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Links for 2012-09-18 [del.icio.us]

2012-09-19T00:00:00-07:00

5 places to buy cheap filght tickets in China | China Whisper

Beginners Guide on How to Add Twitter Cards in WordPress

2012-09-18T14:24:14Z

Twitter is slowly rolling out this experimental technology called Twitter Cards which makes it possible for you to attach media experiences to your tweets that link to your content. This very similar to Facebook status. When you paste a link, it adds a preview with title, summary, and thumbnail of your page content. In this article, we will show you how to add twitter cards in WordPress.

How does Twitter Cards work?

When your tweet has a link to a site that has twitter cards enabled, there is an option to view summary. Whenever another user clicks on the tweet, they will see this summary like the screenshot below. You can see the live example by going to our twitter page.

The biggest advantage of having twitter cards is that it increases the number of people following your twitter accounts through content attribution. Often people tweet your links without giving you proper attribution. We have noticed this specifically from some popular content curators. They will tweet our articles without any via @wpbeginner or RT @wpbeginner. This is their right, but we/you as publishers miss out specially when other people retweet your content with someone else’s attributes.

For example if @syedbalkhi retweets a post from @wpbeginner without attribution to @wpbeginner. Then another person retweets @syedbalkhi others are more likely to follow @syedbalkhi rather than following @wpbeginner.

Often content curators do this to keep the tweet lengths short and ensure retweets of their own tweets. With twitter cards, this problem is solved because you get credit to your site from every tweet that mentions your article. Note: we are not picking on content curators. This is a flaw of 140 character limit, and twitter is helping fix it with Twitter cards.

For example when Annie tweeted out our article, she didn’t mention @wpbeginner. But because of proper twitter cards in WordPress setup, we get full credit and exposure. Notice how it has a one click follow button as well.

Now that you know the benefits of twitter cards, lets take a look at how to implement in WordPress.

How to Add Twitter Cards in WordPress

There are two ways of adding twitter cards in WordPress. Let’s take a look at both of them.

Method 1: WordPress SEO by Yoast Plugin

If you are using WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin, then you are in luck. Yoast has built-in integration for twitter cards, so turning it on is a matter of few clicks. Go to the “Social” page of WordPress SEO by Yoast settings page. Check the box for Add Twitter card meta data. Insert your site’s twitter username.

Next thing you need to do is go to your user profile page, Users » My Profile. You will see a new field under Contact Info for your twitter username. Enter your twitter username there. If you are running a multi-author site, then advise your authors to complete this part in their profile. This way each specific author gets credit for their work as well. See the example below:

Notice how it says by David Pegg @iamdpegg, and it also has @list25 as the publisher website.

This method is by far the easiest method. Since we use WordPress SEO by Yoast on all of our websites, we are using this method.

Method 2: Hard Code it yourself

Method 2 requires editing some code. Open your header.php file and paste the following code before the closing of the head tag.

<?php
#twitter cards hack
if(is_single() || is_page()) {
  $twitter_url    = get_permalink();
 $twitter_title  = get_the_title();
 $twitter_desc   = get_the_excerpt();
   $twitter_thumbs = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID), full );
    $twitter_thumb  = $twitter_thumbs[0];
      if(!$twitter_thumb) {
      $twitter_thumb = 'http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/8eb9ee80d39f13cbbad56da88ef3a6ee?rating=PG&size=75';
    }
  $twitter_name   = str_replace('@', '', get_the_author_meta('twitter'));
?>
<meta name="twitter:card" value="summary" />
<meta name="twitter:url" value="<?php echo $twitter_url; ?>" />
<meta name="twitter:title" value="<?php echo $twitter_title; ?>" />
<meta name="twitter:description" value="<?php echo $twitter_desc; ?>" />
<meta name="twitter:image" value="<?php echo $twitter_thumb; ?>" />
<meta name="twitter:site" value="@libdemvoice" />
<?
  if($twitter_name) {
?>
<meta name="twitter:creator" value="@<?php echo $twitter_name; ?>" />
<?
  }
}
?>

Source: Ryan Cullen @artesea

If you don’t know how to work with PHP or running into issues with Method 2, then please use Method 1.

Final Step: Apply to Participate

Just because you added the twitter card support on your website does not mean that it will appear on the twitter website. Quote from the official twitter cards documentation:

We’re in the process of bringing this new content preview experience to users on Twitter. And over the coming weeks we want to generate content previews for more sites from around the web. To participate in the program, you should (a) read the documentation below, (b) determine whether you wish to support Twitter cards, and then (c) apply to participate.

So it is clear that you have to apply to have this activated for your site. We applied for WPBeginner, and it was approved relatively fast. Here is what you need to do to apply:

Test your Site with the Preview Tool
Fill out this Form to apply

In the application form, you don’t have to submit the photo card URL and player card URL. Just submit the example summary card URL, which can be any single post on your website.

That’s it. Enjoy your twitter cards in WordPress integration. If you have thoughts, questions, and suggestions, feel free to comment. If you enjoyed this article, then consider following us on twitter @wpbeginner

Beginners Guide on How to Add Twitter Cards in WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Why I Love Apple's Facebook Integration

2012-09-26T14:30:00Z

The Facebook integration into Apple’s OS X and iOS brings me relief. It’s the easiest, least icky, most user-friendly partnership between two major tech companies I’ve seen in a long while, and that's saying something.

The rubber has hit the road for the social Web, and it has to start making money. This has led mostly to decisions that hurt users. But in the case of Apple and Facebook, with one possible exception, this is a good long-term idea, and as a result, the users actually win.

The address book and the calendar were the things holding smartphones back. Aside from maps (which is another story), they’re the two most important features. The address book is for communicating, the calendar is for making a plan and maps are for getting there. Those are the three most important things you do with a mobile computer.

The problem smartphones had with communicating and planning is that you need other people for them. Facebook is where the people are.

Facebook & Contacts

Before this integration, you had to manage your contacts yourself. You could have email addresses, phone numbers, job titles, even last names that were long out of date. It was on you to figure that out and change it. If you turn on Apple’s Facebook integration, you can merge your contacts nicely with their Facebook profiles. When your contacts update their profiles, the changes are pushed to your devices.

Apple isn't the first phone maker to have this feature, of course. Facebook was deeply integrated into the ill-fated WebOS, and Bing and Windows Phone integrate Facebook in many ways, too. But iOS is a dominant platform, so this is the first such integration to reach massive adoption.

Pro tip: You might get some duplicate contacts if the names are too different between your own contacts and Facebook. It’s easy to link them together, and if you disconnect Facebook later, your old contacts will be fine. Just edit one of the contacts, scroll to the bottom, then choose the other one as the linked contact.

Facebook & Calendars

Facebook Events have long been the easiest way to plan something with a bunch of people connected on Facebook. Facebook is also - let’s face it - the de facto way to remember people’s birthdays. Now that it’s integrated into Apple’s calendars, all the scheduling can finally be done in one place.

Events and birthdays are the easy part. They just appear in the Calendars apps on iOS and Mac as new calendars that can be shown or hidden as needed. New or changed events are pushed down from Facebook in the background, and you receive push notifications when they’re coming up.

Protections For Users

With any other hardware company, I wouldn’t let Facebook climb aboard my phone in a million years. Facebook wants our data, all of it, all the time, and the phone is where it all comes from. But Apple doesn’t let Facebook take over the phone. Facebook gets intentional sharing of text, photos and location, and it gets to easily link together any apps we use with our Facebook login. That’s all it gets, and they’re all conveniences for us.

You only have to push one big, red button, and all the Facebook integration is yanked out of contacts, out of calendars, and out of the sharing menus in apps and in Notification Center. You can even control access from Calendar, Contacts and the Facebook app separately.

One Trouble Spot

Google is the elephant in the room here. Hundreds of millions of people use Google for email and calendars, and both Facebook and Apple would like them to stop. Josh Constine over at TechCrunch has an interesting theory that a recent, annoying change to Facebook profiles, which replaced your default email address on Facebook with your [username]@facebook.com address, was all about hiding Gmail after integration with Apple.

Think about it. After most people merged their address books with Facebook, all the @gmail.com addresses would go to Facebook Messages instead, since most people didn’t notice the change. Here’s how to fix that, by the way.

That was shady. Facebook shouldn’t have done that. Maybe Apple even pressured them into it. But it was kind of a desperate move, and at least users can undo it. This was one unfortunate inconvenience that may have resulted from the Apple/Facebook partnership. But at least it wasn’t a Twitter-style banishment of a beloved service.

Where The People Are

Facebook is exactly the right partner to help Apple build these features. If your entire network is deep into Google+ for communication and planning, Android is always going to work better for you. But otherwise, Facebook integration provides Apple users two major conveniences that complete the feature set of the smartphone, but it doesn’t force you off of another provider for email or calendars, if that’s how you work.

Lead photo courtesy of Gdgt.

My cheap, simple livestreaming rig: iPhone, Ustream, Zagg and Clingo

2012-09-26T13:15:00Z

The challenge: On short notice, I was asked to stream holiday services from my wife's synagogue so that homebound congregants and college students could attend at a distance. "Sure," I said, before I really thought it through.

My preferred setup for a reliable video stream would include a MacBook Pro running Adobe's free Flash Media Encoder or Livestream's Procaster, quality FireWire-compatible DV/HDV camera and an Ethernet connection for predictable connectivity -- although I wouldn't dismiss Livestream's adorable and compact $495 Broadcaster hardware streaming kit (to say nothing of the company's $8,500 Studio all-in-one switcher). All of this gear would need room and power to operate, which is rarely a problem at concerts or other events I've streamed from the temple. In this case, however, the pews would be full and there'd be no room to run power cables and networking across the floor.

Instead, I threw together the above configuration, which is admittedly low-fi and low-rent but worked surprisingly well. It starts with a Zagg Sparq 2.0 portable battery pack (model discontinued, but there are subsequent units). The Sparq's onboard battery will easily charge an iPhone 4S several times over; plenty of juice for hours of streaming without having to string an extension cord.

