New WordPress Two-Column Theme for Semirara.isyu.info

Friday, April 17, 2009 @ 3:28 pm by Sofie Hofmann

The Semirara Dumpsite Issue Website (NO TO SEMIRARA DUMPSITE! – Antique Philippines) was first designed way back in March 07, 2001 to July 01, 2001 after the people’s victory protesting against the proposed semirara dumpsite in Semirara island, Caluya, Antique, Philippines. The site has not been redesigned since early 2001 and was rarely updated when the landfill was not pushed through in Semirara island.

As the site was designed using simple HTML just like the Patria Diesel Power Plant Issue Website, I decided to redesign it using PHP for easy updating purposes. But instead of using simple PHP, I use WordPress as CMS (Content Management System) so the site can be easily and regularly updated. The updates may not be about the issue itself but at least they will be most likely related to the issue concerning garbage problems especially in the Philippines and other topics related to it. The other updates may not be about the issue itself but will still have something to do with Semirara island and its current problems.

New WordPress Two-Column Theme for Semirara.isyu.info

The old site used one layout only. The newly redesigned site uses one layout too. The new web design is not exactly the same with the old web design as the sidebar at the old web design was at the right side and the main column for content was at the left side. Other than than, nothing really changed except for the PHP scripting programming language used. The old HTML web design was just converted into a new WordPress theme with fixed width and two columns, but this time, the main column for content is on the right side and the sidebar is on the left side.

Old Web Design of Semirara Dumpsite Issue Website

The site was tested at Safari 3, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Opera 8.5, Opera 9.2, Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7, even tested it with screen resolutions like 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024 and even bigger than 1280×1024. Everything looks fine at all the browsers.

Web Design,WordPress

New WordPress Two-Column Theme for Patria.isyu.info

Thursday, April 16, 2009 @ 4:08 pm by Sofie Hofmann

The Patria Diesel Power Plant Issue Website (PATRIA! THE UNDISCOVERED PARADISE! NO TO DIESEL POWER PLANT!) was first designed way back in November 22, 2002 to December 22, 2002 at the height of the protest against the proposed diesel power plant in Patria, Pandan, Antique, Philippines. The site has not been redesigned since then and was rarely updated when the issue somehow ended in early 2003.

The site was designed using simple HTML, and so when I decided to redesign it, I use PHP for easy updating. But instead of just using simple PHP, I use WordPress as CMS (Content Management System) with this site. I especially use WordPress so the site can be easily and regularly updated from now on. The updates may not be about the issue itself but at least they will be most likely related to the issue concerning diesel power plants and other topics related to power and energy, and most especially probably about alternative energies.

New WordPress Two-Column Theme for Patria.isyu.info

The old site used one layout only. The newly redesigned site uses one layout too. The web design is actually still the same, nothing really changed except for the scripting programming language. The old HTML web design was just converted into a new WordPress theme with fixed width and two columns, having the main column for content on the right side and the side bar being situated on the left side.

The site was tested at Safari 3, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Opera 8.5, Opera 9.2, Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7, even tested it with screen resolutions like 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024 and even bigger than 1280×1024. So far, everything looks fine at all the browsers.

Web Design,WordPress

Fluid Three-Column New WordPress Theme for ProBlogit.com

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 @ 2:15 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I started writing for another blog at ProBlogit.com. The blog is all about my new problogging venture. I created a new WordPress theme based on this web design site, Sehdi.com, and my personal site, SofieHofmann.com. The WordPress theme is a fluid three-column theme as the sidebar has two columns.

I actually created this fluid three-column theme last year just within a day as the CSS of Sehdi.com and SofieHofmann.com was ready and available. Just a few tweaks and after a few hours, the ProBlogit.com WordPress theme was all ready for online viewing. The blog and the WordPress theme has been online since January 1, 2009 but I did not write anything about it until I started problogging at ProBlogit.com on April 2, 2009.

Fluid Three-Column New WordPress Theme for ProBlogit.com

The site has one layout, the main column for the content is on the left side and the sidebar with two columns is on the right side. As usual, since the WordPress theme is a fluid three-column theme, I have to make sure that it will look good on different browsers.

