I have a few things I’d like to publish here that won’t fit on Twitter and will be easier to reference here than on IRC where I still may have discussed some of it already (in the #citrt channel). Now to find the time! Hopefully soon. Poor neglected blog… :-) Maybe with such a cool new backend I’ll post more often. Not that I posted at all while running the betas and release candidates…

If you don’t use a podcatcher such as iTunes to subscribe to podcasts, you can subscribe in Google Reader and stream episodes from your web browser, in addition to just downloading the MP3 file from the JesusGeek post directly.

The interview was complicated by a few connection losses while recording, so if the audio sounds awesome John gets the credit for making it work anyway, and if it has any issues, blame me! I also lost my notes about which WordPress plugins I was going to talk about in my XP-to-Vista conversion on my laptop and didn’t realize it until we were recording, so that was a bit more off-the-cuff than I had intended. Live and learn!

Austin, in his comment, links to an article in Scholoarpedia on Synesthesia which I begin to read and find rather interesting. However, as I get down to the “Top down and contextual effects” portion of the article, I notice that there’s a sentence with a typo in it, specifically “The second experiment (6) used an ambiguous grapheme (‘A’ or ‘H’) embedded either in between ‘T’ and ‘E’ (as in ‘THE’) or between ‘C’ and ‘A’ (‘CAT’).” If you notice, at the end there, the ambiguous grapheme as an ‘A’ really is between ‘C’ and ‘T’, not between ‘C’ and ‘A’ as the sentence states (this makes more sense looking at the image provided in the article to illustrate).

Now, I was feeling generous and figured, hey, why not mention this to someone at the site so they can fix it? Actually, my first thought, being linked into the middle of the article, was “I already have a Wikipedia account, I’ll just fix this for them real quick.” Of course, they use the same MediaWiki software and default theme (hence the confusion, especially when linked to an anchor within an article), but Scholarpedia is not actually Wikipedia, as I quickly infer (and I haven’t had a scientific paper with a model named after me published with over 250 hits in Google–yet, if ever–so I can’t create an account). No problem, I’m sure there’s a contact form around. Nope. I can’t find one, anywhere on the site. Well, I just noticed the only email address I’ve run across on the site, suggestions @ scholarpedia.org, hidden away on the detailed requirements for authors page. No useful information on the About page, or the Help page. Oh wait, on the Instructions for authors page, it does have a random other email address, for a specific person. But they seem pretty much of the opinion that if you aren’t a famous scientist, you have no need to contact them about anything. Ironically, their Copyright page even says to “Contact Scholarpedia for copyright details.” Without mentioning a way to do so.

Oh well, maybe I’ll grab those two random email addresses I found and send them a quick note. If I get around to it; they can certainly find it here if they bother to look. I guess sometimes it takes is someone who graduated high school after being homeschooled to find the errors the super-genius scientists miss… ;-)

Thus ends this rant. Thanks, I feel better now. School 100% complete for the semester as of a very short time ago, so I’m quite happy to work the hot-air typing muscles for a few before getting to bed later than I should, again (but the exam got completed and submitted!).

Some Major New Features:

• Administration area redesign
• Widget-based administration Dashboard, customizable
• Draft auto-save improved
• Search now searches pages by default (no plugin required)
• Add unlimited copies of any widget to your sidebar(s)
• Semi-automatic Plugin upgrade
• New tag management area
• Built-in support for Gravatars (Gravatar is now owned by Automattic)
• Other cool stuff I can’t think of right now, plus minor cool stuff that adds up to coolness :-)

General Information:

Good info about WordPress 2.5, along with some upgrade information:

• Lorelle’s WordPress 2.5 Upgrade Preparation Checklist (there’s so much information here…read this before you upgrade, period!)
• Screencast of the new Admin Interface in action
• Lorelle made the announcement before I did about the release (her blog has a wealth of information!)
• So did WeblogToolsCollection, not surprisingly
• Are You Ready for WordPress 2.5? (has many links to other resources as well)
  
• WordPress Codex page with 2.5 features
• Codex: Upgrading WordPress
• Developer post with changes made a few weeks ago and this past week (peek into a bit of what went into this version!)
• The changelog of all 1300 individual changes for this version

I, of course, am now running the final WordPress 2.5 release on several sites already, including this one!

