I have changed the niche in this example to real estate property to protect client confidentiality. The principles and techniques involved in using custom post types, custom taxonomies and custom templates remain the same.

Client Requirements

A client came to me with a request to have a lightbox slideshow of real estate and wondered if they could use my Slickr Flickr WordPress plugin. This would require moving all their photos on to Flickr however they wanted the click-through from the photos NOT to go Flickr but to individual property details pages.

Moreover, the client wanted full flexibility over the categorization of the property: by type, by regional location and by price range without my having to get involved in any subsequent development. But more importantly it would allow her to recategorize and reclassify as the number of properties grew from a handful to several hundred. Also some properties were ‘sold’ on other websites on a split commission basis so sometimes the ‘property details page’ would be on her site but more often it would be on another real estate agent’s site.

Here was an opportunity to build something really fast by leveraging the power of using WordPress as a content management system.

Building A Real Estate Website In Less Than A Day

Design and Development Activites

The solution I came up with was as follows:-

1. Create a new Custom Post Type called Property
2. Create a taxonomy “Property Type” e.g (Apartment, Condo, Villa, Plot of Land, Beach Front, etc)
3. Create a taxonomy “Region” e.g (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Talahassee, Carribbean, Canada, Europe)
4. Create a taxonomy “Price” e.g. (<50k, 50-100k, 100-200k, 200k-300k, >300k etc)
5. Build a custom archive template which does the following
• Displays a sub-title for each the region
• Displays a ‘teaser’ for each property that has the thumbnail photo with a click-through to a lightbox slideshow of all properties in the region
• Beneath each thumbnail is a caption with the short description with a click through to the property page
• In the LightBox you have the large picture of the property, the longer description and link
6. Access to the custom template is achieved using a URL such as: ../property/property-type/condos
7. Create clickable sidebar widget to drive traffic through to the custom template.

Client Setup Activities

The client is only concerning with uploading photographs and adding property descriptions

1. Upload large and thumbnail size photos on Amazon S3 (or uploads them to the media library)
2. Create a sidebar widgets (i.e. an ad) for each type of property containing a clickable image with a link through to the custom template
3. Add a “property” custom post type for each property giving
• Single Line Property Description is the post title
• Property Long Description is the post content
• Property URL as a custom field
• Large Property Photo as a custom field – URL of photo on Amazon S3
• Small Property Photo as a custom field – URL of thumbnail on Amazon S3
• Property Price as a custom field
• Tag the Property with one of more appropriate “property types”
• Tag the Property with one of more appropriate “region”
• Tag the Property appropriate “price range”
4. As and when required change the property types according to the properties that come on line
5. As and when required change the price ranges according to the properties that are currently available
6. As and when required change the regions according to the current property locations

Advantages of Using WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System)

• Gives the client full control of the property data using standard WordPress
• Gives the client control over the classifications of price ranges, locations and property types using standard WordPress
• Minimal code development (just a single template – about 4 hours work)
• Easy to expand property data in the future should the client wish to using custom post fields
• Can locate the photos and thumbnails on Amazon S3
• Uses standard jquery LightBox

In summary, these are the real benefits of WordPress: high flexibility and minimal cost.

I have implemented the solution for the client earlier this week however I will be putting up detailed tutorials with code examples here over the next few days as I build the property website in a subfolder of the site.

Click to Subscribe to WordPressWise and be notified as soon as I make the next post on building a property website in a day.

This morning you may check the Site Stats on your WordPress self-hosted blog and get the message

Your WordPress.com account, …….. is not authorized to view the stats of this blog. Currently access to stats is broken for some users and we are working on fixing this. Your stats are still being counted and will be visible once we restore access for your account

You have couple of actions open to you:

1. Wait until WordPress fixes the problem
2. Switch to a different stats plugin

If you go for the latter option then try using JetPack but make sure you deactivate the WordPress.com Stats plugin first otherwise you will run into problems.

JetPack is a bundle of plugins from WordPress.com that includes

• WordPress.com stats
• Twitter Widget
• Gravatar Hovercards
• WP.me Shortlinks
• Sharedaddy
• LaTeX markup language
• After the Deadline spelling and grammar checker
• Shortcode Embed

More about these features can be found at the JetPack site

Don’t make the same mistake I did this morning when downloading the latest version of WordPress.

This morning WordPress 3.0.4 security update become available. I therefore needed to update a few hundred sites.

