In this article, my goal is to help you optimize WordPress by replacing a few common plugins with their correspondingly effective code equivalents. As we all know, WordPress can be a very resource-hungry piece of software, especially when running a million extraneous plugins. Often, many common plugins are designed to perform relatively simple tasks, such as redirect a feed, display a random image, or return a database value. For those of us comfortable with editing PHP and htaccess code, there is no need to bloat WordPress with additional plugins for the sake of a few routine tasks. For each of the “pure code” alternatives presented below, we are able to drop an unnecessary plugin without editing the WordPress core. In fact, all of the plugin replacements presented here affect only theme files, thereby keeping WordPress updates nice and easy. Well, okay, one or two methods require editing your root htaccess file, but we are all okay with that, right?
In this brief tutorial, I will show Apache users how to suppress PHP errors from visitors and enable PHP error logging via htaccess.
Tracking your site’s PHP errors is an excellent way to manage and troubleshoot unexpected issues related to plugins and themes. Even better, monitoring PHP errors behind the scenes via private log is far better than trying to catch them as they appear at random visits. Thanks to the magical powers of htaccess, there is an easy way to implement this effective strategy.
Hide PHP errors from visitors
In our article, , we discuss a technique whereby PHP errors are suppressed via htaccess. This is done by including the following htaccess directives to your domain’s httpd.conf or to your site’s root (or other target directory) htaccess file:
..And we’re back. After an insane week spent shopping for a new host, dealing with some Bad Behavior, and transferring Perishable Press to its new home on a virtual private server (VPS), everything is slowly falling back into place. Along the way, there have been some interesting challenges and many lessons learned. Here are a few of the highlights..
The tide may be turning for A Small Orange
I am certainly not alone when I say that shopping for a new hosting provider and transferring websites is one of my least favorite aspects of web development. In my experience, switching hosts requires waay too much time and rarely unfolds without significant problems. Nonetheless, when service and/or support turns sour, upgrading to a better host is well worth the effort. In my case, A Small Orange just wasn’t working out.
Everything was going fine for the first several months — excellent service, fantastic support, and consistent, reliable server uptime. However, during the last several months, server uptime frequently dipped below the 98% level, an unacceptable amount of downtime, especially since it generally happened during critical times: peak hours or while I was trying to work on the site. When I finally submitted a support ticket addressing the “unacceptable levels of downtime,” ASO support staff put my mind at ease by moving my site to a “a more stable server.”
A great to way to share your PHP code with visitors is to display it directly in the browser with automatically generated syntax highlighting. Here is a screenshot showing an example of syntax-highlighted PHP code:
Displaying your PHP scripts in syntax-highlighted form is an excellent way to share source code details directly with your readers. Rather than zipping the script and requiring users to download, unzip, and open the file in an editor, displaying your code directly saves you and your visitors time, effort, and hassle. Plus, in my opinion, looking at syntax-highlighted PHP code is a beautiful sight, day or night ;)
In this article, we will explore 5 different ways to display the syntax-highlighted source of your PHP scripts. Three of the methods are designed to highlight entire files, and the other two are aimed directly at highlighting individual strings of PHP code. All of these methods employ PHP’s built-in syntax highlighter.
In this article, I present several heavily commented examples of WordPress loops. I have found that many readers appreciate these types of loop examples, as it helps them to understand how the loop works while enabling them to easily copy, paste, and adapt the code for their own purposes. In our first example, we examine a basic WordPress loop. When implemented, this loop will display “x” number of posts, where “x” represents the number specified via the WordPress Admin reading options panel. To use this code, simply copy & paste into your WordPress theme’s index.php file 1 and customize accordingly.
