// use parent() for the parent element
$(this).parent(); 

// use parents() for a specific level of ancestor
$(this).parents(':eq(0)'); // parent
$(this).parents(':eq(1)'); // grandparent
$(this).parents(':eq(2)'); // great grandparent

// or for an ancestor with a specific selector
$(this).parents('#id'); 

1. Enable Magento’s cron system – see here for details.
2. Enable Google Sitemap in the Magento admin:

   System > Configuration > Catalog > Google Sitemap > Generation Settings

   

   You can also alter the frequency and priority options of the categories, products etc.. I find the defaults are fine.

3. Add a sitemap file

   Catalog > Google Sitemap > Add Sitemap

   

4. Generate the sitemap so it exists.
   
   Cron will update the file ongoing according to your generation settings in step 2.
5. Submit your sitemap to Google – see here for details.

And you’re good to go.

The script below allows you to specify the path to one WordPress installation.. For multiple sites/installs just put this script in a loop.

Thanks to wp-cli for pointing me in the right direction.

// specify path to your wordpress root - no trailing slash
$wp_root = '/path/to/wordpress/root';

// load wordpress
require "{$wp_root}/wp-load.php";

// ensure we don't run out of memory
@ini_set( 'memory_limit', -1 );

// load admin API
require "{$wp_root}/wp-admin/includes/admin.php";

// load upgrade API
require "{$wp_root}/wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php";

// upgrade database
wp_upgrade();

1. Add Debian Multimedia to your sources list

   vi /etc/apt/sources.list

   I’m currently using Squeeze – change to your distro as necessary

   deb http://deb-multimedia.org  squeeze main

   apt-get update

2. Install the Debian Multimedia keyring

   apt-get install deb-multimedia-keyring
   Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
   apt-get update

3. Install Transcode

   apt-get install transcode-utils

4. Merge away

   avimerge -o Merged.avi -i Part1.avi Part2.avi

Magento has automated log cleaning functionality built in, but it is not enabled by default. Here’s how to turn it on.

1. Firstly you need make sure Magento’s cron system is running.
   If you are unsure about this, see this article on setting up cron (scheduled tasks).
2. Once cron is enabled and running, simply enable log cleaning via the admin:

   System > Configuration > Advanced > System > Log Cleaning

As per the screenshot below, I like to save 1 days logs, and perform the cleaning at 4:00am each morning.

Magento stores it’s session files in var/session and I’ve seen too many Magento installations where the size of this directory has grown into the gigabytes. A quick browse of this directory should tell you whether you have a problem or not.

PHP has it’s own ‘garbage collection’ process for deleting old session files, but it’s disabled in Debian “due to the strict permissions on /var/lib/php5”
So, if you are using Debian then you’ll need to setup a simple cron script to do this garbage collection for you.

For this example, let’s say the path to your Magento installation is /path/to/magento and we want to delete session files over a week old.

1. Create a new file /path/to/magento/session_cleanup.sh

   vi /path/to/magento/session_cleanup.sh

2. Add the following 2 lines to the file

   #!/bin/sh
   find /path/to/magento/var/session -name 'sess_*' -type f -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;
   

3. Make sure the file is executable

   chmod u+x /path/to/magento/session_cleanup.sh

4. Now add it to your crontab

   crontab -e

   and set it to run every day, let’s say at 3am

   0 3 * * *  /bin/sh /path/to/magento/session_cleanup.sh

And we’re done.

Magento provides a shell script (cron.sh) which calls a PHP script (cron.php)
Both files are in the root directory of the Magento installation.
I like to bypass the shell script and run the PHP script directly, and I set it to run every 5 mins

To do this in Debian, you should open your crontab for editing:

crontab -e

Then add a crontab entry such as this (replacing with your path):

*/5 * * * * php -q /path/to/magento/cron.php

The default cron scheduling settings work fine for me but you can tweak them if you like to have more control:

System > Configuration > Advanced > System > Cron (Scheduled Tasks)

Note: A quick way to test your setup is to check the database table called cron_schedule. If cron is running, this table will have records in it. Remember to wait 5 mins after adding the crontab entry so it has a chance to run

For anyone comfortable with editing code, it’s easy enough to switch to HTML mode and add the class attribute manually to the desired element. But for most people, it’s far easier to select the text or image, then choose the desired style from a dropdown.

To set up this capability we need to:

1. hook into the tiny_mce_before_init filter
2. define the list of classes we wish to appear in the dropdown
3. activate the “Styles” dropdown in the editor

The format for the custom class list is {label}={class-name} seperated by semi-colons,
e.g.
“Special Style 1=special-1;Special Style 2=special-2;Special Style 3=special-3”

Using this example list of classes, the code which can go in your functions.php file is as follows:

add_filter('tiny_mce_before_init', 'add_custom_classes');
function add_custom_classes($arr_options) {
	$arr_options['theme_advanced_styles'] = "Special Style 1=special-1;Special Style 2=special-2;Special Style 3=special-3";
	$arr_options['theme_advanced_buttons2_add_before'] = "styleselect";
	return $arr_options;
}

Note: Prior to WordPress 3.1, the “Insert/edit link” dialog included a “class” drop down, which was populated by the same theme_advanced_styles list we have used here. In version 3.1 this drop down was removed by the core dev team. The technique described in this post is one way to work around this update to the WordPress admin.

You essentially need to tell WordPress to use a different version, by way of the functions wp_deregister_script and wp_register_script.

FYI at the time of writing, I’m using Fancybox Version 1.3.4 which plays nice with jQuery 1.4.3

Here’s the PHP code to go in your functions.php:

function my_enqueue_scripts() {
	wp_deregister_script('jquery');
	wp_register_script('jquery', 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.3/jquery.min.js');
	wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
}

add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_enqueue_scripts');

For more information on wp_enqueue_script, see the codex:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_enqueue_script

Check out Fancybox – jQuery Plugin here:
http://fancybox.net

Some more ultra handy concrete textures from around my house. There’s a lot containing cracks, and of course excellent grunge textures.

High resolution 3872 x 2595 (300 pixels/inch). Click on the thumbnails below to download the full sized texture image.

I used “Concrete 712″ for the above banner image.

Free for personal or commercial use!

Concrete 712
Concrete with crack. A few dead leaves.

Concrete 696
Grunge concrete texture with crack. One of the best textures.

Concrete 699
Concrete with plenty of marks/texture.

Concrete 705
Nice irregular marks and a good texture.

Concrete 701
2 beautiful concrete textures meet.

Concrete 710
Subtle texture, crack. Very versatile.

Concrete 700
Good grunge concrete texture. Blue paint marks.

Concrete 695
Extreme join. Bucket loads of texture. Most interesting of the bunch.

Concrete 697
Great variety of shades. Interesting crack.

Concret 693
Concrete slab.