I have updated over 25 sites so far and for the most part – everything has gone smoothly. There were a handful of sites though that had issues with a few plugins (including this site) due to one common issue: jQuery. If you are seeing any strange behavior – post upgrade, the first thing you will want to do is to make sure all your plugins are up to date. After that – if you are still having problems – check to see if any of your plugins rely on jQuery. If they do – next check the code (either look at the js files in the plugins, or look at your site’s source code to see if it is loading an old version of jQuery). There is a good chance they are using an older version, or are relying on something that no longer works with the latest release of jQuery (1.3.2 as of today).

Some plugin developers are aware of the issues but have not released an updated plugin. Because you are most likely not alone with your issues – check out their support forums, or post comments to see if someone came up with a quick fix so you can be back in business.

While most WordPress updates can be performed quickly and easily by almost any user – there are times when you run into unexpected problems that can cost you dearly. When this happens – don’t hesitate to call us. We have been working through WordPress updates for years and can help out!

We just updated our SDAC Related Content plugin to fix a few bugs and to also add in some additional functionality. You can now choose to show related posts by tag or by category. (No longer just category). This is a great plugin for anyone looking for related functionality on WordPress, WordPress MU, or VIP hosting as it does not make any database changes and it uses caching.

Check out the forum for any support issues or leave any feature requests and we will do our best to add them into future releases.

I am pleased to announce our first official WordPress plugin release: SDAC Related Content. This plugin was something I created as I had a need to have a related posts plugin for some VIP clients. The plugin had to not modify any DB tables and it had to use caching.

Version 1 of the plugin was a development version that I used for a few clients. Version 2 added an admin panel under Settings in the WordPress admin. This admin panel allows all kinds of customization.

Enjoy!

Using Akismet for spam control has worked out really well over the last few years but I started seeing more and more spam get through (daily) so I decided I needed to look into something that would compliment Akismet. Once I installed the http:BL plugin – I have not had one spam comment get through. About the plugin:

http:BL WordPress Plugin allows you to verify IP addresses of clients connecting to your blog against the Project Honey Pot database. Thanks to http:BL API you can quickly check whether your visitor is an email harvester, a comment spammer or any other malicious creature.

If you are having any problems with spam getting through, check out: http:BL.

I have seen a lot of sites using the ShareThis button (including a few of mine) where the button in Safari was getting cut off (clipped) at the bottom. If this is happening to you - there is a quickfix. Add this line of CSS to your stylesheet and your button will no longer be cut off.

I get a lot of client requests for some sort of gallery plugin and it is clear to me now that the best gallery plugin for WordPress is: NextGen Gallery. The user interface is easy to use, the plugin is actively being developed, there are lots of options for the users, and it is a joy to work with. Out of the box it comes with a widget to load in recent or random images in your sidebar (or page) as well as an easy way to display single galleries or multiple galleries (albums). This is a must have for anyone who is looking for an elegant solution to display images.

So many of my clients love WordPress but hate the WYSIWYG editor.
The problem:
When users try to add content with HTML within the content - then go back to edit it, save it, and their custom HTML becomes a mess. For most - simply disabling the rich text editor (Users > User > uncheck "Use the visual editor when writing") is good, but others like to use the editor except for a handful of posts or pages.

The solution:
Download and install WP Codeshield. This plugin will make sure that the rich text editor does not touch any custom HTML code within . All you need to do is wrap around your custom code and you can forget about any more issues with the rich text editor and any HTML you put in/edit.

*Note - if you put this in place and your outputted HTML text looks different than everything else (it is using a monospace font by default) - add : code {font-family:inherit} to your style sheet and the text will not look out of place.

WordPress 2.3.3 has officially been released. The new version includes bug fixes and a security fix. For more information on WordPress version 2.3.3, read the official WordPress version 2.3.3 documentation.
Download the latest versions of WordPress: 2.3.3

There is a new (relatively) caching plugin in town for WordPress called WP Super Cache and after using it now for a few version, I have to say I would recommend this over the old standard WP-Cache plugin. The plugin is easy to install, easy to configure, and will produce a noticeable load time decrease for your WordPress sites. There are also options to set if you want to "digg-proof" your site, use compression, or "lock down" your site during an expected traffic spike.

Today Automattic released an update to the Akismet. This is a great plugin to help with comment spam and has been priceless on all the sites I manage. If you are not using this plugin, you can use it for free for personal sites, or pay $500 for commercial sites. Check it out!