Interesting discussion taking place over at WPBeginner on whether or not the Blogroll Links functionality should be removed in favor of Menus. Outside of their discussion, I’m in favor of ditching links. In fact, I think the links functionality should be turned into a core widget because that is where most of them end up anyways, in a sidebar as a widget. So while the functionality would still exist, it’s one less item in the menu. Any thoughts? ∞
WPCo.de New Site Dedicated To WordPress
WP Code | Just another WordPress site. New site dedicated to WordPress launched by Andrew. He says the site will bring you news and tutorials as he learns the ins and outs of the software. Have to say, I’m a fan of the domain name. Consider adding WPCo.de to your feed reader. ∞
A Better Way To Link To Previous Content Via Insights
When WordPress 3.1 was released, it introduced a new feature which made it easy to link posts published in the past. I’ve found that feature to be too limiting. For starters, the linking is limited to posts on your site. Secondly, you need to use the Visual editor in order to use the linking feature. There is a better way to accomplish the same feature set and more with a plugin called Insights by Vladimir Prelovac. This plugin adds a meta box that you can move to the right side or below the post editor and does not require the use of the visual editor. When in use, you type in some search terms into the search box and select where to perform the search. This is where Insights shines as you can select your own blog, Google Images, Google Videos, Wikipedia, Google, Google News, Google Blogs, and Google Books. The search results are present in the same meta box where you can either open the result in a new tab or copy the link to put in your post.
Search Results For Insights On WPTavern
Sometimes I need to find a link to a site when I’m writing a post and I can do that easily by selecting the Google search where I can copy and paste the link without using a new window or leaving the post editor. Talk about convenient. So if you’re looking for more flexibility in linking to content from the past while not being required to use the visual editor, the Insights plugin should fit the bill.
Subscribe To The WPTavern Link Roll
I’m not sure if any of you have noticed but on the right hand side of this site on the frontpage, there is a widget in the sidebar called WordPress Links And Resources. It’s been there for quite awhile and it’s my parsed RSS feed coming from my shared items bin from within my feedreader. If I don’t get a chance to write about it or share it in the forum, then I place it into my WPTavern links bin which shows up within this widget. Thanks to some changes I’ve made this morning, you can now subscribe to this link roll with your own RSS reader by clicking on the little orange icon. Or, just keep an eye on that block as every time I open my feedreader, I add a few items to the bin.
Spam Link Injection Sucks
Over the past few days, I’ve been helping out someone with their blog as it’s become compromised by some nasty injection code. This code is in his php files, in his content, and his database. I have no idea how it happened except that his plugin and theme folders had a permission level of 777. On top of that, I discovered some malicious themes within the themes folder containing the base64 encrypted code which I believe to be the hidden spam links.
I told him to do a fresh install the first time around which is what he did via Fantastico only to have the problem resurface. Again, the themes and plugin folders had a permission level of 777 and I found out this was because of a plugin he had installed called One Click Updater.
Currently this plugin only uses direct file access to update and install plugins/themes, so you’ll need to make the “/wp-content/plugins/” and “/wp-content/themes/” folders writable by PHP for this to work.
Either he didn’t know he could do the same thing in WordPress since version 2.7 or core plugin upgrades didn’t work. In any case, I believe the permission level to be a source of the problem. As it turned out, his database was clean but certain files located within rogue themes were injecting the encrypted code into all of his content which was only viewable by checking the source code of the site. In the end, I finally exported his site via the WXR export feature, gave him a fresh install of WordPress, imported the WXR file and told him to stay 5 miles away from the One Click Update plugin or any plugin that needs permissions for folders to be 777. Once his fresh site was online, all traces of the spam links were gone meaning his database was clean, his WXR file was clean, and he was a happy camper.
Now you might be wondering, why didn’t this guy do all of this himself? Well, he is in a unique situation where the only thing he owns is an N95 phone powered by S60. He maintains and writes content for his blog all through this phone. It’s his only connection to the digital world. So, uploading and doing things that come easy on a desktop PC is not so when all you have is a handheld phone. I give this guy a lot of credit.
To bring this back full circle, I encourage you to read Chris Coyier’s experience where he explains how his notable site CSS-Tricks ended up with hidden spam links within the content of the site and how he was able to get rid of them.
I guess we should be checking the source code of our own sites more often?