Search Google for WordPress security tips or the like and just about every article you come along will tell you that in order to have a secure blog, you need X amount of plugins. I disagree. I use none yet I'm satisfied I have a reasonable level of security. I use a number of techniques to keep the site safe, which I'll discuss over the course of the post.
(read more) In this month's .net magazine (known as Practical Web Design in the US) there was an interesting article where an ethical hacker showed how he would break into your site -- and what you can do to stop him. In this post we'll look past "X Plugins To Save Your Blog" and see what effective steps you can take to stop a real life hacker.
(read more) I recently set up a blog for my band, Ellipsis. Just using a simple theme which I customised a little so it worked better as a band website. There's also a load of fancy CSS3 goodness, naturally. I ran into a problem, though. The blog was getting a ton and a half of comment spam. All of it was being blocked by Akismet, which is great, but that wasn't stopping it getting there in the first place. This is where we roll out the super-duper-ways-of-stopping-comment-spam.
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After installing WPMU and getting started with BuddyPress in parts one and two, this time we're going to be getting to grips with BuddyPress.
(read more) Have you wondered how to change the layout of the WordPress plugin subscribe to comments subscription manager? There's no easy solution provided by the author of the plugin. So after looking at its core file I found out it's actually quite easy by using an extremely simple tweak. With this tutorial I'm going to show you how you can give it a nice custom design.
(read more) After finishing up with the new design for WPShout, here are ten tips I've got to improve your WordPress theme.
(read more) Day 4 of [bg], looking at the file that handles posts: the single.php file.
(read more) The second day of "An Introduction to WordPress Theme Development" looks at the basis of any WordPress theme - the index.php file and the style.css file.
(read more) Create your own in-post options in WordPress; this tutorial will show you how to add your own 'boxes', 'meta boxes', 'in-post options'; whatever you want to call them, to your own WordPress theme. All through the power of custom fields.
(read more) A guide to WordPress' widgets, widgetizing and creating the perfect widget ready WordPress theme, including a couple of advanced techniques.
(read more) Day two of creating an advanced theme options page in WordPress. In this post we get started creating the theme options page.
(read more) Day three of "Create an advanced theme options page in WordPress" styles the options page.
(read more) Day 4 of "Create an Awesome Theme Options Page in WordPress" finishes off the theme options page.
(read more) Using WordPress' the_excerpt function, or that box that says 'Excerpt' creatively isn't something that too many people do. Why not? Not sure. But maybe that will change - the_excerpt can do so much so easily.
(read more) Day one of "Advanced Uses of WordPress" looks at using WordPress to create a Tumblelog using custom fields.
(read more) Create a review and podcasting site with WordPress.
(read more) 10 More Ways to Improve Your WordPress Theme in this post - add a theme options page, multiple sidebars, custom write fields and awesome SEO!
(read more) In this post a slightly obscure use of the_loop and custom fields!
(read more) Converting HTML to WordPress has just got easier with this post 'case study' looking at a real world example of the DesignInformer redesign.
(read more) For the recent (first) design of my personal site I added in some Tumblr style functionality. In this post we'll look at how WordPress can be used to create a Tumblog.
(read more) Just a quick note to let you know that my first article on SmashingMagazine has been published. It's all about custom fields. Specifically, Extending WordPress With Custom Fields, a great little topic. In the post I go through just about everything I can think of that's awesome to do with custom fields. One of the topics, setting a different background with each post is something I'll expand on here on Shout at a later date.
(read more) We all know that WordPress 3.0 is coming and there are a whole plethora of new features, but actually adding them to themes? I had to do that today in an update to WPShift's ShiftNews. Trouble was I wanted to ensure the theme remained compatible with 2.9 and below, which meant I needed some good ol' conditionals. In this post we'll find out how to make backwards compatible 3.0 functions.
(read more) There are certain snippets of WordPress code that you seem to end up using over and over again. In this post are ten great snippets that will make coding that bit easier.
(read more) Learn how to use the powerful template tag bloginfo effectively in WordPress with this detailed explanation.
(read more) WordPress has many somewhat hidden features and these is shortcodes. In this post we'll learn exactly what shortcodes are, when to use them, why they're so brilliant and how to use them.
(read more) SEO is something I've discussed before here on WPShout, but here we're going to dive into a slightly more specific area: post titles, RSS reader titles and title tags and using custom fields to create a specific title for each of them.
(read more) Just a very quick tip but nonetheless an important one. Many of you will be using any number of plugins or the database query that's been doing the rounds recently to display your most popular posts. That code/plugin is no longer needed as WordPress' query_posts can now display your most commented posts.
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