Fortunately I have set up our server to use a shared version of WordPress and since this release requires no database changes it is a simple matter of running the update on one test site first to check it is okay and then updating the master copy to update all the other sites.

Step 1: Download WordPress

I downloaded the file latest.zip from http://wordpress.org/download/ using the command

wget http://wordpress.org/download/latest.zip

Step 2: Unzip Files to the New Location

I unzipped the latest.zip file to a folder /wordpress-3.0.4 on our server.

Step 3: Set up the Test Site To Use Latest Version

I set up the test site to get its version of wordpress from the wordpress-3.0.4 folder.

The site behaved properly however it still reported it was running version 3.0.3.

I checked the version file wp-includes/version.php and this had the variable:

$wp_version = '3.0.3';

Surely, WordPress has not forgotten to update this file when the release 3.0.4?

I checked the wordpress 3.0.4 folder and found it was identical to the wordpress-3.0.3 folder. Oops

I then decided to check the zip file. I found I had 2 zip files:

latest.zip (containing WordPress 3.0.3)
latest.zip.1 (containing WordPress 3.0.4)

What I had done is unzip the latest.zip file instead of the latest.zip.1 file. Dohh!

The wget command had seen that there was already a latest.zip file in the local folder so had created a new version latest.zip.1 and I had not noticed this.

So the moral of the story is to do one or all of the following:

• Pay more attention
• Have a checklist to follow when doing a WordPress upgrade
• Write a script that performs the download reliably
• Learn how to use the wget command properly

Below is an abbreviated and paraphrased version of the wget manual that explains I should have used “wget -r” if I want to replace (or clobber) an existing file.

Wget Parameters

If a file is downloaded more than once in the same directory, Wget’s behavior depends on a few options, including -nc, -r and -N. In certain cases, the local file will be clobbered, or overwritten, upon repeated download. In other cases it will be preserved.

When running Wget without -N, -nc, or -r, downloading the same file in the same directory will result in the original copy of file being preserved and the second copy being named file.1. If that file is downloaded yet again, the third copy will be named file.2, and so on. This was why I ended with latest.zip.1

When -nc is specified, this behavior is suppressed, and Wget will refuse to download newer copies of file. Therefore, ””no-clobber”” is actually a misnomer in this mode—it’s not clobbering that’s prevented (as the numeric suffixes were already preventing clobbering), but rather the multiple version saving that’s prevented.

When running Wget with -r, but without -N or -nc, re-downloading a file will result in the new copy simply overwriting the old. This is the behavior I wanted

Revised Upgrade Procedure

Anyway, I now have all my client sites running 3.0.4 and have improved my upgrade process

1. Remove any zip files from the local folder
2. Download latest.zip
3. Check downloaded file exists and is of suitable size 3MB
4. Unzip file
5. Rename wordpress folder to reflect version: mv wordpress ./wordpress-M.m.n – where M is major version, m is minor version and n is the revision number (e.g wordpress-3.0.4)
6. Point ‘beta’ folder at the new version
7. Log on as admin on the test site that use ‘beta’ version of wordpress
8. Run wp-admin/upgrade.php to see if WordPress applies any databases changes
9. Check out the pages on this test site which exercises a selected set of around 40 different plugins and ensure they behave correctly – issues tend only to arise with more complicated plugins like membership sites
10. Run script to backup all databases
11. Point ‘release’ folder (the master copy) at the new version
12. Only if database changes are necessary then run script to access wp-admin/upgrade.php on every site
13. Run script to backup all databases

Back in March 2010 I wrote the Slickr Flickr WordPress Plugin which makes it easy to display your photos from Flickr on a WordPress blog either as galleries or slideshows. The plugin has been running for 9 months and each month I have supported the plugin, taken feedback and added new features. Right now we are up to version 1.19 which I released today and the plugin has had over 15,000 downloads in total and it is well received by the Flickr community.

About two months ago I decided to try and make some sort of financial return on the WordPress plugin by planning a ‘paid for’ support model. Given it took me only a couple of weeks to write the plugin in the first place (discounting the hundreds of hours of free support), I thought this would not take me very long: but I was very wrong.