Next up, a Clingo universal car mount. This articulated arm has a suction cup mount on one end and a sticky, figure-eight pad on the other end. The adhesion pad is strong and reusable but easy to detach from the phone without leaving marks or residue. The advantage over a full-back or bracket mount is easy to deduce: the smaller contact area meant that I could securely mount the phone without covering the back camera. The smooth plastic shell of the Sparq, in turn, made an ideal suction cup mounting surface.

Finally, the iPhone 4S, plugged into the Sparq and running Ustream's free broadcasting app. I started with the older broadcast-only app; I could (and should) have been using the new version that supports viewing as well. Some users have reported instability in the combo app, and I wanted to be able to leave this running unattended in a corner, but the difference in quality between the year-old Broadcaster app and the new app is pretty substantial. At that point, all that's left to do is plug it in, check for WiFi coverage, aim it to the front and hit the button.

As you can see, there's some modeling clay weighting the Zagg in the picture; although it's pretty substantial, depending on the arm angle the iPhone had a tendency to tip. I used a beanbag on site to keep it stable. Later on, I dug out my Glif and a standard tripod to give me some flexibility with the camera placement, but if I faced a situation that called for this combo I'd definitely use it again.

Yes, the sound quality's not great, you've got no zoom, and there are plenty of other issues. But in a pinch, this is the sort of setup that lets you stream an event with only wireless bandwidth and your iPhone -- and if that's not living in the future, I don't know what is.

My cheap, simple livestreaming rig: iPhone, Ustream, Zagg and Clingo originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe launches Web-focused Edge family: Animate, Reflow, Code, Inspect, Web Fonts and more

2012-09-24T17:19:25Z

Today at Adobe’s Create the Web event in San Francisco, the software giant is launching a brand new Web-focused “Edge family,” consisting of unreleased and rebranded tools like Edge Animate, Edge Reflow, Edge Code, Edge Inspect, Edge Web Fonts and more. This announcement reflects quite a bit on Adobe’s shifting priorities, emphasizing both open Web standards and the growing benefits of a Creative Cloud subscription.

A host of new products are being released, but perhaps most notably, Adobe Edge Preview is now leading the way for an entire Edge suite. To be clear, the product that was once called “Adobe Edge Preview” is now “Edge Animate,” which fits within the new “Edge family” of apps and services.

To learn more about everything that will be launched, previewed and demoed today, all you have to do is look below.

Edge Animate 1.0 (formerly Adobe Edge Preview)

Described as a “motion and interaction design tool,” ~~Adobe Edge Preview~~ Edge Animate lets you create Flash-style animations that are built using open Web standards like HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Edge Animate has been available in various forms within Adobe Labs since August 2011, and now we’re finally able to explore the full-fledged release, version 1.0.

Edge Animate is certainly one of the most important apps in the Edge family, and its success will leave a direct impact on Adobe’s future success as a rich content creator for the Web. Additionally, as this tool evolves, it will adversely effect Flash’s usefulness by providing similar functionality with mobile-compatible technologies.

Perhaps surprisingly, Adobe will offer Edge Animate v1.0 for free, for a limited amount of time, as a thank you to early users. Even if you haven’t downloaded the app before, you can snag a free perpetual license today with updates included (until the next version).

Eventually, the app will only be available in three ways: as a $499 app, through a paid subscription to Creative Cloud or through a $14.99/month standalone subscription. As you might expect, a subscription for this sort of tool is much more necessary than a subscription to a graphics editor like Photoshop, given how rapidly Web standards evolve and change.

➤ Edge Animate

Edge Code (Brackets)

Don’t worry: Brackets, Adobe’s open source code editor for JavaScript, CSS and HTML, is not going away. Brackets will continue as an open source project, built using the very same technologies that is was created to edit, but now Adobe is launching a public-facing version of that product (think Google Chrome vs Chromium), which will be continuously based on the progress of Brackets: Edge Code.

Edge Code is essentially Adobe’s fresh start at building a code editor for the modern Web. Interestingly, this editor and in fact the entire Edge family steps on the toes of Adobe Dreamweaver — a lagging utility for building Websites, packed into the Creative Suite.

This is just a preview release, when means it’s free for anyone to use, but isn’t quite ready for prime-time yet.

TNW asked Adobe if they felt that Edge Code is a competitor to popular pseudo IDEs like Coda or Espresso, and we received an interesting response:

We really appreciate the comparison to Coda/Espresso. Those tools have been out for 5+ years and are really quite advanced. We actually don’t believe that there is a direct competitor to Edge Code. Edge Code is the only code editor focused on HTML, JavaScript and CSS that is built with HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Because it’s based on the Brackets open source project, anyone who has the skills to use Edge Code has the skills required to customize, extend and contribute to the project. Edge Code is free and open, so we hope it will be just one of the many tools professional web designers and developers use regularly.

➤ Edge Code

Edge Inspect 1.0 (formerly Adobe Shadow)

Leaving its cool name (Shadow) and preview status behind, Edge Inspect v1.0 is a tool that lets Web designers preview sites across mobile devices. As you edit your responsive design, Inspect makes it easy to view your changes live without having to awkwardly fumble with mobile browsers.

We’ve been fans of this app’s potential for quite a while, and this release is just one way Adobe is showing its seriousness about embracing tablets and phones despite Flash’s incompatibility with both.

➤ Edge Inspect

Edge Reflow

Teased as a completely new tool, Edge Reflow is one of the most intriguing apps Adobe is announcing today. Reflow is a Web design tool which lets you to create responsive layouts with CSS. Unlike the rest of the apps and services announced today, however, Edge Reflow is only being shown as a sneak-peek. No previews are available quite yet, but Adobe says we can expect a preview release by the end of 2012.

On first look, it’s curious that Reflow is being released as a stand-alone tool, but given the generally new and complex nature of creating responsive designs, we can understand why users might like their hands held through this process.

➤ Edge Reflow

Edge Web Fonts

Like Reflow, Edge Web Fonts is being released today as a completely new (and free) tool for Web designers. What’s interesting, however, is that Edge Web Fonts serves almost exactly the same purpose as Typekit.

Edge Web Fonts is simply a free, Typekit-like web font utility that lets designers take advantage a growing library of open source typefaces — including type originally commissioned by Google – on websites and in apps.

The collaboration with Google is particularly interesting to us, as Google Web Fonts holds a similar purpose. TNW asked Adobe about this connection:

Edge Web Fonts contains many open source web fonts originally commissioned by Google, but it is not intended to be a mirror of the Google Web Fonts service, nor is it intended to be competitive with the Google Web Fonts service. Adobe wants Edge Web Fonts to drive additional web font adoption, an aim commended by Google – which is why they support this project. Google and Adobe are excited to partner together to drive web font adoption.

➤ Edge Web Fonts

Typekit

Typekit, Adobe’s premium Web typography service which was acquired back in October 2011, is adding 1,000 fonts from Monotype and is now being packaged within the Edge family. Users can still subscribe separately to the service, and alternately gain free access through an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription — something that was possible since the launch of Creative Cloud.

➤ Typekit

PhoneGap Build 1.0

Like Edge Inspect, PhoneGap Build is leaving behind its preview status with today’s release of v1.0. PhoneGap Build is a cloud service created with the open source PhoneGap utility which packages mobile apps built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript into native apps that run on various mobile platforms.

This new service makes PhoneGap more seamless than ever before, and while PhoneGap has been criticized in the past for leading to sub-par apps, the tool is worth keeping an eye on.

➤ PhoneGap Build

Pricing

Like usual, Adobe hasn’t made its pricing for the Edge Family crystal-clear, and that’s because some of the offerings are available in a number of different ways. The graphic below should ease your confusion (full size here).

As we mentioned above, Edge Animate will be available for free (intro offer) for now, but will eventually be sold as a ~$499 app, through a paid subscription to Creative Cloud, or through a $14.99/month standalone subscription. Similarly, Edge Inspect, PhoneGap Build and Typekit also offer standalone subscriptions and free, limited versions through a Creative Cloud starter plan.

For today, Edge Animate, Edge Code and Edge Web Fonts are completely free.

The Take Away

When Flash truly ruled the Web as the only tool for quality Web design (pre-CSS domination), Adobe was King. In an open standards world, however, this is just not the case.

Over the past decade, Adobe has become accustomed to dominating the spaces it operates in, particularly with the Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc), which still serves as a near monopoly for design professionals (even considering Gimp, Pixelmator, and the rest). The new Edge family signals a major change for Adobe as an important player in this space, because for the first time in quite a while, Adobe is not attempting to assert complete control.

Now, Adobe is openly accepting the fact that many professionals will want to swap out or only use a portion of the Edge products in order to fit into an existing flow. This is something the company has told TNW directly.

On top of that, Adobe is investing heavily in technologies which it has little control over: HTML, CSS and JS, while initiating open source projects and bringing in early feedback as an integral part of its development process.

What we are looking at today is a new Adobe, and Adobe’s future is open.

Head here to learn more about Creative Cloud.

WordPress Helpers: The Missing Settings Page for WordPress

2012-09-18T19:01:24Z

When customizing WordPress there are always those little things you want to change to make it easier to use, such as removing dashboard widgets, setting the default post editor, removing extra options, etc. Many times you end up adding tons of little plugins to make these small changes. Have you ever wished for WordPress to provide a simple settings page for turning things on or off?

The WordPress Helpers plugin was created to be exactly that – the missing settings page for WordPress. It’s part of the PIKLIST Rapid Development Framework and as such requires that you have the PIKLIST plugin installed first. PIKLIST is a powerful, flexible framework for developers who want to focus on tailoring and extending WordPress. It makes it easy to build fields for settings pages, widgets and custom post types with minimal code.

WordPress Helpers, once installed, is located at Tools > Helpers. There you will find a settings screen with tabs for all the options available to be changed.

