Looking for a way to showcase your tweets on your WordPress powered site? This post by Technobuzz.net should do the trick as they list 52 different WordPress plugins aimed at accomplishing this feat. As for WPTavern.com, I’ve stuck with using the HTML embed code from Twitter.com and shoved it into a text widget. This is good enough for me!
WordPress 2.7 User Guide In PDF
Dave Coveney of Spectacu.la announced on the Tavern forums that they have released their WordPress 2.7 user guide. The user guide covers everything from getting started with WordPress to using the Visual editor to managing users. The downloadable guide is 56 pages in length and is in PDF format so make sure you have a PDF reader installed before you try to open the file. However, Spectacu.la club members are able to download the PDF and the final Word document which would come in handy if you’d like to print this out.
The only complaint I have with the guide is that the images contained within have a low resolution to properly make out various parts of the WordPress 2.7 backend. You’ll be able to read them but not without squinting and rubbing your eyes. Other than that, this is a Spectacu.la guide that should be stored in your resources bin!
WordPress Makes It Two In A Row
Congratulations to Automattic, WordPress.org and to everyone who voted for WordPress in this years Webware 100. WordPress became a winner for the second year in a row, this time in the Social and Publishing category. The award covers both WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Among some of the other winners in this category include Drupal, Twitter, Bebo and a few others.
People Who Rock WordPress
A new project called We Rock WordPress headed by Netizens Media aims to showcase the cream of the crop when it comes to talent in the WordPress community. Out of the 23 people on the site thus far, I have interacted or know of 18 of them. Not bad I guess. Like WPZooms 20 WordPress Rockstars post, this site showcases mugshots instead of graphics.
The site is using the recently released Gallery child theme which was built on top of the Thematic framework. Featured members have a screenshot of their site on the left hand side while on the right, a picture of the featured member along with information such as website url, Twitter ID, and an option to send the entry to Twitter. A comment form is also present to give kudos to those featured.
I think this is a good use of the gallery theme. This site actually inspired me to check and see if WPHOF.com was available as I thought of creating a WordPress Hall Of Fame but the domain has been taken. In fact, it was registered in 2005 and has been registered for a length of 10 years. Oh well, one less domain for you WordPress domain guys out their to grab. At any rate, give the site a look over.
By the way, they have a submission form if you feel someone in the WordPress community is worthy of being highlighted in the gallery. Don’t even think about submitting my name!
Are You Ready To Wpazo?
Do you even know how to pronounce the word wpazo? Try wuh PAW zo. According to the site, the word means to hit something or someone—esp. over the head—with the power of WordPress. The best WordPress stuff and a blog that hits you over the head with the good links to all the best WordPress stuff. Based on what I can tell, this is a dropping point for Ian Stewart for bookmarking and sharing cool WordPress stuff he finds across the web. Most of the content appears to have something to do with Thematic but since the site is a personal drop off point for Ian, that’s to be expected.
If Ian is your kind of guy and you enjoy the stuff he finds, you might want to add Wpazo to your feed reader. In fact, Wpazo even has a Twitter account.
WPWeekly Episode 54 – Warmup For WordCamp Toronto
In this episode, David and I discussed WordCamp Toronto which started yesterday and will last until Sunday May 10th. So far, it looks like not all things are going according to plan at the event as the venue has awkward placement of outlets, no dedicated video or audio equipment and expensive food. Hopefully, David has a better time the rest of the weekend.
We also briefly discussed the fact that we may go six entire months before the first major release of WordPress for 2009. A stark contrast to the past two years where by this time of year, we would be gearing up for the second major release. Also worthy of note is that so far, the need to push out a point release such as 2.7.2 has not occurred. Hope you enjoy this weeks episode.
Ad Copy:
This episode of WordPress Weekly is sponsored by, WebDevStudios.com. WebDevStudios is a website development company specializing in WordPress support and development services. Contact them today for help with your WordPress powered website.
Stories Discussed:
WordCamp Toronto
The Synergy Project
Joomla And WordPress Together At Last
WordPress Plugin Competition Underway
What Will You Put Up With Regarding Plugin Authors And How They Justify Their Time?
WordPress Tavern Listener Poll:
Each week from now on, I’ll be featuring a new listener poll question on WPTavern.com The poll is located in the sidebar on the right hand side of the site.
Last weeks poll question was: Do you take into consideration whether a theme is licensed under the GPL or not before you purchase it?
Out of a total of 27 votes, 13 of you said yes, 8 of you said no and 6 of you voted don’t care
This Weeks Poll Question Is: Do you think Premium themes have helped or harmed the WordPress community?