After switching Perishable Press to its current home at A Small Orange, I began noticing an unusual problem with referrer data displayed in Mint. Specifically, the first item recorded in the XXX Strong Mint data panel — for both “Most Recent” and “Repeat” views — displayed several thousand hits for various site resources, all from the following IP address:
127.255.255.255
zxw59eit.emirates.net.ae
Apparently, this particular location represents an invalid “loopback address.” The requested resources appear valid, indicating typical traffic patterns, but the loopback address is not the actual referrer. This issue was preventing Mint from accurately recording mountains of vital referral data.
Researching this issue reveals that the underlying problem involves the switching of a Mint installation between a 32-bit server and a 64-bit server. Installing Mint on either type of server without switching to the other should not trigger this problem. It is the switch from one to another that results in the generation of the loopback address.
Several days ago, I posted an article explaining how to hack your own WordPress nofollow blacklist. Immediately thereafter, I published an elaborate article focusing on automatic methods of nofollow blacklisting via WordPress plugins. In this article, I expand on the original blacklist hack by incorporating functional differentiation between commentator links, trackbacks, and pingbacks. If anything, think of this as an exercise in hacking WordPress, rewarding in and of itself, if not otherwise entirely impractical. Of course, whenever possible, you should avoid hacking the WordPress core and install a plugin instead. ;) Nonetheless, it’s so much fun to hack that we simply could not resist posting just one more article involving nofollow attributes. But alas, we really should be moving along..
Before repenting of my filthy “nofollow” addiction, I experimented briefly with a “dofollow whitelist” for commentator URL links. The idea behind the whitelist is to reward frequent commentators, feed subscribers, site patrons, and other guests by selectively removing the automatically generated nofollow attributes from their associated comment-author links. For nofollow enthusiasts, a dofollow whitelist is a great way to show appreciation for people who support your blogging efforts.
Now, before we go hacking away at WordPress, keep in mind that there are a few potential shortcomings to this method. First of all, manually maintaining such a list would eventually fail. It simply would require too much work. Perhaps as an automated WordPress plugin, a dofollow whitelist would be a reasonable solution. A dofollow whitelist plugin would also eliminate the need to hack the WordPress core, which the following hack definitely requires. Other issues involve duplicate author names and user verification. Nonetheless, even as an elementary WordPress hack, a dofollow whitelist for comment signature links may prove useful. Here are a few examples:
Why would you want to create a nofollow blacklist? There are several scenarios in which such a strategy would benefit a dofollow-friendly WordPress site. After upgrading to dofollow status, you should experience an increase in the number of comments left at your site. Although this is generally beneficial, there remain those gutless worms who would seek to game your generous link-love with hollow remarks, empty chatter, and other useless nonsense. Rather than waste pagerank and make a big stink, quietly blacklist offenders until they change their mindless ways. Simply put, a nofollow blacklist protects your dofollow site while reinforcing positive comments.
Encourage Comments by Completely Eliminating All Nofollow Links
Want to remove all traces of the hideous nofollow attribute without having to install yet another unnecessary plugin? By default, WordPress generates nofollow links in three different ways — this article will show you how to eliminate all of them..
Some context please..
Note: if you are already familiar with the various functions involved in the nofollow-removal process, please feel free to skip the proceeding discussion andjump directly to the tutorial.
WordPress adds nofollow to all trackbacks, pingbacks, and commentator links
We have seen how simple it is to eradicate nofollow from comment-related content, which includes the three different types of $author URLs: trackbacks, pingbacks, and commentator links. In fact, WordPress generates hyperlinks for each of these comment-author URLs via the function get_comment_author_link(), which is conveniently located in the file wp-includes/comment-functions.php in WordPress 2.0 and wp-includes/comment-template.php in WordPress 2.1 and 2.2:
After our previous article, we all know how easy it is to kill the default nofollow attributes that WordPress automatically injects into all commentator, trackback, and pingback links. Indeed, our original one-minute upgrade delivers dofollow links across the board, effectively passing the love juice to every type of response. Fine for some, but some need more..
