I realize this is a VERY specific topic but since it just happened to me, I thought I’d share.

The problem: You’re using WordPress as a CMS and while you’d love for your readers to see all of the great things on your site, there are just some things that don’t need to be pushed to their feed-readers. Like adding new sites to the Portfolio category or adding a second page for contact info or adding a new employee’s bio to the site. While these things are important and your readers may find them later, it’s certainly not news – unless you hired the Dalai Lama or something (great, here come the Chinese hackers).

This also has to do with the structure of your site. Granted, you’ll probably be using Pages for employee bios and contact info but if you’re reading this you’ve probably thought of a reason to filter a category from your feeds. We’re not alone. Smashing Magazine, via Jangro.com and WPRecipes.com have shared the solution and here it is:

“It’s quite simple to do so. Just add the following code to your template’s functions.php file:

function myFilter($query) {
	if ($query->is_feed) {
		$query->set('cat','-5');
	}

return $query;
}

add_filter('pre_get_posts','myFilter');

That will keep category with ID 5 out of the feed.”

You can get the Category ID by going to your Posts > Categories page in your WP admin and hovering over the title of the category you want to exclude. The “ID” number is what you’re looking for. Substitute that in for the number 5 in the above example and you’re all set. Visit Scott Jangro’s site for more about using it for multiple categories and possibly Tags.

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I know these effects are not yet available to all browsers but they are available to all GOOD browsers. (You cannot prove that’s an IE dig) CSS gradient effects are now supported by Firefox 3.6, Safari, Chrome and ahem, Internet Explorer 5.5 – so okay maybe not all of them are good, but the newer ones are :)

Why you should use them: Generating gradients via CSS create a much smaller page size and faster load time because you’re not loading an image that’s larger than it has to be. When we add drop shadows to images or use gradients as background images for title bars and the like, we’re forcing the browser to download another image file or one that’s bigger than it has to be. This is especially true when using PNG files for their ability to show transparency with drop shadows. So the short answer to why we should use them: load time and file size.

But what about IE? Well, support is not there yet without a hack to cover the color stop (the band of color that would appear in a true gradient) but you can get basic gradients to work. Remember that each browser will display a slightly different appearance anyway in most cases and that the effect we’re adding is not essential to the overall usefulness or user friendliness of your site. In other words: sure they’ll be different but they’ll still look good.

So why are we talking about this anyway? Well, funny you should ask. I needed to add a quick gradient to a client’s site this morning and stumbled upon this great WYSIWYG browser-based gradient generator. You can use it to generate Firefox and Webkit (Safari and Chrome) gradients right in your browser. Also check out this great post that addresses how to implement all of the versions so they work in most browsers, including IE.

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I know there are TONS of WordPress security-related plugins out there but these are the ones that work for me and have shown to be without conflicts and are easy to install and use. Most importantly, they also find, kill and (so far) prevent malware and hidden javascript links. I put this list together because I was constantly fighting a battle to keep spam links off my WordPress sites and couldn’t afford to keep spending the hours necessary to clean out the files that kept making their way back into my sites and directories.

Before you try any of the plug ins below to fix what might already be broken, update your WordPress install to the latest version. That may overwrite files that you don’t want in there. If that doesn’t cure you, you can back up your theme, uploads and plugin files and start with a clean WP install. That will for sure eliminate any files that don’t belong in the core WP install. That won’t fix those files that may be in your themes, plugins or uploads though. That’s where I went to the plugins to find some help.

1. Cloud Sites WP Scanner: This plugin – designed to work with Rackspace Cloud Sites – adjusts your file permissions so they’re more secure, and can be used to look for ALL “non-core files, modified core files, auto loading options with malicious code, and posts/pages injected with javascript.” Now this last bit may give you a small heart attack, especially if you use Zemanta on your blog. EVERY post on your site that contains javascript will be listed. This is where I found the malware on one site but you do have to sift through a lot and know what kind of code you’re loading into posts by default. This is worth the install for the file permission info alone. I’ve got a screenshot of the corrected permissions below and I hope that Jackson doesn’t sue me for it.
2. Bad Behavior: This plugin takes the preventative route and looks for the types of users and robots that attempt to leave comment spam on your site. This is used in conjunction with the default plugin Akismet to further limit those with nothing better to do than screw up your site. You can also implement a feature of Bad Behavior that ties to a spammer honey pot. This will prevent those with IP addresses already known for malicious activity from ever reaching your site in the first place.
3. Secure WordPress: This plugin also does a bunch of little things to tighten up the WordPress ship by removing small bits of information that a hacker can use to determine what version of WP you’re using and what files you might have hiding in different directories. Easy to install and easy to update.
4. TimesToCome WordPress Security Tool: This one is one of my favorites from the geeky ability to block any IP address that seems like it’s doing bad things. Bot hitting your site too often and not identified correctly? Just add the IP address and out they go. You can also block by terms in the request, how they are identified (as a bot) and Linda has done a great job of supplying a list of “bad bots” right in the package so you don’t have to look them up.
5. A good stats plug in. You’ll need this to identify the IP addresses of those users doing things you don’t like. I personally use StatPress but I’m sure there are many others that will give you these important bits of info: IP address, user agent, time stamp. You’ll need that info in order to block the users using TimesToCome (TTC).