Much to my business coach’s growing frustration (and mine) it has taken a couple of months to go from the free WordPress plugin model to the premium version. The plugin mind-map below gives you some idea of why it has taken so long. [The diagram is clickable so you can download the PDF if you like]

Planning the Premium WordPress Plugin

This is the breakdown of what was required:

• Support Forum and a Suggestions Forum
• Membership Site
• Slickr Flickr Pro Bonus Features (plugin development)
• Slickr Flickr Pro Bonus Videos
• Licence Key Generator
• Licence Key Checker
• Sales Funnel and Sales Page
• Payment Integration
• Promotion on WordPress
• Promotion on Forums
• Promotion on Social Media

WordPress Forum Plugin

I choose the Simple Press Forum WordPress plugin because it was highly recommended and easy to set up as a members only forum only available to existing subscribers. No custom coding was required at all.

I set up two forums: a Support forum and a Suggestions forum with the Support forum being completely private to members and the Suggestions forum allowing read only access to guests. It was a piece of proverbial cake. Simple Press rocks!

WordPress Membership Site

As for the membership site I use the infusionsoft integrated WordPress plugin infusionWP written by the awesome Bob Keen. The primary benefit of this plugin is the seamless integration with Infusionsoft, so when you sign up a member of Infusionsoft you can create a subscriber(member) automatically on your WordPress site. InfusionWP has an enormous number of features to customize the membership site.

Slickr Flickr Pro Bonus Features

As well as priority support and the forums, I wanted to create some more inducements for users to sign up for the Pro Edition. For this I tapped into the dozens of questions, issues and suggestions that had arisen in the last few months and came up with what I hoped were three good reasons to upgrade:

1. Unlimited Photos – useful if you want to display more than 50 photos in a gallery or slideshow
2. Automatic clearing of RSS Cache – useful for real time updates and when you are simultaneously adding photos while updating your WordPress site
3. Specification of exact slideshow size – useful for non standard size photos (e,g not 4 by 3, or 3 by 4)

Slickr Flickr Pro Bonus Videos

The next thing was to put together some training on the bonus features for which I used Camtasia Studio to record 2 or 3 minute videos that demonstrate how to use the new features. Using Camtasia production I created a high definition (1280 by 768 or 16 by 9) format mp4 files and saved these on Amazon S3 and Amazon Cloudfront. The CloudPlayer Pro secure streaming plugin that is bundled with infusionWP is used to deliver the videos fast and securely to members. I also created a couple of getting started videos which will appear on the membership site and also on YouTube (e.g How To Find Your Flickr ID)

Licence Key Generator

After payment is confirmed, the system generates a random 32 character license key which I store along with its MD5 hash value in a custom table in the membership site database.

Licence Key Checker

I created a PHP script that checks the Slickr Flickr Licence key is valid and logs the domain that it is being used on and the current time. This called remotely using CURL whenever a user enters the Pro Licence key into Slickr Flickr Admin settings. On success a green tick, instead of a red cross, appears next to the key.

Sales Funnel and Sales Page

I created a short video and a simple page listing the benefits of Slickr Flickr Pro Membership and a description of the bonus features. This page has a single link through to the Upgrade page. I then added a number of links to this page, from the plugins readme.txt which appears on the WordPress Plugin directory and on relevant posts on the main Slickr Flickr site.

Next on the sales/upgrade page I placed the sales video which was recorded using Camtasia – this is a walkthrough of the membership site with the support forums and the bonus feature videos. It closes with my persuasive sales pitch which still needs a little work:

If you would like to buy then please click the button below this video.

The page is integrated with social media with a FaceBook ‘Like’ button, FaceBook comments and Twitter as well as blog comments.

Payment Integration

Payment is via a monthly subscription using PayPal. Rather than use a subscription button I am using my prototype PayPal Subscriptions for Infusionsoft WordPress plugin which integrates a PayPal Subscription with a recurring order On Infusionsoft. This uses PayPal’s Express Checkout API and its Instant Payment Notification, in conjunction with Infusionsoft’s API.

From the user standpoint they click the payment button, sign up to the subscription on Paypal’s site, and the plugin does the work behind the scenes to acknowledge the payment, set up the software licence key, set up the contact on Infusionsoft with a subscription, create the member using InfusionWP and send the welcome email before sending them to the thank you page.

Once the user confirms their email address they get the email with the log in details to the membership site where they find their Pro Licence key, the bonus videos and the forums.

Promotion on WordPress

At the time of writing Slickr Flickr happens to be appearing in the number one position of 270 Flickr plugins on WordPress. I am not sure why it is in this position having been on page 3 or 4 for many months. But the effect of this is a lot more downloads.