In this article, we improve the original dofollow upgrade by differentiating between the three different response types. With our “deluxe” model, nofollow attributes may be removed selectively from trackbacks, pingbacks, commentator links, or any combination thereof. For example, you may remove nofollow from commentator links while dishing full juice to trackbacks and pingbacks.
Want to upgrade your blog to official dofollow status but don’t want to install another unnecessary plugin? This article explains how to eliminate nofollow tags from all trackback, pingback, and commentator links in less than one minute..
After finally repenting of my nofollow sins, I began looking for the best way to eliminate the nofollow attributes that WordPress automatically injects into all commentator URL links.
Of course, the most popular technique for removing nofollow attributes from comment links involves one of the many fine dofollow plugins that are freely available to WordPress users. Beyond nofollow removal, many of these plugins also provide additional features, such as control over when and where nofollow tags should be removed. Many of these plugins are highly recommended.
After considering the various dofollow plugins, I came to the conclusion that most of them were simply overkill. My goal was to remove all nofollow attributes from commentator links — nothing more, nothing less. For this site, I just don’t need all the fancy bells and whistles. And I certainly don’t need yet another resource-draining plugin to worry about..
Recently, while deliberating an optimal method for eliminating nofollow link attributes from Perishable Press, I collected, installed, tested and reviewed every WordPress no-nofollow/dofollow plugin that I could find. As of the writing of this post, I have evaluated 12 15 dofollow plugins, all of which are freely available on the Internet.
In this article, I present a concise, current, and comprehensive reference for WordPress no-nofollow and dofollow plugins. Every attempt has been made to provide accurate, useful, and complete information for each of the plugins represented below. Further, as this subject is a newfound interest of mine, it is my intention to keep this post updated with fresh information, so please bookmark it for future reference. Finally, please help expand/enhance this list by dropping any relevant information via comment area below. Thanks & enjoy!
Recently, I discussed the suspicious behavior recently observed by the Yahoo! Slurp crawler. As revealed by the site’s closely watched 404-error logs, Yahoo! had been requesting a series of nonexistent resources. Although a majority of the 404 errors were exclusive to the Slurp crawler, there were several instances of requests that were also coming from Google, Live, and even Ask. Initially, these distinct errors were misdiagnosed as existing URLs appended with various JavaScript functions. Here are a few typical examples of these frequently observed log entries:
Fortunately, an insightful reader named Bas pointed out that the errors were actually PHP functions. Bas explains:
The two functions (array_rand and opendir) you define as javascript functions are PHP functions. Some servers generate clickable links to the php manual (which uses function.NAMEOFFUNCTION in their URL’s) in php scripting error messages. Maybe that’s also the cause of these problems.
Most of the time, when I catch scumbags attempting to spam, scrape, leech, or otherwise hack my site, I stitch up a new voodoo doll and let the cursing begin. No, seriously, I just blacklist the idiots. I don’t need their traffic, and so I don’t even blink while slamming the doors in their faces.
Of course, this policy presents a bit of a dilemma when the culprit is one of the four major search engines. Slamming the door on Yahoo! would be unwise, but if their Slurp crawler continues behaving suspiciously, I may have no choice. Check out the following records, pulled directly from one of my error logs, where Yahoo! exhibits some extremely questionable behavior.
Readers occasionally ask for help with their WordPress loops. Usually, these requests involve modifying the loop with some customized functionality. Frequently, such customization involves one of these popular behaviors:
Exclude a specific category
Exclude multiple categories
Display only one post or excerpt
Display some fixed number of posts
Play nice with additional loops on the same page
In this article, I present the swiss-army knife of WordPress loops. This highly versatile, “super” loop is standard WordPress code, easily implemented, and fully equipped to handle all of the custom behaviors mentioned above. Further, the PHP employed is self-contained, making it ultra-easy to pimp it up tough with your own (X)HTML markup. This tight little loop is perfect for “latest-post” excerpts, “aside” posts, news/headlines, site updates, urgent messages, and so much more. And since it plays well with multiple loops, the configurational possibilities are simply endless. Ready? Let’s get on with it..
