studionashvegas | WordPress Development, Web Design, Social Media, and Marketing in Nashville, TN

I had the pleasure of doing a great interview session with Cliff Ravenscraft of GSPN.TV a few days ago.  We talked a lot about WordPress, podcasting with WordPress, and the plugins I use to make sure my blogs/sites are running in tip-top shape.

You can listen to the show, as well as see the plugins with links, on the show page.

For those of you who don’t know I’ve released my new site, The WordPress Doctor.  It’s going to be specifically geared towards WordPress related articles, theme and plugin discovery, theme hacks, and other WordPress goodness.  So, go check it out!

Also, the contact form is fixed now, so if you were looking to get a project estimate, now’s the best time to fill out that form and send me a message!

So am I.  I  make changes a lot live on the server (using the Web Dev Toolbar), and I have to hard-refresh every time I make a change.  Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it cuts down on valuable time that could be done… well, not refreshing a page.  There is a way; versioning your CSS file.  The upside: it makes changes go live automatically without having to clear the cache.  The downside: it’s difficult to do, because the correct way to do it is by adding v=XXX manually every time you make changes.

Unless… you can find a way to do it automatically.  And Mark Jaquith has done just that.

<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/style.css?v=<?php echo filemtime(TEMPLATEPATH . '/style.css'); ?>" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" />

So what does the ‘filemtime’ function do?  From the PHP website:

This function returns the time when the data blocks of a file were being written to, that is, the time when the content of the file was changed.

So everytime you change the file, the new change time gets parsed in using PHP and you’re able to have a new version every time.

Thanks to Mark for this great (and really clever) tip!

Using images on a design is pretty well necessary in today’s visually stunning web.  However, while images look great, there’s no substitute for text when it comes to Search Engine Optimization.  But is there a way to get the visual effect of an image while still having the SEO benefits of text?

With CSS, there absolutely is.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Seriously, I had a great time today at BarCampBham.  They have a lot of other events happening this year (including WordCamp and SocialSouth) so stay tuned because I’ll be talking about them on here I’m sure.

I’m down here at the Innovation Depot in Birmingham, AL for BarCampBirmingham, and even though I was a little late I’m really digging what I’ve seen so far. There’s a really tech-savvy crowd here today, with a lot of really new and interesting topics (mobile web, twitter for business, and even some other WordPress developers). 

I didn’t get a good look at the session board (just saw this session I’m in right now) but I’m really looking forward to seeing what other people are speaking on.

I’ll be tweeting/blogging about it today (trying to get back into a blogging habit is hard, after all), but I hope to share some of the great things I learn, because I think it’s going to be quite a bit.

Whoops – it would be nice to actually have an article here, huh?

I just finished Jeremiah Owyang’s new blog design, and I have an article on his blog detailing the process and why I did some of the things that I did.  You can check it out here!

People always say that I’m a numbers guy.  This commercial feeds that love.  The stats have to come from somewhere (I’d love to see the data behind it), but it’s still interesting to see how many people are using the mobile web. 

My favorite line: “233,000 people just sent a tweet on twitter.  26% of you don’t know what that means”.  But then again, that means 74% do.  Is it really that prevalent?

So, by far, today’s PodCampNashville was one of the most fun events that I’ve been to in the last while. I made a lot of new connections, but the best part was hanging out at the after party and just reveling in the “real life” of things.  Sure, we all met online, but it’s a driving community spirit that keeps us all coming back for more (that, and the fact that @TROnash still has a #gpsassassins smack-down coming, but that’s beside the point).

I think my presentation went well, but it was little strange having people come up to me and say they came just to see my presentation.  It’s a little unnerving sometimes; having people who look to you in that manner is a heavy responsibility… one I take with great honor and responsibility.  Honestly, John Morgan, I’m not sure how you don’t crack under the pressure sometimes

For those of you who were at my presentation, and for those of you who missed it, here are the slides below:

And, (insert shameless plug) if you’re looking for a podcast delivered daily with a bite-sized chunk of WordPress goodness… feel free to subscribe to the WordPulse podcast!

Oh, and here’s the video from NewsChannel5 in Nashville.  I *think* I’m up on stage giving the presentation… can’t tell, though.

If you do like I do and schedule posts ahead of time (especially on the podcast), there’s a way inside of WordPress to show your readers what posts are coming up next:

<?php
$my_query = new WP_Query('post_status=future&order=DESC&showposts=5');
if ($my_query->have_posts()) {
    while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
        <?php the_date(); ?> - <?php the_title(); ?>
    <?php endwhile;
}
?>

This will display up to 5 “scheduled” posts wherever you drop in the code.  Add a headline <h2> tag if you want to give it a title (should you want to use it as a widget).

Want to see this code in action?  Check the WordPulse podcast page’s sidebar to see it working!