Designparc

WordPress Fix for Links Not Working After Move to New Database

designparc — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:49:59 +0000

WordPress version: 3.3.2

Overview: Moving WordPress site to new server. Created brand new database, imported old SQL file into new database, FTP’d WP 3.3.2 files to server and crossed my fingers.

Problem: Home page showed up just fine, but posts and inside pages all went right to File Not Found 404 pages. Sad-face.

Solution: I went to Admin > Settings > Permalinks and simply clicked “Save Changes.” I didn’t change any of the setting, I simply clicked “Save Changes.” Voila, it all worked out!

Note: this is my personal experience with this particular situation, and I’d read about this technique over the years. Your mileage may vary.

Delete 18,000 WordPress Spam Comments At Once

designparc — Thu, 10 May 2012 00:22:52 +0000

Client with 4-year old WordPress site had accumulated 18,000+ non-approved spam comments. This tip from WPRecipes will delete all non-approved comments.

Backup your database
Log in to your phpMyAdmin account
Select your WordPress blog database
Run SQL:

DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_approved = '0';

Original article on WPRecipes: Mark asked: How to batch deleting spam comments on a WordPress blog?

How to Build an App Empire: Can You Create The Next Instagram?

designparc — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:59:57 +0000

by Tim Ferriss

Chad Mureta runs his seven-figure app business from his iPhone and lays out 10 steps on How to Build an App Empire!

Web Color Trends from ColourLovers

designparc — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:51:47 +0000

Browse Web color trends to see what’s the new hot hue in the Web world. Includes color examples from Pandora, Box, Living Social, FourSquare, Groupon, KickStarter, Zynga, Etsy, Yelp and many others.

ColourLovers Web color trends includes both HEX and RGB definitions for each example. Pretty darn cool!

PowerPoint Presentation 10/20/30 Guidelines

designparc — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:42:59 +0000

Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Presentation Rule

10 slides
20 minutes
30 point font size

When giving a pitch, your slide deck should include the following information:

Summary (This could echo your elevator pitch)
Who’s on Your Team
The Problem
Your Solution
Your Technology
Your Business Model
Your Marketing Plans
Who’s Your Competition, but Why You’re Better
Current Status/Key Milestones
Financing Goals and Amounts

Remember the difference between print and presentation. Your slides should be visual. If there is extra textual information you need to convey, include it in the notes.

Presentations and pitches are not simply about the visuals you project onto a screen. Even the most exciting slide deck can fall flat if you don’t convey energy and passion in your pitch. Don’t simply read the slides. Although you do want your slides to be engaging, you and your company should be the focus. You want your presentation to help tell a convincing story to your audience.

And finally, while a nice clear screenshot can make a good slide, a demo of your product will convey information better than any PowerPoint presentation could.

Presentation Tips – Garr Reynolds, Zen Presentation

Management guru, Tom Peters, for example, says that “presentation skills are worthy of extreme obsessive study.”

For professionals today, presentation and public-speaking skills are more important than ever. Strong presentation skills and the ability to engage and connect can truly set you apart from the crowd.

Remove the cached version of a page from Google search results

designparc — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:10:46 +0000

Needed to remove all traces of a recent post, per a request from one of the subjects mentioned in the post. I got to learn all about removing the remnants of a post that still show up in Google’s search results, even thought the post itself has been deleted from this site. It’s cool to know how to do this.

Google’s instructions to Remove the cached version of a page:

When you update a page on your site, Google will update our index (including our cached version) when we next crawl it. Until then, our cache may still contain the original content, and that content may appear in search results. You can request removal of the cached version (this will also remove the page snippet). For example, say you have a page that lists your office address. When you move, you’ll want to make sure that the out-of-date cached version listing your old address is no longer visible in Google.

To request removal of the cached version of a page:

On the Webmaster Tools home page, click the site you want.
On the Dashboard, click Site configuration on the left-hand menu.
Click Crawler access, and then click Remove URL.
Click New removal request.
Type the URL of the page you want removed, and then click Continue. The URL is case-sensitive—use exactly the same characters and capitalization that the site uses. How to find the right URL.
Select Remove cached version of this page.

WordPress Customization – Impact Sciences Before & After

designparc — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 05:24:05 +0000

Impact Sciences - Before

Impact Sciences - After

Overview: Impact Sciences. Update outdated Website design and provide content management system for client to make updates.

Process: Decided WordPress was the best solution for client to make easy updates. Researched and presented hand-picked WordPress themes and customized final theme to meet client’s criteria and functionality.

Matched colors from previous site; copied & transferred all page text and images.
Home page image slider, including custom graphics.
Different colored section headers, requiring custom page templates for each category section.
Swap location of sidebar from right to left side of page.
Custom Home page template with custom Widget locations.
Integrate social media.
Customize code for separate images in header of each page.
Secondary navigation for each section.
Drop-down accordion address menu in sidebar.
Custom default blog thumbnail.
Custom CSS text spacing.