One thing I did notice: Even in the final 2.5, on all the sites I’ve switched, is that at the bottom of the admin interface it still says, “You are using a development version (2.5). Cool! Please stay updated.” That is usually only shown on the trunk revisions (hence the term “development version”) and not in a final release, so it looks like they may have forgotten to change that for the final release, unless I’m doing something wrong!

Upgrading with Subversion:

To upgrade WordPress, my recommendation, if your host allows shell access and has Subversion installed, is to switch over to running your WordPress installation based on a subversion repository checkout. There are instructions in the Codex on how to install WordPress using Subversion (using the “svn” command), and I have done this what feels like countless times with much success (Joost de Valk has a good post about this as well). The basics go something like this, to install version 2.5:

1. Start with an empty directory that is the folder to install WordPress into (make a backup of your existing install and move it first if you have one).
2. Inside that directory (using an SSH shell), type this (don’t forget the final period):
   svn co http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/2.5 .

3. Visit the URL to the directory you just installed into from a web browser and walk though the usual steps to create wp-config.php, set up the database and complete the installation.
4. If you backed up an old install, move your themes, uploads and plugins back into the proper folders in the new structure.

From now on, the files created by the Subversion checkout will be updated when you use Subversion to “switch” to a different version, but files you create (like plugins, themes, uploads, your wp-config.php file) will be left alone and are safe through upgrades. Subversion only updates files that have changed so it is an efficient upgrade method. To switch from one version to another, just run this command from a shell in the same folder as above:

svn sw http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/2.3.3/

That will change your installation over to version 2.3.3, but be careful in practice to never “downgrade” to a prior version, as Subversion updates files but not the database (after an upgrade, the next time you visit the administration area you are prompted to update the database if the new version has made changes). If you switch to a prior version, it will likely choke on the database that has been changed for a newer version! You can also install or switch to the trunk, which is where current development happens and may be broken or insecure, so only do this on test installations. To install the trunk, use this command (include the final period!):

svn co http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/trunk/ .

And to switch to trunk from a prior version, use:

svn sw http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/trunk/

In addition, if you’re running trunk, and you want to update to the very newest changes, just run this command:

svn up

If you know the shell at all, you have access to it, and the Subversion “svn” client is installed, running like this makes it very easy to upgrade–especially if you run multiple WordPress installations like I do! If it weren’t this simple, I’d probably be running WordPress 1.5 still :-)

One of the other excellent features in WordPress 2.5 is the ability to upgrade plugins from the Plugins panel in the administration area, as long as you know the FTP username and password. If you use Subversion for your main WordPress install and the new Plugin upgrade feature for your plugins, it should significantly reduce the time required to keep your WordPress installation up-to-date! (It is possible to add plugins to your Subversion install as “externals” so you get the trunk copy of any plugins you run updated whenever you run the “svn up” command, but this is a bit advanced and the new upgrade feature should negate most of these benefits.)

WordPress is amazing, I just wish there was enough time in the day for me to experiment with even some of the things I haven’t done with it. This list of 48 Unique Ways To Use WordPress is inspiring! I’ll take comfort that at least one thing on the list we’re already doing: using it for sermons (#34)!

You are reading the result of yesterday’s work. I have not found any incompatibilities with my theme. I’ve used the new auto-upgrade feature to upgrade about 5 Plugins to newer versions from right within the administration panel, which works in most cases (depending on the Plugin), and is very, very awesome given the number of WordPress installations I help maintain! I also replaced the aging WP-Cache Plugin with the excellent WP Super Cache, a worthy replacement and an even easier install!

Comment Spam

The Akismet anti-spam Plugin was disabled without me noticing for some reason (I could have clicked it accidentally, I have no idea if it was a result of the upgrade). After getting eight spam comments (only half caught in moderation automatically) within an hour that I had to deal with manually, Akismet was re-enabled in short order with just a click! (Do spammers count as neighbors for that Bible verse? I hope not…although I guess we could “hate the spam, love the spammer,” right? :-)

Administration Area

The color scheme and layout of the Administration area has certainly changed. Some people love it, others hate it. I like more than I dislike. Some things work better, or differently, or more accessibly. Having all areas of the Write Panel available only by scrolling down will take a little getting used to. But the Manage interfaces for Posts and Pages has improved and displays more information in a smaller area, with excellent additional filtering options.

