Digging into WordPress Version 2: New Chapters, Free Themes, and Site Redesign
The updated book is looking better than ever! A little over 3.5 months after Digging into WordPress v1, Chris and I have updated the book, the site, and everything else for DiW Version 2. Both PDF and printed-version of the book now include two new chapters and two free themes. We have a new “Bonus Tricks” chapter with some awesome theme techniques, and another chapter on “WordPress Updates” that explains how to use all the latest WordPress features. Along the […] Continue reading »
BBQ Firewall (Free WordPress Plugin)
BBQ Firewall is a lightweight, super-fast plugin that protects your site against a wide range of threats. BBQ checks all incoming traffic and quietly blocks bad requests containing nasty stuff like eval(, base64_, and excessively long request-strings. This is a simple yet solid solution for sites that are unable to use a strong Apache/.htaccess firewall. Continue reading »
Stupid htaccess Trick: Enable File or Directory Access to Your Password-Protected Site
In this brief tutorial, we are going to enable users to access any file or directory of a site that is password-protected via htaccess. There are many reasons for wanting to employ this technique, including: Share public resources from an otherwise private site Enable visitors to access content during site maintenance Testing and formatting of layout and design during development As a webmaster, I have used this technique on several occasions. This trick works great for allowing access to any […] Continue reading »
Yoast WP SEO vs All in One SEO
Rambling introduction. While setting things up here at Perishable Press with a second installation of WordPress, I’m trying to keep the number of custom functions and plugins down to a minimum. Seriously, if some feature or function is not absolutely necessary, then it gets kicked to the curb, as they say. So far, I’m using only the following plugins for the second WordPress installation: Continue reading »
Horizontally Sequenced Display Order for WordPress Posts in Two Columns
Most WordPress-powered blogs display posts in sequential order within a single column. Like this, for example: Continue reading »
Counterfeit Slifer Yu-Gi-Oh Card
Authentic Slifer Card Recently, my son traded three common Yu-Gi-Oh cards for the coveted Slifer god card. He was very excited, thinking he worked the deal of a lifetime. Indeed, Slifer cards sell for around $35.00 apiece, depending on the dealer. Nonetheless, trading three worthless cards for a Slifer god card seemed like a phenomenal deal.. What we discovered next nearly dropped us to the floor — the Slifer card was a counterfeit! Within moments of checking it out, Mom […] Continue reading »
Advanced PHP Error Handling via PHP
In my previous articles on PHP error handling, I explain the process whereby PHP error handling may be achieved using htaccess. Handling (logging, reporting) PHP errors via htaccess requires the following: Continue reading »
WordPress Plugin: Disable Gutenberg
For those still in the dark, WordPress 5.0 will bring HUGE changes to the post editor. Dubbed Gutenberg, the new WP post editor replaces the entire “classic” post editing screen. So as of WordPress 5.0 and beyond, the “Edit Post” screen will be completely replaced by a giant WYSIWYG content builder called “Gutenberg”. So much more is being replaced than just the content editor. The list of things that are replaced by Gutenberg include the RTE/Visual Editor, Plain Text Editor, […] Continue reading »
Pure CSS: Better Image Preloading without JavaScript
After reading my previous article on preloading images without JavaScript1, Nanda pointed out that adding extra markup to preload images is not the best approach, especially where Web Standards are concerned. Mobile devices, for example, may experience problems when dealing with the following preloading technique: /* ADD THIS TO CSS */ div#preloaded-images { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; left: -9999px; top: -9999px; height: 1px; width: 1px; } <!– ADD THIS TO XHTML –> <div id="preloaded-images"> <img src="https://perishablepress.com/image-01.png" width="1" height="1" alt="Image 01" […] Continue reading »
Folder Background Images in WinXP
This brief tutorial explains how to add a background image to any folder in Windows XP. Really enables you to customize your workflow and experience using WinXP. Estimated time to completion: around 5 minutes (it’s easy). Continue reading »
IDs are anchors, too.
While browsing the internet these days, I see a lot of this: <body> … <a name="top"></a> … <a href="#top">- Back to Top -</a> … </body> There’s an easier, better and prettier way. CSS Signatures are all the rage these days. If you’re not familiar with a CSS Signature, it’s basically nothing more than an ID on your body tag, like this: <body id="www-domain-tld"></body> The fundamental purpose of the CSS Signature is to allow a user to specify style adjustments to […] Continue reading »
Important Security Fix for WordPress
The other day, my server crashed and Perishable Press was unable to connect to the MySQL database. Normally, when WordPress encounters a database error, it delivers a specific error message similar to the following: Continue reading »
CSS Throwdown: Preload Images without JavaScript
Clean, easy, effective. You don’t need no stinking JavaScript to preload your images. Nope. Try some tasty CSS and (X)HTML instead! Here’s how to do it with only two easy steps.. Step 1 — Place this in your CSS file: div#preloaded-images { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; left: -9999px; top: -9999px; height: 1px; width: 1px; } Step 2 — Place this at the bottom of your (X)HTML document: <div id="preloaded-images"> <img src="https://perishablepress.com/image-01.png" width="1" height="1" alt="" /> <img src="https://perishablepress.com/image-02.png" width="1" height="1" alt="" […] Continue reading »
Position Absolute Horizontal and Vertical Center via CSS
Recently, a reader named Max encountered some scrolling issues while implementing our absolutely centered layout technique. Of course, by “absolutely centered” we are referring to content that remains positioned dead-center regardless of how the browser is resized. After noticing the scrollbar deficiency, Max kindly dropped a comment to explain the issue: the div solution works well, only one problem maybe somebody can help: if you make the browser window smaller then the div is -> the scrollbar doenst fit right […] Continue reading »
Path to Outlook Express Files on WinXP
Trying to backup your Outlook Express .dbx files on Windows XP may prove difficult if you can’t find them. Well, fret no more, my friend. Here is the generalized path to the Outlook Express folder, which contains all of the .dbx files for a particular user. Continue reading »
Ultimate htaccess Blacklist
For those of us running Apache, htaccess rewrite rules provide an excellent way to block spammers, scrapers, and other scumbags easily and effectively. While there are many htaccess tricks involving blocking domains, preventing access, and redirecting traffic, Apache’s mod_rewrite module enables us to target bad agents by testing the user-agent string against a predefined blacklist of unwanted visitors. Any matches are immediately and quietly denied access. Continue reading »