How To: Fixing Popularity Contest Plugin for WordPress 2.5

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The problem(s): With some upgrades of the WordPress 2.5 branch, the Popularity Contest WordPress plugin is not working properly. Also, people trying to activate the Popularity Contest plugin on a brand new WordPress install are getting a fatal error or a “doesn’t exist” message when attempting to activate the plugin.

The solution(s): I actually ran into this problem on a fresh install of WordPress. After several attempts, I was unable to figure out the problem myself. Thankfully, a quick Google search showed a post over at WPGuy which gave details on fixing both problems!

Here is what you need to know if you have this problem:

Fix problems with the upgrade to WordPress 2.5

Open your Popularity Contest plugin (edit it) and search for this code:

require('../../wp-blog-header.php');

And replace it with this:

require(’../wp-blog-header.php’);

Fix problems with a new install of WordPress 2.5

In addition to doing the above, you need to search for the following code:

if (isset($_GET['activate']) && $_GET['activate'] == ‘true’) {

And replace it with this:

if (isset($_GET['action']) && $_GET['action'] == ‘activate’) {

I went through both of these steps on my fresh WordPress install and it fixed the problem perfectly!

How To: Adding an Email This Button to Your Blog

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In the past we’ve talked about how to add a print button to your WordPress theme. Today I wanted to give you the javascript code you need to create an Email This button on your WordPress blog.

Before getting to the code, I wanted to first say that this code is designed to allow readers to click on the button and have it open up their default email software and create a subject and link that point to the post the reader is currently visiting. This code is not designed to allow readers to contact the blog author.

If you are wanting your readers to be able to contact you, I recommend you use one of the many great contact form WordPress plugins available. You should never embed your email address into some HTML code because it will be picked up by spam bots. Contact forms prevent spammers from finding your email address. The other thing you can do is offer “EmailAddress AT EmailCompany DOT com” (which your email address information filled in) to avoid spammers.

Okay, so back to the Email button code. Here is the javascript you will need:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!– Begin
function isPPC() {
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf(”PPC”) != -1) return true;
else return false;
}
if(isPPC()) {
document.write(’<a class=”contact” HREF=\”mailto:\?subject\=Take a look at this page I found, ‘ + document.title + ‘?body=You can see this page at: ‘ + window.location + ‘\” onMouseOver=”window.status=\’Send your friends e-mail about this page\’; return true” TITLE=”Send your friends e-mail about this page”>Email to a Friend<\/a>’);
}
else { document.write(’<a class=”contact” HREF=\”mailto:\?body\=Take a look at this page I found titled ‘ + document.title + ‘. You can see this page at: ‘ + window.location + ‘\” onMouseOver=”window.status=\’Send your friends e-mail about this page\’; return true” TITLE=”Send your friends e-mail about this page” rel=”nofollow”>Email This!<\/a>’);
}
// End –>
</script>

This will create an email where the reader can enter in someone’s email address and send them a link to your post/page.

How To: Feature Posts From a Particular Category

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Recently Richard over at WP Project did a great redesign on his site.   With that redesign came a great “Featured Articles” section that features the five most recent posts in the “Featured” category on his blog.

In this post, Richard explains the steps required to feature a designated number of posts in a category of your choice.  Here is the result:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click over to get the code you need to setup something similar on your WordPress blog.

How To: Creating a YouTube Video Tabber

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If you’ve ever had any interest in purchasing a news premium WordPress theme, you’re probably familiar with the works of Adii, who is the guy behind the Premium News themes.   Not only am I a fan of much of his work, but I also am a fan of his blog, where he is truly an open book and isn’t afraid to share this secrets to success with his readers.

One of Adii’s post recent posts is a great tutorial write up explaining how to create a YouTube video tabber in WordPress.  For those unfamiliar with a tabber, it basically allows you to create tabs for things.  In this case, you can use tabs to display multiple YouTube videos, such as this example from his original Premium News theme:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click over to check out the steps needed to achieve something like this in WordPress.

How To: Adding a Print This Button to Your Theme

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If you ever visit our actual website, you’ve probably noticed the “Print This” button that we display below each post.  Depending on the type of website or blog you are running, having a button like this may be a good fit for your blog.  I’ve found it to be good to have this button available to readers for any type of website that offers tutorials, recipes, guides, or pretty much anything that might require a visitor to print something you’ve written.

If you think you’d like to offer your readers the option to print something on your blog, here is the code I use on my blogs (uses Javascript):

<a href="javascript:window.print()" rel="nofollow">Print This!</a></span>

It prints the page you are on, so it is probably best to use it mostly on post and pages.  If you place it on the blog’s homepage, it will print the entire homepage, not just that post.