#wordpress

Simple Activity Streaming with SimplePie

A few different people have asked me recently how I created the activity stream/life stream you see in the sidebar of Dented Reality. It’s actually really simple, and all it does is load up the feeds from a few different locations, combine them in date order and then output them on my page using an HTML “UL” (unordered list). Based on the source of each feed, it also adds a CSS class to each list element (LI) so that I can add an appropriate icon. Here’s the complete code that I use, and then I’ll explain some parts of it, and some of what makes it tick: (more…)

Idea: “LiveJournalish” WordPress Plugin

I’ve been doing a lot of work with LiveJournal/WordPress lately, and have been seeing that there are some passionate LJ users who are loyal to the platform largely for a few specific reasons/features. It seems like those features would mostly be pretty easy to replicate on WP though, given its flexible plugin system.

The main features that LJ supports that WP is (or was) “missing” seem to be:

  • Robust permissions (create a group of people, grant them access to view a post, but no one else, etc)
  • Support for integrated “metadata” on posts such as Current Music, Current Mood, etc
  • Reply to comments directly via the notification emails you get
  • Threaded comments
  • Userpics

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WordPress Console

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-console/

WordPress Console

“Once activated, the plugin adds a “Console” page to the administrator’s “Tools” menu. This page includes a JavaScript-based interactive shell which loads the WordPress environment. It allows execution of arbitrary PHP code as well as anything defined by WordPress or activated plugins. This is awesome.”

Updated to WordPress 2.8

I’ve just updated this site to WordPress 2.8, using my favorite method for handling a WordPress install, Subversion. Here’s what I typed at the command line to upgrade:

svn switch http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/2.8/

Once that was complete, I logged into my admin panel and completed the DB upgrade, then I had to check some plugins. I had these problems/changes:

  • TinyMCE Advanced had an update available, so I did that,
  • One Click Plugin Updater seems to clash with the new Plugins page, and I don’t really need it now anyway since its functionality is in core, so I deactivated it and then deleted it
  • IntenseDebate seems to clash with some of the JavaScript now used in the admin, but I work with those guys now, so I’m working on a new version of the plugin to address those issues! My comments are a bit ugly while I deal with this, but I figure that’s a good motivation to get it done ASAP.

Have you upgraded yet?