In our article Stupid htaccess Tricks, we present the htaccess code required for redirecting visitors temporarily during periods of site maintenance. Although the article provides everything needed to implement the temporary redirect, I think readers would benefit from a more thorough examination of the process — nothing too serious, just enough to get it right. After discussing temporary redirects via htaccess, I’ll also explain how to accomplish the same thing using only PHP.
Recently, I needed to find and replace all instances of “http://website” in the wp_comments table of the WordPress database. Fortunately, SQL provides a simple way to find and replace data with its wonderful UPDATE function.
General Example
Using the SQL UPDATE command is straightforward. Here is the general syntax:
Simply replace the table_name and both instances of field_name with your specific information, and then edit string_to_find, and string_to_replace with the desired values. This is pretty standard stuff, but it is always a good idea to backup your database before executing commands. To run a “Find and Replace” via phpMyAdmin, simply login, select your database, and enter the command via the SQL tab. Copy, paste, and go!
Recently, after researching comment links for an upcoming article, I realized that my default <input> values were being submitted as the URL for all comments left without associated website information. During the most recent site redesign, I made the mistake of doing this in comments.php:
Notice the value="[website]" attribute? It seemed like a good idea at the time — I even threw in a nice onfocus auto-highlighting snippet for good measure. I ran the form with this in place for around eight weeks before finally noticing multiple comments using this for their site URL:
For over a year now, I have been using Markus Kämmerer’s (Happy Arts Blog) WP-ShortStat plugin for WordPress. The plugin is relatively well-maintained and remains one of my favorite admin tools. Great for popping in on stats without logging into Mint. Nonetheless, due to its IP/country-detection functionality, WP-ShortStat has experienced its share of difficulties (e.g., read through the change log on the plugin’s home page). In this article, I describe how WP-Shortstat slows down the root index-page of a site, and then suggest a (temporary) fix for the issue.
Figuratively speaking, hunting down and killing spammers, scrapers, and other online scum remains one of our favorite pursuits. Once we have determined that a particular IP address is worthy of banishment, we generally invoke the magical powers of htaccess to lock the gates. When htaccess is not available, we may summon the versatile functionality of PHP to get the job done.
This method is relatively straightforward. Simply edit, copy and paste the following code example into the top of any PHP for which you wish to block access:
On Unix systems, a symbolic link refers to a file that points to another file or directory. Symbolic links serve as powerful tools for web designers and developers. Using shell access, creating a symbolic link requires only one line of code:
Simple enough. Assuming you have access to the linux shell. Unfortunately, many shared hosting environments deny shell access. Fortunately, creating symbolic links — also called “symlinks” — remains a possibility via the PHP symlink() function. Check it out..
In this article, we extrapolate our favorite CSS-compression technique for JavaScript. Below, we outline the steps required to auto-compress your JavaScript documents via gzip and PHP. Two different compression methods are presented. The first method does not require htaccess, but rather involves the manual editing of JavaScript files. The second method employs htaccess to do all the work for you, thus requiring much less effort to implement. In either case, the result is the same: automatically compressed content delivered only to supportive browsers, resulting in reduced bandwidth, faster loading times, and smiling visitors :)
PHP compression is an excellent method of conserving bandwidth and reducing client download times. We have already discussed an excellent method for CSS compression, and in this article we share a super-easy technique for compressing all PHP content without editing a single file.
Using two PHP files and two corresponding lines of .htaccess, it is possible to compress your PHP files via gzip-encoding. Browsers and other user-agents capable of interpreting gz-encoded data will employ the compressed content, while other user-agents will utilize the content uncompressed.
