Why WordPress is an Excellent Choice for Your CMS

WordPress is an open source content management system (CMS) that has become one of the most used platforms on the web. It has become the CMS of choice for businesses, bloggers, designers, and online marketers for a variety of reasons that I’ll discuss in this article. As a marketing company in Saint John, New Brunswick, my business uses WordPress extensively and we’ve been getting great results.

WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org

For business owners who are not so tech savvy, a distinction has to be made between WordPress.com and wWordpress.org. WordPress.com is a free blogging platform much like Blogger or Tumblr or Posterous. It is hosted and controlled by WordPress. It’s great for someone who wants to write an interest blog in their spare time or post a few stories and pictures of their kids for their extended family and friends.  It is not the best option for serious businesspeople and bloggers who want to monetize their site.

That’s where WordPress.org comes in.  It is a free content management system that can be loaded on your own servers at your own hosting account and controlled by you or your developer. When I ask “Why Use WordPress” I’m talking about WordPress.org.

Why Use WordPress?

•  Google likes WordPress. As a marketer, I need a platform that is structured in such a way that the search engines can read it and rank it as quickly and efficiently as possible.  WordPress is structured for on page optimization so Google and other search engine crawlers can see what is important to the site and to the page and put it in the right category to get ranked more easily.
• The structure is not only optimized for Google, but it is naturally set up for an intuitive user experience. Information can attractively presented in a logical and easily consumed manner.
• It loads fast, which is also great for both search engine optimization and user experience.
• We already mentioned that you can use WordPress as a self-hosted CMS so you can maintain control of your site and its content.
• WordPress is easy to use. The dashboard in the admin area is clear and easy to follow. Small changes to text and features can be handled by people with little to no coding experience.
• WordPress is flexible. It can be a simple blog with a few simple and easy to use features…or a full blown site with multiple pages and plugins.
• There are plugins for everything. You (or your developer) can install plugins to control the code and inner workings of the site, or insert ads or coordinate with social media sites like facebook and Twitter to enhance the user experience on your site.

Like any platform, there are pros and cons.  Some people complain that the structure is too familiar with so many people using WordPress, but companies like Dream Driven Designs in Tampa can create very different sites on the platform…and some degree of familiarity makes people more comfortable on your site. Familiarity can breed trust and make them more willing to pull out their credit card.

Why Use WordPress for your website?   I believe it is the best options available for businesses and organizations to get their message out to prospective clients, improve their online image, and most importantly, increase their bottom line.

Roderick MacKenzie

Freedom Ability Marketing

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Download: Business Pro Blogger
Demo: Preview Theme

I have tested the theme for the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer:
  • 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 – All features work as designed.
• Firefox:
  • 3.0, 3.5 – All features work as designed.
• Safari:
  • 4.0+ – All features work as designed on both Windows and Mac
• Opera:
  • 8+ – Works as designed, except for rounded borders and shadows
• Chrome:
  • 2.0 – All features work as designed.

The theme is XHTML 1.0 compliant. Please feel free to pitch in with comments and bug reports.

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SimpleBlogger is an easy to use, lightweight yet advance WordPress theme that can be easily customized to make your own. You can choose your background color, background image and custom logo. It comes equipped with Facebook, Twitter, a built in email subscription form, multilevel drop down menu, threaded comments, etc.

It has 3 footer widgets, sidebar widgets and a featured posts slideshow. All features can be easily updated from the theme settings page without any complications, hence the name SimpleBlogger, it’s designed to be used by anyone out the box. WordPress version 3.0+.

Download: SimpleBlogger
Demo: Theme Preview

I have tested the theme for the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer:
  • 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 – All features work as designed.
• Firefox:
  • 3.0, 3.5 – All features work as designed.
• Safari:
  • 4.0+ – All features work as designed on both Windows and Mac
• Opera:
  • 8+ – Works as designed, except for rounded borders and shadows
• Chrome:
  • 2.0 – All features work as designed.

The theme is XHTML 1.0 compliant. Please feel free to pitch in with comments and bug reports.

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There’s no need to know any HTML or PHP, everything in WordPress or any good CMS’s  should be pretty much laid out. The truth is we would like to think all CMS’s is great, but that’s not true, before our wordpress days, we tried many different CMS’s but we fell in love with WP from the first time. Currently we still experiment with new software whenever they are requested but this is definitely the way to go for anyone who wants a start a website that they can easily manage and keep updated for years to come.

