Q&A: WordPress & GPL
In this one we cover the GPL and how it benefits WordPress, why WP is under the GPL, commercial themes, how the GPL fosters innovation, creates value, and affects themes and plugins.
I certainly learned some stuff about the GPL. Like 1) You can sell/profit from themes that are GPL and 2) Anything built around an existing GPL product must also be GPL.
The Difference Between is_singular() and is_single()
With WordPress, there are various distinct types of page views. For example, there are category-archive views, tag-archive views, author-archive views, date-archive views, single-post views, single-page views, and so forth. And of course you know that you can target single-post views in your theme template with the conditional tag, is_single():
Feed Count Plugin
One of the easiest ways to display your FeedBurner subscriber count number in plain text is to use the Feed Count plugin by Francesco Mapelli. I have been using this plugin at Perishable Press for a long time, and it has always been great. Unfortunately, Francesco’s site seems to be suffering from malicious behavior these days, with tons of spam comments, weird files that are automatically downloaded to your computer, and even one of those scary warnings from Google: “Reported Attack Site,” or whatever it says.
In any case, the Feed Count plugin is too awesome to let disappear into the ether, so it will be hosted here at Digging into WordPress until Francesco’s site checks into a rehab center and cleans itself up. Hopefully that will be sometime soon. In the meantime, to download a squeaky-clean copy of the Feed Count plugin, simply click on the title of this post.
Fun with the WordPress Logo
Vote on your favorites. I like the brownie bites!
Multiple the_date() Functions Return Empty Date
Inside the loop, if you use the function the_date() to display the date the post was published, you may run into trouble. Specifically, if there are two posts published on the same day, the second one will return nothing for a date.
The Missing Stat: noscript
WordPress plugin for Google Analytics users by Remy Sharp that will start tracking visitors to your site with JavaScript disabled. This is an ever-increasingly important statistic as JavaScript becomes more and more vital to websites. Early adopters of HTML5 know that some JavaScript is needed for Internet Explorer to get the CSS to work properly. Knowing your JavaScript enabled stat may help you decide if you are ready for HTML5.
New Poll: How Many Plugins do You Use?
Time for a new poll! This one is something that many WordPress developers and designers think about: how many plugins is the right number of plugins?
Of course there is no one correct answer, but it will be interesting to see if there is a particular number of plugins that most people are using.
Plugin Wishes Come True
Just a quick update to the post I wrote about plugins I’m too lazy to write. Steve Whiteley put together a plugin for Subtitles that is exactly how I envisioned it. For my wishes about avoiding widows in post titles, Shaun Inman had the solution years ago. (Shaun’s site is down for me right now, but I’m sure won’t be for long).
Rude Things Plugins Can Do
I heart plugin authors. Their work is generally amazing, a huge benefit to the community, the reason why WordPress rules so much, and deserving of much worship. That being said, plugins can do some pretty rude things sometimes…
Custom Write Panels in WordPress
Function has updated their popular approach to creating custom write panels in WordPress. Now more efficient and more expandable. Write panels are basically ways to add custom fields that are a lot more user friendly than the standard custom fields area.
Editor’s note: 404 link removed.
WordPress Debug Theme
Sometimes you need to see what’s wrong with a WordPress install, and you need to see it fast. I’ve had a set of hacks around for a while to do that, but finally started combining it into a WordPress Debug Theme. This theme is quite simple for now, as it only does a few things, but does them quite effectively.
Visualizes for you all kinds of important data about the page you are looking at. All kinds of fun for us WordPress nerds.
404 link removed: https://yoast.com/wordpress-debug-theme/
Poll Results: Goodbye Dolly
Back in July, we asked the WordPress community whether or not the Hello Dolly plugin should be included with WordPress. Several months later, over 1,200 people have voted, and here are the results:
Ideas for WordPress Plugins I’m Too Lazy To Write
… or slightly more accurately, ideas for plugins that I don’t know how to write =)
