News - Anmari - Page 13

February 27, 2009June 15, 2009

Subscribe2 Admin – manage subscribers

I had remarked that I thought the Subscribe 2 admin subscriber could do with a few tweaks. I was asked what I had in mind. So here is is – a draft idea that has been coded, tested and validated – changes offered for potential inclusion in the next version! There are a few other suggestions that have not been implemented here, however they would not be hard to add in, which I’d be happy to do if you would include them in the next version!

Summary

My non-tech clients need access to their subscribers, but not the other admin features – the subscriber list must be as clean and simple as possible.
The S2 subscriber list should be consistent with the wordpress user list and the look and feel of the processing should be similar.
It could be more obvious or intuitive as to the functions available (eg: send reminder is not visible unless you think to filter to “unconfirmed” only)

An alternative – tested and validated!

I have made and tested most of the necessary changes, and commented with /* amr */. The code has been validated.

Changes implemented:

Moved the function check boxes to right hand side as in wordpress user list
Condensed the left, middle, right placement to a single list with the status indicated by
- green registered character for registered
- green tick for for confirmed
- red question mark for unconfirmed
Moved the search input box and submit up alongside the filter box (same idea, should be together)
Changed default first view to be unconfirmed to highlight them and so that the “send reminder email” button will show. Also though these more NB than the full list.
Changed $urlpath to use wp-config’s WP_CONTENT_URL.
Removed the sort by name and rearranged merge so the list will sort by status, with unconfirmed first, not email.
Fixed the “alternate” row css styling by using the wordpress user list css class for the table.

Further Changes Suggested

Move the “Subscribers” menu option from under Tools to under Users if possible. To my mind that is where it belongs – along with the other user management screens
Add Column Headings as in WordPress User list
Allow sorting options for the subscriber list eg: by email or status
Add totals of subscriber categories as per wordpress userlist.

Download subscribe2-alt1

For your convenience I have packaged up a copy of the whole alternate plugin folder. It is called subscribe2-alt1. Actually the only file affected is subscribe2.php. It will only be available here as my only aim is to assist Matthew Robinson the author, with the hope that by offering a fully tested change request, it may actually get incorporated in his next version!

unzip the file to your plugin directory
deactivate subscribe2
activate subscribe2-alt1

Navigate to Tools > Subscribers to see the difference.

Further Info

I tweaked the submit buttons a bit to my liking. On a narrower screen it looks like this (alas unsorted in this view):

On my wide screen…

which I imagine many developers are movingto the current admin list is uncomfortable for me:

February 27, 2009June 15, 2009

Multiple Blogs, Domains with wordpress

The configuration features now available in wp-config.php now offer you a great deal of flexibility if you have multiple domains parked at the same host or multiple blogs where you wish to share one or more of the database or the code.

Move the wp-code

First of I’d suggest keeping the wp-code out of the main directory. Read Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory

This will give you the flexibility of serving other code more easily. Eg: one parked domain may be redirected to a subdomain not using wordpress at all.

Defining the siteurl overrides the option table. Plugin developers should use this and not fetch it from the options table.

define('WP_SITEURL', 'http://example.com/wp');
define('WP_HOME', 'http://example.com');

Index.php example:

if (strstr($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'], "onedomain.com")) {
    // serve up the default wordpress index.php code
    define('WP_USE_THEMES', true);
    require('./wp/wp-blog-header.php');
}
elseif (strstr($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'], "anotherdomain.com.))
{
    // redirect to the subdomain, passing the query string along
    header( 'Location: http://subdomain.anotherdomain.com'.$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) ;
}

If statement

In the wp-config.php file, code an if statement similar to above to determine what your url request is (eg: which domain name) and set the appropriate field to achieve the effect noted below.

Plug-in authors beware – plugins must be tested with these various schemes

Plugins must use these constants or run the risk of not working on some installations. Users should check all aspects of their plugins.

Configuration values

Multiple Installations in One Database

// You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each a unique prefix
$table_prefix  = 'r235_';   // Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!

define('DB_NAME', 'MyDatabaseName'); // Example MySQL database name

Share Code, but not Themes or Plugins

Move the wp-content directory and define the following:

define( 'WP_CONTENT_DIR', $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/blog/wp-content' ); and
define( 'WP_CONTENT_URL', 'http://example/blog/wp-content');

Warning if Moving

Don’t forget to change the settings in the Miscellaneous settings for your uploads

Advanced Options

There are more advanced options too, using for example:

  define('TEMPLATEPATH', get_template_directory());
  define('STYLESHEETPATH', get_stylesheet_directory());

Note: beware:
Multiple domains sharing the same wordpress installation must have the same permalink structure - changes to one will edit the .htaccess, which will then override the previously set permalink.

February 27, 2009March 27, 2009

Privacy, Anonymity, Authenticity, Customers…..

It is possible to arrange a supposedly “private domain” when one register a domain name. Legally one is required to keep the domain registration details up to date.

Currently the Internet Coalition for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) broadly requires that the mailing address, phone number and e-mail address of those owning/managing a domain name to be made publicly available through the “WHOIS” directories.

Some people do not want others to know who owns a domain, hence others offer “Domains by Proxy”. Essentially this means that “Domains by proxy” are listed as the owner of your domains. They receive all emails sent to the owners and then send them on to you. If you ever need to do something that requires you to prove ownership, then you need necessary documentation from “Domains by proxy” as you are not actually listed as the owner.

Would you trust a company when you did not know who it really was?

I believe that the public have a right to know who they are dealing with. It is generally recommended to provide contact details on your website and to present a “human face”. If you are in business and your domain name points to your business and your business details are on the web, then there is no point in having a private domain. If people cannot “see” who you are, they sometimes wonder what you have to hide.

Who wants to hide?

Usually scammers, spammers, speculators… That said, there may be political activists, controversial free speakers (or corporations posing as such?!) who feel they need to be anonymous.

If you really need to be anonymous, then a “private domain” may not actually be secure enough.

In most countries proxy owners are legally obliged to collect personal information from domain owners. They also require little persuasion to release domain owners’ contact information.

In that situation you are probably better of seeking other ways to be private. possibly by having someone you trust to be the domain owner and be prepared to deal with correspondence for you – prerferably someone who can weed out any scam traffic!

Proxy Cost?

If you really want to keep your ownership of a domain name private use a proxy service, the cost is roughly (US$10 per domain, per year), depending on who you use.

More info

For more information, wikipedia have a variety of articles:

and there are a variety of people advocating either way:

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/06/anonymous_domain_sales_a_spamm_1.html

My take

Unless you really have something to hide, don’t bother – the inconvenience and possible loss of public trust are not worth it. Already people think that itf a domain is anonymous then it must have something to hide. Some people advocate that ISP’s should just block anonymous domains, since they are usually scammers and spammers.