Promotion on Forums

I have identified forums as a source of promotion but have not done much yet in this area. I wanted to make sure the current release was stable before driving more traffic and attracting more users. Slickr Flickr Pro 1.18 has been running a week now and I have just released 1.19 with non critical three bug fixes and one new feature, a Slideshow LightBox. My usual haunts as far as forums are concerned are Thesis DIY Themes, Stompernet, Third Tribe Marketing, Warrior Forum and Flickr. I will get to work over the holidays on promoting the plugin further.

Promotion on Social Media

A Slickr Flickr FaceBook fan page is the next thing to do. I will also put all the non premium videos on You Tube in the next week.

I have a #slickrflickr tag on Twitter but the bird has not chirped for some time. I will use this to notify users of new versions of Slickr Flickr as well as Support posts and video tutorials.

Conclusions

So the easy part is completed, the premium WordPress plugin has been developed and is in the marketplace and you can buy it on the Upgrade to Slickr Flickr Pro page: all that remains is the more difficult job to promote it.

Having produced an earlier solution for Thesis to have three teasers per row, I have had a few requests for solutions for 4 and even 5 teasers per row. These small teasers are useful where just a title and a thumbnail is to be displayed but no text.

The approach I have adopted to keep the code tidy is to put the JavaScript in separate files called jquery.n_teasers_per_row.js and put this file in the custom folder where the n is either three, four, five or six. This approach keeps the PHP in the Thesis custom_functions.php simple.

Three Teasers Per Row

I put the JavaScript in a file ../themes/thesis/custom/jquery.three_teasers_per_row.js

function three_teasers_per_row() {
  last_teaser = jQuery('.teaser').size()-1;
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index) {
     if ((index % 6) == 2) {
         jQuery(this).clone().appendTo(jQuery(this).parent().prev());
         jQuery(this).remove();
     }
     if (((index % 6) == 3) && (index < last_teaser)) {
         jQuery(this).clone().prependTo(jQuery(this).parent().next());
         jQuery(this).remove();
     }
  });
  jQuery('.teasers_box').each(function(index) {
     if (((index % 3) == 1) && (jQuery(this).children().size() == 0))  {
         jQuery(this).remove();
     }
  });
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index){
    jQuery(this).addClass('teaser3').removeClass("teaser_right");
  });
}
jQuery(document).ready( function () { three_teasers_per_row(); });

Here is the CSS. You may need to tweak the width according to the size of your content area

.custom .teaser3 { width: 210px; padding-right:20px; } //change width to allow 3 columns
.custom .teaser3 .format_teaser p { display: none } //hide the text but not the teaser thumbnail

Here is the PHP to gi custom_functions.php. In this example I am enabling, three teasers per row on just the home page

function add_jquery_stuff () {
   if (is_home()) {
      echo ('<script type="text/javascript" src="'.THESIS_CUSTOM_FOLDER.'/jquery.three_teasers_per_row.js"></script>');
   }
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'add_jquery_stuff');

Four Teasers Per Row

I put the JavaScript in a file ../themes/thesis/custom/jquery.four_teasers_per_row.js

function four_teasers_per_row() {
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index) {
     if ((index % 4) > 1) {
         jQuery(this).clone().appendTo(jQuery(this).parent().prev());
     }
  });
  jQuery('.teasers_box').each(function(index) {
     if ((index % 2) == 1) {
         jQuery(this).empty().remove();
     }
  });
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index){
    jQuery(this).addClass('teaser4').removeClass("teaser_right");
  });
}
jQuery(document).ready( function () { four_teasers_per_row(); });

Here is the CSS that is similar to that above. You may need to tweak the width according to the size of your content area

.custom .teaser4 { width: 150px; padding-right:20px; }
.custom .teaser4 .format_teaser p { display: none }

Five Teasers Per Row

I put the JavaScript in a file ../themes/thesis/custom/jquery.five_teasers_per_row.js

function five_teasers_per_row() {
  last_teaser = jQuery('.teaser').size()-1;
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index) {
     i = (index % 10);
     if ((i== 2) || (i ==3) || (i==8) || (i==9))  {
         jQuery(this).clone().appendTo(jQuery(this).parent().prev());
         jQuery(this).remove();
     }
     if (i==4)  {
         jQuery(this).clone().appendTo(jQuery(this).parent().prev().prev());
         jQuery(this).remove();
     }
     if ((i==5) && (index < last_teaser)) {
         jQuery(this).clone().prependTo(jQuery(this).parent().next());
         jQuery(this).remove();
     }
  });
  jQuery('.teasers_box').each(function(index) {
     i = (index % 5);
     if (((i == 1) || (i==2) || (i==4)) && (jQuery(this).children().size() == 0))  {
         jQuery(this).remove();
     }
  });
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index){
    jQuery(this).addClass('teaser5').removeClass("teaser_right");
  });
}
jQuery(document).ready( function () { five_teasers_per_row(); });

Here is the CSS that is similar to that above. You may need to tweak the width according to the size of your content area

.custom .teaser5 { width: 120px; padding-right:15px; }
.custom .teaser5 .format_teaser p { display: none }

Six Teasers Per Row

I put the JavaScript in a file ../themes/thesis/custom/jquery.six_teasers_per_row.js

function six_teasers_per_row() {
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index) {
     if ((index % 6) > 1) {
         jQuery(this).clone().appendTo(jQuery(this).parent().prev());
     }
  });
  jQuery('.teasers_box').each(function(index) {
     if ((index % 3) > 0) {
         jQuery(this).empty().remove();
     }
  });
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index){
    jQuery(this).addClass('teaser6').removeClass("teaser_right");
  });
}
jQuery(document).ready( function () { six_teasers_per_row(); });

Here is the CSS that is similar to that above. You may need to tweak the width according to the size of your content area

.custom .teaser6 { width: 100px; padding-right:10px; }
.custom .teaser6 .format_teaser p { display: none }

Please feel free to make a donation is you find any of the above useful or you would like me to do for the tutorial for seven or more teasers per row.

Thanks

Russell

The damaging dispute between Chris Pearson and Matt Mullenweg has abated as Chris has decided to change his terms of service and put Thesis PHP code under the GNU Public License Version 2 to bring it in line with other WordPress themes.

The Intellectual Property License section now reads:

Thesis General PHP License

The PHP code portions of Thesis are subject to the GNU General Public License, version 2. All images, cascading style sheets, and JavaScript elements are released under the Thesis Proprietary Use License below.

Thesis Proprietary Use License

The Thesis Proprietary Use License is a GPL compatible license that applies only to the images, cascading style sheets, and JavaScript files contained in Thesis. These elements are the copyrighted intellectual property of DIYthemes and cannot be redistributed or used in any fashion other than as provided in this Agreement.

Chris announced the news on Thursday with some style:

Friends and lovers: Thesis now sports a split GPL license. Huzzah for harmony! #thesiswp

The impact of the relicensing exercise should stem the flood of users that decided to quit Thesis in response to the recent controversy and the threat of a potential court case. The outcome of any court case would have been uncertain as there are good arguments on both sides regarding the enforcability of the GPL. An expensive court case would have been damaging for Matt and potentially ruinous for Chris.

Thankfully, the GPLv2 licensing will allow Chris and his team to get their focus back on making his theme even better.

Version 1.8 will be out soon: new features are:

• Support for WordPress 3.0 Navigation Menu
• Moving functions of the Page Options settings and onto the WordPress category and tag admin pages
• A new skin interface – I will be doing some tutorials on this later
• Better performance due to recoding of the theme architecture

If you are a user of WordPress and a user of the Thesis Theme then you really to check out the remarkable discussion between Matt Mullenweg, head honcho of WordPress, and Chris Pearson, author of Thesis which took place on July 14 and was ably refereed by Andrew Warner.

I have great respect for both the antagonists, both acutely intelligent and commercially aware, but very different in style: Chris is fiery, passionate and arrogant while Matt is cool, thoughtful and calculated. And Matt’s business is probably worth at least 100 times Chris’s business so the match is very far from equal in terms of the resources and support each can bring to the table.

Both have made great contribution to software that I use to support my clients: Matt with WordPress, and Chris with the Thesis Theme, so I really would like these guys to get on well…

How The GNU Public License Works

The debate certainly opened my eyes wider regarding the GPL (GNU Public Licence). On initial reading it seems pretty fair and reasonable and the consequences tend to benefit the developers of software and the user community at large. So it sounds pretty good. This how it breaks down:

You are free to copy existing GPL software, amend, distribute and charge for that code as long as pass the same rights on with the distribution of the amended product.

From the developer perspective, it sounds fair: you get some code for free, you add to it to make it a bit better, and anyone else is free to do the same.

This is a bit like the work of the scientific community with the result being a growing, ever improving, FREE body of knowledge; except in this case the knowledge is encapsulated as software.

So far, so good, and hence you might ask: why don’t we develop all software this way?

Well the reason is… money. Or more accurately, GETTING PAID for WORK DONE. Let me elaborate.

In the case where the developer takes an existing piece of works and improves it, the GNU Public License makes perfect sense. However its rationale breaks down for me in other scenarios, specifically where original works are concerned.

Non Derivative Works

Let’s say I build a piece of non GPL software product from scratch that has a lot of business value to my customers. I sell that product to my clients for $200 and they use it and are happy. And then a few of my customers would like the product made available as a WordPress plugin so I add the few lines of code necessary to interact with WordPress.

The work is in no way a derivative of WordPress: it just happens to be able to be called from WordPress. However, due to WordPress’s plugin listing requirements I am obliged to make my WordPress Plugin licensed under the GNU Public License. No big deal you might say, but this is how the GPL works in practice…

The Problem With The GNU Public License

1. I can charge money for the software product(that bit is not a problem, but it is coming soon)
2. The person who buys it can also legally sell it and undercut my price (that’s a problem)
3. Another person who buys it can legally put the software on a free download site (and that’s an even bigger problem)

So my potential customers can either get my product from me for $200 (which was what I sold it for when it was not wrapped as a WordPress Plugin) or for free from a download site. Which are they going to choose?

GPL Software is Effectively Free (Zero Cost) Software

The GNU Public License has made my software product zero cost: I can only get customers to buy it from me if I offer additional services such as upgrades and support. And in reality, they are not buying the product, what they are in fact doing is buying support. Now, if I were happy to hire, train, motivate a large team of support staff that would be fine but let’s just say I don’t want to make money through running a large support team. Maybe my product is pretty good, easy to use and my clients don’t need to call often so I can hardly sell them expensive support contracts since they do not need them.

A few years ago I developed some software for a banking client and after I had completed they gave me a support contract for $800 monthly retainer for up to 4 hours support. After the initial six months they decided not to renew the retainer because they had not called me once. The software worked just fine without support.

Support and Services Are Not Always Viable

Now the support model may work if your are continually updating the software with new features but if the software is more narrowly focussed and simply does the job well then the GNU Public License does not offer the developer a way to get remunerated for the work in the same the way an author gets paid for their original creative works. This indicates that some software is just not suited to run under GPL if you want to get paid for your efforts.

Maybe this suggests that only buggy, difficult-to-use software that needs lots of support is ideal for GNU Public Licensing?

Except that’s not true, the multiple eyes that review and debug GPL code probably means it is of higher quality than proprietary software: after all, as Eric Steven Raymond, of ambassador of open source, proclaimed “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”.

Sometimes I want to give free code to the WordPress Community; other times I don’t, because I have bills to pay, and perhaps sometimes, I have just worked too darn hard, and thought too much about the problem, to give it all away for nothing before I have had a chance to get something back

The problem remains: how to make money from GPL software? And just to be clear: making money from code is not a bad thing: even developers have families to feed.

How To Make Money From GPL Software with WordPress Plugins

The short answer is you can’t. At least not directly from selling fully GPL code. But the WordPress Plugin guidelines only require the plugin to be GPLv2 compatible which means you can license your plugin under for the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 3 which allows you to link to modules that are not fully GPLv3 licensed. [For more detailed information check out the GPL Compatiability Matrix. Good luck, you will need it when you get there.]

So we have an out. What we can do is follow Matt’s Mullenweg’s example with his Akismet plugin. Develop your a proprietary non GPL service hosted on another server and create a LGPL WordPress plugin that calls that service. We are then back to good old client server with a GPL client and a proprietary server. Hosting the clever bit of your plugin on your own server means that it is outside the GPL and hence you can protect your investment.

And if this circumvention of the full GPL is good enough for Matt then it is got to be good enough for all other WordPress Plugin Developers.

You can charge your customers for each use, a monthly charge or whatever, without risk of your code being copied(stolen), repackaged and resold as would be the case under GPL.

And when you have paid all your bills, cleared the mortgage, you can then license it under the GPL, and let others improve the code.

Back To Matt and Chris

So where does that leave us with Matt and Chris? Chris wrote the Thesis Theme that uses WordPress as the underlying platform. Let’s says 95% of the code is original and that Chris’s model of “how to build a website is overlaid on top of WordPress” is unique and hence is dependent on WordPress but not a derivative of WordPress (A 5% overlap cannot be rationally described as a derivative) through there is a good case to be made by Mark Jaquith that all WordPress Themes are a derivative of WordPress.