Use this simple code as a button that will return users to the previous page:
<form>
<input type="button" value="Return to previous page" onClick="javascript:history.go(-1)" />
</form>
Here it is as a simple text link:
<p>
<a href="javascript:history.go(-1)" title="Return to the previous page">« Go back</a>
</p>
You can make things easier by serving PHP and printing the link automatically. Here is the button link:
echo "<form><input type=\"button\" value=\"Return to previous page\" onClick=\"javascript:history.go(-1)\"></form>";
And here is the PHP code to print a "Go back" text link:
echo "<p><a href=\"javascript:history.go(-1)\" title=\"Return to previous page\">« Go back</a></p>";
Better yet, you can kick the accessibility factor up a notch by using PHP’s inherent HTTP_REFERER variable to write explicitly the previous URL, thereby eliminating the JavaScript requirement (thanks to Rick Beckman for the idea):
<?php $referer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
if (!$referer == '') {
echo '<p><a href="' . $referer . '" title="Return to the previous page">« Go back</a></p>';
} else {
echo '<p><a href="javascript:history.go(-1)" title="Return to the previous page">« Go back</a></p>';
}
?>
The previous code will create an explicit "Go back" link when the referring URL is known. In those awkward situations where no referring URL has been recognized, the function writes a "Go back" link via JavaScript.
![[ Photo: Macro shot of a Yttrium claw ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/yttrium-plugin.jpg "Unplug Unnecessary Plugins")
In this article, my goal is to help you optimize WordPress by replacing a few common plugins with their correspondingly effective code equivalents. As we all know, WordPress can be a very resource-hungry piece of software, especially when running a million extraneous plugins. Often, many common plugins are designed to perform relatively simple tasks, such as redirect a feed, display a random image, or return a database value. For those of us comfortable with editing PHP and htaccess code, there is no need to bloat WordPress with additional plugins for the sake of a few routine tasks. For each of the “pure code” alternatives presented below, we are able to drop an unnecessary plugin without editing the WordPress core. In fact, all of the plugin replacements presented here affect only theme files, thereby keeping WordPress updates nice and easy. Well, okay, one or two methods require editing your root htaccess file, but we are all okay with that, right?![[ Screenshot: PHP code snippet in syntax-highlighted form ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/syntax-highlight.gif "The colors applied to the various code elements are automatically generated via the PHP engine")
![[ Image: Death-metal rocker drunk with power ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/ultimate-nofollow-blacklist.gif "Behold the power of ultimate blacklist!")
Several days ago, I posted an article explaining how to ![[ Image: Inverted Eye Detail ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/dofollow-whitelist.jpg)
Before ![[ Image: Extreme close-up of an eye (send email to purchase a full-size version) ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/nofollow-blacklist.jpg)
Previously, in our unofficial “WordPress dofollow upgrade” series, we dished several techniques for removing the ![[ Image: Black and white illustration of the upper half of a man's suspicious, paranoid face ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/yahoo-suspicious.gif)
Most of the time, when I catch scumbags attempting to spam, scrape, leech, or otherwise hack my site, I stitch up a new voodoo doll and let the cursing begin. No, seriously, I just ![[ Image: Detail view of a series of mechanical gears (black and white photo) ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/super-loop.gif)
Readers occasionally ask for help with their WordPress loops. Usually, these requests involve modifying the loop with some customized functionality. Frequently, such customization involves one of these popular behaviors:![[ Image: Abstract Mathematical Diagram ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/redirect-diagram.gif)
In our article ![[ Image: Skeletor Blocks a Move ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/block-senders.gif "'Sorry, but access is NOT allowed - ha ha ha ha ha!'")
Figuratively speaking, hunting down and killing spammers, scrapers, and other online scum remains one of our favorite pursuits. Once we have determined that a particular IP address is worthy of banishment, we generally invoke the magical powers of ![[ Image: Chain Linkage ]](http://perishablepress.com/press/wp-content/images/2007/misc-chunks/symbolic-linkage.gif)
On Unix systems, a symbolic link refers to a file that points to another file or directory. Symbolic links serve as powerful tools for web designers and developers. Using shell access, creating a symbolic link requires only one line of code: