HS.Hannah Stothard | Web Designer & Front End Web Developer

i love arty crafty things, making websites, interiors, travelling & growing my own veg.

recent posts

May 2011

WordPress to end support for IE 6

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I’ve just been checking out the release notes for the upcoming WordPress 3.2 and it came to my attention that they will  no longer be providing support for IE6. Yippeeeee!

It would seem that the argument for dropping support for IE6 is starting to have some real weight behind it. With WordPress following in the footsteps of many other big names over the last 18 months including Google, YouTube and finally Microsoft themselves it looks like the task of convincing clients to apply the method of graceful degradation is going to become a much easier task.

Apr 2011

WordPress Comments Form – How to change HTML

Posted in web | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

I searched high and low for a good tutorial on how to change the HTML of the wordpress comment form. From the articles I did find I managed to put together something that works. Feel free to post a comment if there is a better way of doing this…

I put the below code in functions.php and comment_form(); in my comments.php

The code below is my modified version. For defaults simply add or replace my code with http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/comment_form

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add_filter( 'comment_form_defaults', 'my_comment_defaults');
 
function my_comment_defaults($defaults) {
	$req = get_option( 'require_name_email' );
	$aria_req = ( $req ? " aria-required='true'" : '' );
 
	$defaults = array(
		'fields'        	   => array(
		'author' => '<div><label for="author">' . __( 'Name' ) . ( $req ? '<span class="required">*</span>' : '' ) . '</label> ' . '<input id="author" name="author" placeholder="your name" type="text" value="' . esc_attr( $commenter['comment_author'] ) . '" size="30"' . $aria_req . ' /></div>',
		'email' => '<div><label for="email">' . __( 'Email' )  . ( $req ? '<span class="required">*</span>' : '' ) . '</label> ' . '<input id="email" name="email" placeholder="email@address.co.uk" type="email" value="' . esc_attr(  $commenter['comment_author_email'] ) . '" size="30"' . $aria_req . ' /></div>'
                ),
		'comment_field' => '<div><label for="comment">' . _x( 'Comment', 'noun' ) . '</label><textarea id="comment" name="comment" cols="45" rows="8" aria-required="true"  placeholder="your comment"></textarea></div>',
 
		'must_log_in'          => '<p class="must-log-in">' .  sprintf( __( 'You must be <a href="%s">logged in</a> to post a comment.' ), wp_login_url( apply_filters( 'the_permalink', get_permalink( $post_id ) ) ) ) . '</p>',
 
		'logged_in_as'         => '<p class="logged-in-as">' . sprintf( __( 'Logged in as <a href="%1$s">%2$s</a>. <a href="%3$s" title="Log out of this account">Log out?</a>' ), admin_url( 'profile.php' ), $user_identity, wp_logout_url( apply_filters( 'the_permalink', get_permalink( $post_id ) ) ) ) . '</p>',
 
		'comment_notes_before' => '<fieldset>',
 
		'comment_notes_after'  => '</fieldset>',
 
		'id_form'              => 'commentform',
 
		'id_submit'            => 'submit',
 
		'title_reply'          => __( 'Leave a Comment' ),
 
		'title_reply_to'       => __( 'Leave a Reply %s' ),
 
		'cancel_reply_link'    => __( 'Cancel reply' ),
 
		'label_submit'         => __( 'Comment' ),
 
                );
 
    return $defaults;
}

You will notice I have made the following modifications

  • Removed the website field
  • Added type=”email” to the Email field (HTML5)
  • Added placeholder text (HTML5)
  • Removed the default text from the top and bottom of the form and replaced with <fieldset></fieldset>
  • Moved the required * inside the label
  • Changed the “Leave a Reply” title to “Leave a Comment”
  • Changed the text of the submit button
Mar 2011

WordPress 404 on Custom Post Types

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I came across a nightmare of a problem today. Everytime I viewed my custom post types I kept getting a 404 error.  I just couldnt understand what was going on.  Thanks to this article I finally solved the problem.

When setting up custom post types and a custom permalink structure add the below code to the function used to create custom posts.

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flush_rewrite_rules( false );

I just wanted to write a quick post to highlight the problem but an explanation of why this is needed can be found on the wordpress codex.

Mar 2011

WordPress Tips, Tutorials and Plugins

Posted in web | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

I thought I would put together a quick list of tips, tutorials and plugins that I have found useful recently.

1. Getting Thumbnail Images working in WordPress Multisite:

Something that really baffled me over the last week is missing post thumbnails in my WordPress Multisite Install. After searching high and low I finally found the solution. To enable post thumbnails simply navigate to Network Admin (top right hand corner) and then to Settings.  Within Settings tick the check box for Image Uploads. You may then need to navigate to Screen Options (top right hand corner again) and tick the check box for Featured Image. This will also enable the small image icon above the WYSIWYG used for adding images into the post itself. Video etc can also be enabled in the same place.

2. Mixing together custom post types in listing

So you’ve created several post types, one for portfolio items, one for products etc etc but instead of displaying them on their own individual listing pages you need to mix them together in the same loop and order by date… Here is the answer. Place the below code before your loop to query the custom post types you require.

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query_posts( array(
'post_type' =&gt; array(
'custom-post-type-portfolio',
'custom-post-type-products',
),
'paged' =&gt; $paged ) // for paging
);

3. How to use a plugin in your template if only a shortcode is provided

As soon as I download a plugin I search through the documentation to find the template tag. Maybe its a bit old school but I prefer to add plugins into my templates so that I can place them exactly where I want, configure them as I need and style around them. But sometimes all your provided with is a shortcode. These can be turned into template tags by following these instructions.

Functions.php

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<span>add_<span>shortcode</span>('<span>shortcode</span>_name', 'template_tag');</span>

Your template

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<span>echo do_<span>shortcode</span>("[<span>plugin</span>_<span>shortcode</span>_here]");</span>

4. Multiple Content Blocks
Something that has always bugged me about WordPress is the inability to split page content into manageable CMS chunks. Yes you can create custom fields and custom sidebars but what happens when there is a whole block of content that you would like the user to have WYSIWYG editing control over? The answer is this plugin Multiple Content Blocks It does exactly what it says on the tin and transforms WordPress into a functional CMS much along the lines of Drupal and CMS Made Simple. Love it!

5. Popular posts & Related Posts
Its pretty popular these days to have a section on a site displaying the most popular post or related posts. My all time favourite plugins for this are by Rob Marsh. Simple and easy to configure Robs plugins although slightly old these days still provide the best configuration options and are easy to template and style.

Feb 2011

How to use Post Formats in WordPress 3.1

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WordPress 3.1 has seen the introduction of Post Formats. They provide the ability to target posts within templates using get_post_format() and through css using the extra classes wordpress now adds automatically to posts. This will save on creating extra categories or tags just for targeting and styling these types of content.

So how does it work…

Functions.php
Add this to the functions.php file in your theme. You only need to list the formats you wish to use.

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// This theme uses post formats<br/>
add_theme_support( 'post-formats', array( 'aside', 'gallery', 'link','image', 'quote', 'status', 'video', 'audio', 'chat' ));



You will then see a list of radio buttons in your edit post right hand column.

Styling
Once a type is selected you can style using the following class added to your post on listing pages

and using the following class added to your tag on single pages.

Templates
Within your templates you can target posts by format using the following code

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 if ( has_post_format( 'image' )) {
  echo 'this is an image format';
}
Feb 2011

WordPress 3.1

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Yesterday saw the release of WordPress 3.1 and it has some pretty nice features for both general users and developers like myself.

New Admin Bar
An admin bar has been added when logged in. Its a nice little touch for the not so experienced wordpress user. It makes the admin section and the front end appear more seamless by allowing you to click through to create a new post, manage your personal details, appearance, comments and updates whilst browsing the front end of your site. For multisite users it makes switching between sites quick and easy.

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