The bottom line is that the mere fact that WordPress causes the Thesis theme to run is sufficient for the GPL to be invoked (should Chris wish to distribute Thesis and he does given he wants to make some money). Therefore as WordPress is under the GNU Public License then Thesis needs to be GPL too (but that’s only if you believe in the GPL is enforceable)

Chris has said that since he is the creator of Thesis then he should not be dictated to by WordPress (and the GPL) and forced to license his code under their terms and not his. But that is not how the GPL is intended to operate.

Judging by Chris’s comments about the ‘inorganic nature’ of GPL in his otherwise organic business, he simply feels that the GPL is unenforceable because it removes protection of the rights of the creator of a piece of original work.

Maybe from Chris’s perspective, the “freedom” that GPL offers is the freedom for others to steal his work, and that is a freedom he does not want.

Rather than GPL being untested in court because it is solid (other than in Germany and in a case where significant copying of Linux kernel code had taken place so the judgment was clear), I think the converse is true: nobody has gone to court because they are looking at enormous legal and expert witness fees with little idea of how the judgement will go.

Do you spend $10 million with a 50% chance of success or settle out of court for $1 million – easy decision? You need a stubborn nature and deep pockets to play that game. But then Chris has a stubborn nature and Matt has deep pockets so maybe there will be a day in court to get a judgment on GPL (only for another judge to overturn the judgement on appeal 6 months later)

What Next?

Basically, if push comes to shove, then rather than go to court, I think Chris should move Thesis under GPL as a hard headed business decision to limit the risk to his business, help heal the wound in the WordPress community, and let him focus his attention on making Thesis even better.

The whole issue is one enormous distraction right now and is consuming too much energy that could be put into making WordPress and Thesis even better.

The GPL issue is simply not a good enough cause for Chris to risk losing his business over. It might be for him, on a point of principle, but it is not for these of us who are members of both the WordPress and Thesis communities.

As promised this is the non-hack solution to 3 teasers per row problem which involves only changes to custom_functions.php and custom.css- no changes to Thesis core code are required. This version should therefore survive upgrades to Thesis.

The solution uses jQuery and applies a simple algorithm. Firstly, remember that Thesis makes a ‘teaser box’ for each row and puts two teasers in each teaser box. My goal is to have 3 teasers in each teaser box.

Algorithm To Put Three Teasers in Each Teaser Box

The jQuery below processes every third teaser box starting at the second box and

• copies the first teaser into the previous teaser box
• copies the second teaser into the next teaser box
• removes the teaser box

The PHP code below is set up to have 3 teasers per row on the home page and 1 teaser per row on archive pages. Where we have 3 teasers per row it also shortens the post titles at the last complete word in the title to avoid wrapping text across multiple lines.

Also CSS is used to set the width of each teaser and on the home page to suppress the teaser text to leave just the title and the thumbnail image.

function add_jquery_stuff () {
 if (is_front_page()) {
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
function shorten(sometext,maxlen) {
  if (sometext.length<=maxlen) return sometext;
  var s = sometext.substr(0,maxlen);
  return (s.lastIndexOf(" ")<1?s:s.substr(0,s.lastIndexOf(" ")))+"...";
}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready( function () {
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index) {
     if ((index % 6) == 2) {
         jQuery(this).clone().appendTo(jQuery(this).parent().prev());
     }
     if ((index % 6) == 3) {
         jQuery(this).clone().prependTo(jQuery(this).parent().next());
     }
  });
  jQuery('.teasers_box').each(function(index) {
     if ((index % 3) == 1) {
         jQuery(this).empty().remove();
     }
  });
 jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index){
    jQuery(this).addClass('teaser3').removeClass("teaser_right"); //3 teasers per row on home page
  });
 //shorten titles
 jQuery('.teaser a[rel=bookmark]').each(function(index){
    var t = jQuery(this).text();
    jQuery(this).text(shorten(t,24));
  });
});
</script>
<?php
 }

if ( is_archive()) {
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready( function () {
  jQuery('.teaser').each(function(index){
    jQuery(this).addClass('teaser1');  //one teaser per row on archive pages
  });
});
</script>
<?php
  }
}
add_action('wp_head','add_jquery_stuff');

As with the earlier examples we tweak the CSS with classes teaser1 and teaser3 for where we want 1 and 3 teasers per row respectively. You need to set these widths according to the width of your page.

