Archive for the category ‘WordPress’

NOTE: Forget these workarounds! We’ve now got core functions to do the trick :) Check out Justin Tadlock’s tutorial on using them.

Also, to disable theme and plugin editing, don’t just remove the menu links. You can use a constant in wp-config.php to completely switch that functionality off.

I’ve recently been looking at de-cluttering the WordPress admin interface. There’s some good plugins for this, such as Adminimize, WP-CMS Post Control (for hiding boxes on the post screen, according to user role) and White Label CMS (for extensive customization of logos, menus, etc.).

As ever, I’m also interested in getting just a particular aspect working with a bit of theme code—if only one aspect is needed, it’s sometimes nice to drop it into the theme and have one less plugin loading. The aspect I’m thinking of here is removing a few menu items.

So, with the usual caveat that this is code for theme developers, to be dropped into the active theme’s functions.php file, and a nod to hungred.com for initial inspiration, here goes.

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I’m just back from WordCamp UK 2010 in Manchester. Another inspiring gathering of WordPress people, from the curious to the obsessed, with a fantastic, vibrant city as the backdrop.

I’m too exhausted now for a detailed write-up, but I want to jot some things down while they’re fresh. Here’s the main things that stick in my mind…

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I periodically get queries about WordPress issues through this site, often in relation to code I’ve posted here. These days I’m usually far too busy to go into deep, free coding consultation; and usually when I do help out I’m just Googling and using the same resources available to everyone.

I totally appreciate that I might have much more experience than some people, and I’ll have a few little hints that could save a lot of time. But sometimes people emailing me seem to be doing something that I fully confess to being guilty of, in the past and even now: shouting out for help too soon instead of stepping back and tackling the problem properly.

So, here’s a little guide I can point people to, partly in lieu of an email reply template. If you’re facing a WordPress coding problem that either looks daunting right from the start, or is driving you insane after hours of trying, the following hints can help a lot.

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I find PHP’s date handling a bit confusing. It’s easy when you know how, of course; but even at the same time as appreciating that it’s good in the end that it offers a lot of flexibility, it’s sometimes seemed like there are too many hoops to jump through to do some simple date operations.

Anyway, I’ve just cracked a minor issue I’m working on thanks to this post and this thread. I’m posting the solution here for my quick reference as much as anything…

Problem: how to check if a WordPress post_date (from a $post object) is from a day in the future? Solution:

$postDate = strtotime( $post->post_date );
$todaysDate = strtotime( date( 'Y-m-d' ) );
if ( $postDate > $todaysDate ) {
	[ post is from the future! ]
} else {
	[ post is from today or the past]
}

Here’s a quickie that can help with WordPress sites that have a lot of pages. If some of the pages have longish titles, the “Parent Page” drop-down on the edit page screen can get unwieldy. The scroller for the drop-down can run off the right side of the screen.

OK, it’s fine (often easier) to use the keyboard to navigate drop-downs. But not everyone knows how to, and even so, with a large amount of pages, selecting the right parent can become a pain.

I think I adapted the following code from a plugin or someone else’s post. Thanks whoever you are, but frankly I’m so busy at the moment I’ve forgotten where it came from! Anyway, if you drop the following into your custom theme’s functions.php, you’ll get a new “Create child” link under every page listed in WP admin, when you hover over the title:

add_filter( 'page_row_actions', 'slt_child_page_action', 10, 2 );
function slt_child_page_action( $actions, $page ) {
	$actions["create-child"] = '<a href="' . add_query_arg( array( 'post_type' => 'page', 'parent_id' => $page->ID ), admin_url( 'post-new.php') ) . '" title="Create a new page with this page as its parent">Create child</a>';
	return $actions;
}
add_action( 'edit_page_form', 'slt_set_child_page' );
function slt_set_child_page() {
	global $post;
	if ( $post->post_type == "page" && $post->post_parent == 0 && isset( $_GET["parent_id"] ) && is_numeric( $_GET["parent_id"] ) )
		echo '<script type="text/javascript">jQuery( document ).ready( function($) { $("#parent_id").val("' . $_GET["parent_id"] . '"); } );</script>';
}

The first bit adds the page action link. The second bit adds some jQuery to the right edit screen to set the specified parent, if it’s been passed. I couldn’t find another way to set the drop-down… Well, it works!

UPDATE 23/10/10: Changed the URL for the creation of a new page from /wp-admin/page-new.php to /wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=page.

UPDATE 21/9/11: Changed the URL for the creation of a new page again, to be properly dynamic with admin_url and add_query_arg. Thanks One Trick Pony!

PLEASE NOTE: This code has now evolved into my Custom Fields plugin. Please use this plugin instead of the code below, which is kept here out of historical interest only!

I’m currently working on a client’s WordPress site where there’s quite a few bits of custom functionality in my custom theme that rely on them entering values for posts or pages using WP’s custom fields.

Custom fields are really flexible. However, they’re not perfectly user-friendly. For instance, if no post or page is currently using a custom field that you’ve built functionality on, the user has to enter the name as well as the value of the field the first time it’s used. The drop-down of field names is dynamically gathered from the fields currently in use. Also, sometimes you want to make things easier for clients by having inline tips, and inputs that suit the field (e.g. a checkbox or select drop-down instead of just a plain text entry).

So, I set about piecing together a way to take over the Custom Fields meta box…

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Please note that as of WordPress 3.1, this code is pretty much redundant. Check out get_users!

There’s a few posts around that reveal a nifty use of the WP_User_Search class that’s part of WordPress’ core code, in order to select all users that have a specific role (the trick seems to have originated with John Kolbert).

But… WP_User_Search is only loaded when you’re inside the WP admin area. What about front-end template code?

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I’m very please to announce my first WordPress plugin! It’s called Lock Pages.

The idea came from work with various clients where certain pages started to get moved around, or just vanished. A page can “move” by having its parent page or the slug changed. Sometimes clients would delete a page and replace it with an updated version which had a slightly different slug.

Of course, many of these things just stem from usually harmless habits picked up from working with files on a computer. But on a website, you want to persist your URLs as long as possible. Unless absolutely necessary, pages should be kept with the same permalink, to avoid breaking links and to maximize PageRank and such like.

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