• Install AdBlock Plus if you haven’t done so yet.
• Open the AdBlock Plus options and add the following rule:mail.google.com##TD.Bu:last-child

Before the change:


And after:

It works with the current version of Gmail, but might break if they change the CSS classes (which look pretty random)…

Since I had some time today and found this an interesting combination, I’ve created a small WordPress plugin which allows you to upload image files to ImageShack directly from your WP posting screen and insert them into your post with a few clicks.

More info about the plugin and the download archive can be found on the plugin page. I hope you enjoy it!

The problem is that this hook is also executed when you approve a comment, but since you are not coming from the post form you’re not sending any post data (like the keywords) and the plugin assumes that the post has no keywords or you’ve deleted them. Mark Jaquith wrote about this behavior earlier this year.

To fix this bug, you have to edit the “keywords_update” function (line 614) of the plugin from:
[PHP]
function keywords_update($id) {

// remove old value
delete_post_meta($id, KEYWORDS_META);

// clean up keywords list & save
$keyword_list = “”;
$post_keywords = explode(“,”, $_REQUEST['keywords_list']);
foreach($post_keywords as $keyword) {
if ( !empty($keyword ) ) {
if ( !empty($keyword_list) )
$keyword_list .= “,”;
$keyword_list .= trim($keyword);
}
}

if (!empty($keyword_list) )
add_post_meta($id, KEYWORDS_META, $keyword_list);
}
[/PHP]
to:
[PHP]
function keywords_update($id) {
//isset returns true if the value exists, even if it’s empty.
if(isset($_REQUEST['keywords_list'])) {
// remove old value
delete_post_meta($id, KEYWORDS_META);

// clean up keywords list & save
$keyword_list = “”;
$post_keywords = explode(“,”, $_REQUEST['keywords_list']);
foreach($post_keywords as $keyword) {
if ( !empty($keyword ) ) {
if ( !empty($keyword_list) )
$keyword_list .= “,”;
$keyword_list .= trim($keyword);
}
}

if (!empty($keyword_list) )
add_post_meta($id, KEYWORDS_META, $keyword_list);
}
}
[/PHP]
The “isset” checks if the variable “keywords_list” exists and returns true even if it’s empty. If you’re coming from the post form, it exist and may be empty if you have deleted the keywords. If you’re moderating comments, it won’t exist and the keywords will not be accidentally updated.

Note: This is for version 1.9 of the plugin.

If you are suddenly receiving a lot of request within a short period of time because you’ve been linked by a large site like Digg or Slashdot, your hosting solution might not be able to handle the load.

This article should help your to prepare your WordPress blog for such a case or if you’re just using a slow webhost and want to improve the general performance.

Note that your room for maneuver is limited in most shared-hosting environments, so you won’t be able to implement all possible options with a $2.95 hosting account.

On the whole there are two areas where we can try to save processing time by caching frequently loaded data. The first one is the server system like the web- and database-server software, the second one is the application (WordPress) itself.

MySQL Query Cache

Since WordPress uses MySQL, almost every page load results in various MySQL queries for logins, post content, categories and so on. It is very likely that this data didn’t change since the last request so we begin with enabling the cache within the MySQL server. Basically, all you need to to is to activate it in the my.cnf (or my.ini) MySQL configuration file with setting the query-cache-type variable to 1. The query-cache-size variable is the size of the query cache in MB, for example 20M. To change the MySQL configuration file, you’ll probably need root access which won’t be available on shared hosts. More info about query cache is available on techiecorner.com and the MySQL Performance blog.

PHP Compiler Cache

WordPress is a PHP application so every request results in a call from the webserver (like Apache) to the PHP interpreter. This program reads the script files and compiles them into opcode which can be executed. This process may need some time, depending on the size of your script. A PHP Compiler cache saves the script in the compiled state in the memory which allows the PHP engine to execute it directly without compiling again which makes the execution about three times faster. Wide known PHP compiler caches are APC and eAccelerator. Please refer to their websites on how to install them, you will also need root access for that.

WordPress Internal Caching

In case of a slow database server, it might be a good idea to store frequently used data in a serialized form on disk. WordPress has an integrated disk-cache which stores rarely changing data like categories and users in a special folder. Note that this cache is not recommended if the disk is slow or your host (like DreamHost) set up a NFS based storage solution which would request the cached data from a remote storage server. To enable WordPress’s internal caching, uncomment or add this to your wp-config.php: define( ‘ENABLE_CACHE’, true ); and make sure that the wp-content/cache folder is writable!

