lhk

found it.

Is there truly no other way but hardcoding this?

No one?

Hi again,

….The Code Standards Gestapo make it very difficult to work with tables and validate your site……

If I get this simple tabular layout working as it should I probably will offer it for download to those wishing to lick this kind of problem without bending CSS backwards.

I too was astonished at how few tabled layouts are available and as I explained, I believe there are quite a few instances when they are the best and most elegant choice.

Hi,

there are a variety of galleries (look up the plugins in the codex).

Personally I think one of the easiest to use is ImageManager: https://soderlind.no/ImageManager

Not exactly what you want, but very easy creation of thumbnail galleries on the fly.

Hi,

what version are you using?

Also I’d have a long talk with mine host, if I was in that situation. It commonly doesn’t help, if you barricade the front door, while your host leaves the backdoor wide open.

There needs to be a serverwide check, if he even knows your cpanel PW he hasn’t just hacked WordPress, he hacked your account and possibly that server. Not even necessarily through WP itself.

Simply deleting your WP files prolly won’t help at all, he will have changed off-public-html files in your root/the server, maybe even left a little tidbit in MySQL.

Hi,

MySQL below 4.1 has trouble with UTF8. Ask your new host to update his MySQL. We’re currently even way past 4.1!

Hi,

check the security measures your host has enabled. E.g. has he employed suexec, has he changed necessary file permissions, etc.?

When the host of my reseller account changed to higher security including strict suexec and file permission settings, I had to re-work nearly all of my php-script installations. File permissions had to be changed galore (e.g. 777 wouldn’t work, nor 700 or 600 on others). If it was just one single script part touched by that, things would go truly awry.

I’d also check any changes to MySQL and PHP versions. Many hosts tell you “nothing has changed” and you later discover that in fact small or security updates to software was done. Currently all major server software is very frequently updated, e.g. I saw 4 PHP updates, 2 MySQL updates and even more frequent Apache/Linux updates over the last 6-12 months. It’s highly likely that when your host says “nothing changed” he only meant the basic config, not the rest.

Hi again,

@mylagoon:

….However, you havent said that it has made it worse for you…..

Hmm, but I did. If I need 2 or 3 steps to change something, in different interfaces,things become more time consuming and cluttered (as opposed to easier and faster).

….With the advent of widgets, if you need to create something new, you do it the same way as before, so it really isn’t harder for you to achieve…..

Before, without widgets, if I wanted to change/add to the sidebar, I went into the theme customization dialogue, chose the sidebar editing and edited.

With widgets, if I want to change/add something, I first need to create the relevant widget (or customize one already in the php file) and save this in the widgets php file. Then I need to go into the sidebar dialogue and manually add (and probably also further customize) the sidebar element.

Actually this is quite a few more steps than simply changing/adding to the sidebar, thus takes more time and thought.

….So if you are the vast majority of bloggers who use WP, don’t know PHP (as most don’t), want to be able to change your theme, keep your sidebar, and change it, all without looking at code, I’d say you’d be pretty happy with the whole widgets idea…..

Only if you use widgets as they come out from the box.

Let me tell you something from the vantage point of a webmaster who in the last 4 years has created over 200 sites for non-geeks, even practical computer illiterates, often speaking no English to boot: widgets are more complicated for them, not easier. I just might (and that’s a huge MAYBE) teach those to d&d a widget into the sidebar, if that person is extremely interested in learning how to do that. But I’d have one hell of a time teaching this person to write (or even just to c/p) the convoluted code inside the huge php file which is the widgets base php.

I however successfully taught quite a few of them to edit the sidebar. It’s a short file, has a clearcut architecture with a syntax you can easily jot down and explain to people if you give them a multicolored version.

The widgets file is nothing like that. Hell, it took me quite a long while to figure out what is what in there and where it is. It’s LARGE and LONG and it has REPEATING code (if you scan it from a layperson’s POV) which actually isn’t repeating, it just looks as if.

Thus, anything but out of the box is in my book now at least ten times as difficult for someone “not into programming”.

I dunno whether you know e.g. Joomla/Mambo, which has a similar system, which got completely out of the hand when the coders of Joomla/Mambo’s “boxes” realized they needed to offer *every* possibility of customization to them. You can do that now, sure, but customizing a box content and it’s display now is almost a science of its own and it’s a major affair. The only small point which still is easy, is shoving it around the template, but even then, if you haven’t added the placeholder and activated it for that part of the template the boxes won’t show. The whole thing now is far past a layman’s abilities and it’s neither simple, nor elegant, nor easy.

