Business Upgrades

Wed, 14 January, 2009 – 9:38 pm

It's all go here at the moment. On Tuesday we finally got our own dedicated server for hosting (a managed one of course!) so this weekend we have 40 sites to move, then a further 30 or so to move over the next month. The server is mainly for our clients and our own sites, but to help with the cost we've got a couple of friends on board to buy some reseller space. It's quite exciting to think we have our own server, sounds so professional :D

Next step is to install some good billing system software to deal with all of the hosting, domains and support invoicing, which should save us a fair bit of time. Then we have a lot of other things to sort out for some important news come April (business news, before anyone wonders!). So there's plenty to be doing as far as administration goes, plus working full time!

Workwise I'm currently battling with ODBC to get Sage information online, which really doesn't want to work for us, and also working with an MS SQL database containing thousands of records on cars for a leasing site that I'm working on. This means I've had to adopt a new method of connecting to the database via another ODBC (the mssql extension isn't available on the server), but thankfully the ADOdb Library has proved to be very useful. I'm still having to work through the Documentation to find parts I need, plus I'm mixing it with calls to MySQL as well, which makes for a highly confusing site!

We're currently busy up until at least April, and then potentially until the end of June, which is great news in the current climate. I'm also aiming to hire someone part time to do some work for us, ease my workload a bit hopefully, and let me get back to a bit of normality instead of working all hours just to keep up!

So yes, it's all go here :)

Posted in Business | 3 Comments »

Couple of WordPress 2.7 Annoyances

Fri, 2 January, 2009 – 11:12 pm

As much as I love the new version of WordPress, I've come across an issue which is a bit of a pain (although I've not had the chance to scour the WP forum or Bugs). I mentioned it a week or so ago, whereby the template tag comments_number() and also comments_popup_link() displays the count of comments regardless of their moderation status, i.e. if someone's left a comment but it hasn't been moderated, on the front end you'll still get their comment included in the count (which is obviously confusing if there are no other comments on the post!).

This may also be my own problem which is why I've not seen anyone else mention it. I've got an issue (which I don't have on any other site) on my comments admin page, and the comment counts are wrong on that too. So it's something to look into further when I have the time.

The other gripe I've got is that when you use the automatic upgrade in the admin, it overwrites all the files and also the classic and default theme directories. My first thought when I realised this was that surely there are people out there who use one of these themes and just make a few alterations themselves? My second thought, well more a concern, was that a lot of sites we have to upgrade has their theme in the default directory. You may wonder why, and there is a good reason! If you go to a WP site, the first thing WP has to do is check which theme is in use and then check if it's there by looking for the stylesheet. If the stylesheet can't be found WP automatically reverts back to the default theme and updates the database to make the default theme the selected theme.

It's an understandable method however I've found that if I happen to be updating my stylesheet for this site, for a brief couple of seconds my stylesheet doesn't exist as FTP will delete the file and then upload the new version. At that point, if anyone visits the site, the theme is switched to default. It sounds like a rare thing but I've had it happen a few times on this site, so once I worked this out I started to use the default directory instead.

Okay, so I realise that I could leave sites as they are and just not use the built in upgrade function but with around 20+ sites to upgrade (not all mine!) when a new version is out, the function is very much welcomed, however in my mind, overwriting the theme directories is a flaw. Either, the option should be given to copy the theme directories over or not, or simply just not part of the upgrade.

However, despite my problem and annoyance, those are the only issues that I can really find wrong with the new version. I just now need to update all the sites to not use the default directory!

Posted in WordPress | 11 Comments »

Happy New Year

Thu, 1 January, 2009 – 7:15 pm

Well, it's 2009 around the world now, so happy new year to everyone :)

I can't believe the christmas season is almost over! I feel like I've done nothing productive!! Well, I've had to reformat my computer and reinstall all of my software, so that has taken a little bit of time. About a month ago something happening, which I still don't have a clue what, and on the Sunday evening I shut my computer down as normal, and Monday morning it took about 25 minutes to boot up and log in. Despite my best efforts, and even increasing the RAM by 1GB (that was already planned, regardless of login speed!), nothing changed, so I've done a complete format and fresh install, and everything is running along speedily! I'm about halfway through installing software so I should be ready for work on Monday.

I also twisted my ankle pretty badly last week on Friday (Boxing Day / St Stephen's Day). I've spent most of the week with my ankle strapped up and me not being able to walk too far or do much at all. It's been a painful few days, and even now, although I can walk normally, if I twist my ankle slightly it's still very painful :(

I don't seem to have cleared much off my to do list over the past fortnight! The time off has flown by, which is great as we're both pretty relaxed, something I've not felt in a long time, but of course the anxiousness of pending work that I have to get done next week is weighing on my mind. However, for now I'll just put it out of my head for another day or two!

I've also decided to start creating a post for my posts that I write elsewhere, as they're usually technical or related to WordPress, and whilst I know I've got a page listing them, I'll most likely remove that once I've created a post for each post elsewhere. It's not to boost my post count, but more to ensure that even if I haven't had time to write a post on this site, then the site doesn't look too quiet, plus the posts may be of interest to regular subscribers anyway :)

Anyhow, I hope everyone's celebrated the new year in style and let's hope this year is a good 'un ;)

Posted in Blogging, Personal | 4 Comments »

Merry Christmas :-)

Thu, 25 December, 2008 – 4:58 pm

Just a quick post to say Merry Christmas to my readers and any passers by. Had a good but busy week off, trying to sort various things out whilst down at my parents. We're back home tomorrow then I've got more admin (plugins to fix, letters to write) to sort out before being back at work!

However, for now, the dinner is cooking on the BBQ (just how it should be), and the wine is calling out to me, so have a good Christmas and New Year where ever you are :)

Posted in Personal | 4 Comments »

New WordPress Plugin – Hide Update Reminder

Tue, 16 December, 2008 – 7:21 pm

Since version 2.5 of WordPress, we've had that very useful banner across the top of our admin screens reminding us that a new version of WordPress is available and to upgrade. It's a really great feature, but the ability to not display it to non Administrators has been something I've been wanting since 2.5 came out.

We run quite a few client sites on WordPress, and let's face it, sometimes you don't want to upgrade immediately, perhaps other work needs doing to the site theme before you want to upgrade everything, or you have another reason (client's paying up is usually a major one!). If you're like me then you'd rather your client's didn't see this notice about upgrading. Some can start contacting you asking why it needs upgrading and if the site is safe to use, others request the update there and then.

Why the notice is shown to non Admins I'm not sure. However, after a quick check and a few lines of code, I've now released a plugin to just hide this message from anyone who isn't a level 10 (i.e. Administrators). Once I've got time I'll probably add an options page to allow people to hide it altogether, or to perhaps allow Editors and Admins to see the message, but not Subscribers through to Authors.

You can view the official plugin page or just download it from WordPress.

Posted in WordPress | 8 Comments »

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