WordPress plugins used:

Category Posts
Custom Sidebars
Email Encoder Bundle
Google Docs Viewer
Google Document Embedder
Really Simple Captcha
SidebarTabs
Social Media Widget
TinyMCE Advanced
WP-DBManager

Software used:

WordPress
Photoshop
TextMate
Dashcode

How to: Add Graphic to PageLines Branding Section

designparc — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 02:43:59 +0000

Goal: Have a graphic in PageLines Branding section and have it aligned with the bottom of the site logo, as well as aligned flush-right.

PageLines Framework v2.1.3
WordPress v 3.3.1

1. Turn off RSS/social media icons:

WP admin -> PageLines -> Settings -> Header And Footer -> UNtick “Display the Blog RSS icon and link?”

2. Functions file: Add this to child theme’s functions.php. (Notice that we’re hooking into “pagelines_before_branding_icons”):

add_action('pagelines_before_branding_icons', 'add_phone_number_');

function add_phone_number_( ) {
?>


3. Upload graphic to: wp-content/themes/bpelaw/images/ folder
4. CSS file: Add the following CSS to allow the new phone number graphic to be on the same horizontal plane as the site’s logo
#branding .mainlogo-link, #branding .mainlogo-img {
display: inline;
}

How to: Add Audio Snippets to WooCommerce Product Pages

designparc — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 01:51:18 +0000

WooCommerce: v1.5
Audacity: v1.3.14 (beta)
WordPress: v3.3.1
PageLines Framework: v2.1.3

1. Create 60 second MP3 audio snippet (with fade in/fade out):

Install: Audacity – Free audio editing & recording software
Install: LAME Library MP3 Encoder (to export Audacity snippets in MP3 format)
Open MP3 file in Audacity.
Highlight the desired 60 second portion; Zoom in; Re-adjust for precision.
Click Trim.
Highlight first 5 seconds; then Effect -> Fade In.
Highlight last 5 seconds; then Effect -> Fade Out.
Highlight all 60 seconds and copy-and-paste into a NEW file. No need to save, though.
Export as MP3 and add the word “Snippet” in front of file name to differentiate it from the original file.
NOTE: Copy-and-pasting into a new file, then exporting, is the only way to ensure the fade in/out is included in the exported MP3.

Ref: How to Create Song Snippets: basic instructions; although, they’re not perfect.

2. Add snippet to WooCommerce “Excerpt” and “Description” sections:

Option 1: Audio Player – Standalone (By Martin Laine)

[ audio:http://your-audio-snippet.mp3 ]

- Yay!; this works in BOTH Excerpt & Description fields!

- Place JS in Header (Admin -> PageLines Custom Code -> Header Scripts section):

- Place on Page (in Excerpt):

Audio Snippet - Stand Alone WP Audio Player

- Place on Page (in Description) CHANGE _1 to _2 in two locations, otherwise it conflicts with the _1 player above:

Audio Snippet - Stand Alone WP Audio Player

Option 2: Haiku Minimalist Audio Player (By Raygun). This one works, BUT Audio Player looks better.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/haiku-minimalist-audio-player/

- Totally works in both locations (Excerpt & Description)!

[ haiku url="your-audio.mp3" title="Title of audio file" ]

How to: Display WooCommerce Product Categories using NextGEN Gallery in Sidebar Widget

designparc — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:34:48 +0000

PageLines Framework: v2.1.1
WordPress: v3.3.1
NOTE: these edits have to be re-done every time the plugin is updated!

Goal: Display 4 WooCommerce Product Categories (images, not links) in a custom Widget in the main content area of the Home page. The image thumbnails must link to specific URLs. The 4 Product Category images must be displayed in a single horizontal row (like a product carousel). The “images” of the Product Category must be displayed, NOT the actual products within the Category.

Solution: Use NextGEN Gallery shortcode to display the 4 WooCommerce Product Category images in the Widget. And use JackPlug’s PHP modification to link the images to specific URLs (see ref link below).

Reference (this helped make is all possible): NextGEN Gallery: Link to URL from JackPlug Web Design

Edit the NextGEN settings to not use a javascript effect on click. This is under the ‘Gallery->Options->Effects:
Set the ‘JavaScript Thumbnail effect’ option to ‘None’.

Copy:

gallery-caption.php (wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/view/gallery-caption.php)

And rename it to:

gallery-caption-link.php

Change line 42:

From:

thumbcode ?> >

To:

thumbcode ?> >

Then, to attach a link to the Gallery’s thumbnail, go to: Gallery -> Manage Gallery -> choose gallery:

In the Alt & Title Text field add: http://bpelaw.designparc.com/product-category/ebooks/

In the Description field add: eBooks

Finally, place this NextGEN Gallery shortcode in the sidebar “Text” Widget:
[ nggallery id=1 template=caption-link ]
(remove the space after the first square bracket and the space before the last square bracket, so it will work).