A Quick Run Down of How it works
All content managements systems have two main parts working together, they consist of the file system and the database. In this case we’re using a MSQL database and the files are in PHP. To give you a quick run down of how it works, the file system doesn’t store anything pertaining to the user information and content, that’s the purpose of the database, the file system is a like a skeleton frame doing all the work while the database stores all the information like the brain.

One great thing about using a database is that your information can never be accessed by anyone, it is password protected and stored else where, only information that you release through your CMS will be visible to visitors.

Reasons why people love worpdress

• perfect for small businesses, blogs, publishing companies, hobby sites, affiliate marketing, e-commerce websites, custom projects, etc
• Any type of website can be designed using wordpress
• 10% of all websites on the internet use wordpress (news release Mar 2011).
• It is easy enough for a beginner and still advance enough for any techie
• Easy to setup, it is famous for it’s five minute installation.
• Google loves WordPress, so does all the other Search Engines
• Unlimited amount of pages and posts
• Ability to store media and content online securely for future use.
• Thousands of free plugins available to search from within the administration section
• Easy to upgrade to new versions
• Easy to install new themes
• Easy to find web design support for wordpress
• the software is free

If you’re thinking about investing in a website, invest in quality website and get  a wordpress website. 10 years ago everyone had static websites, those days are over, web 2.0 platforms have changed the way how businesses operate, everything is dynamic and can be changed with a single click.

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List of Improvements for Bloggers

• Internal Linking: one click button that allows you to browse through your available content and select it for inclusion.
• Streamlined Writing Interface: new users of will find the write screen much less cluttered than before, by default more options are hidden in above screen options tab.
• Streamline password reset process.

List of Improvement for Developers

• Add AuthorName to get_plugins() and use it when deleting a plugin
• Add a Sticky filter on the edit posts page, add post_in and post_not_in as private query vars in the WP class to support this
• Add filters to *_metadata() functions
• Add get_meta_sql filter
• Add support for ID style classes in get_body_class()
• Add user_meta to global groups
• Add ‘who’ and ‘include_selected’ arguments to wp_dropdown_users()
• Allow capability_type for register_post_type() to be an array, for odd plural situations such as story/storys/stories. After registration it reverts to a singular string.
• Allow disabling of custom header uploads via remove_theme_support()
• Allow fields with a paragraph tag to align to top in the form-table on settings pages.
• Allow flagging of a blog as mature via a URL and move some actions into update_blog_status()
• Allow is_feed() to drill down the feed being checked
• Allow page rewrites to be disabled
• Allow plugins to add more options to the comment status meta box easily.
• Allow plugins to manipulate the meta query args
• Allow turning off the admin bar via no_admin_bar() function, or show_admin_bar filter
• Allow wp_tag_cloud() to accept an array of taxonomies
• Always include wp-db.php — prevents a conditional include and allows db dropins to cleanly extend the wpdb class and also move require_wp_db() to load.php for consistency with bootloader helpers.
• Body classes for custom taxonomies and terms
• Clarify is_single() inline doc
• Deprecate ‘caller_get_posts’ WP_Query parameter infavor of ‘ignore_sticky_posts’ parameter
• Deprecate get_author_user_ids(), get_editable_authors(), get_editable_user_ids(), get_nonauthor_user_ids(), and get_users_of_blog(), in favor get_users()
• Define ‘IFRAME_REQUEST’ only for framed requests
• Display mysql_connect errors when ‘WP_DEBUG’ is enabled and always die if we can’t connect to the database
• Don’t call activation hooks when upgrading
• Don’t require category__in, tag__in etc. to be arrays necessarily
• For function get_term_link() make the second (taxonomy) parameter optional if a term object is passed as the first argument (which has the taxonomy in it).
• Introduce _doing_it_wrong to mark places where plugins / themes are calling functions incorrectly
• Improve is_serialized() to work faster
• Improve get_objects_in_term() to include term children when querying by slug
• Improve wp_list_authors() by adding arguments for orderby, order, and number
• Improve map_meta_cap for custom post types
• Improve oEmbed toggle label
• Improve regex performance in wptexturize()
• Introduce can_edit_site to replace inline checks on whether or not the site_id is for the current Network
• Introduce edit_term_link() and get_term_link() to retrieve or display edit term link. (#9702)
• Introduce get_ancestors() to get an array of ancestor IDs for a given object. (#12443)
• Introduce get_current_blog_id() to retrieve the current blog id. (#15233)
• Introduce get_list_table() to fetch an instance of a WP_List_Table class
• Introduce get_meta_sql() given a meta query, generates SQL clauses to be appended to a main query
• Introduce get_post_type_archive_feed_link(), get_post_type_archive_link(), and post_type_archive_title() to support index/archive pages for custom post types
• Introduce get_theme_feature_list() to replace install_themes_feature_list() and also does translation and works if feature_list is not accessible from api.wordpress.org
• Introduce get_users() to retrieve list of users matching criteria
• Introduce has_term() to check if the current post has any of given terms. (#12526)
• Introduce is_blog_admin() to determine if the current request is for a blog admin screen /wp-admin/ (#14763) Note: Does not inform on whether the user is a blog admin–Use capability checks for that.
• Introduce remove_menu_page() and remove_submenu_page(). Remove a top level menu page and a sub menu page. (#14666)
• Introduce remove_custom_image_header(), remove_custom_background(), and remove_editor_styles(), to support better theme removal process
• Introduce remove_theme_support()
• Introduce set_post_thumbnail() to set a post thumbnail (#15192)
• Introduce show_admin_bar() to retrieve or set the admin bar display state
• Introduce single_term_title() to display or retrieve title for taxonomy term archive(#14161)
• Introduce submit_button() to echo a submit button with provided text and appropriate class
• Introduce wp_array_slice_assoc() to extract a slice of an array, given a list of keys
• Introduce wp_quickpress_form() to return or echo a form containing a post box
• Introduce WP_List_Table as the base class for displaying a list of items in an ajaxified HTML table
• Introduce ‘DO_NOT_UPGRADE_GLOBAL_TABLES’ (originally introduced in 3.0.1)
• Introduce ‘edit_comment’ meta capability (#14520)
• Introduce esc_textarea for obvious textarea escaping
• Introduce get_terms_args filter
• Introduce hierarchical taxonomy URL’s, Can be enabled by setting ‘hierarchical_url’ to true upon taxonomy registration
• Introduce ‘ignore_sticky_posts’ WP_Query parameter to be used in place of ‘caller_get_posts’ parameter
• Introduce items_wrap arg to wp_nav_menu()
• Introduce menu_name label for register_post_type() and register_taxonomy()
• Introduce ‘relation’ operator between tax queries
• Introduce show_in_menu for register_post_type() and also allow post types to be a submenu and accept boolean, and also a parent base.
• Introduce translate_nooped_plural(), _n_noop() and _nx_noop() now return associative arrays for greater clarity, translate_nooped_plural() takes one such associative array and translates it, it works on both the result from _n_noop() and from _nx_noop(), translate_nooped_plural() is applied where applicable
• Introduce unregister_nav_menu(). (originally introduced in 3.0.1)
• Introduce wp_basename() and use it for media handling and WP_Query
• Introduce WP_HTTP_IXR_Client. Extends IXR_Client and switches it to using the WordPress HTTP API instead of fsockopen
• Limit wp_old_slug_redirect() to redirecting to only posts of the same post_type kind
• Make get_header_image() ssl-aware
• Make menus manipulation easier for plugin developers by adding wp_nav_menu_objects filter which gets a sorted list of all menu node objects in the currently rendered menu, adding current, current_item_ancestor and current_item_parent boolean member variables to each menu node object, which are true when the item has the current-menu-item, current-menu-ancestor or current-menu-parent CSS class respectively
• More efficient calendar queries.
• Move post and taxonomy functions from admin/includes to wp-includes in preparation for QuickPress template tag
• Move registration.php functions to user.php, deprecate registration.php, everything is now included by default
• Move the is_*() functionality (aka Conditional Tags) into the WP_Query class
• Move the Super Admin menus and related pages out of the regular admin and into wp-admin/network/
• Pass $args to login_form_* filters.
• Remove Lucida Grande from the sans serif font stack
• Remove post_type params from is_archive(); use is_post_type_archive() for full context
• Remove WP_USE_MULTIPLE_DB. Introduce init_charset() and set_charset().
• Require an argument in wp_insert_post()
• Retire IIS 3,4,5 Set-Cookie redirection workaround
• Save _wp_old_slug for all published post_type’s, brings old-slug redirection to posts and custom post types
• Schedule update checks from an init hook
• Simplify sanitize_key() and use it in more places
• Specify feed type in the_category_rss()
• Split wp-includes/classes.php into single-class files
• Support custom post type links in wp_list_pages()
• TwentyTen Theme – Add ‘View Galleries’ link for post formats
• TwentyTen Theme – Deprecate twentyten_remove_gallery_css in favor of the use_default_gallery_style filter
• TwentyTen Theme – Fixes header positioning in the IE9 beta
• TwentyTen Theme – Fixes to font issues in IE6 due to incompatible selector
• TwentyTen Theme – Image handling adjustments
• TwentyTen Theme – Make sure we have a header image before showing it
• TwentyTen Theme – Use get_template_part() in single.php, attachment.php, page.php, onecolumn-page.php. Introduces loop-page/single/attachment.php. This is a backwards compatible change, as any child theme currently overriding single.php or loop.php will be entirely unaffected. Child themes can now override the loop in these files individually, by using loop-single.php, loop-page.php, or loop-attachment.php. (In loop-page.php, they can also use in_page_template() for the extra level of context.)
• Update Incutio XML-RPC Library to version 1.7.4
• Update jQuery to 1.4.4 (#15227)
• Update jQuery UI to 1.8.9
• Update TinyMCE to 3.3 (#12574)
• Update TinyMCE 3.3.9.3-dev. fixes (#15111)
• Update TinyMCE Spellchecker to 2.0.3
• Updated phpdocs including @since, whitespace, wp-admin/user, wp-admin/network, wp-admin/includes/file.php, argument/@param, _wp_link_page(), ms-functions.php, ms-blogs.php, nav menus, the_terms, wp_find_hierarchy_loop, WP_Query, meta capabilities, post types, register_post_type, list tables, new media XMLRPC, wp_list_widgets, network admin multisite, get_file_data(), get_post_format_slugs,
• Use a ‘create_users’ capability for Sites > Add New
• Use Absolute URL’s & API’s in header redirects
• Use get_current_user() and get_current_user_id() instead of global (originally introduced in 3.0.1)
• Use get_queried_object() wrappers
• WP_User_Query constructor improvements
• XML-RPC expose post format details, new method: ‘wp.getPostFormats’, new field in methods dealing with posts: wp_post_format
• XML-RPC introduce ‘wp.getMediaItem’ and ‘wp.getMediaLibrary’
• XML-RPC move to seperate class file
• XML-RPC switch the following api calls to support an optional number of posts, ‘blogger.getRecentPosts’, ‘metaWeblog.getRecentPosts’, ‘mt.getRecentPostTitles’

Read the full story at WordPress.org

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Here’s a list of plugins so far that’s been doing this:

1)WP Ecommerce Shopping Cart Plugin
2)A Podcast Plugin (don’t remember the full name)

*Note : if you’re unable to do the upgrade due to memory issue, just disable the plugins first and try again.

Please leave a comment if you find this helpful.

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Here’s  a list of  plugins that I find useful and I think most of you guys will find useful also. They are not listed in any particular order.  You can search and easily install them by name from the backend of WordPress.

FD Feedburner Plugin

This plugin redirects WordPress main feed and all existing feeds to feedburner making it easy for all users to subscribe to your website, it’s easy to install and very simple to use. This plugin is pretty straight forward and there is hardly anything else to do with the plugin after it’s installed and you enter your email – also don’t forget to  re-direct your feed url to your feedburner account – alot of people forget this step. Once it’s installed – visit your feedburner account and set everything according to your likings – making it easier  for visitors to  subscribe.

Google Analyticator

Google Analyticator adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics logging on your WordPress blog. This eliminates the need to edit your template code to begin logging. This is a must have plug-in,  it gives all your website traffic data from Google analytics directly on your blog, it can be setup to be displayed in the back end or as a widget.

Google XML sitemaps

Here’s another very useful WordPress plugin, this is one of my personal favorite, it automatically updates your sitemap and notifies the Search engines every time you make a new post or make a change to your website.

Wp-DB-Backup

WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your website’s database, I would recommend installing it (a must have!) and scheduled to backup your WordPress Database, it’s important to backup your site on a regular basis as you never know when something could go wrong and if does you’ll be prepared.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/ <–download here

Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button

This plug-in helps readers subscribe to your blog using any feed reader. The reason why this one is mentioned is because I see alot of blogs using it.

Advance Most Recent Posts

Advanced Most Recent Posts Widget displays your most recent posts with thumbnail images  in any widget areas. It gets posts from selected categories, the user can define the categories, the size of the photos, and the number of posts to display, it’s really useful and simple for people who want’s to display post images in their sidebar. Check out to it –> http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/advanced-most-recent-posts/

All in One SEO Pack

Here’s another essential plugin, optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (SEO).

Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is a very powerful and yet simple contact form, you can use this form to make complex forms with ease, within minutes if that long. Forms that usually takes forever to built now is much easier with this. No coding needed, I’ve used other contact forms and this one is the easiest but still advance. It works great for the average person.

My Adsense Plugin

Just about any adsense plug-in is a useful plug-in as they allow you to generate revenue from your blog using Google AdSense. That’s why this was listed.

Please comment and share with us YOUR favorite and  must have plugins.

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WordPress Version 2.9 New Features

New Features
User Features

* Trash status for posts, pages, and comments (includes restore and
permanent delete)
* Add support for ‘include’ and ‘exclude’ to

(Gallery
Shortcode)
* Allow user registration to be enabled by an XMLRPC client
* Add support for sticky posts to the WXR exporter and importer
* ‘rel=canonical’ for singular pages
* Scroll back to the same location after saving a file in the Plugin
and Theme editors
* Correct comments and remove unnecessary echos from the default
themes sidebar template file
* Enable the APP (Atom) attachment file download to work correctly
* Support location of category templates based on ‘category-slug’ as
well as ‘category-id’ (Ticket 10614)
* Support location of tag templates based on ‘tag-id’ as well as
‘tag-slug’ (Ticket 10868)
* Support location of page templates based on ‘page-slug’ and ‘page-id’
* Set “Allow my blog to appear in search engines” to checked in
installation
* Don’t offer to make a category its own parent
* Remove Sphere from search list
* Minify admin CSS
* Show correct max upload filesize error message
* Add ‘rel’ attribute to next/previous post links
* Make the default and classic themes comment textareas valid XHTML
* Clean up ‘.button’ and ‘.button[disabled]‘ CSS classes, add
‘spinner’ and ‘gray-out’ buttons after clicking Publish or Update post
* Fix race condition with autosave when clicking Publish immediately
after entering post title
* Add Comments for Pages in the WordPress Default theme
* Define ‘$content_width’ for Kubrick
* Better feedback on publishing of future posts and pages
* Display comments in descending date order, consistently
* Add means of automatically repairing tables
* Press This bookmarklet fixes
* Give plugins and themes simple control over the text displayed at
the end of an autogenerated Excerpt
* Don’t show “Change Permalinks” button when editing the page set as
“Front page”
* Image editing
* Retire BunnyTags importer
* Retire Jerome’s keywords importer
* Explain that the permalink is temporary for autosave generated
permalinks
* Update SimplePie to 1.2
* Eliminate the redundant and confusing comment threading depth of 1
* Easier Embeds with oEmbed support (see Ticket #10337) (oEmbed
discovery disabled by default, use plugin to enable it)
* TinyMCE 3.2.7
* Remove rel=’tag’ on links in Tag Clouds
* Add a title to the Home link output by wp_page_menu()
* Adjust comment moderation keyboard shortcut keys ‘d = trash’ or
delete depending on the screen
* Show “Draft updated” instead of “Post updated” when saving draft
* Show the login form in a popup when autosave hits the login grace
period
* Open View/Preview post in a new window from the link in the
Saved/Updated message
* Separate fields for ‘image alt’ and ‘image caption’ in Media uploader
* Display better information about broken themes when there is no
stylesheet
* Improve situation when tables such as wp_options table were
‘corrupt’ new installation message was offered. Add means of
automatically repairing tables
* Export and import custom taxonomies
* Admin copy improvements
* Don’t show page templates in the drop down if they are in a
subdirectory
* Make codex link open in a new window
* Change ‘Remove’ link on widgets to ‘Delete’ because it doesn’t
just remove it, it deletes the settings for that widget instance.

Development, Themes, Plugins

* Added ‘excerpt_more’ filter to wp_trim_excerpt() function, which
allow developers to change excerpt ‘[...]‘ more string (Ticket 10395)
* Add ‘smilies_src’ filter so plugins can better add smilies
* Canonical redirects for post name queries
* Allow _wp_get_comment_list() to handle custom comment types
* Return an empty array instead of false for get_children() when no
children found
* Add some filters so that HTTP requests can be filtered
* Move plugin update notice output to the plugin specific hook
* Limit wp-mail ‘blog by email’ checks to every 5 minutes
* Make it much easier to filter contact methods from user profiles
* Allow filtering of get_edit_post_link for custom post_type
* ‘get_sample_permalink_html’ filter
* Enforce activation key to be a string, reject activation keys that
are arrays
* Support for new post types
* Respect custom post_type in queries
* Send Retry-After header when in maintenance mode
* Various WP Filesystem related fixes and documentation
* Add constants for ftp connections timeouts
* Increase timeout on cron-based requests when checking for upgrades
* Don’t use has_action() before do_action() in http.php
* Speed up jQuery based scripts
* Use the current user as author for autosave
* Show My Posts as default view on the Edit Posts screen for users
without ‘edit_others_posts’ cap
* Ensure that drafts viewed over XMLRPC have a correct gmt date set
* Pass user id to ‘get_’ the_author_meta filters
* Move _wp_get_user_contactmethods() into the registrations
functions file
* Machine parseable db error codes
* Add global JS vars and actions to the media uploader iframe
* Add JSON compat for PHP < 5.2
* Make option_name the primary key for the options table
* Allow a plugin to do a complete takeover of Post by Email
* Logarithmic scale for tag cloud
* Pass Post ID to the ‘get_comments_number’ filter
* Always filter the url in the media upload form
* Add a ‘the_terms’ filter
* is_blog_installed() improvements
* Allow force_ssl_admin() to properly accept false as a value
* Pass logged_in cookie to async-upload and filter the cookie scheme
in auth_redirect()
* Add more actions around database add/delete/update operations
* phpDoc for wp_”check|set”_post_lock functions
* Use the old strings which are more translator friendly and add a
generic default string to aid re-use by plugins adding post_types
* Filter fields through kses upon display and introduce
sanitize_user_object() and sanitize_user_field()
* Use null instead of 0 when setting content length
* Include ‘hidden’ directories in filesystem dirlist by default
* Pass args array to ‘wp_list_pages’ filter
* Actions for taxonomy updates
* Key should be ‘comment_id’ not ‘post_id’ in comments table
* Add get_delete_post_link () to retrieve delete posts link for post
* Add ‘separator’ parameter to wp_tag_cloud() and
wp_generate_tag_cloud() functions (Ticket 10315)
* Added add_comment_meta() family of functions
* Use a post_parent of 0 instead of -1 to indicate unattached posts
* Improve get_page_hierarchy() function
* Deprecate the_content_rss(), add the_content_feed() and
get_the_content_feed(). Convert places that called the_content_rss()
with an excerpt length to the_excerpt_rss(). Remove the
rss_excerpt_length option. Use the_content_feed() where the_content()
was previously used in feeds.
* Add ‘pad_counts’ argument to wp_dropdown_categories()
* Remove codepress
* Remove the php-gettext library
* Canonical post thumbanils
* Add a filter to the_author_posts_link()
* Merge post.js with page.js and slug.js, optimize categories and
tags JS, standardize postboxes IDs and JS
* Introduce register_theme_directory() which takes a
wp-content-relative path and will additionally scan it for themes.
Plugins can use this to add themes without requiring copying by the user
* Add set_user_role action hook
* Allow theme devs to change attrs (like CSS class) of thumbnail images
* Add wp-post-image CSS class to post images
* Allow for plugins to enhance the number of metadata fields
captured from plugin and theme headers
* Merge updated pomo code
* Switch to using NOOP_Translations for untranslated sites
* Improve wptexturize performance
* Provide context to the strings in the Plugin and Theme installers
to allow for different grammatical gender
* Fixes for theme subdir support
* Introduce wp_kses_post() and wp_kses_data() for filtering
unescaped data
* Add ‘orderby=comment_count’ argument to query_posts()
* Honor Post Type for Sticky Posts
* Allow querying multiple post types
* Introduce add_theme_support(feature) and
current_theme_supports(feature) for announcing and checking theme
support for various features
* Introduce require_if_theme_supports()
* Add number of Embed related filters
* Add ‘IMAGE_EDIT_OVERWRITE’ constant to control edited image save
or replace, most useful for setups that have dynamic image resizing
* Add load_child_theme_textdomain() to allow child themes to have
their own translation files
* Add sidebar descriptions to sidebar settings and widget admin screen
* Make option_id primary. Add uniques for option_name and autoload
* Allow plugins to override the behaviour of load_textdomain() in a
variety of flexible ways
* Mark _c() as deprecated. The new _x() function should be used instead.
* Allow plugins to change the redirect on post/page
publishing/submitting
* Standardize on ‘user_id’ instead of ‘user_ID’ when passing comment
data. Accept either ‘user_id’ or ‘user_ID’. Remove ‘user_id’ global.
* Filter imported comments
* Introducing set_post_image_size(w, h, crop) so themes can register
their special size/crop for canonical post images
* Standardize around “post image” instead of “post thumbnail”
* Allow registering post image support per post type
* Return false from is_paged() if on the first page.
* Check MySQL and PHP versions when auto upgrading
* Add required php and mysql versions to version.php
* Hard code required version in update-core.php

–
Dwayne Myers
(386)307-4289
Http://www.DreamDrivenDesigns.com

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Chinese characters do not work in WordPress by default if you didn’t
originally setup your WordPress to handle Chinese.

However, it is pretty easy to get it working. I didn’t see it
documented elsewhere, so I thought I’d post instructions on configuring
WordPress to allow posting Chinese.

* Using a program (like phpMyAdmin) to administer your database,
select the WordPress database.

* Find the wp_posts table, and click on the “structure” icon (it is
the second from the left under Actions)

* Click the “pencil” icon on the wp_content table.

* Change the Collation option to utf8_unicode_ci (on mine, that’s
the option at the very bottom).

* Click Save.

* If you want to enable Chinese in titles, you can repeat the
procedure for the wp_posts.wp_title.  You might also want to enable it
in comments by repeating on wp_comments.comment_content and
wp_comments.comment_author.

That’s it! You can now post 汉字 in WordPress!

--
Dwayne Myers
(386)307-4289
Http://www.DreamDrivenDesigns.com

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Template Hierarchy

Languages: English • Français • 日本語 • Русский • (Add your language)

Note: This article covers an advanced topic. See Stepping Into
Templates for an introduction to WordPress templates.

Contents

[hide]

* 1 Introduction

o 1.1 What this article is about

o 1.2 Who might find this useful

o 1.3 Using Conditional Tags

* 2 The Template File Hierarchy

o 2.1 The General Idea

o 2.2 Examples

o 2.3 Visual Overview

o 2.4 The Template Hierarchy In Detail

+ 2.4.1 Home Page display

+ 2.4.2 Single Post display

+ 2.4.3 Page display

+ 2.4.4 Category display

+ 2.4.5 Tag display

+ 2.4.6 Author display

+ 2.4.7 Date display

+ 2.4.8 Search Result display

+ 2.4.9 404 (Not Found) display

+ 2.4.10 Attachment display

* 3 Changelog

* 4 Source File

* 5 See also

* 6 External Resources

Introduction

WordPress Templates fit together like the pieces of a puzzle to
generate the web pages on your WordPress site. Some templates (the
header and footer template files for example) are used on all the web
pages, while others are used only under specific conditions.

What this article is about

This article seeks to answer the following question:

Which template file(s) will WordPress use when it displays a
certain type of page?

Who might find this useful

Since the introduction of Themes in WordPress v1.5, Templates have
become more and more configurable. In order to develop WP themes, a
proper understanding of the way WordPress selects template files to
display the various pages on your blog is essential. If you seek to
customize an existing WordPress theme, this article aims to help you
decide which template file needs editing.

Using Conditional Tags

WordPress provides more than one way to match templates to query types.
WordPress Theme developers can also use Conditional Tags to control
which templates will be used to generate a certain page. Some WordPress
Themes may not implement all of the template files described here. Some
Themes use conditional tags to load other template files. See the
Conditional Tags page and “Query Based” in Theme Development for more.

The Template File Hierarchy

The General Idea

WordPress uses the Query String — information contained within each
link on your web site — to decide which template or set of templates
will be used to display the page.

First, WordPress matches every Query String to query types — i.e. it
decides what type of page (a search page, a category page, the home
page etc.) is being requested.

Templates are then chosen — and web page content is generated — in the
order suggested by the WordPress Template hierarchy, depending upon
what templates are available in a particular WordPress Theme.

WordPress looks for template files with specific names in the current
Theme’s directory and uses the first matching template file listed
under the appropriate query section below.

With the exception of the basic index.php template file, Theme
developers can choose whether they want to implement a particular
template file or not. If WordPress cannot find a template file with a
matching name, it skips down to the next file name in the hierarchy. If
WordPress cannot find any matching template file, index.php (the
Theme’s home page template file) will be used.

Examples

If your blog is at <a class=”moz-txt-link-freetext”
href=”http://example.com/wp/”>http://example.com/wp/ and a visitor
clicks on a
link to a category page like <a class=”moz-txt-link-freetext”
href=”http://example.com/wp/category/your-cat/”>http://example.com/wp/category/your-cat/,
WordPress looks for a template file in the current Theme’s directory
that matches the category’s ID. If the category’s ID is 4, WordPress
looks for a template file named category-4.php. If it is missing,
WordPress next looks for a generic category template file,
category.php. If this file does not exist either, WordPress looks for a
generic archive template, archive.php. If it is missing as well,
WordPress falls back on the main Theme template file, index.php.

If a visitor goes to your home page at <a class=”moz-txt-link-freetext”
href=”http://example.com/wp/”>http://example.com/wp/,
WordPress first determines whether it has a static front page. If a
static front page has been set, then WordPress loads that page
according to the page template hierarchy. If a static front page has
not been set, then WordPress looks for a template file called home.php
and uses it to generate the requested page. If home.php is missing,
WordPress looks for a file called index.php in the active theme’s
directory, and uses that template to generate the page.

Visual Overview

The following diagram shows which template files are called to generate
a WordPress page based on the WordPress Template hierarchy.

Graphic Example of the WordPress Template Hierarchy Structure Full-Size
Image (png)

The Template Hierarchy In Detail

The following sections describe the order in which template files are
being called by WordPress for each query type.

Home Page display

1. home.php

2. index.php

Single Post display

1. single.php

2. index.php

Page display

WordPress Pages:

1. custom template – Where custom template is the Page Template
assigned to the Page.

2. page-slug.php – If the page slug is recent-news, WordPress
will look to use page-recent-news.php Note: not available until Version
2.9.

3. page-id.php – If the page ID is 6, WordPress will look to use
page-6.php Note: not available until Version 2.9.

4. page.php

5. index.php

Category display

Category Templates:

1. category-slug.php – If the category’s slug were news,
WordPress would look for category-news.php Note: not available until
Version 2.9.

2. category-id.php – If the category’s ID were 6, WordPress
would look for category-6.php

3. category.php

4. archive.php

5. index.php

Tag display

Tag Templates:

1. tag-slug.php – If the tag’s slug were sometag, WordPress
would look for tag-sometag.php

2. tag-id.php – If the tag’s ID were 6, WordPress would look for
tag-6.php Note: not available until Version 2.9.

3. tag.php

4. archive.php

5. index.php

Author display

Author Templates:

1. author.php

2. archive.php

3. index.php

Date display

Archive (Date) Templates:

1. date.php

2. archive.php

3. index.php

Search Result display

Creating a Search Page:

1. search.php

2. index.php

404 (Not Found) display

Creating an Error 404 Page:

1. 404.php

2. index.php

Attachment display

Attachment Templates:

1. MIME_type.php – it can be any MIME type (image.php,
video.php, audio.php, application.php or any other).

2. attachment.php

3. single.php

4. index.php

--
Dwayne Myers
(386)307-4289
Http://www.DreamDrivenDesigns.com

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