Teddypig WordPress Tricks

WordPress 2.3

Good morning WordPress hackers! So. today I thought I would share the tricks and the pretty things you see on the blog here. The ones that make you wonder how exactly that damn pig did that.

First thing, I hate to hack templates, OK? I will do a few things that make sense but for the most part if I need to seriously hack a template I find another that fits my needs better or a go to a professional to get one that fits my needs better. So nothing you see here is really that far from what I either bought or found online. I am all about the instant gratification and if it is not fun to do then I better be getting paid through the nose to do it.

So let’s start off but I hope you first review my article on basic necessity installs for WordPress 2.3.

1. Exec-PHP

This should probably be on my basic necessities list but really you should not install this unless you are going to use it and that goes for any plugin or widget. Nothing will make your WordPress blow up faster than tons of plugins. Anyway, this provides a way to do this type of page. All I am doing is calling up information already in WordPress and in Simple Tags and using this plugin to run PHP on a page to show that information dynamically. So all you do is install this plugin, create a blank page, and toss something like this on it.

<h1>Links</h1><?php wp_list_bookmarks(); ?><?php st_tag_cloud(’cloud_selection=name-desc&cloud_sort=name-desc&number=9999&title=<h1>Subject Index</h1>&largest=15&smallest=15&unit=px&maxcolor=#FF0000&mincolor=#000000′); ?>

Viola! You can take two whole functions off your front page. But be careful! Always do your work like this in notepad and then cut and paste into your blank page editor. The editor hates seeing stuff like this and will erase it every time you edit so do that work outside the WordPress editor and then slap it in and save. It makes a great dynamic page though don’t you think?

2. Ad Rotator

Those pictures of eBooks you see randomly generated on the right side there… That is four Ad Rotator widgets at work. Now this widget/plugin would suck if I was selling anything because it is so rudimentary but you would not believe the hassles I went through trying to find something that not only rotated a damn image but also let you use link attributions so that people could click the pretty pictures and go read about the eBook. This works perfectly for that.

3. WPhone Admin

Now you may have noticed I have a small thing I do when people first comment on the blog I have to authorize that first time. Once that is done you can comment to your heart’s content. So when I am out and about my iPhone is my friend and when I see emails you commented this plugin and my iPhone work to make your authorization painless and quick (Quick, as in relative to what I am doing at the time.) for the both of us. So, if you have the iPhone grab this one.

4. Feed List

Whoops I almost forgot about this one. WordPress may send out RSS feeds but it don’t read them. So if you want to show other sites dynamic lists from their RSS feeds like this… FictionWise Bestseller Page then you need this plugin. Now if Amazon could only be a bit more helpful and provide even better RSS feeds.

5. Themes

I totally recommend The crazy man of WordPress Themes Sadish! If you want a simple but clean looking blog go now and look at his fine premium themes.They are damn cheap too $20.00 bucks. So Clean and so easy to use, so smart, so well thought out and they work so damn well and they are so customizable (Hell, they even have a built in automatic picture cropper for your banner!) that $20.00 bucks is almost a crime. He even has two of his amazing premium WordPress themes for free now. That BlueSky one looks like just the ticket. Free is always good so go get them! The man is crazy! You go Sadish you crazy crazy man you!

That’s it folks! Not a lot of extra junk running around on my WordPress blog really. Just exactly what I have found space and use for so far but I am always checking for more better functionality out there and if you have a favorite post it here and let people know.

Tags: eAuthors, ePublishers, wordpress, wordpress plugins