Swank Web Style Blog http://swankwebstyle.com/blog Web Design and Hosting Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:42:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/Swankhttp://feedburner.google.com WordPress 2.8.1 is out http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/mx-gKGP3GBQ/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/07/09/wordpress-2-8-1-is-out/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:42:46 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=175 An update for WordPress 2.8 has been released that fixes a bunch of bugs including:

  • Certain themes were calling get_categories() in such a way that it would fail in 2.8. 2.8.1 works around this so these themes won’t have to change.
  • Dashboard memory usage is reduced. Some people were running out of memory when loading the dashboard, resulting in an incomplete page.
  • The automatic upgrade no longer accidentally deletes files when cleaning up from a failed upgrade.
  • A problem where the rich text editor wasn’t being loaded due to compression issues has been worked around.
  • Extra security has been put in place to better protect you from plugins that do not do explicit permission checks.
  • Autosave error experienced by some IE users is fixed.

You find a list of all big fixes on the WP Dev Blog. I’m not seeing a notification yet in any of my WP sites, but I’m sure the notice will show up in the next few hours or you can get the download here if you want to update your site manually.

Tags: 2.8, bugfix, download, upgrade, WordPress

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]]> http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/07/09/wordpress-2-8-1-is-out/feed/ 0 http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/07/09/wordpress-2-8-1-is-out/ Notice to Hosting Clients: Billing issues http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/ykmE7fZf1mQ/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/07/01/notice-to-hosting-clients-billing-issues/#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:39:28 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=172 A problem with our billing software since mid-June up until today has been sending out erroneous invoices and notices. This includes things like duplicate invoices or overdue/soon due notices on accounts already paid. We fixed the issue today so this won’t be happening any more. A bunch of emails went out early this morning before we found this fix, though, so if you received an invoice or notice on something you already paid, please just ignore it.

Sorry for the inconvenience and please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about your account. Thanks!

Tags: billing, client center, hosting

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]]> http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/07/01/notice-to-hosting-clients-billing-issues/feed/ 1 http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/07/01/notice-to-hosting-clients-billing-issues/ WordPress 2.8 “Baker” Released http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/I-MMyZb3jFI/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/06/11/wordpress-2-8-baker-relased/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:10:39 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=167 The newest version of WordPress dropped late in the day yesterday. 2.7 was a very big release, completely changing the admin area and adding lots of new features but 2.8 seems to be more about taking all that new stuff and making improvements to it. They’ve also added a few new features that they probably wanted to get to in 2.7, but just didn’t have the time for. The new improvements and features include:

  • Optimizing scripts and styles to make WP faster.
  • Adding a theme directory, similar to the already built-in plugin directory, so you can search for and install new themes right from your admin.
  • Redoing the widget system for easier use and customization.
  • Improvements to the screen options (the tab in the top right-hand corner of the admin). Having a big monitor, I especially like being able to choose 3 or 4 columns on my dashboard. You can also now choose how many entries to display on the Edit Post/Page screens. Check out the tab on any page in the admin and see what options you have, in a lot of places you can get rid of things you don’t use so the admin is less cluttered.
  • Improvements to custom taxonomies, which you can read more about in detail here.
  • Improvements to the theme editor like syntax highlighting and numbering (you probably don’t care about this unless you are a developer).

Go here to see the full, very long list of improvements in 2.8.

Hopefully, you already have 2.7 in which case you’ll be able to upgrade to 2.8 in seconds with the click of the Upgrade button, but you can still download it here and install the old fashioned way. If you are a Swank Web Hosting customer and still have WP 2.7 or less feel free to contact us for a free upgrade, we’ve noticed an uptick of site hacking lately, especially on WP blogs with version 2.5 or lower.

Tags: 2.8, blog, download, plugin, upgrade, WordPress

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]]> http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/06/11/wordpress-2-8-baker-relased/feed/ 1 http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/06/11/wordpress-2-8-baker-relased/ WordPress 2.7.1 Released http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/N7JFLG1gx3s/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/02/11/wordpress-271-released/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:02:16 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=163 WordPress 2.7.1 was released late in the day yesterday. It’s a maintenance release as opposed to a security release, so you don’t need to rush to upgrade, but it does fix 68 bugs, which is always a good thing. Assuming you’ve already upgraded to 2.7 (if not, why haven’t you?) all you need to do is go to Tools>Upgrade and it will upgrade your blog in seconds.

The upgrade feature may not work for everyone depending on your host, but it should work for most major hosts. You can check to see if your host is on the list here. The upgrade feature works for all Swank Web Hosting clients, but feel free to contact us if you need help or if you haven’t upgraded to 2.7 yet and would like to. All Swank Web Hosting clients get free WP upgrades!

Tags: 2.7, maintenance release, upgrade, WordPress

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]]> http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/02/11/wordpress-271-released/feed/ 2 http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/02/11/wordpress-271-released/ 2009 Bloggies http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/u9DKFa3DT94/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/01/22/2009-bloggies/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:54:01 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=158 The finalists of the 2009 weblog awards were announced today and we are so happy to see so many of our wonderful clients on there. Be sure to check out all the finalists’ websites, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t give a little push to our clients:

Best Canadian Blog:
Attack of the Redneck Mommy
Cheaty Monkey

Best Art, Craft or Design Blog:
Craftastrophe (co-founded by one of our own, Karen)

Best Teen Blog:
Sarcastica

Best Kept Secret Blog:
Chickens in the Road

Congratulations to all the finalists! Go vote for your favs today. Voting closes on February 2 and winners are announced in March.

Tags: awards, blogging, Clients, vote

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]]> http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/01/22/2009-bloggies/feed/ 1 http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2009/01/22/2009-bloggies/ WordPress 2.7 “Coltrane” Now Available! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/VWowxc5nC1E/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/12/11/wordpress-27-coltrane-now-available/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:49:53 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=148 After a bunch of betas and two release candidates the WordPress team has finally released WordPress 2.7 “Coltrane” for download.  2.7 is  a HUGE leap forward as far as the interface as well as new features it offers.  The team has really been listening to it’s users and quietly going down the list adding the most requested features starting back in 2.5 earlier this year, but 2.7 is definitely the culmination of this.

Over 150 people contributed code directly to the release, our highest ever, with many tens of thousands more participating in the polls, surveys, tests, mailing lists, and other feedback mechanisms the WordPress dev team used in putting this release together.

The biggest difference in 2.7 is the new admin interface.  Yes, another new admin interface.  But this one seems to be here to stay (Matt says we should expect it to still basically be the same a year from now).  It was developed with the user in mind to make the area simple to navigate and with as few clicks as possible.  The dashboard and the Post pages are also almost completely customizable giving you the ability to drag and drop boxes wherever you want or removing them altogether.  Also, don’t forget to check “Your Profile” under Users as the 2.5 color scheme feature is still there and personally, I think the blue color scheme is much nicer than the default gray one.

Perhaps the best new feature in 2.7 is finally the ability to perform one-click upgrades directly from the admin area.  No more manual upgrades!  No more having to pay your designer to do your upgrades (believe me we don’t mind!).  Related to this is the new plugin interface which lets you search for and install new plugins from the plugins database directly inside your admin area.  With the plugins database integrated the themes database can’t be that far behind!

Also new is the Comments and Post/Page management interfaces.  You can reply to comments directly for the admin now.  If you need to edit a category or a tag on a post, you no longer need to open the whole post up, just use the quick edit link to change those things directly from the post management page.

For comments, they have also added new features like threaded comments and paged comments.  However, these features will need to be added to your current template, they won’t work unless you have a 2.7 compatible theme.  If you need help making your theme 2.7 compatible (or even 2.5 compatible since many themes still don’t support gravatars) feel free to contact us and we can get you set up with all these snazzy new features.

So what are you waiting for?  Upgrade your blog today!  We can help if you need it, and just think, next time you’ll be able to upgrade with a the click of a button!  This is not one of those releases where you need to wait around and see if anything goes wrong.  As I mentioned above, there have been several betas and release candidates, plus it already went live on WordPress.com, so millions of people are already using it.  This is a very strong release with features that you don’t want to miss out on.

Here’s a nice visual introduction video:

Here are some resources to check out plugin/theme compatibility as well as upgrading your theme to use new 2.7 features:

Download it now!

Tags: 2.7, blog, design, download, plugin, upgrade, WordPress

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]]> http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/12/11/wordpress-27-coltrane-now-available/feed/ 1 http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/12/11/wordpress-27-coltrane-now-available/ WordPress 2.7 Beta 1 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/sle1JVZpNzs/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/11/03/wordpress-27-beta-1/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:12:54 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=144 The first beta of WordPress 2.7 was released last week and it looks like 2.7 is going be a pretty fantastic release.  2.7 has some major improvements and rearrangements of the admin area, (hopefully) fixing many of the issues that people had with the new admin redesign when it was introduced in version 2.5.

Op111.net has a great list of eleven new features in 2.7 including mass editing of posts and pages, being able to reply to comments from the admin, threaded and paginated comments and much more.

2.7 was initially scheduled for a November 10th release, but they’ve pushed that back a couple of weeks for some extra time to perfect the release.  There will be a release candidate coming out on the 10th and it will “be a high-quality, almost-finished release that we are comfortable recommending for broad use”.  Then they will use the next few weeks to fix bugs that early adopters report before putting out the final release.

Until then, you can download the beta version and see what we have to look forward to.  If you do try out the beta don’t forget to take these polls from the developers and let them know about your favorite features.

Tags: 2.7, beta, features, survey, WordPress

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]]> http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/11/03/wordpress-27-beta-1/feed/ 1 http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/11/03/wordpress-27-beta-1/ WordPress 2.6.3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/utVljGnsgiI/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/10/24/wordpress-263/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:00:56 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=134 WordPress 2.6.3 has been released in response to a vulnerability in the Snoopy Library, which is what WP uses to fetch feeds in the dashboard.  The good news is that only two files need to be replaced, so if you don’t want to download the whole release, just get these files and upload to the wp-includes directory and overwrite the old ones:

Tags: security release, upgrade, WordPress

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]]> http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/10/24/wordpress-263/feed/ 1 http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/10/24/wordpress-263/ The Seasonal Sale! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/eZjdRIXDagM/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/10/08/the-seasonal-sale/#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:00:55 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=101 It’s now officially Fall, and it’ll be Winter before we know it and there are so many holidays to celebrate during these two seasons! Besides official holidays Swank Web Style will also be having it’s 3rd birthday in November. So to celebrate all these great holidays and thank all of our wonderful clients who have made the last three years so great, we’ve decided to have a sale on blog designs!

It’s actually two sales in one: Order a holiday or season themed blog design, redesign, or graphics and you’ll get 25% off the total price. If you’re not interested in a holiday design, you’ll still get 20% off a regular blog design.

The Seasonal Sale covers any holiday/season between now and February. This includes (but isn’t limited to):

  • Fall
  • Winter
  • Pink for October – Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  • Halloween
  • Thanksgiving
  • Christmas
  • New Years
  • Valentine’s Day

This sale will be active between now and February, but we recommend you contact us ASAP, especially if you wanting a Fall, Halloween, or Christmas design.  We understand that you may not want to spend the money on a completely new design, so this sale also includes redesigns or new graphics if you are just looking to give your current design a holiday/seasonal spin.

If you’re not interested in tricking out your blog for the holidays but still want a new design or redesign, then you’ll still get 20% off the total price!  However, the regular blog design sale will expire at the end of our birthday month on November 30th, so you must inquire before then to get the discount.

Contact us today!

Tags: blog, design, holiday, redesign, sale

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]]> http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/10/08/the-seasonal-sale/feed/ 0 http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/10/08/the-seasonal-sale/ Donate to get a blog design or hosting! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Swank/~3/D2h9cEstIHk/ http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/2008/10/07/donate-to-get-a-blog-design-or-hosting/#comments Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:46:29 +0000 Emily http://swankwebstyle.com/blog/?p=126 It’s the last day of the Boobiethon and we want them to reach their goal, so we’ve donated some items to help them get there!

The first is a custom blog design for WordPress, Blogger of TypePad. You must donate $250 dollars or more to win this, but it’s completely tax deductible, so in the end you are getting a new blog design for free and you get to donate to a great cause.

The second prize is a year of hosting. You’ll get our Mini Package which is more than enough space and bandwidth for a personal blog. If you don’t already have a blog, we’ll install WordPress on your new account for free! To win this, you must donate $75 or more.

Read more about the prizes here or just go and donate already!! Even if you don’t want to spring for those prizes please consider donating if haven’t already. It’s the last day, so even just $10 or $20 can go a long way to helping them reach their goal.

UPDATE: The boobiethon is now over. Thanks for those who donated!

Tags: blog, boobiethon, breast cancer awareness, design, donation, hosting, october

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