordpress