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Plugin Killer Series for WordPress: The End

Binny V A — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:51:00 +0000

After eight posts, I am ending the plugin killer series. It has been a nice run. Hopefully, I have given you an idea of how easy it is to customize WordPress yourself - without having to resort to third party plugins. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Its just that, its more satisfying when you do it yourself. The advantages and disadvantages of customizing a theme rather than installing a plugin is given in the introduction to the WordPress Plugin Killer Series.

The Posts

Avoid Duplicate Content - Use Canonical URL in WordPress

If you are on wordpress, the canonical tag can be integrated into your theme easily. There is a plugin to do the job for you - but you don’t need a plugin to do something as simple as this.

Show Popular Posts in WordPress - without a plugin

A list of the popular posts of the blog is a standard feature in many blogs. There are quite a few plugins that offer this feature. But it can also be implemented using a simple SQL query that counts the number of comments in a post.

Adding Social Bookmarking Button in WordPress - Without Plugins

Many blogs have links to add the current post to various social bookmarking site like Digg, Reddit, Delicious, etc. This blog don’t have it - but my LinDesk blog does. This effect is achieved using wordpress plugins. But when you take a look at the code, its just simple HTML.

Show Related Post in WordPress Without a Plugin

Related posts is a very popular feature. My default wordpress installation often includes a plugin that has this functionality. There are quite a few plugins that lets you have this feature. This can be implemented by listing other posts with the same category/tags as the current post.

Highlight Author’s Comments in WordPress without using a WordPress Plugin

Many blogs highlight the author’s comment in the comments section. You can use plugins to get this effect(For eg., the Highlight Author Comments Plugin) - but you don’t have to. You can get the get the same effect by adding a small bit of CSS code to your theme stylesheet.

A Tweet This Button for Each Post in WordPress - Without a Plugin

TweetThis is a WordPress Plugin that ‘adds a Twitter link to every post and page, so your readers can share your blog entries on their Twitter accounts with ease.’ And in the tradition of my WordPress Plugin Killer Series, this post will show you how to do it without a plugin.

Creating a Paypal Donate Widget in Wordpress - Without a Plugin

Paypal donate plugins. This is extremely simple to implement - you don’t even have to edit the code to get this done. Just copy/paste the code provided by Paypal.

Create a Better 404 Page in WordPress - Without Plugins

Recently, one of my friends posted a list of plugins you can use to optimize your 404 page. In case you don’t know what a 404 page, its the page that shows up if the URL requested by the user don’t exist. He listed eight plugins to do this. And since I am working on the Plugin Killer series, it got me thinking - is it possible to do it without using any plugins?

Other People’s Posts

Many other people have written on this topic too. Here is a few posts I could find….

If you know of any such articles, post a comment.

Create a Better 404 Page in WordPress - Without Plugins

Binny V A — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:28:01 +0000

Turns out, its easy. As long as you know about the Google’s 404 Widget. It adds a search box for your site with appropriate search suggestions and tries(and unfortunately, often fails) to provide alternatives to incorrect URLs.

See it in action here - http://www.bin-co.com/perl/perl_tk_tutorials/. The correct URL is http://www.bin-co.com/perl/perl_tk_tutorial/ - which the user finds and shows.

Enable Google 404 Widget in your Site

First, create the code by following the steps given in the 404 Widget page.
Then open the 404.php file of your wordpress theme and paste the code you got into it. Save and upload - you’re done.

This is the last of my plugin killer series. Just to balance things out, I’m thinking of doing a Plugin week(yes, a second plugin week) next week. Let me know if any of you are interested.

Creating a Paypal Donate Widget in Wordpress - Without a Plugin

Binny V A — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:32:01 +0000

Paypal donate plugins. This is extremely simple to implement - you don’t even have to edit the code to get this done.

Widget Mode

Open the admin side of your blog and go to Appearance > Widgets. Now add a Text widget to the sidebar you want the widget in. Edit it and paste the HTML code from the Paypal site.

Make sure you use your own paypal ID in the business field.

Save the widget - and you’re done.

Theme Mode

Another method is to add the same code to the theme’s code directly. Usually in the sidebar.php file. I kind of prefer this method - but it involves code editing, FTP, etc. Not everyone is comfortable with this.

Post Mode

Last but not the least, you can embed the code directly into a post. This is perhaps the simplest of all. Below is a working sample of the code…

A Tweet This Button for Each Post in WordPress - Without a Plugin

Binny V A — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:20:44 +0000

TweetThis is a WordPress Plugin that ‘adds a Twitter link to every post and page, so your readers can share your blog entries on their Twitter accounts with ease.’ And in the tradition of my WordPress Plugin Killer Series, this post will show you how to do it without a plugin.

The Code

You can add twitter button to your post by editing the single.php file in your theme. Go to the place in the file where you want the button to show up - then add this code at that location…

Tweet This

This is a super simple way of doing it - with a little more code, you can use a URL shortner to ’shortify’ your permalink. Otherwise it might overflow the 140 char limit.

Twitter

By the way, if you are on twitter, add me - I’m @binnyva

Highlight Author’s Comments in WordPress without using a WordPress Plugin

Binny V A — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:44:58 +0000

Many blogs highlight the author’s comment in the comments section. You can use many plugins to get this effect(For eg., the Highlight Author Comments Plugin) - but you don’t have to. You can get the get the same effect by adding a small bit of code to your theme.

The Changes

Just open up the style.css file in your active and add this at line at the end…

.bypostauthor { background-color:#aaa !important; }

Change the #aaa to the color you want as the author comment’s background. That’s it - you’re all done.

Note: This will only work on 2.7+ version of WordPress - if you are using an older version, please read the instructions in this post.

Paypal Integration: IPN’s notify_url Not Being Called

Binny V A — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:09:09 +0000

I am working on a mini shopping cart plugin for WordPress with Paypal integration. Its been a while since I worked with paypal - so I ran into trouble. I have a couple of sandbox accounts - and the payment goes through without any visible issues. But the IPN’s notify_url was not being called no matter what I did.

And I was not the only guy with the problem - plenty of other people have it too. I managed to solve the issue - but I decided to document the process - for the benefit of the people who fall into the same trap.

Make Sure the URL You Specified is Working

Yes, its obvious - but it needs to be said. Make sure the URL you gave as the value of notify_url is a working URL. Sample usage…

Here ‘http://www.yoursite.com/cart/ipn.php’ is the url - make sure it works! There is an easy way to test it - just go to IPN Testing Environment and enter your IPN notify_url there. When you submit the data, you’ll know wether the script is being called or not.

Verify the Email Address of Sandbox Account

When you make a sandbox account, you have to give a email address. But if you have selected a business account, make sure that you verify that email address. Just login using the given email and go to the home tab. There should be a ‘To do list’ to the right side. Make sure you complete all the stuff(usually just 2) there…

When you confirm your email address - remember that its simulated - you don’t have to check the actual email account. Just go to the Test Email page in Paypal sandbox itself to check the mail.

Once this is done, IPN notify_url worked for me. Hopefully, this will fix your issues as well.

BarCamp Kerala 5 Rocked!

Binny V A — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:48:34 +0000

BarCamp Kerala 5 took place at Technopark, Trivandrum. I attended and even managed to handle a session at the event - here are the slides…

Development: What They Don't Teach You in College

View more presentations from Binny V a.

Unfortunately, the slides make little to no sense without me in front of them, yapping away. But still, try and enjoy the pretty pictures.

BCK5 Links

Session slides
Photos
Twitter Coverage
Media(The Hindu) coverage - Part 1 and Part 2

BarCamp Kerala 5 on 3rd May at Technopark

Binny V A — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:03:40 +0000

Its BarCamp time again in Kerala. The venue this time is Technopark campus(Trivandrum) - and the date is 3^rd of May 2009. At the moment, we have 106 attendees and 16 sessions(includes one by yours truly).

About BarCamp Kerala

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering rooted in the desire to share and learn in an open and friendly environment. It is an intense yet cool, event with discussions, demos, and strong interactions.

BarCamp Kerala is your best chance to meetup all the coolest techies from Kerala. If you are a techie of any scale, do make it to BarCampKerala!

Official Links

Posts about BarCamp Kerala 5

Poster Credit: Ashwin

Show Related Post in WordPress Without a Plugin

Binny V A — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:00:29 +0000

Related posts is a very popular feature. My default wordpress installation often includes a plugin that has this functionality. There are quite a few plugins that lets you have this feature…

The Code

WordPress has been supporting tags in its new released - so the related posts feature can be implemented without the help of any plugins. All we have to do is find the other posts with some same tags as the current post. Just open the single.php file in your theme and add this bit of code where you want the related posts to show up…

ID);
if ($tags) {
	$tag_ids = array();
	foreach($tags as $individual_tag) $tag_ids[] = $individual_tag->term_id;

	$args=array(
		'tag__in' => $tag_ids,
		'post__not_in' => array($post->ID),
		'showposts'=>5, // Number of related posts that will be shown.
		'caller_get_posts'=>1
	);
	$my_query = new wp_query($args);
	if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
		echo 'Related Posts';
		while ($my_query->have_posts()) {
			$my_query->the_post();
		?>
			
		';
	}
}
?>

This code finds the other post with any one of the tag that the current post has. If you want to show the posts with any one of the categories that the current post has, use this code instead…

ID);
if ($categories) {
	$category_ids = array();
	foreach($categories as $individual_category) $category_ids[] = $individual_category->term_id;

	$args=array(
		'category__in' => $category_ids,
		'post__not_in' => array($post->ID),
		'showposts'=>5, // Number of related posts that will be shown.
		'caller_get_posts'=>1
	);
	// Rest is the same as the previous code

WordPress Plugin Killer Series

For those who came in late, this post is part of the WordPress Plugin Killer Series. This series will show you how to duplicate the functionality of the a few wordpress plugins without having to install it using custom code in the wordpress theme. The previous posts in this series are…

More Resources

Naked Day - Disabling CSS for the Day

Binny V A — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:30:17 +0000

Keeping with tradition, this site will be baring all on 9th April 2009. If you haven’t heard about Naked day, this should be enlightening…

Where did my Design go?

The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good ‘ol play on words. It’s time to show off your .

How to participate

Fill out the naked day signup form, then your website will be included in the official list within the next hour.

Then on April 9th, simply remove all CSS from your website, stripping it entirely of its design.

I have been doing this for a few years now…

I know its kinda pointless - since I use a third party wordpress theme - but I still support the movement.