Sofie Estolloso Hofmann Designs International

I finished upgrading the sites using WordPress from WordPress 2.0.7 to WordPress 2.1. Upgrading a WordPress site is not that complicated. What makes the site complicated when being upgraded? If some tags were deprecated, some features were removed or transferred, and if the Plugins, if you have any, aren’t compatible with WordPress 2.1 Ella.

There were no major problems with SofieHofmann.com Blog as it is a blog. I just have to check my blog entries for XHTML validation. I corrected a little bit at CSS file as my images are always centered but the text are always justified. All of a sudden, the centered text were adjusted to the left. They’re ok now.

With Sehdi.com, I had to redo the conditional tags because of the feature that a static page can be assigned to the front page. I did both the code for a static page as well as for the latest posts, so even if I switch from one to another, the pages won’t break and won’t be affected at all. No matter what, I can assign a static page or the latest blog posts anytime to the front page. I haven’t use this feature with other sites yet. One thing though, the quicktag <!--more--> doesn’t work but the quicktag <!--nextpage--> works. I still have to figure out the solution to the <!--more--> quicktag.

With Weggis.net, I needed to remove some conditional tags at the archives, having the articles after each topic. Sometimes they appear, sometimes not. Instead, I changed the number of articles at the individual archives. So if you check each topic archive, all the titles of the articles are there aside from the latest one on top of all the other ones.

With Pagtatap.org, there’s not a lot of problems, as it was just newly redesigned.

With Pandan.gov.ph News, it was just like Sofiehofmann.com Blog. I just fixed the CSS because of the floating images to the right, and XHTML for validation.

With Pandan.ph, I have more problems with one of the Plugins. I’m using a Paged Comments Plugin in this site and it was not working with PHP include <?php include (file.php); ?> unless you put the TEMPLATE PATH before file.php. I also have Paged Comments Plugin at Pagtatap.org but this problem didn’t occur there as I was not using too much page templates unlike with Pandan.ph. Anyway, I was able to fix everything.

For all the other sites, I needed to change the deprecated template tags, wp_list_cats to wp_list_categories and get_archives to wp_get_archives. Actually, as of the moment, even if you didn’t change them, they will stay the same, won’t really affect the site.

Regarding the links being part of categories now, if you have get_link_list and opted to check show description, it’s not working now. That option was removed from the admin side, and so, I replaced get_link_list with wp_list_bookmarks.

I’ve written something about a Plugin. What about other WordPress Plugins?

I don’t use too many WordPress Plugins. So far, I have these Plugins but not in all the sites.

Akismet Plugin by Matt Mullenweg, WP-PostViews by GaMerZ, Post Updated by Kaf Oseo, Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam by Peter Keung, Sidebar Widgets by Automattic, Simple Recent Comments Widget by Mika Perälä, randomimage by Justin Watt, Filosofo Home-Page Control by Austin Matzko. No problem with all these WordPress Plugins.

SRG Clean Archives Plugin by Shawn Grimes. I have to fix the post_status='publish' to post_type='post' as I don’t want the pages to be part of the monthly archives.

Paged Comments Plugin by Keyvan Minoukadeh. I already mentioned about the Paged Comments Plugin and fixed the problem.

Counterize II Plugin by Steffen Forkmann. I deactivated this Plugin except at Sehdi.com and SofieHofmann.com Blog even before upgrading to WordPress 2.1. It’s in conflict with the Google Search that I’m using. I couldn’t fix it yet. I’m always getting a message above the page referring to the database. But if I just use the normal WordPress search, no problem at all.

WordPress database error: [You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1]
update wp_Counterize_Pages set count = count + 1 where pageID =

Everytime I activate the Plugin and test google site and web search, the message above appears and another one and another one. I haven’t asked the author of the Plugin yet about this, hoping that I will solve it myself. But since I’m not a MySQL guru, I still have to figure it out. As I see it, I think the solution is just simple and it’s just there but I haven’t really figured that out yet.

WordPress Database Backup Plugin by Scott Merrill. I never really used WordPress Database Backup as I backup my database from the phpMyAdmin itself. I just tested it and eventually deactivated again in the other sites. No matter how I changed the File Permission of wp-content, it’s just not working in other sites. It’s not creating index.php at the backup folder and so I couldn’t backup my database. So as not to put the security of wp-content in danger, I just deactivated the Plugin except at the 2 of all the 6 sites.

Well, that’s all for today. Other than what I have mentioned above, everything is ok. All the sites are fine and running without any problems. Thanks to WordPress Team! Thanks to WordPress Plugins authors!

I upgraded Simply Sofie Blog and the News section of the Official Website of the Muncipality of Pandan, Antique, Philippines from WordPress 2.0.4 to WordPress 2.0.5. It was an easy upgrade though. I just made a backup of the MySQL database, deactivated the WordPress Plugins, and then deleted the folders and its files except the wp-content folder, and the .htaccess. Afterwards, I uploaded the unzipped WordPress 2.0.5, default is wordpress of course, but in my case, I normally rename it.

With regards to the wp-config file, I deleted that file too, and just uploaded the new one with the same database name, username and password. If you are going to delete that file, make sure you remember the database name, username and password. But I suggest, not to delete it, just like the .htaccess, so you don’t have to upload that file again. There is always a tendency that you might overwrite the file, so always remember to make a backup of your wp-config file before you upload the other files. Make a habit too of making a copy of your wp-content files.

I know WordPress 2.0.5 was released 55 days ago and upgrading from WordPress 2.0.4 to WordPress 2.0.5 would only take a few minutes, but I was not able to do it. Why did I upgrade them now? Well, I installed the Counterize II Plugin version 2.04, that’s why. It seems like it has a problem with WordPress 2.0.4 but I didn’t bother anymore to analyze it. I know that it works with WordPress 2.0.5, so I just upgraded Simply Sofie Blog and Pandan.gov.ph News. The timing was just right.

Few weeks ago, I also installed Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam Plugin version 2.6. I’m already using Akismet, but it seems like it’s not enough. I have been getting a lot of spams, hundreds of them, but eversince I installed Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam, I don’t get those spams anymore, unless the spammers really visit my site and fill out the form from the site.

I’m not just installing these plugins in one site but in almost all my sites. Take note, these plugins should be regularly checked as well if they have new versions or not. Another plugin, the WP-PostViews Plugin has a new version, so I uploaded WP-PostViews 1.02 to replace WP-PostViews 1.00.

This is actually what I don’t like about all these software programs and plugins, we always have to upgrade. Well, that’s part of the web designer’s life. Anyway, when there’s something new, we learn too.

Lastly, I updated the site of Swiss Big Game Fishing. I added at least seven pictures at the “Fangerfolge” pages. I also updated the media pages of Green Cross Switzerland. The press releases are both in German and French Languages.