One of the first things to notice when editing a new or old post is that the TinyMCE visual text editor has been replaced with the new version 3 of the same. I’m enjoying the upgrade tremendously! It works more smoothly, has more options, and has no bugs I can find yet! It adds a full screen composition mode, which makes concentrating on writing a post without distraction that much easier, and it’s available with a toggle toolbar button or the shortcut Alt+Shift+G. On the extended options bar (click the far-right toolbar button in the editor), most of the options remain the same but the Help is excellent if you need it, and there is an “Insert / Edit Embedded Media” button that lets you do just that from a variety of media types, with a preview.

But the best media addition is the Add Media buttons above the editor itself, allowing you to easily insert images, video, audio, and media (like PDF files, etc.) by linking to a URL or uploading. I haven’t tested this much but the interface is slick and I believe it will embed YouTube videos, for example, without you needing to know all the codes or install a Plugin (like I said, I haven’t tested this and I’m not 100% sure). You can also browse the Media Library (also available under its own Manage panel) to insert existing media. This is an area badly in need of improvement and they’ve done a great job!

In addition, you can now Manage tags (without an additional Plugin, although I still like and use Simple Tags), and the Comments area has been redesigned. Everywhere you go in the Administration area you can see how many moderated comments await your approval, with the balloon count up next to the Comments tab. The method for editing Sidebar Widgets has completely changed. The interface for adding tags to posts has changed slightly. And numerous other changes that are slipping my mind at the moment! So far I have not run into any plugins that refuse to work entirely in 2.5, and I have a lot of plugins installed! (Somewhere in the ballpark of 30 I think).

Conclusion

Come Monday, what do I recommend? Backup your database (and files), do the upgrade, test and see how it works. You can always go back with the backup. If you’re not comfortable with it, wait a couple of weeks to see if the bugs get worked out and make sure that the Plugins you are using have been tested with 2.5 before making the jump. And keep in mind, this is the first attempt at an Administration redesign since 1.x somewhere, so the design itself is like a beta. I’m sure it will get refined in future releases. But I’m enjoying a much more bug-free visual editor, options that make more sense, and a more navigable interface right now!

Before you critique:

• Yes, the header image of our building (a holdover from the old site) will be replaced. Some areas already have new headers, we’re just waiting for the rest to be finished up.
• Most (if not all) of the pages, including the homepage, are valid XHTML. We checked.
• The sermon podcast feed is coming, we’re working on some technical details of the iTunes listing first, and I already took care of some of the technical issues of FeedBurner redirection (FeedSmith plugin required a few tweaks to forward a separate podcast feed).
• Print stylesheets are on the to-do list but aren’t implemented yet.
• Extended upcoming event information has yet to be entered.
• Some people listed on the site need to be hyperlinked to contact info. I’m researching the best way to do this without exposing them to spam scrapers, whether a contact form or perhaps a solution based on this email obfuscation article. There’s also this WordPress Plugin, which I like but have a few issues with. A combination of the two sounds best; whether I’ll leave this up to someone else or try and tackle it myself I’m not sure of.
• I’d like to add some Microformat markup in several places, using the hCard spec.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, but I think we have a pretty good foundation. In addition to the above finishing touches, we can now refocus our attention towards doing something about the Lakeview Worship site, desperately in need of equal attention but still the home of our excellent new worship CD, not that I’m biased or anything :-)

And thus 2007 comes to a close, with a not-so-subtle nod to HTML/XML closing tags. Which is fitting; I’ve spent a good chunk of time with the church websites this past quarter. The results aren’t public yet, but things are moving along. (There’s a poll to take at the end of this post, for good readers who make it to the end or bad ones who skip ahead ;-)

The past week and a half have been very relaxing. My in-laws came around Christmas, and are back through tomorrow. It’s been good to see them, and my son is enjoying getting to know them a little since they live 2.5 hours away, and his long-term memory isn’t all that great yet! He turned one last week, and immensely enjoyed his banana bread “cake,” some of the most sugar he’s been allowed to eat.

I’ve had less time to spend online than I’d planned, and the time I did spend was primarily reading, learning, and helping a friend get his website up and running (he used to be Lakeview’s Media Pastor, now he’s a professor and runs video production company Media 21 on the side). I also spent some time reading through WordPress core source code and Trac. I was able to submit two or three small patches that may or may not make it in some form into WordPress 2.4, coming out in January! I also updated most of my WordPress installs, including this blog, to version 2.3.2 within seven hours of it being released this past Saturday.

WordPress Babblings

Why the focus on WordPress? Well, I calculated recently, and I’m actually involved with (running myself or set up for work or family or friends) twelve WordPress installations right now! This blog runs forty WordPress Plugins, and some of those I use on the other installs as well! I’ve been having a lot of fun working with WordPress from the technical side, but this past semester, as I’ve mentioned, I had a Technical Writing class that pretty much took all of my writing creativity, resulting in my lowest monthly post count ever in December! I thought when the semester ended I’d be right back in the saddle here (and I managed a post or two), but it turns out I needed a break!

If you’re interested, here’s an approximation of what those twelve WordPress installations I mentioned are:

• This blog (1)
• My son’s blog (1)
• My wife’s blog (1) (now about obsessions and compulsions! Some of which I share, or at least strongly approve…)
• Pastor Nathan’s blog (1)
• Blogs of a missionary from Lakeview and a Director at the Indiana Assemblies of God District Office (2) (still somewhat in development)
• Two WordPress-as-Content Management System installs for Lakeview, not public yet (2)
• Media 21 website for Rob Price (1)
• An inactive install at one of my domains for testing (1)
• An old blog I ran for a while a few years ago (1) (Don’t you wish I’d give you a link? It’s not hard to find!)
• An unofficial blog for my homeowners association (not turned over to residents from the builder yet, can’t get enough people out to the meeting to vote! Hence blog!) (1)

That makes twelve! I may also get around to setting up an internal WordPress installation for our intranet, which is how I got started with WordPress for the church in the first place but of course, the intranet got stuck on the back burner!

I’ve promised in the past that I would post about the work I’ve been doing on the church websites and converting them to WordPress. As you can see, I’ve been doing a lot more with WordPress than just the church, and I’ve discovered a lot of tips, tricks, plugins, and all kinds of WordPress stuff, and a lot of general website stuff as well! I know some Church IT readers are interested in this kind of thing, as they are involved with or are responsible for their own church websites. Others probably don’t care in the least! I don’t want to overwhelm readers with WordPress and websites, but I’m curious how many of you are interested.

Why have I not written much about WordPress until now? Like I said, I haven’t been sure how many of you would be interested. Also, I kept finding new information so fast I didn’t have time to post the old. And I wanted to provide some context first; I want to start at the very beginning. (“…a very good place to start. When you read, you begin with A B C.” Oh wait, this isn’t the Sound of Music! :-) Anyway, I want to start at the beginning and describe the reasons for choosing WordPress, what the catalyst was for the project, what steps we’ve been taking, what’s changed as the project has continued (another reason not to post, things keep changing!), and then get to the meat like plugins and links and implementation. I haven’t had the time to fill in the high level stuff yet, so I’ve skipped jumping in in the middle! Another good reason to hold off is politics. Not the presidential election, as interesting as that may be to some, but a church website at a larger church has reach among many areas and departments, and while the sailing has been more smooth than I could have hoped for on a project of this size (really! I have awesome coworkers!), there are always bumps and friction when working with others and I don’t want to publicly vent or air dirty laundry.

End of the year…and more WordPress Babblings

This is the part where I say Happy New Year! And also where I ask you to vote for how much I should talk about WordPress and websites here in 2008:

(Poll coming here as soon as I get the darn plugin working correctly! Sorry!)
There should be a post tomorrow as well; as they say, when one tag closes, another opens! :-D