Last week I wrote about using WordPress for Project Management and it got mixed responses. However, I know how I want to set things up and WordPress is perfect for what I've got in mind.

Maybe I need to elaborate on a couple of things. At most we have maybe 3 or 4 people on a project, or sometimes it's just the two of us, so standard project management software is too excessive for our needs. All I need to do is create a post, write a to do list, add the initials after each item for the person who's dealing with it, and that's it. Then we can just make comments on the post with questions and/or updates about the work. The comments are timestamped which obviously helps, and I'll get an email for every comment. You can also subscribe to the comment feed for each post, so all everyone else will need is a lightweight feedreader and they can just add the comment feed for current work posts to keep up with the discussion.

It's simple, but that's all we need. Somewhere for me to list the work needing to be done that we can all access, and somewhere to share the discussion, where the discussion is logged for future reference.

Today I decided to try out a plugin called Allow Categories which allows you to restrict any non Admin to only see posts from specific categories. This isn't to try and hide our work from the freelancers that we employ, but more to simply reduce what they need to wade through really. The restriction/hiding of posts works fine, however all categories were still being displayed in the category list in the sidebar, so after various attempts I've managed to use a function to override the wp_list_categories() output, and remove the specific categories that shouldn't be displayed.

I've added my first actual project post for a new site that needs to be sorted out over the next couple of weeks. It took me all of a couple of minutes to type up what needed doing plus leave a comment with an update of what we were still waiting for from the client and what could be started.

Besides adding the other projects that are currently on, I just need to work out how I want the front page to work and look. So far so good

I'm currently trying to see if I can set up WordPress to work as a project management tool. Why not, it can do a lot of other things! In the past I've tried out dotproject, which is obviously a dedicated project management system, however it was far too complex and tedious to use I found.

So how am I using WordPress? Well this is the plan, once it's set up I'll let you know if it works! At present I've decided to create a category for each web site we maintain currently, then work on each site will go up as a post. The idea is then as we (2+ people working on each site) work through things we can leave comments, questions, requests for opinions etc. on the posts. As work is done the post can be closed and a new one started, and if there are different sections to the work ie. for a whole new site, then multiple posts can be made.

Then on the front page the latest posts for each site can be displayed, or I can easily just control which sites to display on the front page so that sites that are not being worked on can be kept out of the lime light. I've not worked out the front page yet as you can tell!

I personally find it much easier to just type out a to do list and then update that with the del and ins tags as and when things are done rather than creating a record for every single task.

So WordPress is installed and now is just the task of adding all the work to it. I'll let you know how it pans out Any suggestions on how to structure the front page are welcome!

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

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

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!

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