Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with WordPress

How do I remove password protection for logged in users?

Solomon — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:06:45 -0800

How can I make password protected posts visible to logged in users, but still require a password from guests, in Wordpress 2.9? For example, I have a password protected post on my blog. I want it to be visible to all logged in users, just like any other post, but I want not-logged-in people to have to enter a password to view the post.

Logged in user: sees the post as if it wasn't protected in any way.
Guest: sees the password box on the post and is then able to view the post after adding the password.

How can I do this?

Wordpress 2.9 killed my site, please help me bring it back

jbickers — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:51:34 -0800

Wordpress 2.9 upgrade borked my site. Please help me figure out where to go under the hood to do the necessary surgery. So, just did the automatic upgrade to 2.9. Previous automatic upgrades have gone flawlessly, but this one appears to have a big problem with a plugin called WeatherIcon. Get the following message on the site:

Warning: require_once(/home/mysite/public_html/wp-includes/streams.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/mysite/public_html/wp-content/plugins/WeatherIcon/WeatherIcon.php on line 58

The file WeatherIcon.php is indeed still there. There is no file withinwp-includes called streams.php, so I can't see where that reference is coming from.

I tried going into my sidebar PHP file to just remove the offending call to the plugin, but it references a dynamic sidebar, and I don't know where that hides.

So ... with the site totally borked and I can't get any access to the dashboard or any other admin page, how I do I remove the offending plugin?

On pins and needles waiting for ideas on this ... thanks in advance.

Resources for becoming a WordPress master

c:\awesome — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:03:46 -0800

I'm looking for the best resources (online or offline) for WordPress Theme development. Beginner to advanced -- I'm a sponge right now, so nothing is too dumb-downed or overly-technical for my consumption. What resources have you found to be most helpful on your quest to being a WordPress master? If it matters, I'm a web designer by trade, and I know my way around PHP and mySQL just as well as CSS and XHTML. I'm equally as interested in learning backend stuff as I am design tips and tweaks. Thanks!

Delicious for pdfs?

furious — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:55:40 -0800

How can I organize offline pdfs on windows so that they're easy to find offline using a standard browser? In a perfect world, it would be like delicious, but for pdfs. Tags, sortable by tags, compact display. Endnote and Wordpress are the available tools. This is on Windows. There is an offline wordpress blog. There are a bunch of pdfs in folders on a shared drive. I wish I could have something like delicious, where anybody who has access to the shared drive could look for the pdfs by putting in tags. The listings brought up would be linked to the pdf files.

So with Endnote, Wordpress and a bunch of pdf files, how can I create an index that allows the pdfs to be searched for easily, by subject, tag, author, etc using a standard browser? A single page could be created on the wordpress blog with a list of all the pdfs, with keywords. A control+f search could be used to locate useful pdfs. But that would not be sortable. The wordpress blog already has entries, so entering each pdf as a separate entry would not work - tags would give you things other than links to the pdf files. An additional wordpress blog solely for the pdfs is not an option.

Example: person x says "I wonder about salamanders' tongues." Uses Internet Explorer or Firefox to go to the page. Tag search-animals. Nothing. Tag search amphibians. Tag search amphibians+anatomy. Brings up 5 locally linked pdfs. Person x wants more- tag search for salamander brings up 30 results. To get just recent results, tag search salamander+2009.

If there were some way to get some code from delicious, put it into a single page on the wordpress blog and have it mimic delicious, that would be perfect.

Any ideas? The process of entering in all the information will be arduous and time consuming, so I want the final product to be worth it.

Cool, easy tattoo parlor website template?

Gucky — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:56:47 -0800

What should I use to set up a simple, cool-looking small business site for a non-techy friend? I bought my cousin-in-law 2 domains for Christmas related to his tattoo parlor. (I searched his small business and found that they didn't have a web page and some other business took the most obvious way to spell their URL.)

I've only hand written a webpage in HTML before or grabbed one of Dreamhost's default WordPress themes.

I don't want to become the business's tech support.

I just want to hand him a paper with a URL and a user name and password and there will be an easily update-able web page with the business, address, link to Google directions and blog and/or Twitter feed and a gallery (possibly a Flickr pull in?)

Do I use Google Sites? Is there a theme that is suitable for a pretty tough tattoo crowd that's easy to use?

Do I host it on my own Dreamhost with a WordPress theme? Is there a WordPress theme you'd recommend?

Low effort. Cool enough. Doesn't require a regular outlay of cash or tech effort. Help?

Can you convert a free Wordpress theme into Blogger?

MrningLight — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:36:09 -0800

Hi. I'm trying to create a new blog and found a great free Wordpress theme that I'd like to use in Blogger. Can I do this? If so, how? Here's the theme I want to convert: http://wpthemeland.com/theme/Cooking/ Thanks for your comments and advice. Take Care, Dawn

WordPress Theme

Brocktoon — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:19:43 -0800

I need help finding a WordPress theme! We like the functionailty of this site: www.lessloss.com.

We really like:

1. Persistent navigation on the right.

However, we are pushing 60 products, while LessLoss only has 5 or 6. So, we would like the navigation on the right to expand like a directory for each category of products.

TIA for any insight!

How to Install Newest Version of Wordpress?

chara — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:39:05 -0800

I'm having a horrible time trying to update to WordPress 2.8.6 on my dotster domain. Perhaps you could help a PHP-illiterate sista out? Background details:

I currently have Wordpress 2.8.4-3, installed via dotster's easy-as-pie Wordpress installer. This is the latest update that said installer offers.

When I try to install the new version automatically via my Wordpress Control Panel, I get a screen that asks me for:
Hostname
Username
Password
FTP or FTP (SSL)

After a lengthy google-fu session, I found out that my hostname is (ftp.d1091973.dotsterhost.com) and my username is (f197443.admin)
but whenever I enter my info, I get the following error message:

Warning: ftp_rawlist(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/tmp) is not within the allowed path(s): (/usr/local/pem/vhosts/197443/webspace/siteapps:/usr/local/pem/vhosts/197443/tmp) in /usr/local/pem/vhosts/197443/webspace/siteapps/15742/htdocs/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-ftpext.php on line 203 Warning: ftp_rawlist(): Unable to create temporary file. Check permissions in temporary files directory. in /usr/local/pem/vhosts/197443/webspace/siteapps/15742/htdocs/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-ftpext.php on line 203

Unable to locate WordPress directory.

Installation Failed

I have no idea what this means. I don't even know how to access my temporary files directory.

Help?

Building a better vlog

wcfields — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:01:03 -0800

What is the, ugh, I hate to even type it: best vlogging system? I have scoped out a few possibilities but would like something fully built for it. I have a Wordpress installation and was thinking of using Blip.tv and Vimeo to host with some custom templating but a friend of mine runs a Indexhibit and I really like it but would want something halfway between Wordpress and it. Something that allows me to use off-site hosted videos, tag/categorize them (if it can use an API from a video hosting site that would rule).

My project is a semi-weekly cable access show of in-studio bands and live performances and eventually will have other non-music related shows to host as well.

Custom fields, are they like made-to-order crop circles?

Kerasia — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:13:12 -0800

Wordpress filter: How can I use custom fields and tags to my advantage? Talk to me as if I am a Wordpress novice. I have two websites using Wordpress as a cms. One is a accommodation website that advertises the property using pages as well as having a blog attached. The second is (will be) an Wordpress e-commerce site using Shopp and a blog to sell unique versions of one type of item.

I want to get the best from Wordpress as my cms. But for the life of me I cannot comprehend the usefulness of custom fields and tags. I've looked at the Wordpress codex but I can't work out how their examples could fit my needs which are, essentially, to rank high on search engines for my product types.

Please smart folk, explain to this lass with brain-fog what custom fields and tags actually do, and how I can improve my sites through their use.

What is the best event listing Wordpress plugin?

melodykramer — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:50:40 -0800

What is the best event listing plugin for Wordpress? Or is there a simple way to create a custom template to make event listings? I run a book blog in Philadelphia and would like to list monthly author events and readings. I have looked at some Wordpress plugins for event listings, but I'm not sure what the best one is for my purposes. (There are lots of them.) Basically, I'd like something that allows:

1. a book photo from my Wordpress media library

2. inputs for time, date, event, address, and map. I'd also like to be able to include a link to the bookstore or event.

3. I don't want the event to post directly to my Wordpress main blog. I'd like to create a page that lists events on a monthly basis -- and link to that page at the top of my blog. (The plug-ins I've tried immediately post an event to the main blog site.)

I don't know PHP but I am comfortable with HTML. I've been coding these listings by hand, though, and it seems to be taking a really long time. I'm sure there's a much easier way. If you use an events plugin or know of an easy way to do this, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thank you. Mel

How Can Wordpress Easily Provide A Voting and Commenting View For 5 Page Layout Possibilities?

peter_meta_kbd — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:50:23 -0800

How can I allow anonymous users to access "Media" wordpress pages (ie a jpg image) so that it appears to anonymous users the same way as it appears to admins? Right now, when I create a media item, I can view it as admin by going through the Media then clicking on view, eventually I end up at http://christian-filipina.com/blog/?attachment_id=31 which is a nice reduced version of the image (which can be clicked to appear large), and which has the nice feature that there is a place to leave comments at the bottom.

This is great - for administrators. But I want anonymous users to be able to look at 5 different, fairly similar images, and make comments on the pages separately. So I'd like for the anonymous users who navigate to http://christian-filipina.com/blog/?attachment_id=31 to find the same page the way it looks to admins. But when going to that URL as an anonymous user, I get "Sorry, no posts matched your criteria" instead of the image with comment form.

So, how can I enable this permission for anonymous users? If this is not possible, please rephrase the question as, "What is the best way to use Wordpress to get a bunch of anonymous people to vote on 5 different layouts and also to be able to comment on each of them separately, as I am trying to do at http://christian-filipina.com/blog/ ? (None of these are public URLs, please don't link to them.)

Do I need to create a page for each of those separate layouts and then use HTML to link to the variously-sized versions of the images?

Thanks very much.

Please hope me generate a custom report from a Wordpress database

jbickers — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:39:27 -0800

PHP/MySQL gurus: Please help me get data out of Wordpress in a really specific fashion. So I need to get a custom report out of our Wordpress database, from a very specific range of dates/times, and in a specific format. I need to be able to specify start and end date/times, and get back a comma-delimited file with this data for all posts in the range:

Date, time, post title

That's it. It would be nice if this were somehow made into a plugin with drop-down menus for the date range, but this is a "we need it right now" situation with zero budget for coders.

So, what's the easiest way to do it? I'm thinking a PHP page that fetches and retrieves the data and outputs it to the browser. But I might be missing some solution that is much easier and more elegant. Also, I have no idea how to code such a page, and have zero confidence with the MySQL command line. Can you help, por favor?

vox clamantis in deserto

Schlimmbesserung — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:04:19 -0800

How the hell do I export a Vox blog to Wordpress? So I used to have a blog on Vox. I've since moved to Wordpress.com, but there was some good stuff on the Vox that I'd like to take with me. However, Six Apart seems to have decided that they don't want to have an easy way to move my content off the site, and their tech support people say that an export tool "isn't in the long-term plan."

This guy seems to have something in the works, but it looks like vapourware from here. Does anyone else have a crafty solution?

Importing to Wordpress Using Custom Fields

backwards guitar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:15:36 -0800

When importing data into Wordpress, is it possible to put parts of that data into custom fields? I've got a (Drupal) website with about 1000 pages of content that I'd like to port over to Wordpress. The pages are essentially products, so I think they'd function well as posts.

The one snag I'm running into is that the Drupal pages have the product's content split into a few different sections of content, for example "description", "accessories", "specifications".

Questions:

1) I'm thinking the easiest thing to do would be to have these additional sections be custom fields in Wordpress. When I import the data how can I import these extra sections as custom fields?

2) What's the best format to export the data (or perhaps the better question is, what's the best format to import the data into Wordpress). I have access to the data in sql format, and could write a script in PHP to grab the data directly from the database if need be. Should I manually insert the data into the empty Wordpress database? Or use one of the import methods described in the Wordpress codex?

How can I make my JW videos embeddable and Facebook share-able?

bingo — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:57:52 -0800

How can I make my JW videos embeddable and Facebook share-able? I'm hosting videos on Amazon Cloudfront, and playing them in the JW player on my Wordpress site. I would like to make these videos embeddable, my main interest being to make them share-able on Facebook (which I realize is probably its own ball of wax).

I've found scattered documentation, but nothing that really thoroughly tackles this problem head-on, which, it seems to me, must be common: Wordpress, JW Player, Facebook sharing.

I'm not afraid of a little code, but I do need more direction than I have been able to find, and that includes the Facebook API documentation.

Thanks!

Make My Hyper-Local Blog Community Friendly!

daviss — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:30:56 -0800

I run a hyper-local blog about Penn State . I want to create a new area in which our readers can post content, similar to Gawker's #tips area but with a share box like Facebook's. Other Details
*** We're using the latest version of Wordpress. One thought I had was maybe to switch to Wordpress MU, keep the standard blog intact, but then create another Wordpress system for the user generated content?

*** I'd really like this to be smooth (i.e. AJAX) and extendable... Facebook and Twitter integration would be awesome, as would the ability to upload pictures and embed videos.

*** While having to moderate posts individually wouldn't be a big deal, I'd prefer if we could get a CAPTCHA set up for the system.

*** The ability to rate content submissions, or comment, would be awesome.

Game got switched. Pass the noobsauce plz?

TomMelee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:04:43 -0800

I suck at wordpress. Should I start over or can someone help me fix this? I do a lot of hardware repair for side money here, and recently had an established customer ask me to do a site for her daughter. I thought it would be extremely simple, and it was. I did a typical wordpress install and modified the heck out of a template I found somewhere to make it match her colors/logo/etc. I don't usually do web work because it's not my strongsuit.

So I'm doing all this in a sandbox site (live, but not at her .com) and thinking its coming together fine. Top menu, 4 pages, nice gradient, etc. This was originally a right-side menu template, and I've taken all the right column out because it's unnecessary. (blogroll, rss, etc.)

Today I get a call that she loves all of it but she wants the menu down the left side. This was a right/top menu template. I'm in waaay over my head trying to figure out how to chop it up. I've looked at the css, and there's nothing in there that declares positions---only widths. I looked in the wordpress themes settings and there's no place to move the menu left. I've played around in the index moving the php calls to alternate locations and the page doesn't change (or doesn't change significantly.) Changing the sidebar.php to "left column" instead of "right column" puts the menu at the bottom of the body, because the body is the left column.

So I'm assuming the only real way to fix this is to figure out how to resize the columns and move the body to the right and the menu to the left...unless I'm overthinking it?

Happy to share the live-site address and assorted template files if anyone out there in mefi land is willing to take a peek. Otherwise I'll just start modifying a left-column template. Grrr.

Conversion therapy

yonation — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:51:05 -0800

Turning 1800 text files into something more usable for Wordpress? I have 1800 files I need to convert into Wordpress blog posts. Each file has merely the content, and nothing else, in text format. What's the best way to get them into Wordpress? Is there a text program or script (that will run on Windows7) that will convert them to HTML files for use with this plugin? Or an easy way to convert them to RSS somehow? I don't really have shell or perl access, so something local would be great, or even a script for Notepad++ or something. Thanks!

I like pretty pictures to LOOK pretty!

miss lynnster — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:27:48 -0800

Most awesome, pretty and easy to figure out Flickr image gallery plug-in for Word Press? I'm having some photographers and artists provide content for my LA site, and I want to make sure they're displayed in the most graphically appealing and easy (to navigate as well as to set up) way. I'm not a programmer so I tend to like the plugins that have all sorts of cool features without me having to create them.

Up until now I've been using Picasna for Picasa, and I liked the Lightboxy gallery that it uses but I really am not thrilled with the way the image gallery shows up in the post before you click on it to view the images up close.

Thanks in advance for all of your advice. :)

Web template for cleaning business?

zeikka — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:39:17 -0800

Where can I find simple, yet professional and elegant web template/ Wordpress theme for cleaning business? I'm helping someone who's starting a small scale residential/ business cleaning service. I have domain and cheap hosting for her, but would like to find nice web template to use.

Wordpress theme would be ideal as I'm not very experience web designer or don't have experience with complex publishing system. Free would be great this as is very small scale.

I need a specific CMS that allows each user to edit one part of a page.

grumblebee — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:27:46 -0800

I need a page of bios integrated into a WordPress site. I would like to give each person the ability to update his own bio without letting him mess with other people's bios. It would be awesome if the list was alphabetized. In other words, if you visit the bio page, you'll see something like this:

Fred Alberts has worked at Acme for five years. He lives in New Jersey...

Alice Jordan loves the NY Times Crossword and...

Peter Smith is a gourmet chef who has lived in London and Paris...

If, say, Alice no longer likes the crossword puzzles, I would like her to be able to log in someplace and change her bio, but I don't want her to be able to change Fred's bio.

This system will slowly grow in terms of me adding more people. Currently, there are about 100 people. I will probably add about ten more people to it each year. These people will regularly want to update their bios, and I don't want them to have to email me each time they want a change made.

Ultimately, I want all the bios on to be on one page of a Wordpress blog.

Is this something that exists already, or do I have to code it myself?

Making SharePoint more like WordPress for my home page

blahblahblah — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:36:58 -0800

I have an academic homepage, and I want to have frequently updated content, but my university doesn't support anything but MS Office Sharepoint. How do I add WordPress, or WordPress-like elements, or some sort of easy CMS/theme solution to my site? So I have a nice new homepage at the university where I teach, but the university only supports Sharepoint and WebDAV and recommends Sharepoint Designer for faculty pages.

I really would like to use WordPress, or something like it, to drive my site, mostly because of the simple, elegant themes available and the easy light-weight CMS/authoring ability. Everything that comes out of Sharepoint Designer looks terrible, and rarely works across all browsers.

The problem is that I really want my site to continue to be www.university.edu/blahblahblah. Is there any way for a technically adept amateur to set up this page so that it looks or behaves like a WordPress site? Perhaps having the page pull things from an external site?

Or just some tips on making Sharepoint work better for someone like me?

Any help appreciated.

I broke my Wordpress permalinks. HELP!

GilloD — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:23:40 -0800

I'm getting 'double' links in my Wordpress theme after I changed the way it handles Permalinks. And now I can't change it. More inside. So, previously I had my permalinks set to default: domain.com/?p=xx

I decided to play with it a little bit and I tried changing it. It started giving me 'double links'. I changed it back to default and I'm STILL getting 'double links'. This happened on my production server and my local test server.

Here's what they look like now: domain.com/'domain.com/?p=xx'

Even I move it back to default, it's stuck this way. Is this an .htaccess issue? I'm not sure what a 'healthy' .htaccess should look like. Has anyone else had this problem? I'm going nutty and I can't seem to find anyone else who has run into this.

I know this issue can crop up if you don't fully format a URL, but I don't think that's what happening. Permalinks come from the <> in The Loop. Links generated elsewhere (Archives, etc.) are fine.

Thoughts?

Is Wordpress right for us?

mahoganyslide — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:20:58 -0800

I'm constructing two websites that display the progress of social science research currently underway. I need a system that allows ease of use for all involved student researchers. Is Wordpress the way to go? One of the projects had its own HTML/CSS website but the researchers were frustrated with having to go to the webmaster in order to make even the slightest changes. The webmaster then converted the website into a wiki (via MediaWiki). Although this alternative allows for easy modification, it is limited when it comes to posting multimedia content and tweaking the interface.

I recently took over the web aspect of the projects and believe that Wordpress-based websites will be the best compromise in terms of being easy to modify but being flexible enough to allow for more than just text (I have handy widgets in mind, google maps, youtube videos, etc). Unfortunately, my knowledge of Wordpress only extends to what I've picked up from various blogs raving about this platform.

My concerns are:
-will it be easy for student researches with no coding experience to login from any browser and manipulate the content? (I don't need to worry about various permissions so one login ID will suffice)
-how easy is it manipulate a standard Wordpress website that is best suited for blogs into a static page with text and pictures/videos?
-am I right to think that Wordpress is better than a wiki platform when it comes to posting multimedia content such as youtube videos?
-how does a Wordpress site handle flash animations?

I basically want to make sure that Wordpress is the better alternative to wikis and HTML websites for student researchers with no coding experience, but who can manipulate content on a web interface as if it were their facebook page.

If not, what else is out there?