WordPress Helpers features the ability to:

Take control of the WordPress Admin Bar, including “Howdy”.
Show ID’s on edit screens for Posts, Pages, Categories, Tags, Users, Media, Custom Post Types and Custom Taxonomies.
Disable the theme switcher.
Remove the “Screen Options” tab.
Remove WordPress version, Feed Links, RSD Link, wlwmanifest and relational links for the posts adjacent to the current post, from your theme header.

WordPress Dashboard:

Hide Dashboard widgets.
Set the default Dashboard columns.

Writing:

Set the default Post editor (Visual or HTML).
Totally disable the Visual Editor.
Increase the height of the Excerpt box when writing a Post.
Disable Autosave.
Set the Post Per Page on the edit screen.

Discussion:

Close Comments for older posts.
Remove auto linking in comments.

There are many more settings beyond those listed here. If you wanted to make all of these changes, you would normally have to install 20 or more separate plugins to handle it. With WordPress Helpers you get everything in one shot, with the settings panel under one menu in the WordPress dashboard. No need to hunt around to try to find out how to change every little thing.

New WordPress users can be confused by all of the extra options and widgets in the dashboard. These little tweaks can make all the difference for someone who is struggling to use WordPress for the first time. Install WordPress Helpers to keep the dashboard trim and simple.

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iOS 6 Review: The Highs, The Lows, And Everything In Between

2012-09-19T16:47:45Z

iOS 6 is here, and you’re probably in some stage of trying to download or install it on one or more device if you’re reading this, or at least contemplating an upgrade. Some might be thinking about hanging back, waiting to see if the changes result in a net gain or not. Well let me tell you upfront: this is an update that should please most, if not all, with the possible exception of a single area where growing pains are still apparent.

The Best

There are some elements of iOS 6 that quickly become features you’re not sure how you lived without, and those aren’t necessarily the ones that Apple spent a lot of time highlighting during past announcements and on their website. Here’s what I’ve enjoyed most about my experience with iOS 6.

1. New call response options. These seem silly and sort of minor, but in reality, the call experience on the iPhone is the one that that’s gone unchanged for longest. Any update is noteworthy, and one this useful is actually something to get excited about. You can set either custom messages or choose from Apple’s own and respond to incoming calls with an outgoing text or iMessage note, send calls to voicemail or ask for a reminder. This is a perfect example of Apple thinking about how people actually use their phones, and it’s a huge time saver that’s also considerate to people you’re desperately trying to ignore. Win win.

2. Do Not Disturb. I like my quiet time, but turning off notifications under iOS 5′s notification center was always a tricky affair, and I always missed some and then wouldn’t forget to put things back right again when I was through. Do Not Disturb fixes that, allowing you to easily schedule down time, complete with scheduling and sensible exceptions to keep you informed with what’s most important. This is another small but instrumental feature, and one you’ll find yourself using from day one.

3. VIP email inbox. Mail on iOS still feels a little bare compared to some of the complex setups you can create on the desktop with various tools, but this is a very nice addition to mobile mail that goes a long way toward making it more powerful. Assigning VIP status to your connections means that you’ll have quick access to your most important messages, making achieving total inbox zero less of a concern.

4. Shared Photo Stream. This one really should’ve debuted alongside iClout itself, but it’s good to have it now. Most times, the iPhone is the only camera I carry, and with improved camera features in iOS 6 and improved hardware on the iPhone 5 that’s likely to become even more true. So building sharing and commenting right into Photo Stream is a huge deal, and one that should benefit just about anyone.

5. Clock for iPad. You can mock me if you want, but I’ve never understood why the iPad didn’t offer a native clock app. Sure you could get third-party options, but an alarm on built-in system software just can’t be replaced by downloadable tools, at least in terms of peace of mind. The iPad Clock app also has some basic weather built in, so that’s an improvement, though it’s still missing the native dedicated weather app.

The Good

Some elements of iOS 6 seem promising, but either haven’t had the chance to prove their worth yet, or else just aren’t as useful as those things mentioned above in terms of day-to-day use. Here are highlights of features that fall into that category.

1. FaceTime over cellular. This is a welcome change, even if AT&T isn’t being so welcoming about it. FaceTime has been Wi-Fi-only since its original debut, and that’s not exactly ideal for a video chat app designed to be used on mobile devices. FaceTime over cellular should increase its usefulness, but FaceTime in general still strikes me as a nice-to-have, not an essential service.

2. Siri improvements. Siri gets movie times and reviews, Yelp info and OpenTable reservations, app launching powers and the ability to post updates to Twitter and Facebook. Siri also expands to the new iPad, and the iPod touch (5th gen). Those are good things, and the service is clearly receiving much-needed attention from Apple’s engineering team, but I’m still not convinced that Siri’s found a daily place in most user’s lives. iOS 6 could help begin to change my mind on that front, however.

3. Passbook. If there’s a feature in iOS 6 that wins the award for most promising rookie, it’s Passbook. The virtual wallet app holds tickets, coupons, gift cards and more, and can pop up on your notification screen when you’re in the right place at the right time to use one. That’s a potentially powerful tool for marketers, retailers and brands of all stripes, and the interest from third-party companies either looking to help users create them (Passk.it, PassRocket and PassTools to name a few), or brands looking to take advantage (Eventbrite,Virgin, Starbucks, Amtrak, many more) suggests it’ll be everywhere pretty quickly. The only reason it qualifies as good and not the best is because we’ve yet to be able to test it in real world situations, which is the only place that counts.

4. Facebook integration. The addition of Facebook system-level sign on has been hinted at for a while now, and it’s nice now that it’s here. It makes sharing photos and posting status updates a lot easier. Third-party API access should help developers leverage it for interesting things, too, so overall this is a win for both users and Facebook.

5. Individual signatures for separate email accounts. This has long been an annoyance for iOS users, especially those who have both work and personal accounts on their devices. Now, you can set unique signatures for each email account on your device, ensuring that your boss won’t get the “<3″ emoticon – unless you really want them to.

The Not So Good

1. Maps. This is pretty much a known weakness of iOS 6 at this point, but it’s going to affect those who depend on public transit most of all. Walking and driving directions are actually still pretty solid in Apple’s Maps offering, and turn-by-turn navigation works well, albeit at a heavy cost to battery (generally standalone GPS units spend most of their lives plugged in, so this isn’t a huge deal). There are reportedly third-party apps on the way to shore up the gap in public transit, and Yelp points-of-interest are useful, but for users coming from Google Maps (lack of street view hurts as much as anything else) either on iOS, or worse, on Android devices, it’s going to be a step back.

2. Redesigned App Stores. All of the App Stores on all iOS 6 devices got a visual facelift, along with some changes in Genius and search results inherited from acquired app discovery company Chomp. The aesthetics are nice; things look a lot better all around, versus the somewhat stale older design, and there are functional advantages like not having to type in your password to install updates. But the search results, which come up one at a time on iPhone and four at a time on iPad, are not a step forward for discovery. I can see the logic: present one good result with ample context as to why it was returned, with the idea being that quality beats volume. But in practice, it makes looking for apps with some, but not an exact idea of what you’re looking for, more difficult.

Overall, iOS 6 is a big step forward, but that’s hardly surprising given Apple’s track record. As always, there will be those who say it doesn’t push the envelope enough, and Maps has already ruffled quite a few feathers. But that Maps has raised such an outcry is perfect example of why Apple’s generally doing things right with iOS updates: it stick out like a sore thumb, and in truth, it’s not a big enough step backward to do anything beyond mildly inconvenience a few folks. Plus, it’s inevitable that Google will offer up its own standalone Maps app to address that single deficiency. So, in other words, what are you waiting for? Go get that update.

Links for 2012-09-17 [del.icio.us]

2012-09-18T00:00:00-07:00

Links for 2012-09-16 [del.icio.us]

2012-09-17T00:00:00-07:00

Silom Thai Cooking School, Thai Cooking school in Bangkok, Thailand

Links for 2012-09-15 [del.icio.us]

2012-09-16T00:00:00-07:00

Links for 2012-09-14 [del.icio.us]

2012-09-15T00:00:00-07:00

How to Disable PHP Execution in Certain WordPress Directories

2012-09-14T13:24:56Z

Having cleaned numerous WordPress hacks, in our experience most backdoor access files disguise themselves in /wp-includes/ folder or in your /wp-content/uploads/ directory. Usually these are .php files with names that some what seems like WordPress core files, but they are not. One of the measures that you can take to improve your WordPress security is disabling PHP execution in certain WordPress directories. In this article, we will show you how you can use .htaccess file to disable PHP execution in a specific directory.

Create a blank file in a text editor. Call it .htaccess and paste the following code in there:

<Files *.php>
deny from all
</Files>

Now upload this file in your /wp-content/uploads/ folder. You should also upload it in your /wp-includes/ folder.

Code Explanation: This code checks for any PHP file and denies access to it.

This article is in response to one of the Quora questions, a user asked if it was possible to harden your site’s security with .htaccess file. One of the tips we mentioned was disabling PHP execution in the uploads directory.

Note: This is not a FIX for a hack. This is just a security hardening tip.

If you are conscious about your WordPress security, then we suggest you purchase Sucuri Monitoring service. Here are 5 reasons why we are using Sucuri on our websites. The cost comes down to roughly ~$3 per month per website granted that you get a 5 website package.

Also keep a strong WordPress backup.

How to Disable PHP Execution in Certain WordPress Directories is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

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Mapping the 2010 U.S. Census - NYTimes.com

How to Preserve the Editor Scroll Position in WordPress

2012-08-10T13:41:22Z

Have you noticed that when editing a post in WordPress if you hit “Save Draft”, then it reloads the page. Which also means that your scroll position is resetted and now you have to scroll all the way down. This is by far one of the most annoying things that we notice when writing long posts. Because we write in the HTML editor, sometimes we hit the save draft button to preview the post live. That resets the scroll position, and we find ourselves scrolling all the way down to the bottom. In this article, we will share with you a plugin that we use to preserve the editor scroll position in WordPress .

All you have to do is install and activate the plugin called Preserve Editor Scroll Position.