Plugin Picks Of The Week:
Jeff – Thumbnail Viewer – Thumbnail Viewer is simply used to overlay images on a page, similar to Lightbox JS. The javascript is from the Image Thumbnail Viewer code from DynamicDrive. The javascript included in Thumbnail Viewer from DynamicDrive is much faster than Lightbox JS, although not as feature packed, which is the entire point.Thumbnail Viewer works with the following image formats: png gif jpeg jpg bmp
David – Comment Geo Maps
WordPress Trivia Question:
Which version of WordPress introduced the ability to manage static pages?
Announcements:
On May 16th from 9am-5pm, join me at WordCamp Columbus taking place at Columbus State Community College. so far, there are over 100 people scheduled to be in attendance including Lorelle, Jane Wells, Noel Jackson, Mark Ghosh and more. Tickets cost $25.99 and I believe there are a few more left.
WPWeekly Meta:
Next Episode: Friday May 22nd, 2009 8P.M. EST
Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: Click here to subscribe
Length Of Episode: 1 Hour 11 Minutes
Download The Show: WordPressWeeklyEpisode54.mp3
Listen To Episode #54:
Joomla Marries WordPress?
Back around May 1st, the CMS Expo was taking place in Chicago, Illinois. during this event, Rafael Corral of CorePHP gave a talk on a new Joomla component that integrates WordPress with Joomla. I first came across this news on CMSWire.com. The component enables the use of tags, all of the plugins available for WordPress and finely tuned SEO capabilities. This integration comes at a cost like most cool things for Joomla at $80.00 a year or $100.00 a year if you want to use the multi-user component.
The demand for the component comes from the fact that Joomla is not much of a blogging platform while WordPress is the best. One thing that is cool about this component if you’re a Joomla user is that the WordPress administration side of things can be accessed from the front end meaning you won’t have to bother yourself with the Joomla administration panel. Inside of this component, you can switch, style, or move the WordPress sidebar. The sidebar is dealt with via a Joomla module. According to the talk, migrating WordPress themes is difficult but not impossible with the content area only able to be themed. The multi-user extension deals with integrating Joomla with WordPress MU.
The beauty of both projects being open-source allows for things like this to happen. However, I still wonder why I would integrate one content system into another. I would consider what it is I need in a publishing system and figure out between the two which one has more of what I want and then go with that.
It’s funny because I chose to go with WordPress after realizing that Joomla didn’t have native comment support which drove me insane. Yes, I did try to install and use a few different extensions to give Joomla a commenting system but those all sucked! Making regular blog posts was a pain in the rear because I had to select all of this Meta stuff before the post was published. This was back before 1.5 and I have not used Joomla since so I have no idea if it’s changed for the better. In the end, I think this component solidifies the fact that Joomla sucks if you want to use it to blog. Something I’ve known since 2007.
Your Chance To Make WordPress Better
Jane Wells who was hired on to the Automattic team because of her usability specialty has published a post on the WordPress development blog initiating phase three, Usability Testing, in her ongoing series, how to contribute to WordPress. In this post, Jane outlines what it takes to conduct a usability survey, what those results mean, and how those results can ultimately improve WordPress.
If you’re interested in contributing to WordPress by way of partaking in these usability tests, stay tuned to the WordPress development blog. However, if you have experience in conducting usability tests, consider being a testing moderator. If so, contact Jane Wells and let her know your experience level.
A Refreshing New Look For Darren Hoyt
Darren Hoyt who is the creator of the Mimbo Pro theme recently gave his personal site a refresh. The new look is in a word, beautiful. Everything from the colors used to the spacing to the typography looks spot on. I’m digging the slight transparency which I’ve seen few designs actually get right. I’m on the fence regarding the sideways facing Feedback button but it doesn’t bother me that much. Everything on the site just appears crisp, clean, and refreshing. Sheesh, sounds like I’m doing an advertisement for bottled water!
According to this blog post, it looks like Darren is in line for a bit of a career change by becoming a full time freelance designer. He mentions there are a few WordPress opportunities in his pipeline. Despite the career change, he plans on designing new products for his ProTheme store so not all hope is lost for those who have purchased Mimbo Pro.
The best of luck to you Darren.
The Header Won’t Be Changing In 2.8
The results for the WordPress design challenge poll are in and it looks like the dark fluency style has emerged as the winner. But as Jane mentions in the official blog post, the results are interesting. Overall, the various Fluency variations made up for a large majority of the votes but on the flipside, the choice for keeping the current implementation came out in second place which is definitely something worth noting.
According to Jane, the current implementation will remain the same in WordPress 2.8 however, a new header design will be worked on for WordPress 2.9 so that enough time can be given to perform usability testing.
As I went through and voted, I can’t say any particular design attracted me more so then the others. I think I spent about 5-7 minutes reviewing each design never having a concrete decision on which one I wanted. In the end, I chose Fluency Style, Medium. But you know, I thought about it and I don’t use the header area that much anyways. The only time I actually use the header is to click on the VISIT SITE link. What about you? How often do you find yourself clicking around in the header area and which version did you vote for?