Now I know this is by no means an exhaustive list. Please feel free to add your favorites in the comments below and I’ll include them once I’ve tried them. Remember one thing about this list: all of these plugins get along together and with Akismet without breaking the admin or the site’s theme. I’ve seen plenty that do a great job of keeping out bad users – and admins, good users and anyone else who wants to see your site. Also these plugins all work well within the latest (3.0.1) version of WP.

Good luck to you in keeping your site secure. It’s a battle.

Default directory permissions for a secure WordPress installation

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My site was giving me error messages until I enabled the XML-RPC feature under Settings > Writing > Remote Publishing but now all is well. Holy crap! It’s like the future!

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Image via Wikipedia

Has anyone else noticed how long it takes for pages to load with those crappy Facebook Like or log in apps included on them? You sit and watch the page loading and down in the little status bar it’s always Facebook something something or Google analytics. Well, aside from AdBlocking analytics (which I do on some of the more highly trafficked sites I visit) there’s not much we can do about Google but Facebook’s contribution to the web is debatable  to me and well worth removing for a faster surfing experience. Thankfully someone agrees with me.

This fun little outfit called Webgraph has developed a plugin for Safari and Chrome that will block Facebook goodies on sites other than Facebook. Yes! Now you could probably (and easily) do the same thing by blocking the Facebook bits using AdBlock (if you already use that) but this niche plugin may be the scalpel you were looking for rather than the butcher’s knife. Let me know what you think.

Go here to download.

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Stay tuned.

Image via Wikipedia

to my old friend Jason Derifaj (DARE – A – FAY – you’re welcome). He’s got a great looking site here he just revamped and you may want to keep an eye on his blog as well. Fun stuff for web peeps and fans of web peeps – if fans of web peeps exist. If you’re looking for help with your javascript and/or Flash coding, do yourself a favor and give Jason a shout. Or just call us and we’ll put all of you talented people together to do something really cool.

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Disclaimer: Do not use a javascript hack to fix each browser rather than adjusting your style sheets or using a reset style sheet first to solve the big stuff. This is last resort stuff here.

I managed to find a way to have Chrome show styles only set for Internet Explorer. Don’t ask me how but it has something to do with pulling Twitter updates via a js file into a custom WordPress template. The updates themselves already have styles attached to them before I pull them in so I have to undo/override them on my side.

This worked for all browsers using a conditional statement for IE and that straightened it all out – except Chrome. I know what you’re thinking. It can’t be broken in Chrome if it works in Safari. They’re both based on Webkit so they have to obey the same rules. Well, I found one they don’t agree on.

Anyway, here’s a last resort solution for you that will target any browser you want to via the style sheets by just adding the browser name to the selector like .chrome. I was led to the solution via Nathan Rice’s post on the subject but I used the one described in the contents since I couldn’t get his to play nice with the rest of what was going on. Here’s that solution:

Just upload this file to your server, call the script in the header of the page like this:

<script src="css_browser_selector.js"  type="text/javascript"></script>

and then just set your trouble maker selectors using the browser name as a class. So let’s say you want links to be red for IE 6, black for Chrome and blue for Firefox 3.5. You’d do this in your style sheet:

.ie7 a { color: red; }
.chrome a { color: black; }
.ff3_5 a { color: blue; }

Pretty snazzy and works like a charm. Again, don’t use unless you have to but it’s great to know this is out there. There are tons more usage examples and all the browser class titles here.

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It turns out that during the last round of updates or possibly a software update over the weekend (I reboot my Mac so seldom it’s difficult to pinpoint which update caused it) the Java settings have been reset or updated on your computer. Here’s how you fix it (courtesy of the smart people over at Mac OS X Hints):

1. Go to Applications > Utilities
2. Click on Java Preferences.app
3. Under General (the already selected tab), click “Restore Defaults” in the top half of the app window.
4. Close Java Preferences
5. Restart Mail
6. Go back to living a happy, peaceful existence

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Check out the video below highlighting the changes in this newest (and long awaited) version.

Send me a note if you’d like me to build you a site using this awesome content management system / blogging platform or if you have questions concerning your current WordPress site. Those of you with sites already based on WordPress and hosted with GroovySoup will be updated as we sort through the changes and make sure everything works as it should. Remember: all installs are different due to the plugins you use and the custom code used in your site themes. These differences can cause parts of the site to stop functioning correctly until they are sorted out. That’s why we’re taking our time rolling this one out :)

Update: We did find a bug with our site and All in One SEO forcing us to deactivate that plugin. It’s not necessarily the plugin’s fault but turning it off solved our issue which was the live site not displaying correctly or at all.

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