As you yourself point out, it’s no major obstacle to people like you and me. But one reason I chose WP for many client sites is it’s simplicity and the fact that I can easily explain it to them. If someone is of so little coding/computering knowledge that he wouldn’t be able to customize anything anyway, it’s me the webmaster who sets up (and I don’t need something like widgets), if someone has “some” knowledge and wants to apply it, I tend to favor the simpler system, instead of making him delve into a huge practically unstructured php file.

And if widgets are written so encompassingly that all possible configs are added, the files will become enormously large (just think of all that unnecessary code bloat this will mean), the customizing procedure will become a hurdle course to adjust what you even didn’t think about until you have it as you want it.

That’s what I meant with “technical” vs. “economic”. ??

And no, I’m not “trashing” widgets simply because I feel like that.

I like WP however A LOT for it’s simplicity and easiness (I use all major OSS and commercial blog softwares in my work, but way above all the rest prefer WP for small sites) and believe that founded criticism of something bound to complicate and bloat the system should be presented when it rises. Especially as WP has lately acquired a performance problem, when compared to former versions, which begins to set it back compared to other blog systems. I see widgets as a possibility for more of the same.

Needs to be voiced, que no?

Hi Otto,

…..The idea, in the long run, is to make sidebars independant of the theme files……

That might indeed be an advantage to some. Myself I never had a problem simply c/p-ing code into a new theme’s sidebar either.

………BTW, if you don’t feel like digging into the PHP and just using your own PHP code instead, then might I recommend the ExecPHP widget?……

That’s running in circles in my book. If I replace PHP in the sidebar in the first place, I needn’t hop thru loops to do the same with 3 more steps instead of simply changing it.

……Well, you could have edited the widget to have a new customization option instead, and then released that widget to everybody, thus preventing duplication of work………

I usually find myself seeking quite uncommon and mostly not much sought after customizations. That’s why I have trouble wrapping my brain around this whole thing in the first place. I usually go for “less” and “economical” not for “more” and “technical”, which isn’t really popular these days. ??

I – also using quite a few non-blog CMS in my work – can see where this widgets idea comes from. I just fail to see why it would benefit WP which already has a nice, easy and elegant way of dealing with this whole area. Actually I often – when working with blocks-oriented CMS – find myself wishing things were as easy and in a positive way plain as a WP sidebar.

When I read the discussion with Ladydelaluna I decided to try widgets to see what it brings to me, to judge for myself and couldn’t – as I wrote – even begin to understand the hype going on about them. I also happen to not understand where her problem with plugins derives from. As far as I see it, only a minimal number of plugins can be exclusive to the sidebar, most will be used independent from it.

I guess – as per now – I simply fail to see anything exciting in something which does nothing but add editing steps so far and apart from being another method to do something is not really new new ;-).

Hi,

the faulty charsets probably got inserted into the database. You may have to correct those one by one.

In general it is advisable to NOT change from UTF-8 to other charsets. It perfectly displays all charsets (except Big Chinese), so there’s no need to change it anyway except for a Chinese blog.

Hi,

I also installed this plugin and would like to strike the comment count.

What would be the correct conditional change to the tag?

<?php srg_clean_archives(); ?>

… I say if somebody is still using a 15″ monitor screw them. ?? …

You got a nice butt? ?? I LIKE nice butts… ;-D

I use a (brandnew Syncmaster) 15″ at home, anything larger would exceed the workspace. But that doesn’t mean I don’t use 768×1024.

Hi,

well, if I have to edit a widget in the widgets php file, and can only change the title in the sidebar arrangement page, I see no difference, except adding a step to the editing process.

And if my wish for specific customizations isn’t identical with the one of the widget/theme author or changes over time, I have to dig into php anyway, que no? Same as with the sidebar now.

I still fail to see any difference, as I don’t see this fact changing, even with more development.

Hi,

yes this seems to work.

However…

Can someone please explain to me what then is the advantage of using widgets as opposed to simply applying the code to the sidebar?

With each I have to dig into a php source file, and whether I drag and drop a block or whether I c/p a block is the same amount of work. Whether I change a title in a popup window or in php code – again same amount of work. Whether I change code in a plugin php file or a theme php file – same amount of work.

There has to be something I’m overlooking, else I don’t see any advantage, in fact the sidebar changes are more centralized (I don’t have to do stuff in different files).