There is no settings that you need to configure. It works out of the box. Best of all, this is one of those plugins that have no impact on your front-end load time. Absolutely love plugins likes this. This is just one of the many plugins we use in our WordPress install to keep things as smooth as possible.

How to Preserve the Editor Scroll Position in WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Remove Page and Post Write Panel Features

2012-08-14T13:30:54Z

Ever heard of Custom Write Panels? Basically, you can add or remove meta boxes (a.k.a. writing ‘features’) for different post types. For example, with the powerful CustomPress plugin (as with some other custom post type tools), you have these feature options:

But what about the ‘post’ and ‘page’ post types that ship with WordPress? What if you want to customize which meta boxes are displayed when writing posts and pages?

We can use the remove_post_type_support function to remove meta boxes even for Posts and Pages.

Code Snippets

Contributors can write posts but not add Featured Images

Contributors cannot Publish posts. They can only click the Submit for Review button. So Editors can add a featured image to these posts, and Authors can add their own featured images.

add_action('admin_init', 'my_custom_write_panel');
function my_custom_write_panel() {

if ( !current_user_can( 'publish_posts' ) ) { // if user is a Contributor (since Subscribers cannot post at all)

remove_post_type_support( 'post', 'thumbnail' );
}
}

In the screenshot below, you can see the Featured Image option isn’t even available from the Screen Options menu and doesn’t display on the writing panel.

Hide Title Bar and Excerpt Box for users lower than Editor

Useful if you want your Contributors (cannot Publish posts; can only Submit for Review) to write the post and the Editors to create the post’s Title and Excerpt.

add_action('admin_init', 'my_custom_write_panel');
function my_custom_write_panel() {

if ( !current_user_can( 'delete_others_posts' ) ) { // if user is below Editor level

remove_post_type_support( 'post', 'title' );
remove_post_type_support( 'post', 'excerpt' );
}
}

Disable Editor / Content area for Administrators on both Posts and Pages

Useful in setups that adhere to the practice that Administrator accounts shouldn’t be used for writing, only administering the site. Obviously, as an Administrator, they could override this code, but it’s more of a reminder, “Hey, you’re logged in as the admin; write under your Author or Editor account instead.” But if the admin gets a blog post idea, they could at least create a draft with a descriptive title.

add_action('admin_init', 'my_custom_write_panel');
function my_custom_write_panel() {

if ( current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) { // if user is Administrator

remove_post_type_support( 'post', 'editor' );
remove_post_type_support( 'page', 'editor' );
}
}

For Your Reference

I’m sure you can come up with a variety of use cases for remove_post_type_support. It can help enforce workflow policies by disabling features for certain user roles, or it can be used for de-cluttering options for less-savvy clients.

To be clear, these snippets only disable the feature’s display on the editor page. They do not modify any display on the front-end or in the database. For example, if you turn off the post’s content editor box, it won’t erase any post’s content; you just won’t be able to see it when editing in the wp-admin area.

Here are some links for your reference:

Capabilities for each User Role / User Level
Disable WYSIWYG Editor (which still allows the HTML editor; not the same as the code above)
You can add custom field meta boxes and other inputs via CustomPress (just add a ‘post’ or ‘page’ CPT)
The CustomPress plugin and its support are included in the price of your WPMU DEV subscription.

7 New Post/Page Features You May Not Even Know About The Screen Options feature offers a small world of bonus...
Add a WordPress Page Excerpt to Your Write/Edit Screen Make your Pages act more like Posts by using manual...
How to Add Post Thumbnails to the WordPress Post and Page Management Screens If you’re producing a lot of content on your WordPress...

How to Disable or Lock a User Account in WordPress with User Locker

2012-08-23T16:28:16Z

Recently while working on a client’s site, we had to disable a user account in WordPress. Basically, some of their writers were no longer with the company. They did not want to delete the user because it would require re-assigning the posts to another user. Doing that would basically strip away the original author’s credit and assign it to someone else which is obviously not fair. We are certain that bloggers who give access to one-time guest authors sometimes run into the same issue. So how should you deal with this situation? In this article, we will show you how to disable or lock a user account in WordPress with User Locker.

Change the Password Approach

The first thing that would come to mind is change the password. Now the user can never access the site right? Well not exactly. They can always reset the password, so you would have to change their email address. WordPress requires a unique email for each user. So while this method would work, it is not the most efficient method.

User Locker

We found a plugin called User Locker which lets you lock or disable the account. Let’s install and activate the plugin. Once you have activated it, a new menu option will be added: Settings » User Locker.

This has the default settings. Unlike the Limit Login Attempts plugin which bans the IP for a specified period of time, this plugin has the option to lock the account indefinitely.

Now the real useful part comes in when you go to edit a user. Click on the Users tab and edit any user. You will see new fields called User Locking. This lets you manually disable or lock any user account. You can also store reasons for disabling or locking. If you use the @ sign then, it stores it as a private reason.

Once a disabled user tries to login to your WordPress account, they will see an error message like this:

This is a pretty handy plugin. If you have other methods of locking or disabling user accounts in WordPress, then please let us know.

How to Disable or Lock a User Account in WordPress with User Locker is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

WordPress Security – Cutting Through The BS

2012-08-30T14:00:14Z

I recently spoke at WordCamp Chicago 2012 on WordPress Security. In this post I’ll share my presentation but also provide context such that it allows the reader to better digest the presentations content.

Let me know how I do!!!

When putting the presentation together I found myself between a rock and hard spot, I felt as if all the presentations given to date are always about the same stuff. And maybe that’s necessary, repetitiveness is key they say, but is it?

When was the last time we really sat back and thought about the recommendations we’re giving to the end-users, myself included. I’d venture to say it’s been a while. More likely than not, at least from the various presentations I have spent time looking at, it’s no more than a regurgitation of another presentation.

So with that I found myself on quest to siphon through what I like to call The BS.

The Preso

Please note that because of the time constraints I had to be very selective on the components of security I felt most pertinent to my story, there are obviously many other considerations that had to be left out. My goal was to provide end-users a comprehensive understanding of web security and how it pertains to WordPress.

WordPress Security – The "No-BS" Version from perezbox

Knowledge

The meat and potatoes starts on slide 5.

Something I don’t often see in security presentations is the general awareness that comes with Information Security. Specifically, the importance of educating the user on the ecosystem that is their environment.

Disclaimer: This presentation is good awareness for everyone, but is likely most applicable to those that run their websites on shared hosts, dedicated or VPS servers, managed WordPress hosts, and other similar configurations.

“The user’s going to pick dancing pigs over security every time.”
- Bruce Schneier

THE ENVIRONMENT

Slides 6 – 7 were designed to bring home the point of how big the threat-scape is. It begins by taking a look at a basic server configuration for WordPress it looks like this:

Linux
Apache
MySQL
PHP

This is also known as a LAMP stack. This is a very rudimentary configuration, but important to illustrate because in each of those logical components there are known vulnerabilities.

Case in point, here are some examples:

These are two very different vulnerabilities, each have nothing to do with WordPress, but because of them a number of WordPress sites were afflicted with malware issues. So who is really at fault?

Ask yourself, how would all the WordPress specific hardening protected you here? The answer is, if you’re only focusing on WordPress you’re doing it wrong and the answer is nothing.

The next obvious place to look is at the WordPress architecture.

When I break it down I classify them into four (4) distinct domains:

Core
Themes
Plugins
End-user

While end-user is not really a logical component of the architecture it’s by far the most important, in my opinion. I actually wrote a post a while back about understanding the true vulnerability with WordPress, still very relevant today. In it I highlight the end-user as the weakest link in the security chain, nothing has changed in that regard.

It has been many versions since WordPress core itself had a substantial vulnerability worth mentioning. Most of today’s issues are isolated to the administrator role being able to hack itself via XSS, CSRF or SQLi type exploits, this in itself greatly reduces the severity of a vulnerability.

You then turn your attention to the themes,plugins and end-users and its a completely different story. In fact, I would likely categorize each in order of importance as follows:

End-user
Plugins
Themes

The challenge begins with the end-user. Whether its a set of compromised credentials, installing a bad plugin, not monitoring comments, installing a bad theme, etc.. Then there are the instances of plugins, followed by themes that introduce new vulnerabilities into the environment. Perhaps the most notorious being the introduction of TimThumb via Themes and Plugins.

Then the idea was to step back beyond the immediate environment and application architecture and look at a more realistic configuration. In doing that we gain a much deeper appreciation for how complex the threat-scape is. Here is a very abbreviated list of applications you might find in your server at any given time if you’re hosting with any of the common hosts:

WordPress
CPANEL
PLESK
PHPMyAdmin

What you likely don’t realize is that each one of these are able to contribute to the insecurity of your website. The most notable vulnerability as of late being PLESK. While we’re still trying to grasp the impact this vulnerability had to website owners, like those reading this post, we do know it was substantial.

I had a nice lady at the presentation stand up at the end of the presentation and ask:

… Why would any one use WordPress? All I hear how easy it is and here you are scaring the [explicative] out of me.. – nice lady

She’s right, in that I likely scared the [explicative] out of her and a good number of others in the room, but is that wrong?

I would argue that perhaps our attempt to soften and sugar coat the reality of web security is likely contributing to the message not reaching the massess the way it should, and by should I mean enabling change. I did point out though that being afraid or worried was not the appropriate course of action and reassured her that the various other competing applications fared far worst when it came to security.

And, to be clear, the message is not that WordPress is vulnerable or insecure, but rather that you as the end-user have more responsibility than you, and many others, care to admit or accept. There in lies the problem for me.

SOME BASICS

There were five other things I touched on and very carefully selected for this presentation, they were:

Your Host
Connecting
Attack Type
Automation
Blacklisting

These were chosen because of their relevance and impact to all end-users, regardless of platform.

