Recommended Web Tools Archives

Fixing Meta Descriptions in All-in-One SEO WordPress plugin

I was a tad baffled several months back when I noticed that meta descriptions were not appearing on my web pages. I use the All-in-One SEO plugin for manage my meta descriptions and I checked all over kingdom come for what could be wrong.

As a last resort I read the documentation on the All-in-One SEO wesbite

The problem was simple. For some reason I had deleted wp_head() from my header. (I often edit and customize my templates so it was possible I did this!)

The fix:

1. In your admin panel, go to Plugins – Theme Editor
2. On the right bar, click on Header
3. Locate the line with
4. Insert the following line before it:
“

” (without the quotes)
5. Save

Since this is posted in their Help, the issue must come up often. So glad to know I am not alone…

Unschedule a Scheduled Post in WordPress

One of the cool features in WordPress is the ability to scheduled your posts so they are “posted” later (hours, days, weeks, months, etc.)

But what happens when, after a post is scheduled, it needs to be unscheduled for whatever reason?

It is a tad tricky at first, because our instinct is to look for the “unschedule” button. There isn’t one. The “Publish” button has disappeared as well. How can you get back to either a normal draft status or to publish immediately?

First, edit the scheduled date to a date in the past. This will re-establish the Publish button. So you can choose to Publish immediately if you want.

Second, edit the Status from “Scheduled” to Draft. The kicker here is that the “Update” button does not update. If you reset the date to the future, the “Update Post” button will return. Clicking Update Post will save the post and not publish it nor schedule it.

A bit of a hassle, something that should be fixed in a future version I would hope.

XML Sitemaps updates settings only on publish not on manual generation

I use the XML Sitemaps WordPress plugin to publish my site map to the four core search engines.

I was updating some of the settings of the plug-in, in particular, updating the priority it gave to updating sections of my website:

I went to manually recreate my sitemap so it would update the sitemap XML file.

Once it rebuilt, I noticed that the priorities were not updated. I did it again. And again.

I was baffled for a moment. Then I decided to post something. Upon a real post (XML Sitemaps will auto generate), the sitemap was generated AND the priorities were UPDATED.

Not sure if this is a bug or not. So if you have problems getting your XML Sitemap to update it’s settings, do a real post!

Update for HeadMeta plugin for WordPress 2.1

If you use the HeadMeta plugin for WordPress to generate description meta tags and are using WordPress 2.1 you will need to update to version 1.3 of the plugin.  Previous versions do not work.  Simply download the new plugin file. Upload it to your plugins directory (copying over the old one). Do not deactivate the plugin beforehand or you will lose any descriptions you already have entered Dougal (the author of the plugin) clarified the issue about whether deactivation of the plugin would cause a loss of data. See his comment below.   Upon a page refresh, view the source, and your meta tags should be intact.

Using wp_list_bookmarks in WordPress 2.1

It seems several things have caused various levels of consternation as people have upgraded their blogs to WordPress 2.1.

My main issue involved the use of wp_get_links.

In WordPress 2.1, there are significant changes to the way the Link Manager works:

1. Any link management is now done through the Blogroll tab.
2. ALL link categories are now kept in the same table as your blog categories
3. Essentially, in WordPress 2.1 a category can have both posts and links.
4. If you upgraded from a previous version, your link category ID’s will changed. If you used wp_get_links to dynamically populated various link lists and they are now empty, chances are the category id wp_get_links was pointing to either no longer exits or, because of the changes, does not have any links associated with it.
5. Even changing your old wp_get_links commands to the right categories may not fix your problem. For some reason, the default behavior of wp_get_links no longer places <li> tags around each link.
6. The replacement for wp_get_links seems to be wp_list_bookmarks
7. wp_list_bookmarks is indeed more powerful – there are a lot more parameters to choose from
8. Find out how to use wp_list_bookmarks
9. Note: there are inaccuracies in the codex for wp_list_bookmarks. For example, you MUST enclose the whole string within the parenthese with single ticks: wp_list_bookmarks(‘all my parameters here’)
10. Not every parameter seems to work. I am still trying to verify some issues. For example, wp_list_bookmarks includes the name of the category by default. This can be changed or turned off with the parameter title_li. However, I have been unable to get it to work. I will update this post if I find out the reason.

As way of example, here is how I am using wp_list_bookmarks to call a menu on my site:

<ul>
<?php wp_list_bookmarks('title_before=&title_after=&
categorize=1&category=52'); ?>
</ul>

This code produces this:

The nulls for title_before and title_after remove the default <h2> tag that occurs before and after the category title.

categorize=1 ensures the category name is display. If set to zero, the generic “Bookmarks” appears.

category=52 grabs the links associated with that category.

Like I mentioned above, I am still trying to figure out how the title_li parameter works.

If you have any questions please leave them below.

WordPress 2.1 Released – Hold off upgrading – menus are broken

I just upgraded to WordPress 2.1 – I would wait a few weeks if you have not already done so.

Clearly there is a LARGE problem with links used to generate menus. WordPress 2.1 replaced wp_get_links with wp_list_bookmarks. The latter is not ready for prime time (or at least the documentation supporting it is not). Menus on this site are currently broken. I had to hard code my main navigation bar in the meantime (it is normally generated dynamically).

I will post more thoughts on 2.1 later.

WordPress 2.1 is in beta

WordPress just released version 2.0.6. In the blog post announcing the release, there is a tidbit about WordPress 2.1:

As a side note, this is probably our last release before 2.1 is out, which will be our first major feature release in quite a while. 2.1 just entered beta stage, so if you’re interested in helping out with that process consider joining our beta group. As a reminder, if you’re a plugin or theme author you should check your code to make sure it’s compatible with 2.1 before the release.

Add a contact form to a WordPress Blog

With the onslaught of spam, webmasters have used a variety of tactics to hide their email addresses from spambots.

There are several methods to accomplish this.

1. Don’t display any email address. But then no one could contact you.
2. Display email address as an image. But this is not user friendly
3. Encode your email address. This works, but adds a ton of code to a page.
4. Add a contact form.

If you have a WordPress blog, Ryan Duff has created a very slick plugin to add a contact form to any page or post of your blog.

Installation is simple.

1. Download the zip file. Make sure you download the correct version. He has a version for WordPress 1.5 versions or WordPress 2.0 versions.
2. Extract the file.
3. Upload the contents of the zip file into the plugins folder. If you drag and drop the extracted contents, simply grab the folder. This will create a subfolder within plugins called “wp-contact-form”.
4. Activate the plugin from the Plugins menu within WordPress
5. Go to Options
6. Select Contact Form
7. Add your email address, etc.
8. Make sure the Contact Form quicktag is checked. This will add a button to the post/page functions.
9. Create a contact post/page.
10. Add necessary text
11. Click the “Insert Contact Form” button wherever you want the form to be placed.
12. For an example, look at the contact form on this site.

Slick and simple.

[tags]wordpress, contact+form[/tags]

Create Technorati Tags with SimpleTags WordPress Plugin

Looking to add Technorati tags at the ends of WordPress posts?

SimpleTags has the solution.

Why use Technorati tags?

• Enables posts to be “found” within Technorati
• Community tagging builds a corpus of work
• Help readers find other useful content on topics

While Technorati doesn’t provide a tremendous amount of traffic, every little bit helps.

SimpleTags is different from other Technorati tag plugins. The others require the use of custom fields while SimpleTags does not. Simply put the tags between [ tags ] and [ /tags ] and thats it!

SimpleTags then creates the proper link that enables Technorati to pick up the category and your post. Technorati will read posts if it is pinged.

Not pinging technorati? Use ping-o-matic or pingoat.

[tags]simpletags, wordpress, plugin, technorati[/tags]

Fixing RSS Feed in WordPress 2.0.1

WordPress users using “index.php” as part of their permalink structure will find upon upgrading to WordPress 2.0.1 that their main feed displays comments instead of posts.

Here is the temporary fix posted on the WordPress Trac by user joshkidd (thanks!):

Make a small change to the classes.php file.

This can be found in the wp-includes folder. Find this line, which is located about 75% to 80% of the way down the file (line 1324):


// Comments
$comments_rewrite = $this->generate_rewrite_rules($this->root . $this->comments_base, true, true, true);


Change this line to the following:

// Comments
$comments_rewrite = $this->generate_rewrite_rules($this->root . $this->comments_base, true, true, true, false);


All that is being added is the “false” at the end of the parameter line.

Save the file.

Create a test static page.

Just name a page “test”. Save it. This flushes out the rewrite rules. The main RSS feed “…/index.php/feed/” should now be displaying correctly.

I would expect an official fix from WordPress sometime soon.

RSS Feed Problems with WordPress 2.0.1

Users upgrading to WordPress 2.0.1 may find that the RSS Feed is messed up. In particular, the main feed is displaying the comments feed. Weird. Using “index.php” as part of the permalink structure seems to be a common element among those experiencing a problem. So far this issue has not found a solution.

For those reading our feed, I apologize.

Hidden Categories in WordPress an initial annoyance

Categories in WordPress 2.0 are now offered via a drop down menu. Thus, they are hidden until it is opened. For the first several posts, I kept forgetting to add the post to the proper category. I kept having to re-edit my posts. The category dropdown does remain open once it has been opened. However, logging out and logging back in will display it as closed again. Maybe it would help if, on the right list of drop down menus, the category menu was first.

WordPress Wishlist

This is my WordPress wishlist:

1) Within Admin, on the Manage Posts page, include a “show posts by category” button. I hate having to actually go to my website to see what I have posted in each category.

2) Categories for Pages. Yes, yes, I’ve read all about how this isn’t how WordPress Pages were intended. But listen, with this little change then WordPress truly becomes a more effective CMS tool. CMS tools make two things easier: keeping content in modules and menus. There is no need for WordPress to modularize. This can be done by creating Pages based on blank templates (or just different templates). Assigning Pages to categories makes one thing easier: menus. The current list_pages function is not powerful enough. Now a list_pages with a category parameter, and I’m good to go. Each section of a website could have it’s own template and its own category and links within that category can be easily listed. Currently I have to setup a seperate link group for each section. Not horrible, but not as easy as it could be.

3) In lieu of categories for Pages, then a menu builder. I would like to build navigational and content menu’s from an easy two column interface. Column on the left would include all pages. Coloumn to the right would be the included pages. The right column would be assigned/governed by a link category. They already have the info in the datebase to do this. This is a plugin idea actually. I don’t have the time, skill or knowledge to do this correctly, but would more than happy to partner with anyone, as a visionary and tester, to get it accomplished. Any one interested?

Basic WordPress Plugin Troubleshooting

Having problems with a WordPress plugin?

The first thing to check:

Is there any white space after the end of the php code for the plugin?

When the file is opened in an editor the there should be no white space at the end. Delete all white space at the bottom so that the very last line is the final question mark and greater than sign.

Beginner? Wait before upgrading to WordPress 2.0

With the impending WordPress 2.0 release coming soon, I am advising newbies and beginners to wait before they upgrade. Don’t take that wrong, I love WordPress. However, 2.0 is such a major rewrite, I want to spare beginners the heartache of fixing numerous problems in case things begin to break. My advice is this:

• Let the more adept developers have their crack at 2.0 first.
• Watch the WordPress support pages or the beata forum during the first several weeks after the release. Note any significant issues that arise that may be an issue for your own blog.
• Watch to see if a significant fix is needed that would require a 2.01 or 2.02.
• Make a list of all the plugins used to make your site work. Go to the WordPress 2.0 Plugin Compatibility chart. Look to see if your plugins are on that list. If not, write/leave comments for the authors of your plugins to either a) issue a new plugin or b) test to make sure it works with 2.0. I use RunPHP a lot. Unfortunately, it is on the incompatible list at the moment. So I won’t be upgrading until there is a fix for that. At the moment only four of the twelve plugins I use on this site are compatible.
• It may be the case that a plugin has been integrated into the regular WordPress code. Read the release notes when 2.o is released.
• Read other blogs, like Asymptomatic, which will provide more extensive coverage and commentary about the release and upgrade.
• If you’ve never ever used WordPress before and don’t currently have a blog/site that uses WordPress, then by all means WordPress 2.0 is a good place to start! See my article about free blog software for reasons why I like WordPress.

Add list of Related Entries to WordPress Posts

I have been investigating ways to increase the value of this website and to increase visitor pageviews. In particular, I wondered if there was a way to list ‘Additional Reading’ at the end of each post. The desire is to place before the reader other posts that are related to the one currently being read.

As I checked into how to place this list at the end of posts, I came across the Related Entries WordPress Plugin. There are four flavors of the plugin, I have implemented version 1.1. For an example of how this looks, view any single post on this site and look at the end of the post before the comments area.

This plugin performs a matching query against the WP database in order to determine a list of related posts. The plugin creates a new php function. This provides the user a large amount of flexibility by being able to place the function anywhere within the website whether it is right after a post or in a side bar.

There is an extra step involved in the setup of this plugin as opposed to most other plugins. A table needs to be altered in the WP database. The authors provide an automated script for accomplishing this. Follow the instructions in the readme file within the plugin zip file. If a problem is experienced leave a comment on the plugin site or leave one here and I will be happy to assist.

For my implementation I placed the following code right after my line of post details:


<div id="relatedposts">
<h4>Additional Related Reading:</h4>
<ul>
<?php related_posts(5, 0, '<li>', '</li>', '', '', false, false); ?>
</ul>
<hr />
</div>


Improved WordPress RSS Feeds

The Better Feed WordPress plugin has been just the thing I have been looking for to improve the value of my RSS feed and to provide higher user interaction between my feed and my website.

RSS feed readers and web surfers are truly two different audiences. I have been looking for ways to help feed readers interact more with the main website. With this plugin I am able to add the following three lines to the bottom of my feed:

• The first line contains a copyright notice, a link to the permalink, and a link to any comments.
• Each feed reader is different. While all link back to the original post, the link is often encoded with their own linking structure. Including a straight, pure permalink allows users to easily copy the link without any included garbage.
• The comments link indicates how many comments have been placed on the post. Before, if a reader was curious whether anyone has left a comment, they needed to actually go out to the original post and look. Now, they can easily see if any are there. If they are interested in reading the comments, they can easily click to them.
• The second line includes links to bookmark the post via del.icio.us or Spurl. This not only serves the reader by providing them a means to easily bookmark a post, but can also lead to extra traffic. Every time a page of mine gets bookmarked on delicious or spurl I see a tiny bump in traffic. Tiny bumps mean extra exposure. Extra exposure means potentially more readers. Etc.!
• The third line includes the following statement “Want more on these topics ? Browse the archive of posts filed under (link to category).” The category is filled in with whatever category I have placed the post. If the reader wants to know about about a topic, it is easy for them to do so.

I am also toying with the idea of adding a “featured article” line. I would link to a monthly featured article on my site. I think having three extra lines per post is enough. So before I add a fourth line, I will wait and see how well the current lines perform.

If you want to see this plugin in action, add my feed to your RSS reader! (wink wink!)

WordPress Slow? Check ShortStat Plugin

Recently there has been a problem with the ShortStat plugin for WordPress which has caused the WordPress admin page and any feeds generated by WordPress to load slowly. If the login page of a WordPress installation is taking minutes instead of seconds to load then most likely this is the problem. Find help on this issue on the WordPress support site. I have extracted the pertinent info here:

If you want to keep wp-shortstat enabled but don’t mind losing the country information you can comment out the following lines in the plugin by prefixing them with //

$coinfo = @file(‘http://www.hostip.info/api/get.html?ip=’ . $ip);
$country_string = explode(‘:’,$coinfo[0]);
$country = trim($country_string[1]);
like:
//$coinfo = @file(‘http://www.hostip.info/api/get.html?ip=’ . $ip);
//$country_string = explode(‘:’,$coinfo[0]);
//$country = trim($country_string[1]);

The above fixes the problem.

Ordering Pages in WordPress

The Pages functionality within WordPress adds a lot of flexibility. A list of links to the Pages within WordPress can be created using the wp_list_pages function. The default behavior for this function is to list the pages alphabetically. What if a different sort order is desired?

Within WordPress Administration, click Manage, then Pages. Select a page to edit. Underneath the main text window is a series of options. Page Order is one of those options. Enter a number for the order in which the selected page is to appear in the list. Order all pages accordingly.

When creating the list, the PHP will look like the following:

<?php wp_list_pages(‘sort_column=menu_order&title_li=Your Title’); ?>

The Recommended Web Tools By Category list in the left nav bar is an example of a Pages link list.

For more information see the WordPress codex.

Create Link Directory in WordPress

Maintaining a list of links on a website is often tedious work, especially if editing the HTML manually.

Many webmasters use automatic link directory creation software to maintain a page (or pages) of links. The problem I have with such software is the distance it creates between the webmaster and their content. Automatic link page creation often leads to low quality linking. Because of the ease of creating a link, the link itself (no matter the value) becomes more important than the quality of the link.

For my Recommended Web Tools Directory page, I use the built-in functionality within WordPress to maintain all my links. It is not a totally automatic process nor is it totally manual. Because there are still several steps involved in creating a link, especially for one in a new category, it forces me to think about whether the value of the link is worth the time and effort to put it on my page. For me, this is a built-in checks and balances system.

There are several ways to create a link directory. What I outline below is just one of those ways. This little tutorial assumes a knowledge of the Page functionality within WordPress. If a step doesn’t make sense refer to my Other Web Resources/Recommended Web Tools Directory page.

For this tutorial, I assume the creation of the link directory from scratch.

1. Install the RunPHP plugin. Download and installation instructions can be found here or here. The RunPHP plugin is needed to run PHP from within WordPress Pages.
2. Create ‘Directory’ Link Category
   On the WordPress menu bar, clicks Links.
   Click Link Categories
   At the bottom is the “Add a Link Category Section”
   Name the Category ‘Directory’
   CLick the Description box.
   Click Add Category button.
3. Create the Directory Page.

   This page is the equivalent of my Other Resources page.

   Click Write on the WordPres menu bar.
   Click Write Pages.
   Name the Page. For example, mine is called Other Resources.
   Add code that will display the ‘Directory’ Link Category.

   <ul>
   <li> <?php _e(‘My Directory’); ?>
   <ul>
   <?php wp_get_links(X); ?>
   </ul>
   </li>
   </ul>

   X is the number assigned to the ‘Directory’ Link category.
   Click Links
   CLick Link Categories
   Find the ID number associated with the ‘Directory’ link category.
   Enter that value for X.
   Save the page. NOTE: The use of a template or any addition content if up to the individual user. This tutorial does not cover such items. Immediately go back and edit the page.
   On the Write Page page, under Discussion, check the eval() content check box. This enables the page to use the RunPHP plugin. NOTE: checking the eval() box on the first go around does not seem to work. This is a RunPHP plugin issue.
   Save page again.
   Create link to this page from the home page. NOTE: this again is up to the individual user. It can be accomplished in a number of ways.

4. Create Link Category
   On the WordPress menu bar, clicks Links.
   Click Link Categories
   At the bottom is the “Add a Link Category Section”
   Name the Category ‘All-time Favorites websites’ (name is user defined. This name is just for tutorial purposes.)
   Click the Description box.
   Click Add Category button.
5. Create category page
   Typically the Page of the category should be named the same as the link category.

   Click Write on the WordPres menu bar.
   Click Write Pages.
   Name the Page: All-Time Favorite Websites
   Add code that will display the ‘Directory’ Link Category.

   <ul>
   <li> <?php _e(‘All-Time Favorite Websites’); ?>
   <ul>
   <?php wp_get_links(X); ?>
   </ul>
   </li>
   </ul>

   X is the number assigned to the ‘All-time Favorite Websites’ Link category.
   Click Links
   Click Link Categories
   Find the ID number associated with the ‘All-time Favorite Websites’ link category.
   Enter that value for X.

   Save the page. NOTE: The use of a template or any addition content if up to the individual user. This tutorial does not cover such items.

   Immediately go back and edit the page.
   On the Write Page page, under Discussion, check the eval() content check box. This enables the page to use the runphp plugin.
   Note the page slug. Copy and paste it to an empty document for future reference. NOTE: the name of the page slug imitates the name of the WordPress Page. The page slug can be changed. It does not need to read the same as the name of the WordPress Page.
   Save page again.

6. Add link to category link in the Directory link category
   On the WordPress menu bar, clicks Links.
   Click Add Link
   Enter the URI of the link: http://www.yoursite.com/index.php/all-time-favorite-websites
   Enter link name: All Time Favorite Websites
   Description: Enter a short description about what links are contained in this category.
   Category: Choose ‘Directory’
   Click Add Link

   Note: the URI will be dependent on the permalink structure used on the website.

7. Add new link to link category
   On the WordPress menu bar, clicks Links.
   Click Add Link
   Enter the URI of the link: http://www.thisreallycoolwebsite.com
   Enter link name: Really Cool Website
   Description: Enter a short description about the website.
   Category: Choose ‘All Time Favorite Websites’
   Click Add Link

Go to the home page.
Click on the directory link that was created
This will open the main directory page
Listed should be the heading ‘My Directory’
Indented under My Directory should be a hyperlink “All Time Favorites Websites”
Below the hyperlink there should be a short description.

Clicking on the “All Time Favorites Websites” hyperlink should open the All Time Favorites Websites page.
Listed should be the heading “all time favorite websites”
Indented should be a hyperlinks to Really Cool Website
Below the hyperlink there should be a short description.

