Archive for the “WordPress” Category

I am a big fan of WordPress. It is what this blog uses, and many of my friends and associates use it as well for their blogging needs. I stick with WordPress because it’s powerful, but easy to setup and use. Having the ability to expand it by use plugins makes it even more appealing. I wanted to list my top 5 favorite WordPress plugins for anyone out there using, or thinking about using WordPress for their blog.

1. cforms II. If you have a blog you would most likely want people to contact you, but putting your e-mail address out there might not be your first choice. Cforms II makes adding a contact form as simple as inputting your information into a few fields. There are too many features to list, but I don’t think you will be disappointed. 
2. Twitter Tools. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to sit here and explain what Twitter is to everyone. Twitter tools brings an integration between WordPress and Twitter. I have it setup to post to Twitter whenever I make a new blog post, but there are several configuration options to check out. 
3. WP-DBManager. Doing database maintenance is something nobody really looks forward to, and many people wouldn’t even know where to start. However, making backups of your WordPress database is very important, and WP-DBManager takes all the work out of it. Although there are a huge amount of options, doing routine maintenance like backups is just a few clicks away, and it will even e-mail you backup if you choose. 
4. WPhone. This plugin adds a custom interface designed especially for access from the iPhone/iPod Touch, and a “lightweight” version for other mobile phones. Obviously you are limited compared to the full admin interface, but if you are mobile then this is an essential plugin. 
5. Subscribe to comments. This plugin lets your readers subscribe to blog comments, so they can be notified via e-mail of new replies. It’s a simple plugin but very useful for blogs who get a lot of comments.

The much anticipated WordPress 2.5 was released earlier today.  This is a pretty significant update and a ton of new features were added, one of the most notable being the redesigned Dashboard.

There are just too many features for me to describe, so just check out the WP 2.5 blog post for all the information.

I updated my personal blog in less than 10 minutes without any problems.

Download: WordPress 2.5

WordPress released an "urgent" update today that reportedly fixes a security flaw.  I already took the time and updated my site, which as usual, is very simple to do with WordPress.

If you have registration enabled a flaw was found in the XML-RPC implementation such that a specially crafted request would allow a user to edit posts of other users on that blog.

You can get the download below.

WordPress 2.3.3: http://wordpress.org/download/

I took a bit of time this morning to get my site updated to work with the iPhone and iPod Touch, both for my readers and for myself.  The first tool I found this morning courtesy of CyberNet News was the WPhone plugin for WordPress.  This will allow you to access many of the admin functions found in  your control panel, and will let you write and manage new blog posts.  It will also work with other devices so check the application page for more info.

Next I formatted my blog with an iPhone capable theme that will display when accessed from an iPhone or iPod Touch.  This simple, and easy to install plugin/theme is called iWPhone and is available free here.  So whenever you visit my site through one of these devices you will get an easy to read format which is much easier to read than the standard theme.

WordPress released an update yesterday bringing it to version 2.3.2.  This was primarily a security fix, but they also added the ability to define your own custom DB error page.  I have already updated my site without problems, and since this is a security fix I would suggest everyone who uses WordPress do so as well.

Download WordPress 2.3.2 from here.