Hosting is the obvious discussion point, everything described when talking to the environment, for the most part, falls within the host umbrella. It has to be a symbiotic relationship between you and your host, or you’re starting things off very wrong.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, go with a managed solution!! – Perezbox

There are obviously a number of questions you should be asking yourself and your host when looking into entering a relationship but I focused strictly on those that pertain specifically to web security:

Who is your host? – more a question for the end-user, “I don’t know” is not a good answer
How do they manage connections? FTP, SFTP, SSH? Other?
What security does your host use? Do they employ application or physical web application firewalls?
What is your hosts approach to a compromised site? Will they disable the site? Ban you from the server?

These are questions that I’ve put together based on engagements with clients everyday.

Connecting is the next most important things that most end-users and developers seem to fubar on a daily basis.

The biggest take-away’s can be summarized in two recommendations:

SFTP/SSH is the ideal solution
Employ least privileged

Everything else is noise, but don’t just gloss it over, it’s good noise.

Least privileged is the act of using the lowest possible role and likely the one thing that no one seems to place any emphasis on. Its the idea that when you log into your administrator panel to put out a post you don’t need to do so using an account assigned an administrator role. There are a number of other plausible roles, learn to use them effectively.

I placed emphasis on Attack Type because I felt it was important to understand the nature of today’s attacks. They can be categorized into two groups: Opportunistic and Targeted. Each has its own market and purpose, some have bigger value than others to employ.

The take-away for the attendees though was that they all likely fall within the opportunistic category. Unless you’re a large entity with an equally grand online presence, the odds that you would experience a targeted attack is slim to none. That being said, this does not include attacks that come from someone you pissed off or fired.

In either case, automation is key. Whether through brute-force / dictionary attacks against your log in credentials or exploiting remote file inclusion vulnerabilities like those found in TimThumb, its through automation that most attacks occur.

Blacklisting earned a right on the presentation. With close to 6,500 sites being blacklisted daily its important that we bring awareness to the issue.

Take a chill pill.. Not the end of the world.. – Perezbox

It’s good to understand the various warning messages, but its not good to lose your mind. Contrary to popular belief, its not the end of the world, as much as many might lead you to believe.

Yes, it will impact your brand, that’s a given, but its a momentary blip in the grand scheme of things. Upon getting the notice from Google, or a friend that notices, take the appropriate steps to get yourself cleaned up. It’s a bit of a blackhole working through the webmaster process as the detection and reindexing appears to be mostly automated, but it works. Be patient and do what you can to insure you are clean before submitting to Google for review. There a number of online services you can call upon if you need a hand, ourselves included.

The How

This entire section was a bit more straight forward, it was designed to explain what today’s exploits consist of for WordPress. It does not outline every possible infection or vertical, it’d be too time consuming and who the heck wants to read that much security anyway.

Own one Own them all

For WordPress, today’s exploits are as follows:

Injections – SQL, Link, iFrame
Remote File Inclusion – Think TimThumb
Remote File Execution – Ability to pass commands to a payload on your server and bypass your security
Brute Force / Dictionary attacks – exploit access points

You have to understand though that exploits are not just things your application is susceptible to. Go back and review the environment discussion, these and many more impact those components as well. The same exploits being used against WordPress and its components are being used against the various components outlined in the presentation. This is why its so important to understand and deliver a complete message to all end-users.

With an understanding of the exploits, we turn our attention to the infections most affecting WordPress installs. I categorized them into the top 5 infections we see and is based on remediation cases we see daily:

Backdoors
Injections
Pharma Hack
Malicious Redirects
Defacements

The vectors for these infections should be of no surprise to any one:

Vulnerable software – not synonymous with out-of-date software, but related
Cross-Site Contamination – Soup Kitchen Servers
Compromised Credentials – FTP, SFTP, SSH, WP-ADMIN, CPANEL, DB
Remote File Inclusion – TimThumb, Uploadify

Make note of my emphasis on the use of vulnerable software in the place of out-of-date software. Yes, it was intentional, the vulnerable state of the application is what is leading to these compromises, not so much the fact that it is out of date. That being said, it is fair to say that patches and updates do often address a number of security concerns and allowing yourself to become out of date does increase the odds of a compromise.

38% of us would rather clean a toilet than think of a new password! – Mashable

The other vector most don’t consider is the concept of cross-site contaminations. This issue is just too common these days, which is a bit amazing when you consider the relative inexpensive nature of hosting. Yes, we have seen this across experienced and well-known WordPress developers and companies as well, it’s, for whatever reason, one of the more overlooked issues today. We wrote a post describing how cross-site contamination works, I’d encourage you to read it to gain better perspective and appreciation for the challenge.

Compromised credentials continues to be an issue, but not just on your wp-admin. A user must be thinking of all access points, their FTP, SSH, SFTP accounts; don’t forget CPANEL, it’s just as important, if not more so. Database access, one vector most forget, but as illustrated earlier is just as susceptible as well. Most of these are being conducted through brute-force / dictionary type attacks and lends itself to today’s password dilemma.

Then there is the infamous TimThumb, and its distant cousin Uploadify. The type of vulnerability that TimThumb introduces is known as a Remote File Inclusion and with it a number of issues are introduced. One such issue is the ability to employ remote execution to payloads dropped into your environment via the RFI vulnerability. In short, using an RFI vulnerability I can pass commands to your server and further exploit and override all your hardening steps, a bit depressing, I know. But what’s important to note here is that although TimThumb is by far the more popular instance of this, there are other instances of similar vulnerabilities found across a number of plugins.

Good resource to stay on top of vulnerabilities include:

Make It Stop

This is where most of my rub with the advise being given comes into play, that being said I’ll keep it as objective as possible.

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me

In the spirit of keeping things simple, I broke it down to two categories:

Access
Vulnerabilities

One is obviously more objective than the other for a number of reasons.

In each case I tried to think about the things that would contribute to a secure environment, and to do so you must accomplish both verticals.

So to ascertain a secure environment from an Access perspective this is the advise to users:

Leverage a server web application firewall (WAF)
Leverage an application web application firewall (WAF)
Use Two Factor Authentication
Strong / Unique Passwords

After giving it some more thought, I would also add the following:

Employ least privileged principles

In regards to vulnerabilities, this one is a hard nut to crack.

The obvious advise is to stay up-to-date, but it feels so easy to say and it doesn’t address zero-day vulnerabilities, with that in mind, here are my thoughts:

Stay Up-to-Date
Use Trusted Sources
Avoid Soup Kitchen Servers
Segregate your environments

A bit soft, I know, but together can be very effective.

My Final Take-Aways

When you wrap all this up, what do you get? A pretty good orientation of WordPress Security, and that was the intent, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t provide some more tangible take-aways.

So I broke my advise into the Average Joe and what I would tell the Paranoid Few. Which one are you?

Dear Average Joe here is what you need to do:

Kill PHP execution
Disable Theme / Plugin Editing via Admin
Connect Security – SFTP / SSH
Use authentication keys in wp-config
Use Trusted Sources
Use a local anti-virus – Yes, MAC’s need one also
Verify your permissions are set right (Directory 755 / Files 644) – important for cross-site contamination issues
Practice least privileged
Kill generic accounts
For the love of all that is holy to you, back up your site.

Dear Paranoid Few here is what you need to do:

Do everything your cousin Average Joe did
Don’t let WordPress write to itself
Filter by IP – server / app level
Used a dedicated server / VPS
Employ WAF’s
Employ SSL

I think I would also add a new message to The Confused:

Dear Confused if what we have written above makes not sense or you feel a level of distress then do the following:

Go with a managed solution

Understand though that a managed solution does not imply you’re inheritingly secure now, it just means you have someone that will back you up and take the worry off your plate, well at least the worry of “What the heck is happening?” syndrome. For a list of hosts that offer this server and have partnered with us please check out our partners page.

Kill PhP Execution

I have mentioned it before and this is by far the most effective hardening you can apply that will really do something for you:

#PROTECT [Directory Name]
<FilesMatch *.php>
Order Allow, Deny
Deny from all
</FilesMatch>

This ensures that PHP files can not be executed from within a directory. Do note that it could break your theme or plugin, so you’ll want to use it sparingly, but at minimum try using it in your wp-includes and uploads directories.

Disable Editing in WP-ADMIN

I am also a big fan of this, too often we’re seeing wp-admin credentials compromised and by allowing someone to edit within your admin panel you give the attack full access to all your files. The easiest way to avoid this is to disable the editor via your wp-config file:

#Disable Plugin / Theme Editor
Define(‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’,true);

Shit Happens

Yes, contrary to popular belief, it does happen. More often than most might want to admit actually, to small and large companies alike. Some say its inevitable, just look at our poor friends at Oracle.

So here are a few recommendations on places you can go for help:

Support Forums

WordPress Forums:

Hacked Tag – http://wordpress.org/tags/hacked
Malware Tag – http://wordpress.org/tags/malware

Public Forum:

BadwareButers – https://badwarebusters.org

Live Scanners

While not a preventive tool, detection is a part of stay ahead of the malware problem. Be mindful of scanners that are not live, here are two that can prove to be helpful for you:

It’s also important to note the various blacklist entities out there, not all are the same, here are a few:

Google - Chrome / Firefox
Bing – Internet Explorer / Yahoo
Norton – SafWebBrowsing
AVG – Opera

If you’re feeling a bit cheeky and want to have a go at some cleaning be sure to leverage some of our Tips & Tricks to help you get started. But if you find yourself needing professional help, remember to make sure you have everything you need to effectively engage and get the problem addressed.

Thanks for stopping by and if you have any questions please leave us comments or send us a note at info@sucuri.net.

Github’s Asking for my Password

2012-08-29T15:32:18Z

“Why is Github asking me to input my username and password when I try to push changes to a repository I own?” I asked this myself a couple of times before I figured out I had cloned it the wrong way:

git clone https://github.com/kovshenin/publish.git .

As opposed to:

git clone git@github.com:kovshenin/publish.git .

Where the former will use the HTTP protocol, and thus require basic authentication (username and password), and the latter will use the SSH protocol, and will try to use my SSH key instead, for password-less authentication. The former will work, but you’ll have to keep entering your username and password every time. The latter is more secure.