Static Pages

If all the other caching methods are not enough or you can’t apply them, there is a last solution: Caching the complete generated pages. This can be done via an excellent plugin called WP-Cache. The plugin will cache the whole generated page on the disk and skip the complete WordPress execution on further requests. After a specified time or if you publish a new post, the cache will be cleared and generated once again. This method is the fastest available, but it will break some functionality like plugins which add dynamic content to your blog or count page impressions since they are executed only once. Note: If you want to use this plugin and the PHP Compiler Cache APC together, have a look at this posting from Mark Jaquith.

And of course…

Use the current WordPress version

Yes, update to the latest available WordPress version. Using always the most stable release gives you new newest features, security fixes and performance optimizations.

Disable unused plugins

Open your plugin management page and check if you really need all installed plugins. Did you in install some of them just for testing purposes or is their functionality already included in the latest WordPress version? Deactivate them to speed up PHP parsing and processing time.

Optimize your theme

Other hints like reducing HTTP requests, compression and so on can be found on the blog of Paul Stamatiou.

In an encouraging act of collaboration, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced tonight that they will all begin using the same Sitemaps protocol to index sites around the web. Now based at Sitemaps.org, the system instructs web masters on how to install an XML file on their servers that all three engines can use to track updates to pages. This should make it easier to get your pages indexed in a simple and standardized way. People who use Google Sitemaps don’t need to change anything, those maps will now be indexed by Yahoo and Microsoft.
Source: TechCrunch

I’ve updated the xml-namespace definitions in the new beta version of my XML-Sitemap Generator for WordPress Plugin to the new sitemaps.org standard.

Yahoo has already updated their Site Explorer so you can submit your sitemap to YAHOO and Google. The guys from MSN are a bit slower and will do some internal tests on their own websites before they open the submission for everyone.

This release contains several security fixes and performance issues so all WordPress users are recommended to upgrade.

More details are available at the WordPress Blog and the download page.

Below you can find a list of the most used ones, simply replace "[URL]" with the URL to your site or specific page and "[TITLE]" with the title of it. Some services have additional parameters, but they are pretty self-explanatory.

Note that you always need to urlencode your URL and title!

Del.icio.us:
http://del.icio.us/post?url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]Many people ask how to predefine the tags for del.icio.us, but that’s not possible.

Furl:
http://www.furl.net/storeIt.jsp?u=[URL]&t=[TITLE]

Digg:
http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=[URL]&title=[TITLE]Maybe you should implement a referer check for digg users so they can instantly digg it instead of submitting your page again.

Google Bookmarks:
http://google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&bkmk=[URL]&title=[TITLE]

YAHOO MyWeb:
http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myresults/bookmarklet?u=[URL]&=[TITLE]

BlinkList:
http://www.blinklist.com/index.php?Action=Blink/addblink.php&Description=[DESCRIPTION]&Url=[URL]&Title=[TITLE]

That were the most popular ones, comment if you are missing one!

Check your post before you save it

This behavior happens from time to time, so when you edit a post scroll down to the end of the textarea and check that it is complete every time before you hit the "Save" button!
If it’s not complete, copy the edited text and paste it into Notepad. Than reload the page until the textarea shows the complete post and merge it with your edited text from Notepad.

More about this bug

You can keep track of this problem with the bug report on bugzilla. Introductions to test or confirm this behavior are available on this comment, which clearly shows that this is not a WordPress fault.

Available solutions

At the moment there is no solution but a workaround: You can install the IE Tab extension for Firefox and add "http://www.yourblog.com/wp-admin/post.php" to the list of sites which should be opened in Internet Explorer.

I hope for France that they will win the WorldCup, because Zidane (DE) played a really good tournament and is generally one of the coolest players. New target for Germany: Third place. Third place is even better than losing the final, because you are the last one who parties

Update: Yeha, France made it to the finale!

Update (2006-07-10): Noo, why did Zidane do that? This is so bad for the last game of his career.

More (funny) background info about Zidanes headbutt:
http://zidaneowned.ytmnd.com/
http://zidanewantscandy.ytmnd.com/
http://francefighter.ytmnd.com/
http://emca.ytmnd.com/
http://oulalazidane.ytmnd.com/

I’m happy to present you another Plugin for your WordPress Blog: The A9 SiteInfo Generator.

SiteInfo is an open standard which allows you to specify information that will be displayed in a toolbar menu. This allows the A9 toolbar (or other toolbars that want to use SiteInfo) to display a menu about your site, when a user is on your site.

Requirements | Download | Installation | FAQ | Screenshot

What does this plugin do?

This plugin generates the SiteInfo information from the data of your WordPress blog. You can choose what you want to display at the SiteInfo WebMenu including Pages, Categories, Archives and Search.