ProBlogit.com which is about Problogging Venture Tips and Ideas, Reviews and Opinions was tested at Safari 3, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Opera 8.5, Opera 9.2, Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 with screen resolutions like 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024 and even bigger than 1280×1024. Despite its fluidity, as usual, the width was limited so as not to expand the main column for the content if the screen resolution is bigger than 1440×900.

Web Design,WordPress

Solution to WordPress 2.7.1 Gallery Code Problem

Friday, March 13, 2009 @ 5:30 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I tried to find a solution to the WordPress 2.7.1 gallery code problem. I checked some templates first but I was not able to identify the right one. So I searched the web and I found the solution from this blog entry, Problem with WordPress 2.7.1 and images.

I was looking into several templates like link-template.php and post-template.php but did not think about the post.php file. With his solution, I was able to solve my problem that I told you in my previous blog entry.

This was the PHP function wp_get_attachment_url at WordPress 2.7.

function wp_get_attachment_url( $post_id = 0 ) {
	$post_id = (int) $post_id;
	if ( !$post =& get_post( $post_id ) )
		return false;

	$url = '';
	if ( $file = get_post_meta( $post->ID, '_wp_attached_file', true) ) { //Get attached file
		if ( ($uploads = wp_upload_dir()) && false === $uploads['error'] ) { //Get upload directory
			if ( 0 === strpos($file, $uploads['basedir']) ) //Check that the upload base exists in the file location
				$url = str_replace($uploads['basedir'], $uploads['baseurl'], $file); //replace file location with url location
		}
	}

	if ( empty($url) ) //If any of the above options failed, Fallback on the GUID as used pre-2.7, not recomended to rely upon this.
		$url = get_the_guid( $post->ID );

	if ( 'attachment' != $post->post_type || empty($url) )
		return false;

	return apply_filters( 'wp_get_attachment_url', $url, $post->ID );
}

If you read the blog entry where I found the solution, you will see there the present PHP function wp_get_attachment_url at WordPress 2.7.1.

I just commented (using // before each line) the following four lines which was added or included or inserted at the PHP function wp_get_attachment_url at the post.php when WordPress 2.7.1 was released. You will find post.php file under wp-includes folder.

elseif ( false !== strpos($file, 'wp-content/uploads') )
				$url = $uploads['baseurl'] . substr( $file, strpos($file, 'wp-content/uploads') + 18 );
			else
				$url = $uploads['baseurl'] . "/$file"; //Its a newly uploaded file, therefor $file is relative to the basedir.

That’s it. That’s the solution to my gallery code problem. Thank you, emmanuel-georjon.

PHP,WordPress

Upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1 and encountered a huge problem

Thursday, February 26, 2009 @ 6:55 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I upgraded 2 sites a long time ago but it prevented me from upgrading the other websites. I had one huge problem, other than that everything went fine during the upgrade. But it was and is a major problem which I just cannot ignore.

I have a problem with the gallery feature at Weggis.net. When I upgraded from WordPress 2.7 to WordPress 2.7.1, the [gallery] code is not returning the right upload path. I am not using wp-content/uploads upload path. I have different folders for 2006, 2007 and 2008 pictures.

At present, the upload path should be wp-content/files/images/2009 but it is not the case. The pictures can be viewed in 2009 but the pictures in 2006, 2007 and 2008 cannot be viewed if I use the upload path wp-content/files/images/2009. The pictures are just there but they cannot be viewed using the [gallery] code. The [gallery] code is calling the upload path of the supposed to be present upload path wp-content/files/images/2009 for all the pictures including those in 2006, 2007 and 2008 folders instead of wp-content/files/images/2006 for 2006 pictures, wp-content/files/images/2007 for 2007, and wp-content/files/images/2008 for 2008 pictures.

As I have already upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1, and I don’t like to downgrade to WordPress 2.7, I decided to upload all the photos via FTP to wp-content/files/images without the year just to remedy the problem. I changed the upload path from wp-content/files/images/2009 to wp-content/files/images. Using the path wp-content/files/images, site visitors can view all the photos in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The problem is, I would like to upload photos this 2009 at wp-content/files/images/2009 but doing that, site visitors will not be able to view the photos temporarily while I am uploading the photos at wp-content/files/images/2009 as the upload path is of course wp-content/files/images/2009. After uploading the pictures, I need to upload the photos again via FTP to wp-content/files/images to duplicate the photos in wp-content/files/images/2009. Then again, I have to change the upload path from wp-content/files/images/2009 to wp-content/files/images so all the photos can be viewed regardless of the year.

For the meantime, I am doing this process so that when the gallery will be fixed, it will return to normal just like when the site was still using WordPress 2.7. I had no problem with the gallery code with WordPress 2.7. The problem only occurred when I upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1, and I don’t think that it has something to do with the WordPress Plugins.

I have a suggestion though regarding the upload path. There is this option under Settings > Miscellaneous where we can organize uploads into month- and year-based folders. Why not include year-based folder only without the month folder? Then we do not have to change the upload path every time the year changes. I actually would like to use the option “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders” but for me, the month-based folder is not necessary.

Can WordPress add a year-based only folder option? Will this option require a lot of programming and changes to the core codes? I am not a programmer so I really wouldn’t know. I hope they will try to look at this option. I am crossing my fingers. 🙂

WordPress

Fluid Three-Column New WordPress Theme for SofieHofmann.com

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 @ 11:48 pm by Sofie Hofmann

SofieHofman.com has a new look. The new web design was ready about three weeks ago but I waited for the new year to upload the new WordPress theme. The whole site has been redesigned and it is now using WordPress 2.7. It used to be in simple PHP, and only the blog was using WordPress.

Fluid Three-Column New WordPress Theme for SofieHofmann.com

The new web design is actually based on the old web design of SofieHofmann.com and the new web design of Sehdi.com. I removed some of the sections but also added a few more sections which you will see once I finished writing the content and uploading the photos that I used to have at the website.

Simply Sofie Original Web Design

SofieHofmann was a sort of an album, and will still be like an album, plus the blog. I know the photo gallery capability of WordPress ever since WordPress 2.5 was introduced. I have tested many photo galleries but did not want too much complications in installing and upgrading the software. I just would like to have a simple photo gallery, and WordPress is the answer to it minus the automatic slide show.

Regarding the sections, I made use of the categories to act like pages to make the other sections more dynamic just like a blog. I wanted to omit the dates at the other sections except at the blog by entering some codes at the .htaccess but I always get an error. With that, I will just have to leave everything just like a blog with the dates on the URL.

I have done using categories to act like pages but dynamic in one of my web designs. Kindly view Philippine Seafarers Assistance Programme Website, click the pages, and you will see what I mean. I converted PSAP-PAROLA.org to CMS using WordPress. I am satisfied with that website considering that I did that design when WordPress 2.5 was released.

Regarding the layout, I’m using one layout for this site, a fluid three-column for the whole site, with the main content on the left and the two sidebars on the right. Having a fluid three-column layout is always critical so I made sure that it looks good on different browsers.

The site was tested at Safari 3, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Opera 8.5, Opera 9.2, Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 with screen resolutions like 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024 and even bigger than 1280×1024. As usual I also limited the width so as not to expand the main content if the screen resolution is bigger than 1440×900.

Regarding colors, I finally change the background color of the content from light blue to white, which made the website lighter, cooler and pleasant to look at.

The web design is maybe simple but I am quite happy with it. It remains uncluttered, easy to navigate, and that really matters to me.

General

Upgraded to WordPress 2.7 “Coltrane”, Host Compatibility Problem

Saturday, December 13, 2008 @ 9:52 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I upgraded four sites from WordPress 2.6.5 to WordPress 2.7. The upgrading went smooth except for one problem, and that is host compatiblity problem. I’m guessing here but I think it is really the problem.

First of all, I upgraded Sehdi.com from WordPress 2.6.5 to WordPress 2.7 but every time I accessed the dashboard and the other pages, the pages were hanging or crashing. I always had to refresh the pages. I thought it was just a browser problem. To find out, I upgraded Weggis.net hosted at another web host. The upgrade went fine. I had no problems at all.

With that, I upgraded SofieHofmann.com hosted at the web host where Sehdi.com is being hosted as well, just to see if my guess was right. I had the same problem accessing the dashboard and other pages. To confirm if the problem was really host compatibility, I upgraded Psap-parola.org hosted at another web host, but not where Weggis.net is being hosted. Upgrading Psap-parola.org from WordPress 2.6.5 to WordPress 2.7 went fine too.

I even used both Safari and Firefox just to test if it was indeed a browser problem but using both these browsers, the pages at Sehdi.com and SofieHofmann.com were still hanging and crashing.

Sehdi.com, Sofiehofmann.com and Psap-parola.org are being hosted here in Switzerland. What I like about my web hosts here is that, the pages are fast when being downloaded. Weggis.net is being hosted at Dreamhost. It is also fast but honestly, as I see it, not as fast as the three other sites hosted here in Switzerland.

I planned to transfer Sehdi.com and Sofiehofmann.com to another web host but I thought that it would take a lot of work as I have other sites riding on one of those domains. And so, as much I did not like doing it, I downgraded Sehdi.com and SofieHofman.com from WordPress 2.7 to WordPress 2.6.5.

I plan to upgrade these two sites once I already transferred them to another web host, and most probably one will be at Dreamhost. One problem I have if I transfer all the other sites to the other web host here in Switzerland, some Swiss web hosts are too security problem conscious (safe_mode is on), and so the built-in automatic upgrade of WordPress will not be put into use. I already tested it.

I could not even use the flash image uploader and the plugin automatic upgrade of WordPress as safe_mode is on. I can always ask my web hosts to turn it off but I think the way they think too. So I’ll just transfer the other one at Dreamhost. With Dreamhost, I can make use of the one-click install and one-click upgrade for plugins and same with the new automatic WordPress upgrade feature every time there is going to have a new version or release of WordPress.

I still have five more sites to upgrade, but having problem like this, I have to delay upgrading them until I will be able to transfer them to another web host.

I tried to fix the mod_security problem with the following codes at the .htaccess but nothing happened. I still can not use the flash image uploader and the plugin automatic upgrade features. I haven’t tried the other possibilities of solving this but if you have any tips, I will definitely appreciate it.

<ifmodule mod_security.c>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</ifmodule>

Well then, if you are upgrading to WordPress 2.7, make sure that your web host have tested WordPress 2.7. I checked what my other web host have at this time, it is still WordPress 2.3.3. But I no longer use their tools, I install whatever I need to install on my own. The other web host, at least, they have WordPress 2.6.1.

Dreamhost has the latest WordPress 2.7, of course. Did you notice that I’m loving Dreamhost now? Oh well!

Related Links: Dreamhost, WordPress

Update:
I just thought that I should give you the link to check which web hosts are compatible with WordPress 2.7, hop on to Core Update Host Compatibility. If your web host is not on the list, ask your web host then.

I also did not discuss anything about the features and other problems here except host compatibility problem as I know a lot of people have written about it already. For example, Lorelle have written a very good article, some tips on upgrading to WordPress 2.7, hop on to Lorelle on WordPress – WordPress 2.7 Upgrade Tips.

Regarding the process on upgrading, do the usual. You can go back reading my other posts too as the process is still the same or hop on to WordPress and read Upgrading WordPress for instructions.

Dreamhost,Web Hosting,WordPress

Upgraded to WordPress 2.6.5

Wednesday, December 3, 2008 @ 3:03 pm by Sofie Hofmann

Even if WordPress 2.7 will be released soon, I still upgraded all the blogs and sites that I am maintaining from WordPress 2.6.3 to WordPress 2.6.5. There is no WordPress 2.6.4 to avoid confusion when someone spread a fake release of WordPress 2.6.4.

WordPress 2.6.5 is a security fix solving one problem and three bugs. You can download it from the site and perform the normal process of upgrading or opt to just upload the 5 files.

wp-includes/feed.php
wp-includes/version.php

wp-includes/post.php

wp-admin/users.php

xmlrpc.php

Kindly read the official announcement about WordPress 2.6.5 at the WordPress.org Development Blog.

For more information, WordPress 2.7 will go live at WordPress.com tomorrow. If you don’t feel like testing WordPress 2.7 Release Candidate 1 in your own site, you can take a look at it there if you have a WordPress.com account. It may not be entirely the same with WordPress 2.7 that will be available at WordPress.org but at least you will have an idea what is coming.

WordPress

Revised WordPress Theme for Weggis.net

Monday, December 1, 2008 @ 6:00 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I finished revising the WordPress Theme for Weggis.net. I did not change the web design of the site except the position of the images on other pages other than the one at the front page and the location page. Internally though, I changed a lot in the scripts.

I finally got rid of the tables containing the menu and the images at the top of the site. I transferred the text to its location now from where it used to be, like the one you see at the front page and the location page.

I made use of calling the photos and videos using the custom field feature of WordPress instead of embedding the photo all the time after uploading the photos and videos of the events. Because of the custom field feature of WordPress, I was able to call the photos and videos at random at the front page from the photos and videos pages. I don’t need to update the front page as well as the photos and videos pages. They will be updated automatically once I upload some photos or videos.

I also made use of the flash image uploader of WordPress. I used to embed the photos individually from a folder outside a WordPress installation. Now a days, I only upload the photos using the flash image uploader, and just changed the titles afterwards.

The filename of the photo is normally the title of the photo. With that, I needed to individually change the title of the photo. I do that because I don’t like to upload a photo with capital letters, without a dash nor underscore at the filename. I always like the filename in small letters but not when you’re looking at it in a page. If only, WordPress would be able to do something about changing the title at once only, unless I just don’t know. You can actually do that by accessing your database but that would be a hassle but that’s what I did anyway. 🙂

One more thing, every time I make a web design, I make sure that it’s XHTML and CSS valid. Weggis.net should have been but if you tried validating the front page and videos page of this site, you will see that they’re not XHTML valid. The reason for that is because of the embedded videos. The embed tag was not part of any standardized version of HTML so it produces an invalid markup. There’s a way to correct this but because the process is a little bit complicated I just opted not to do it. The other pages are valid anyway.

Update: I removed the videos at the front page.

Web Design,WordPress

Fluid Three-Column New WordPress Theme for Sehdi.com

Sunday, November 2, 2008 @ 6:03 pm by Sofie Hofmann

It has been a year since I redesigned my web design site Sehdi.com. I again redesigned this site still using WordPress as a CMS. I just uploaded the new web design (version 3) yesterday. The new WordPress theme for Sehdi.com is a fluid three-column theme where the main content is being positioned in the middle for balance while one sidebar is on the left side and the other sidebar is on the right side of the main content.

Designing a fluid three-column theme where the main content is in the middle is not at all easy as I have to consider if it will look good at different browsers with different screen resolutions. So far, it looks good on different browsers. The site was tested at several browsers like Safari 3, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Opera 8.5, Opera 9.2, Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7.

Fluid Three-Column New WordPress Theme for Sehdi.com

It looks the same on the browsers that I mentioned with screen resolutions like 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024 and even bigger than 1280×1024. But I also limited the width so as not to expand the main content that much, if ever the screen resolution is 1440×900 or bigger.

I also would like to emphasize here that I always consider the 800×600 screen resolution every time I design a site. I think it is still important to do it considering the popularity of netbooks right now especially with 800×600 screen resolution. And if the smart phones have that screen resolution, isn’t that great?

Anyway, just to show you, the two images below are the old web designs of Sehdi.com (version 1 and version 2). If you read what I wrote last year when I redesigned this site, you will also see these images on that entry.

Old Web Design Version 2 for Sehdi.com Old Web Design Version 1 for Sehdi.com

Web Design,WordPress