Simple, but tricky. No, I don’t use a GUI for version control, and neither should you, trust me :)

Click here to comment

10 WordPress Plugins For Publishing Your Own Magazine

2012-09-07T18:37:19Z

Put Your Content Where Your Audience Can See It.

Your content should be presented as well as it is written. Whether it’s the articles you’ve painstakingly written and researched, work that you have commissioned from professional writers, or submissions from community contributors who have spent their free time creating useful and interesting content, it should always be presented to the reader in the best possible format. And, as good as your WordPress website is, and as cool as your theme looks, you might want an application that is going to allow you to show off your content in the best light and share/distribute it as simply as possible.

Now, one way around this issue is to simply configure your website as a magazine. With the right themes, you can get most of the way there. But what if you really want the website to show off your content, not your content to show off your website? A dedicated magazine plugin can put a high quality publication on your site that lets your users get the most out of the content that you have worked so hard to gather and curate.

Issuu

Issuu.com not only does an outstanding job of displaying your documents, it makes it incredibly easy to share them with potential audiences. Simply upload your existing publications to their site and then you can display them as individual (embed-able) documents or on a bookshelf with all of your other documents available at a glance.

Website | Plugin & Plugin

Organize Series

This plugin adds a taxonomy (so, in addition to “categories” and “tags”, you also have “series” as a taxonomy type) that allows you to link articles that are part of a series and display a listing of those articles as a widget or in the post itself as a meta box. They also offer an add-on that allows you to bulk publish posts that are part of a series. This plugin is particularly helpful if you are publishing a multi-part series or would like to display indexed documentation.

Website | Plugin & Add-On

Magma

Magma is an application that makes it easier to manage the process of putting together digital and print publications by aiding collaboration between all of the relevant contributors. When combined with its plugin, though, you are not only able to coordinate article creation but also publish articles directly to your WordPress website.

Website | Plugin

Magma introduction from Magma HQ on Vimeo.

WP jQuery Pager

This plugin turns a collection of images into a flipbook using your WordPress website. Just upload and order the images, then insert a shortcode into your page/post. JQuery PDF is especially intended for those situations where you have a .pdf document that you would like your users to read like a print publication.

Plugin

Storify

An incredible service that stretches the definitions of blogging and publishing, Storify is a service that allows you to grab shared content from around the internet and include it in your blog post. Storify can turn even the humblest of bloggers into a publisher of instant magazines with attractive and engaging content provided by yourself and others from around the world.

Website | Plugin

(This video isn’t hugely informative, but I really liked the beat. Check out the rest of the videos on their Vimeo channel for more informative stuff.)

Storify from Storify on Vimeo.

WP Publication Archive

Unlike some of the other plugins in this list, this plugin actually serves better as a really excellent distribution method than a content display. Once installed, it creates a custom admin menu tab and custom post type. You can simply upload a document (it accepts PDFs, Microsoft Office Documents, Images, and a host of other file types) and, with a short code, display those items in any post or page. If you have already created a magazine document, this is a handy way to make sure that your users can get their hands on it.

Plugin

IssueM

Maybe the most comprehensive solution available in the market, IssueM uses custom post types to turn your WordPress website into a publishing machine. For more on how it works, check out this demo or watch the instructional video they provide below:

Website

Pokret

Another great one stop shop, Pokret’s WordPress Issue Manager Plugin does an outstanding job of repurposing your WordPress website to serve as a magazine publishing platform. You can create issues, add articles to those issues, and then launch an issue as easily and as simply as you would publish any other WordPress post or page. Check out their demo to get an idea if it is for you.

Website

Calameo

Calameo is another excellent service that allows you to upload publications to their site and then share them across platforms. Their WordPress plugin helps you to go about easily embedding Calameo documents in your WordPress website. One of the most exciting of the features that Calameo offers is its specialized support for the iPhone and iPad, allowing your iOS users to also be able to effortlessly view your documents.

Website | Plugin

(I don’t actually speak Spanish, so this guy could be saying anything. Still, it looks like a good tutorial.)

E-Paper

The E-Paper plugin is designed to allow you to display FlipViewer Express documents (they turn PDFs into interactive 3D flippable documents) on your WordPress website. In addition to that basic function, the plugin also helps you to make your FlipViewer Express content easier to search and harder to rip off (they offer IP-based file protection of your data). To see a demo of the combined functions of E-Paper and FlipViewer, check out this demo site.

Website | Plugin

Honorable Mentions

Okay, so these aren’t really plugins. What they are is applications that integrate really well with your WordPress site and offer cool new approaches to creating an online magazine. Really.

Scoop.it

Scoop.it is an application that allows you to create a web page to share articles on topic you find interesting. It does that by combining clever curation tools that make it easy to gather content in one place with a reasonably wide range of sharing functionalities to let people know about your page. Although there is no dedicated plugin, you can easily embed your Scoop.it page on your website with an iframe they provide and allow your users to view a slider of articles on your Scoop.it page.

Pearltrees

Pearltrees is allows you to organize and share what you are looking at on the web in a unique visual presentation. It works as a curation tool that allows you to direct your users to content that you think they should see, both your own and others’. I could describe it some more, but it is probably best to have you see what one looks like in action:

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Good Deal: Lost Photos for Mac is free today

2012-09-07T14:11:02Z

Lost Photos, the Mac app that combs your email accounts for image files, is available for free all day Friday, and for $0.99 for the rest of the weekend. Ordinarily $2.99, the app automates downloading all the image attachments you’ve sent or received from your Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or iCloud / MobileMe / .Mac accounts over the years, then gives you the option to post them to Facebook or Twitter. We tried it ourselves, and think Lost Photos offers a good value at $2.99; at $0, getting a better deal is actually impossible.

Live Blogging WordPress Plugins for In-the-Moment Posts

2012-09-07T14:00:10Z

Some things are just better live.

There’s an excitement and an energy that accompany live events. Political elections, sporting events, conferences, movie openings, TV shows, and even product releases all qualify as possible worthy subjects of live coverage.

The problem with blogging a live event with WordPress is that the system is not really set up for it. When you blog a live event, you need to move fast. Trying to create a new post or even update an existing post in a quick manner can be cumbersome and slow.

In addition, your reader doesn’t want to keep refreshing to see if there’s something new.

The Solution

Enter live blogging plugins.

Live blogging plugins let you turn a post into a quick and nimble Twitter-like display that will update automatically without refreshing for the reader and give the author an environment more conducive to quick posting.

Below we’ve collected the three best live blogging plugins we could find. If you know of others, let us know in the comments.

1. Liveblog

The Liveblog plugin is a new plugin from Automattic. It’s a simple but effective plugin. Here’s what you get:

Post updates from the front-end of your blog
Drag and drop images into the blogging area
Make any post a live blog
Provides an area at the top of the post that stays at the top (good for intro/description)

And here’s what a live blog looks like in action.

Here’s what the posting area looks like.

One potential negative with this plugin is that it cuts off the updated entries on the homepage. It leaves the intro section but not the entries themselves.

2. Live Blogging

The Live Blogging plugin takes a little more work to set up a live blog post, but it also offers you a few more options, such as automatic Twitter integration. As the plugin author says, “If activated, the first 139 characters of each live blog entry will be posted to Twitter when they are made.”

Here’s a look at the live blog post.

In order to make an entry, it’s a little more complicated in the beginning than the Liveblog plugin. Here’s a quick look at the process of setting it up. (Once it’s set up, however, you can just keep entering new entries in the same editor without going to a new page.)

Here’s a look at the settings.

This plugin also cuts off the entries on the homepage.

3. WP Live Stream

The WP Live Stream plugin offers a number of advantages that the two plugins above don’t.

Here’s a look at some of what the plugin offers:

Twitter integration
Put updates in a widget
Style the display
Easily add rich media
URL shortening
Set up multiple streams

One of the main advantages the WP Live Stream would seem to have over the previous two is that it DOES include the live blog entries on the homepage. It includes the latest three entries and then lets you click for older entries.

Here’s a look at how it displays.

Here’s a look at the widget in action in the sidebar.

And here’s a partial look at some of the styling options that you control settings via shortcodes.

And so there you have it — three nice live-blogging plugins that will definitely make your live blogging a better experience for both you and your visitors.

Thanks to DIUSGOVUK for the photo.

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How to Create Awesome Lists Using Your WordPress Media Library

2012-09-04T11:00:13Z

Your WordPress Media Library can be one of your greatest allies when it comes to creatively displaying lists in your pages, posts and widgets.

Lists can be one of the most efficient ways of conveying information to users of your WordPress site. We all use ‘em (some sparingly, some extensively) to highlight important elements in the body of our posts and pages.

If you use lists on your site, creating different list types for different needs can help your users intuitively grasp what the information is designed for. From custom bullets, to background images, to clickable grid displays, you’re limited only by your imagination… and maybe your CSS skills :-) This tutorial will guide you on the basics of creating some really nifty stuff!

Let’s start by making some custom bullet lists

Using custom bullets for different types of lists is one of the easiest things you can do to vamp up the usability of your site. Here’s an image to give you an idea of what we’ll be doing in this 1st part of the tutorial:

To create bullet lists like the ones above, you only need to do 3 simple things:

Give your list a special class when you’re adding it to your page, post or text widget.
Upload an image to your WordPress media library to use as a bullet.
Add a little bit of CSS to your style-sheet to grab that icon for your custom list.

1) Let’s say you want to create a list of favorite items and will use a star icon like the example above. In your post editor (or page or widget), simply add a class name to the <ul> tag of your list, like below (you can name it anything you like). You’ll need to switch to the HTML tab if you’re using the visual editor to do this.

<ul class="fav">
	<li>This is the first item in the list.</li>
	<li>Here's another list item.</li>
	<li>Oh, but wait, there's more!</li>
	<li>Can this go on much longer?</li>
	<li>All right then, let's throw in a final item.</li>
</ul>

2) Remember to Save your post! Then go to your WordPress media library to upload a new image. Once you’ve uploaded the image you want to use for your custom bullet, copy the File URL.