Is this only used by the A9 toolbar?

SiteInfo is an open standard. Any toolbar, browser, or other program is welcome (and encouraged) to read and display the contents of siteinfo.xml files. Note: if you use Firefox, you can also download a small Addon which displays the SiteInfo menu next to your address bar without having the A9 toolbar installed.

Where is the SiteInfo located?

A website’s SiteInfo is found in a file ‘siteinfo.xml’ found at the root of the domain. So, if your site is www.arnebachhold.de then the location should be http://arnebachhold.de/siteinfo.xml.

Requirements:

This plugin requires WordPress 2.0 and was primarily tested on 2.0.3 so I recommend you to upgrade to the latest version.

Pricing and Licensing:

Good news, this plugin is free for everyone! This plugin is not GPL, but you may freely distribute it in an unmodified state. Please look at the source code header for more details. This software is provided “as is”, without any guarantee of warranty of any kind, nor could I ever be held liable for any damages it could do to your system.

Download:

Multilanguage version, supports English, Dutch (by Nazgul), German and Malay (by Ameyr Pippo):
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/siteinfo-dl/

Installation:

Installation is easy if you follow this simple steps:

If your Blog is in the root directory of your domain (like www.myblog.com/) and your server supports mod_rewrite:

1. Upload the plugin into your wp-content/plugins directory
2. Activate the plugin
3. Rebuild your Permalink structure in “Options” -> “Permalinks”
4. Customize the settings of this plugin in “Options” -> “SiteInfo”

If your Blog is NOT located in the root directory (like www.mydomain.com/blog/) or your server doesn’t support mod_rewrite:

1. Upload the plugin into your wp-content/plugins directory
2. Create a new file named “siteinfo.xml” in your domain root directory (like www.mydomain.com/siteinfo.xml).
3. Make it writable using FTP or SSH and the CHMOD 777 command. The WordPress Codex has additional information about that.
4. Activate the plugin
5. Go into “Options” -> “SiteInfo” and verify if the file system path to the siteinfo.xml is correct.

Support:

Please post in the WordPress Support Forum if you need help with this plugin. It is very likely that you will get a faster response there than if you write me a mail.

Translations:

The plugin is currently available in English, Dutch (by Nazgul) and German. If you want to help to localize it in your language, just use a gettext compatible program like poedit and the included siteinfo.pot to start translating. Your help is very appreciated!

Changelog:

Note: I will move this plugin to the dev.wp-plugins.org repository as soon as Matt created an account for it, but this may last some weeks so stay tuned.

2006-06-21: v1.2, Fixed incorrect encoding, added missing translations, corrected date on admin page. Thanks to Nazgul for the Dutch language files!
2006-06-20: v1.1, Added Recent Posts + Fix for empty page titles
2006-06-19: v1.0, Initial release

FAQ:

Q: I have to access to my domain root, can I use SiteInfo?
A: Since there is only one SiteInfo per domain, you can’t use SiteInfo without access to your domain root.

Q: I get the error that my siteinfo.xml is not writable.
A: Please make it writable using FTP or SSH and the CHMOD 777 command. The WordPress Codex has additional information about that.

Q: When i click on “Verify Path” or “Autodetect Path” I get the error “This feature is not available for this WordPress version”.
A: You are using an older WordPress version which doesn’t support all AJAX security features. Please upgrade to 2.0.3

Q: What is mod_rewrite?
A: Mod_rewrite is a technology which allows you to map a nice looking path (like yourblog.com/2005/05/01/your-post) to yourblog.com/index.php?id=40.

Q: How does this plugin uses mod_rewrite?
A: This plugin uses mod_rewrite to map yourdomain.com/siteinfo.xml to yourdomain.com/index.php?request_siteinfo=true. This allows you to generate the SiteInfo on the fly without having to create a static file.

Q: My server doesn’t support mod_rewrite or my blog is not located at the domain root, what should I do?
A: This plugin can also generate a static siteinfo.xml. Please verify your path to the domain root at the administration page.

Q: How often is the static file rebuilt?
A: The static file is rebuild of you publish a post.

Q: I enabled mod_rewrite, but I alway get an old SiteInfo
A: Please make sure that there is no siteinfo.xml in your domain root.

Q: I changed the content of my SiteInfo, but I can’t see it in my browser!
A: The SiteInfo is retrieved only once per session. Please close your browser and retry.

Screenshot:

Active WebMenu with the Firefox Addon:

Active WebMenu with the A9 Toolbar:

Related posts:
Del.icio.us – Bookmark this! WordPress Plugin
Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress