Sort of Turning Off Comments
Over the course of the past year or so, the quality of comments on posts here at Perishable Press has really deteriorated, to the point that I actually considered doing something that I told myself I would never do: disable comments completely. Continue reading »
Block Tough Proxies
If you want to block tough proxies like hidemyass.com, my previously posted .htaccess methods won’t work. Those methods will block quite a bit of proxy visits to your site, but won’t work on the stealthier proxies. Fortunately, we can use a bit of PHP to keep them out. Continue reading »
Ajax-Powered Error Logs for WordPress
In my previous post, I share my technique for Ajax-Powered Error Logs. That tutorial shows you how to set up dynamic error monitoring on any typical website, but the script requires some tweaking to get it working with WordPress. In this quick post, I explain how to set up Ajax Error Logs specifically for WordPress sites. Continue reading »
Ajax-Powered Error Logs
As an obsessive website administrator, I like to keep a keen eye on my error logs. Once a week, I download my PHP, 404, and other error logs, and analyze them as closely as time allows. Monitoring site errors and other traffic patterns leads to many of the security-related articles I post here at Perishable Press, including resources such as the 5G Blacklist, Ultimate HTAccess Blacklist, and the Blacklist Candidate Series. Easily, one of the best ways to protect your […] Continue reading »
Upload Large Files or Die Trying
I recently spent some time wrestling with various e-commerce/shopping-cart/membership plugins. One of them was of course the popular WP e-Commerce plugin, which uses a directory named “downloadables” to store your precious goods. I had some large files that needed to go into this folder, but the server’s upload limit stopped me from using the plugin’s built-in file uploader to do so. Continue reading »
Video Tutorial: WordPress 101: Customize the Dashboard
In this “WordPress 101” video tutorial, we look at WP’s Admin Dashboard. We’ll see how it works, what it can do, and how to customize and clean it up. Customizing the WordPress Dashboard is a great way to help boost productivity and streamline your experience working in the Admin Area. This video screencast shows you how to be a Dashboard Ninja in around six minutes. Continue reading »
Video Tutorial: WordPress 101: Log into the WP Admin Area
In this “WordPress 101” video tutorial, we’re going to start with the basics and just log into the WordPress Admin Area. It’s exciting stuff to be sure, but there are many reasons why this kind of information makes for a better screencast than a written post. This video screencast is about three minutes and shows how to login to the Admin Area with WordPress version 3.1.2. The general technique should work with any version of WordPress. The video shows several […] Continue reading »
Video Tutorial: WordPress 101: Welcome
Welcome to the first video tutorial in my “WordPress 101” series. It’s simply called “Welcome” and is just a quick introduction to the series, why I’m doing it, about me, and so on. Note that there’s nothing happening on-screen in this screencast – just a simple welcome message ;) Continue reading »
Humans.txt
One thing I love about Twitter is the instant feedback. For the past few weeks I’ve been seeing lots of 404 requests like this: https://perishablepress.com/humans.txt https://perishablepress.com/humans.txt https://perishablepress.com/humans.txt At first I thought it was some skript kiddie getting creative, you know as a play on the robots.txt file, which is also located in the root of many websites. So it seemed interesting enough to tweet about: Continue reading »
Digging Into WordPress 24-Hour Sale
Want to get Digging Into WordPress for almost half off the regular price? AppSumo is running an exclusive 24-hour sale for the PDF version of DigWP. Recently updated for WordPress 3.1, the book has never been better, providing the tips, tricks, and techniques you need to take WordPress to the next level. Head on over to AppSumo to take advantage of this incredible deal! Continue reading »
Multiple Sitemaps
Yes you can have multiple sitemaps for your site. Create the sitemaps you need, and then specify them in your robots.txt file. For example, here are the robots.txt directives for the two sitemaps used here at Perishable Press: Continue reading »
10 Characters for Your WordPress Blacklist
Quick WordPress tip for easily and quietly blocking a ton of comment spam. Akismet and other programs are good at catching most spam, but every now and then a bunch of weird, foreign-language spam will sneak past the filters and post live to your site. Here’s a good example of the kind of stuff that’s easy to block: Continue reading »
Awesome New CSS3 Selectors
The W3C CSS Working Group introduced some powerful new CSS3 selectors to the working CSS3 specification. These new selectors aren’t yet supported by all browsers (currently only Webkit and IE), but designers can start using all the goodness a la progressive enhancement. Let’s check out these awesome new CSS3 selectors and see some real-world examples that are simply too good to be true. Continue reading »
Digging Into WordPress 3.1 Update
Digging Into WordPress is now updated for WordPress 3.1. This is the book’s 8th major update, with new material for WordPress 3.1 and extensive revisions throughout. Without a doubt, Digging Into WordPress is more focused and current than ever before. Continue reading »
Ajax RSS Feeds with More Sidebar
After implementing Chris Coyier’s More Sidebar technique here at Perishable Press, I needed a good source of “filler” content for the “more” blocks. After experimenting with multiple loops and template tags, the idea of sliding in RSS feeds seemed like a better solution. Replacing some empty space with great content is a win-win for everyone. For example, I display a few of my recent tweets in the sidebar to help fill a lil’ space. It’s a great way to share […] Continue reading »
PHP Tip: Encode & Decode Data URLs
Converting small images to data-URLs is a great way to eliminate HTTP requests and decrease loading time for your pages. Using PHP‘s base64_encode() and base64_decode() functions, we have the power to convert images to data-URLs and vice-versa. This article explains how it all works, and shows some different ways of converting back and forth between original and encoded images. Continue reading »