3) The final step is to add a simple bit of CSS to your theme’s style-sheet. There are 3 ways you can add custom CSS to your theme or child-theme (use of a child-theme is highly recommended if you’re gonna be customizing anything!)

Add custom styles directly to the theme’s style.css file.
Add them via the “Theme Editor” in your WordPress admin area.
Use the new “Custom CSS” panel added to Jetpack (I love it!)

Whichever method you choose, first define the selector to use. In this example, we’re targeting the list items (li) of our unordered list (ul) to which we gave a class name “fav”. That becomes ul.fav li as below. The style rule to use is list-style-image. That will replace the bland little square, dot or dash with your fancy new icon in any lists you assign the “fav” class. (Obviously, the image File URL you copied earlier goes where it says ‘FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-GOES-HERE’).

ul.fav li {
list-style-image:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-GOES-HERE');
}

Save and/or re-upload your style-sheet. Then, go refresh the page you added your custom list to. You should see your new custom bullet before each item. You can create as many lists with custom icons as you like in this manner. Just remember to give each list-type a distinct class name that you make up, and that has no risk of conflicting with existing WordPress classes. Otherwise, you may wind up seeing your bullet icon showing up on your site in the strangest places!

Note that the icon images you use for custom bullets should be small; 16×16 pixels is ideal. One of the most commonly used icon sets around is FamFamFam. Or, if you really want to go nuts with icons, check out over 30,000 of them at FreeIconsWeb.

Now let’s make a list with clickable background images

Making an image list can really help to spruce up an otherwise bland display of choices for users of your site. This part of the tutorial will show you how to build a list with clickable images like in the example image below.

The process of building a list with background images is quite similar to creating custom bullets. There are a few details that differ however. Let’s take it step-by-step again.

1) This time, along with adding a class name to the <ul> tag like we did for the bulleted list, we need to identify each list item (<li>) with a specific ID. This is required only if you want unique images for each list item; if you’ll be using the same image for all items in the same list, there’s no need to give each a separate ID. Again, you can identify them with any names you like. Below is the code I used to create the list in the image above; go ahead and copy it to your test page.

<ul class="gizmos">
	<li id="giz1"><a href="URL-TO-LINK-TO">This is the first item.</a></li>
	<li id="giz2"><a href="URL-TO-LINK-TO">Here's another item.</a></li>
	<li id="giz3"><a href="URL-TO-LINK-TO">And there's more!</a></li>
	<li id="giz4"><a href="URL-TO-LINK-TO">How can this go on?</a></li>
	<li id="giz5"><a href="URL-TO-LINK-TO">Let's add a final item.</a></li>
</ul>

2) Upload your images to your WordPress media library. For this step, please don’t just upload any old images you have lying around on your computer. Get creative and design them. It’s important that they be all the same size, and exactly the size you want for your list items.

If you want to use the same .png images I used for the list item backgrounds in this example, and follow along by copy/pasting everything, you can grab them in a zip file here: http://www.filedropper.com/custom-bg_1. Once you get yourself familiar with how it all works, you can create your own.

Once you’ve uploaded your images, copy the File URLs to a blank Notepad file (no need to save it, just keep it handy for the next step).

3) For lists with a different background image in each list item, we’ll need to style more than just the <li> tag. We need to make the links (the <a> tag) the same size as the background images. Also, we define the background images for each item by assigning them to the <a> tags to make everything clickable. Copy the following to your style-sheet and save/re-upload.

ul.gizmos li {
	height:60px;
	list-style:none;
}
ul.gizmos a {
	display:block;
	height:42px;
	width:180px;
	padding:10px 0 0 70px;
}
ul.gizmos a:hover {
	color:#f00;
	border:1px solid #f00;
	border-radius:10px
	-moz-border-radius:10px;
	-webkit-border-radius:10px;
}
ul.gizmos li#giz1 a {
	background:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-#1-GOES-HERE');
}
ul.gizmos li#giz2 a {
	background:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-#2-GOES-HERE');
}
ul.gizmos li#giz3 a {
	background:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-#3-GOES-HERE');
}
ul.gizmos li#giz4 a {
	background:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-#4-GOES-HERE');
}
ul.gizmos li#giz5 a {
	background:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-#5-GOES-HERE');
}

A little explanation of the above CSS may be in order here.

Although the images (if you’ve used the ones from the zip file above) are 250×52 pixels, the list items (ul.gizmos li) have a height of 60px to create a bit of vertical breathing room between them.
The links (ul.gizmos a) are set to display as block so we can define their width and height.
The dimensions of the links have been set to 170x42px to accommodate the padding; 80+170=250px for the overall width, and 10+42=52px for the overall height. The padding is so the small line of text in each link appears centered. If you don’t want the padding, remove it or adjust it as it suits you, but remember to adjust the dimensions of ul.gizmos a accordingly.
I’ve added a red text color, as well as a red border when the links are hovered over. If you don’t like red, change or remove it. The 3 border-radius properties are there to ensure that the border shows up in all browsers with corners rounded like the images. Again, if you don’t like it, change it :-)

Go ahead and experiment a bit with using your WordPress media library as a base for clickable lists with background images. The more you play around with things, the more you can discover how to improve upon them.

How about a clickable grid?

Making a clickable grid display like the image below is almost exactly the same process as with a clickable list like we just made. The only real differences are a few small modifications to the CSS (and properly formatted images, of course).

1) To make this same grid display as an example to play around with, here’s the code to add to your page or post.

<ul class="gridlist">
	<li id="grid1"><a href="URL-TO-LINK-TO">Photo</a></li>
	<li id="grid2"><a href="URL-TO-LINK-TO">Video</a></li>
	<li id="grid3"><a href="URL-TO-LINK-TO">Sofware</a></li>
	<li id="grid4"><a href="URL-TO-LINK-TO">Games</a></li>
</ul>

2) Upload your images to your WordPress media library and copy the URLs. If you want to use the same .png images I did for this example, you can download the zip here: http://www.filedropper.com/custom-grid

3) Below is the CSS you need to make this grid display:

ul.gridlist {
	max-width:274px;
}
ul.gridlist li {
	height:135px;
	width:135px;
	list-style:none;
	display:inline-block;
	vertical-align:top;
}
ul.gridlist a {
	display:block;
	height:25px;
	width:105px;
	padding:100px 0 0 20px;
}
ul.gridlist a:hover {
	color:#f00;
	text-decoration:none;
	border:1px solid #f00;
	border-radius:22px;
	-moz-border-radius:22px;
	-webkit-border-radius:22px;
}
ul.gridlist li#grid1 a {
	background:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-#1-GOES-HERE');
}
ul.gridlist li#grid2 a {
	background:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-#2-GOES-HERE');
}
ul.gridlist li#grid3 a {
	background:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-#3-GOES-HERE');
}
ul.gridlist li#grid4 a {
	background:url('FULL-URL-TO-YOUR-UPLOADED-IMAGE-#4-GOES-HERE');
}

You’ll notice a few changes in the above CSS (compared to the previous exercise):

The ul.gridlist has a max-width applied to ensure it only displays 2 items across. If you want it to display 3 or more across, simply increase its max-width to accommodate the additional width of more list items.
The list items themselves (ul.gridlist li) are a bit bigger than the images to ensure a bit of spacing.
The list items have also been set to display:inline-block; that’s what ensures they show up in a row. The vertical-align:top is there so they all line up nicely with each other.
As a final detail (that I forgot in the previous exercise), I’ve added text-decoration:none; to the links when hovered over so we don’t get that ugly underline.

On a final note, with the upcoming release of WordPress 3.5, the WordPress media library is in for a bit of an overhaul. Among the new features that should be included will be a way to categorize your media. Ooh, fun!

I hope you enjoyed this little tut as much as I did writing it! If you do create some cool stuff, please leave a comment with a link so we can all be inspired. If you need a hand with anything, leave a comment and I’ll try to help out. Thanks for reading! :-)

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Awesome CSS3 generators to simplify front end development

2012-08-13T13:58:13Z

CSS3 Generator

This generator is definitely one of my favorites, as it allow you to generate more than 10 different CSS3 effects, such as border radius, text shadows, transitions, and more.
Visit css3generator.com

CSS Gradient generator

CSS gradients are cool, but it’s also a bit tricky to remind all the possibilities. This generator will help you to create a perfect looking CSS gradient with no headache.
Visit CSS Gradient generator

CSS button generator

In my opinion, this is the most advanced CSS3 button generator available on the internet. Adjust settings, copy the code, and you’re done!
Visit CSS button generator

CSS3Gen

CSS3Gen is a nice generator which allows you to easily create useful snippets of CSS3 and copy them straight into your projects. CSS3Gen take care of all the vendor prefixes.
Visit CSS3Gen

CSS3 Please

CSS3 Please is a very effective tool to test your CSS3 code: Just edit the CSS rules from the editor, and a special container will receive instant changes so you can have a preview of what you’re doing.
Visit CSS3 Please

Layer Styles

If you’re familiar with Photoshop, there’s no doubt that you will love Layer Style, a CSS3 generator which replicate the look and feel of the popular software from Adobe.
Visit Layer Styles

Border image generator

As you can guess, this tool helps you to create borde images. Simple and efficient!
Visit Border image generator

CSS3 Pie

Internet Explorer has been a front-end coder nightmare since 10 years, and unfortunately, it’s not going to end very soon. That said, tools like CSS3 Pie can definitely help when a IE compatible code is needed. This very useful generator makes Internet Explorer 6-9 capable of rendering several of the most useful CSS3 decoration features.
Visit CSS3 Pie

CSS Easing Animation Tool

With this tool, every developer now have a simple way to generate CSS easing animations. Vendor prefixes are supported so you don’t have to worry about cross-browser compatibility.
Visit CSS Easing Animation Tool

Font-Face generator

Want to use fancy fonts on your website? Simply upload it to Font Squirrel font-face generator, and get your CSS code as well as your font in all formats needed by the different browsers. This tool helped me a lot in the last two years.
Visit Font-Face generator

jQuery plugins for awesome web typography

2012-08-27T20:00:59Z

FitText.js

FitText is a simple jQuery plugin that automatically make a text fit the width of its parent element. Perfect for awesome, responsive headlines!
Download: http://fittextjs.com/

Lettering.js

Although CSS3 and the @font-face directive have definitely improved web typography, it doesn’t offer complete down-to-the-letter control. This is why Lettering.js have been created. If you’re looking for a simple solution to get the control of each individual letter of your headline, then this plugin is for you.
Download: http://letteringjs.com/

Kern.js

When I create design or front-end code, I love being able to test things in my brother. Kern.js is not a jQuery plugin, but a bookmarklet that allow you to edit texts from websites: Make them bigger, rotate letters, add space… A very useful tool for testing and finding new possibilities.
Download: http://www.kernjs.com/

SlabText.js

SlabText is a very useful jQuery plugin that splits headlines into rows before resizing each row to fill the available horizontal space. Basically, it means that your headline will always look great whatever of the client screen size. A must-have for responsive websites!
Download: http://www.frequency-decoder.com/2012/01/08/slabtext…

Bacon.js

Bacon is a jQuery plugin that allows you to wrap text around a bezier curve or a line. Very cool for magazine-like wrapped text effects!
Download: http://baconforme.com/

Approach

Approach is an interesting plugin if you’re looking to give a text (For exemple, a call-to-action button) a special effect to attract the reader attention. This plugin works in a very similar manner to jQuery animate, but it animates over distance instead of time. The closer you get to the text, the more the style will be applied.
Download: http://srobbin.com/jquery-plugins/approach/

Arctext.js

Here is another cool plugin, based on Lettering.js, which arrange each letter along a curved path. Can be really nice for titles, headlines or other fancy texts!
Download: http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/01/24/arctext-js-curving…

jMetronome

According to 24ways.org, vertical rhythm is the spacing and arrangement of text as the reader descends the page and is contributed to by three factors: font size, line height and margin or padding. All of these factors must calculated with care in order that the rhythm is maintained.

jMetronome is a jQuery plugin which can take care of maintaining a correct vertical rhythm on your pages, even if they contain media elements such as images or videos.

Download: http://www.fortes.com/2008/jmetronome-using-jquery-to-keep-typographic-rhythm

Speed Up WordPress With the Free jsDeliver CDN

2012-08-30T22:22:20Z

When you’re running a large, active site, speed becomes absolutely critical. You don’t want to crash your server and miss out on potential traffic or customers. Anything that you can do to take the load off your servers is a good idea.

I recently discovered jsDeliver, a free CDN (Content Delivery Network) where Javascript developers can host their files, and users can speed up their websites by offloading all of their JS plugins. You may have heard of cdnjs.com, a similar service that offers hosting for js libraries. jsDeliver, on the other hand, offers hosting for all js and jquery plugins out there. They have 13 locations to guarantee you a fast website.

How can I use jsDeliver with WordPress?

Better site performance for free sounds great. jsDeliver can be used with WordPress with the help of the new jjsDeliver WordPress CDN Plugin.

Why use jsDeliver with WordPress?

Not that I have to convince you, since you’re probably already installing it now… ;) But here are a few reasons why you should consider integrating your WordPress site with jsDeliver:

Speeds up your website
Cuts the bandwidth bill
Offloads the server from extra requests
There are no bandwith limits

jsDeliver makes it very easy to start using a CDN for your js files, even if you wouldn’t call yourself a developer. The plugin autocratically scans your WordPress install to see what it can offload. Here’s what else it does:

On the fly rewriting of all URLs. No need to change the code.
Move selected files to footer
Apply Async/Defer loading to your javascripts.
Compatible with W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache
Automatic synchronization with our DB.
Allows you to select the files you want to load from the CDN
Supports HTTPS
Uses Google CDN to load jQuery to take advantage of the user’s browser cache.

How to use jsDeliver

The plugin is fairly easy to use, but a few extra instructions wouldn’t hurt.

Step 1: Install and Activate jsDeliver WordPress CDN Plugin

Step 2: Go to Settings >> jsDeliver CDN and click “Scan Website”

It may appear to be scanning forever, but this is a bug in the current version. Just wait awhile and refresh the page and you’ll see what the scanner found. This should be fixed in the next version.

Step 3: Enable all of the scripts you want to offload

Have a look through the scripts that the plugin finds and then enable those that you want to offload.

Step 4: Save your settings and enable the plugin.

Congrats, you should now be offloading a good number of your scripts! You can check by viewing the the source of your website to see where they are being hosted. You should also notice your site getting a little more zippy. Make sure to go through every page, especially those that make use of sscripts, to be certain that the offloading didn’t break any functionality. If you notice any problems, just disable the script in question and use the version hosted on your server. I’ve tested the plugin this afternoon and didn’t have any problems offloading all the scripts that it recommended.

Better site performance for free – do you really even have to think about it? Install the jsDeliver WordPress CDN Plugin for free today and tell your friends about it. If you do a before and after speed test, we’d love to hear your results in the comments.

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10 Essential WordPress Plugins for a Political Website

2012-08-28T13:22:10Z

More politicians than ever are turning to WordPress for websites they hope will help them grow a support base, and, hopefully, win an election. From local city council positions to the biggest congressional races, the extensibility of WordPress is making it all possible.

Essential Elements of a Political Website

You’ll notice several elements which pop up on every successful political website. These are the things which the public has come to expect a candidate to provide – the snippets of information we all look for when making decisions on who to vote for.

A successful candidate separates himself from the crowd by adding things like:

media
endorsements
event information
volunteer opportunities
information about election day

Political Media

Media is becoming increasingly popular on the web, and this holds doubly true for political candidates. President Obama and the White House website use a combination of private videos and YouTube, and other candidates have followed suit.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul uses a custom version of Tubepress to display his YouTube videos, which you can see on the RonPaul2012.com Media page.

Events Calendar

To rally the troops it helps to publish upcoming campaign events on your website. It lets the public know where you will be and gives them a chance to meet the candidate in person – the best way to generate support and to get vote commitments.

There are thousands of event plugins for WordPress which give you the ability to do everything from creating custom events to displaying them in sidebars and on pages. The three event plugins listed below go a step further.

The Time.ly All in One Event Calender is a premium calendar plugin which allows single and recurring events with color-coded categories (perfect for different campaign event types) and the ability to filter events on the front-end, a feature most other calendars don’t offer.

CalPress offers a clean calendar solution, and also integrates social sharing right into campaign event windows – perfect for letting your supporters share information about your events in their social networks.

Click Image to enlarge

Events Plus Plugin allows you to create and publish events and take RSVP’s directly on your website, with links to social media networks to display those public RSVP avatars. A nice feature of this plugin is its ability to take donations or charge fees for events, which is a common practice in the political industry, especially for in-home fundraising events held on behalf of the candidate by supporters and volunteers.

It also helps to combine your events calendar with a mapping plugin to show the places where you have been, or, more importantly, where you plan to be in the near future. Mapping can help a candidate generate steam, and press opportunities, on the campaign trail.

Comprehensive Google Map Plugin is a full-featured mapping plugin which taps into the Google Maps API and allows custom mapping, custom placeholders, and access to saved map features.

Volunteer Information

Every candidate for office needs volunteers, and the web is one of the most powerful ways to reach that potential support base.

Entering info to and accessing info from the WordPress database can be a chore for those new to WordPress, but the Participants Database plugin allows easy front-end and back-end database publishing.

The plugin can be setup to collect any type of information about the viewer, including voting and contact preferences, volunteer availability, even donation history.

What makes it even more powerful than using custom post types or meta data is the plugin’s built-in form builder which ties submitted information directly into the database for future retrieval and editing, which is one area where most other form plugins fall short.

Donate Page

Donations are the lifeblood of any successful political campaign, and a quick search of the WordPress plugin repository yields 983 donation related plugins. In an effort to streamline your search, here are a few that work well and integrate with various political resources:

NGP Van
The Democratic party uses NGP Van voter data and donation processing, and this plugin puts NGP Van forms directly on your WordPress website rather than linking your viewers away.

The Fundraising Plugin from WPMUDEV allows for both general fundraising and event based donations. It can handle crowdsourced funding situations and goal based campaigns. A tutorial on how to use this plugin can be found in the article: Fundraising with WordPress.

Endorsements

A Harvard Institute of Politics study found that a majority of young-adults get the majority of their political information from friends. It may seem like a staggering piece of information, but it’s not really news.

Politicians have known for years that people are more inclined to trust you if you are endorsed by someone who is respected. And the best way to show that trust is with public endorsements.

With WordPress, endorsements can be added to your website and displayed with testimonial widgets, and two plugins handle this perfectly.

The Testimonial Widget Plugin allows you to add testimonials from the front-end or the back of your WordPress website. It allows for the management of endorsements and a custom display in your sidebar or in posts or pages with the use of a shortcode.

GC Testimonials Plugin

GC Testimonials offers similar functionality, but with a more graphical display – allowing the endorser to upload a photo or logo to be used with their quote.

Information About Election Day

Click Image to enlarge

What would a politician’s website be if it didn’t include information about the election itself, and, in particular, a countdown telling people exactly how much time they have until election day.

The Uji Countdown plugin displays a visual countdown timer clock on your website, which can be configured to show days, hours, minutes, and seconds to your big day. It can be placed in a post or page, in the sidebar as a widget, or anywhere on the front-end via a shortcode.

All-in-one Political Website

There are few stock themes which bring together all of the custom plugins and functions mentioned above, but a recent addition to the world of WordPress gets you pretty close.

The Politic Theme combines the power of WordPress with the social networking aspects of BuddyPress to provide a website which displays the most vital campaign information and a way to gather supporters and let them extend your reach online.

If you’d like to see a few other major politicians running WordPress campaign websites, checkout our article: WordPress, Drupal and Open Source Dominate 2012 Presidential Campaign Websites, which was published earlier this year. If nothing else, you’ll get a laugh at how quickly things change in the world of politics in just a few months.

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