This process is much easier if simply adding a link to an already existing category. Simply follow the directions under Step 7.

If you have any question please email me. I would be happy to provide any support I can. See my Contact page for email details.

WordPress Install Error: Headers Already Sent

Installing WordPress and receive a “headers already sent” error?

Chances are there are spaces at the end of the wp-config.php file.

Check the WordPress Codex for more info.

wp-shortstat plugin

Ok this is cool. A WordPress plugin that tracks stats about your blog. This is like a mini-version of any website tracking software available. The only difference is it simply tracks the hits to your blog. If you have a site that includes pages outside of your blog this can be very helpful. It makes it easier to delineate hits to your blog versus hits to the rest of your website.

A note on installation:
Installation is easy. One simple plugin file that is placed inside the plugin folder. Activate from within the Plugin panel and it is ready to go. The stats appear as a tab on the dashboard page.
Make sure these two files exist in your wp-admin folder:

upgrade-functions.php
upgrade-schema.php

If those don’t exist, errors will occur.

I really like the browser percentage category. It is really no different then other stat counters with one major exception: it identifies hits from Search Engines/Crawlers. Woohoo! At the least, it provides some basic input between human activity and bot activity. This is one of my main struggles with web site statistics in general. Though basic, this simple percentage is helpful to me. Now, to push it a bit further: The number of hits category could delineate between hits from a bot and hits from “human activity” . Yes I can use the percantage found in the browser category to do the math, but since shortstat is recording it already then it should do the break outs for me!

The Next Step:

A WordPress Plugin that tracks stats on your feed! I am not much of a programmer, but I’ve read the support pages enough to know that there are some very talented people out there. I know someone can build a plugin that can provide something similar to Feedburner. Imagine that, feed stats hosted on your own site, no messing with the .htaccess file, no worries about Feedburner going out of business, total control over your feed and its stats. If only I had the money, I would make it a contest and offer a cash prize. Hmmm. Who has some deep pockets out there?

Plus imagine what a plugin would do to the appeal of WordPress? Shoot it through the roof I imagine.

.htaccess and WordPress

Everyone at some time or another has had an issue with .htaccess and their WordPress installation. This typically has implications for the use of Permalinks, but it impacts other things as well.

This post is an attempt to make some things clear for users.

What are permalinks?

Permalinks are the URL’s created for each individual post. Typically, an application like WordPress creates that link this way: http://www.yoursite.com/?p=54 or something to that affect. It is not very pretty nor search engine friendly. Changing the permalink structure can create both pretty and search engine friendly links. For example: http://www.yoursite.com/mycategory/this-is-what-i-think

For more info see Using Permalinks on the WordPress Codex site.

Before employing pretty permalinks there are several questions to ask.

What version of Apache is the web host using? Apache is the web server used by many web host providers to “get” your web site onto the Internet. Typically this could be found in the administrative panel provided by your web host. A lot of providers use cPanel as the administrative tool. On mine, there is an Info Button. The Info page has a Versions and Paths link. Clicking that link displays the various services used by my web host and the version of each service. In my case, Apache’s version is 1.3.33. The navigation to this information may be different then what I described. If you need help, leave a comment or email me.

If Apache is anything less than version 2.0 OR you host does not use Apache, then you only have one choice for permalinks.: /index.php/ needs to be included as part of the permalink structure.

Example:
www.yoursite.com/index.php/this-is-what-i-think.

See the Options/Permalinks menu within WordPress for more info on setting this up. Though this method is considered a “hack”, it avoids having to deal with the .htaccess file.

If Apache is 2.0 or above, then you must determine whether the host has an Apache module called mod_rewrite installed on your server.

How do I find out if mod_rewrite is on my server?

Sometimes the administrative panel will have a button to access PHP info. If not, temporarily create a page named “test.php”. Add one line to this file:

php_info();

Upload the file to your website. Access the file through your browser: http://www.yoursite.com/test.php

The screen should display a white background with purple headings detailing the PHP installation. Look for the category labeled Apache. Under this category there should be a row labeled “Loaded Modules”. In the cell next to this label look to see if the mod_rewrite is listed. If it is, then it is installed.

If you have Apache 2.0 or higher and mod_rewrite is installed then you can use the method described below for the permalink structure, else you will have to use the solution above that uses /index.php/.

This method updated the .htaccess file. Starting with WordPress 1.5, WordPress automaticaly updates this file.

I have included two helpful posts from the WordPress support site that simplify the steps:

————————————————————————————————-
From viitoria:

Here’s what I did when I got just about every single problem posted on this page.

1) Make a .htaccess file, but leave it blank.
2) Upload it into the directory your WP index.php page is.
3) Change chmod of the .htaccess to 777
4) Update permalinks
5) Change chmod of .htaccess back to 644 (for your own protection)

It should work now. Hope this helps.
————————————————————————————————-

————————————————————————————————-
From Tim

I’ve struggled with this for a couple of days and finally got it to work using exactly the same steps as the poster above but with the addition of one step:

4b) edit the .htaccess file generated by wordpress and add the line Options +Followsymlinks so that the first three lines of this file now read:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Options +Followsymlinks
RewriteEngine On

(There’s no point adding this line before WP updates the .htaccess file: you addition will just be overwritten.)

This is assuming of course that Apache is configured to allow .htaccess files. You need AllowOverride to be set to All in your /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and .htaccess to be defined as the name of the file that can override the default settings. The section should look something like this:

<Directory />
Options None
AllowOverride All
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Directory>

# use .htaccess files for overriding,
AccessFileName .htaccess

Hope this helps someone

Tim
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I should add that further instructions for implementing step 4 can be found at the Options/Permalinks menu within WordPress. There are many suggestions and opinions about the exact structure for permalinks. At the very least, include the post name. Another recommendation can be found here.

Feedburner Review Part 2

The main concern with using a service like Feedburner is the control over feeds. If Feedburner is allowed to republish a feed and then after some time they go out of business, what happens then? Many people who used that feed would be left with a dead feed. For the feed owner that would mean loss of audience, which could also mean loss of revenue.

One solution around this is redirection. Essentially, the feed owner would advertise their non-Feedburner feed. However, this feed would be redirected to the Feedburner feed. The goal is to maintain the use of the original feed, but gaining the stats that Feedburner supplies.

For WordPress users, redirection has several complications. First, if WordPress is not using .htaccess to create permalinks, then redirection will not work. WordPress needs to be using the .htaccess file in order for redirection to work. For example, if the chosen method of doing permalinks is to include “index.php” within the URL of the permalink, then WordPress totally ignores anything within the .htaccess file (or at least seems to).

There are complications as well if using the .htaccess file for permalinks. Redirection can be accomplish via a WordPress plugin or by maually manipulating the .htaccess file.

The plugin is pretty handy. However, the main problem I have with it is that it can create a very large set of rewrite rules within your .htaccess file. This is especially true if you use the Page options within WordPress. The more Pages you have, the more rules the plugin writes, the larger the .htaccess file gets, the harder the .htaccess is to maintain, and the higher the possibility something will go accidentily awry. I am not a .htaccess expert. One needs to be well versed in regular expressions and I would rather poke my eye out with a fork then learn the ins and outs of Regex. Especially for the beginner, the simpler the .htaccess file, the better. If the .htaccess gets trashed, and the site is completely down, how is the beginner going to get it back up? Not without a lot of frustration. I know that WordPress now writes the .htaccess file automatically and that makes it easier to use. It still make me nervous though.

I have read several posts by users that have manually written rewrite rules to their .htaccess that redirects their feed. I have noticed two problems with this. Sometimes it does not work: I access their feed and I do not get redirected to the Feedburner feed. Second, WordPress (if WordPress is accessing the .htaccess file) will often rewrite their manual instructions (which is most likely the cause of #1).

What approach should the beginner take to Feedburner? Wait. There are a million things more important to work on then worry about Feed stats. As much as I think that the services Feedburner offers are cool, I think it is prudent for the beginner to wait. Wait for what? Wait until someone develops a utility that can be installed on your own server (much like CARP is for RSS aggregation) that can track feed statistics.

Surely someone out there is working on this. I would think some of the web stat companies like StatCounter or Opentracker would be working on this, as well as members of the open source community. For WordPress users, wouldn’t it be cool if this was built into WordPress or a stats plugin developed?

Something to think about.

Coming soon: .htaccess and WordPress

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out an .htaccess issue that really wasnt a problem but that I made a problem because I had forgot how I created permalinks. ANYWAY, because of that experience I am writing up a post that will help WordPress users with .htaccess issues. It won’t be entirely comprehensive, there are too many complexities that could occur to cover them all. It will be in the usual RWT style, a one stop shop to get the majority of the general questions answered. Stay tuned.