.custom .teaser1 { width: 55em; }
.custom .teaser3 { width: 193px; padding-right:6px; }
.custom .teaser3 .format_teaser p { display : none }

The last line in the CSS hides the text – the client just wanted to display an image as the teaser on the home page where we have 3 teasers per row.

Sample Home Page Teasers

Sample Archive Page Teasers

Potential Issue with thesis_hook_before_teasers_box Hook

I have not tested this solution where the ‘thesis_hook_before_teasers_box’ hook is being used. This badly named hook actually inserts content at the start of the teaser box before the first teaser rather than before the teaser box as its name suggests. I suspect that my solution will not work well if you use this hook.

If anyone has a problem with this jQuery solution please email me and will add a fix to handle this scenario – unless Chris Pearson decides to change the ‘thesis_hook_before_teasers_box’ hook to run before the teaser box first.

This is an example of using the WordPress Slickr Flickr Slideshow and Gallery Plugin to display a slideshow of photos in this camera review.

Buying a new Camera

Three weeks ago I decided to buy a new Digital Camera to replace by Fujifilm 2800Zoom which I have had for seven years. I was going to spend a week at a beach resort in Costa Rica on a technical seminar (seriously) and wanted to capture some decent photos of the scenery.

After checking out the various recommendations on Amazon I choose the Canon PowerShot A1100IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD (Silver) for around $170. This camera is also available at £89.99 at amazon.co.uk in the UK

I made my buying decision based on a combination of features, picture quality, size, weight and of course price.

This is how the camera was rated:

Canon Powershot A1100 Features

The features that I was interested in were that:

• At least 8 Megapixel photos
• Video with decent sound capture
• Light weight and compact but large enough for me to operate with my big fat fingers
• Capable of uploading photos to a PC/Mac without sucking the battery dry
• Large enough capacity for me to shoot photos and video for a couple of weeks
• Around by budget of $200

What Does a Canon Powershot A1100 Look Like?

Here is a slideshow of photos of the new camera (the Canon) that I took with the old camera (the Fujifilm).

Canon A1100 Guides

Canon A1100 Box

Canon A1100 USB Reader

Canon A1100 Card

Canon A1100 Battery

Canon A1100 Screen

Canon A1100 Height

Canon A1100 Top

Canon A1100 Width

Canon A1100 Front

What Extras Do You Need For A Canon Powershot A1100?

The camera comes only with a 128MB card in the box which can hold around 50 photos and this was too few for my requirements. Also, I wanted a mechanism of downloading the photos from the camera that did not deplete the battery life further.

Therefore I would recommended two additional items to purchase with the a camera: a large capacity flash card and a USB flash memory card reader.

• 16GB San disk – stores up to 5000 images is around $40 for the SanDisk 16GB Ultra II 15MB/s SDHC SD Card in the USA or £18 for the SanDisk 16GB SDHC Secure Digital Card in the UK
• Flash Card Reader: remove the flash card from the camera and insert it into the card reader to upload your photos – only $4 for the Zeikos USB 2.0 SD/SDHC/MMC Flash Memory Card Reader in the USA and £1.64 for the Integral SD/SDHC Card Reader in the UK

What Did I Think Of The Camera?

Overall I am happy with the picture quality and the general feel and use of the Canon Powershot A1100 Camera.

My only real complaint about the camera was the delay when taking multiple photos but I can live with this as my subjects tend not to move too fast.

All in all, the Canon is a good quality, well priced, light weight camera for amateur photographers.

The camera is available at amazon.co.uk in the UK.

Test Galleria

[/slickr-flickr type="galleria" tag="rio" descriptions="on" flickr_link="on"]

Test Slideshow

Nassau Cruise Ship

Caribbean cruise ship departs

Steel Band at Atlantis

Atlantis Aquarium

Grand Bahama Hotel Grounds

Plenty of places in the hotel grounds to take refuge form the sun and enjoy the breeze off the water

Me Chilling

Grand Bahama Downtown

Tropical Blue Sea

View from our balcony

Cool Art in Hotel Room

Grand Bahama Hotel

Test Gallery

Test Gallery

Example Small Slickr Flickr Galleria

Example Slickr Flickr Slideshow of Dickens Lodge

[/slickr-flickr id="48727572@N08" tag="dickenslodge1"]

Slickr Flickr Gallery of Antiques

[/slickr-flickr id="39431406@N04" tag="online thrift&2" type="gallery"]