Yet Another Speed Bump, But Almost There…

I’VE HIT ANOTHER SPEED BUMP on the way to releasing the new version of my website folks; sorry for the – hopefully – last delay.

I was just about to release the new look and theme when the sodding developers released a new version of the base WordPress theme I’ve been extending, with enough changes to the base files that I need to now retrofit all the changes I’d been making in order to get the best usage from the theme itself.

All I can do is promise you that the new look is a major departure and I guess I should drop a few hints at this point about what you can expect.

For starters – you might have noticed I’m using consistent image sizes for recent posts, and that’s because I’m going for more of a magazine look to the new website, meaning a fixed width layout with consistent image sizes and thumnails for a more professional look.

I’ll also be featuring embedded videos of choice and providing some additional functionality for readers too. I plan to launch within a week (assuming I can retrofit the changes successfully) and then look to make more gradual changes over time, as the starting ones are so fundamental. Read more

WP-PHPBB WordPress Plugin

THIS IS A LITTLE GEM of a plugin, and I spent ages trying to find it on the web as the original authors site seems to be out of business at this point. Basically this plugin will allow you to display (and link to) the most recent phpbb forum posts from your wordpress site.

I spent the weekend building a framework portal / intranet site using WordPress and some plugins, and one of the items I wanted to do was provide this recent forum activity functionality in the sidebar of the portal solution. It’s a very simple plugin, simply upload it, activate it (like all plugins) and then call it from your sidebar.php file. Instructions are included in the zip file for more detailed information.

One thing to note though – this plugin code currently depends on the phpbb database tables and the WordPress tables residing in the same database. If you are interested in this plugin simply download WP-PHPBB.ZIP from my downloads section. Enjoy.

Weighted Words WordPress Plugin

I’VE HAD A NUMBER OF QUERIES today about the little piece of functionality I use on my site over there on the right hand side. I call it “Hot Topics“, but it’s basically a plugin for wordpress called “Weighted Words“.

I spent about 40 minutes trying to figure out how to present php code within a Wordpres post and eventually gave up, so for those of you who wanted to know how I’m calling this plugin – just take a look at my sidebar.php file – it’s straight forward enough.

Use the following instructions to get going:-

1. Download Weighted Words V1.1 plugin and unzip it to your local drive
2. Read the install file (“Weighted Words Readme.txt”) – it tells you what to configure
3. Upload Weighted_Words.php to your WP Plugins directory
4. Activate the plugin
5. Call the plugin from your sidebar.php file and adjust accordingly (e.g. word count, size etc.)

 That’s it – simple really. If you have any issues - let me know and I’ll do what I can to help you.

BF2 Stats Plugin

NOW THIS IS A LITTLE GEM OF A PLUGIN for WordPress. I came across this plugin while browsing the WordPress Support Forums and installed it immediately – given my recent addiction to playing Battlefield 2, an online stroke of genius, which some mere mortals continue to refer to as a game

Basically the plugin reproduces some key statistics from the online tracking service (BF2S.com) and enables said statistics to be displayed in one of my sidebars. If you take a look down the left hand side of the screen you will find a new section now which will remain a testament to many many wasted hours and mad skillz in the pursuit of ever more sneaky and evil ways to blow things up! The plugin can be downloaded from here and I promise you, it installs/configures in seconds.

I’ve always been a PC gamer as long as I could hold a keyboard, and even before (ZX80/81 anyone?), but this game has produced some serious levels of addiction due to it’s design, implementation and enforced teamwork. Oh well – another piece of trivia attached to the site. Enjoy.

New Site / Theme Launched!

AFTER A LOT of hard work, trial and error and countless sleepless nights I’ve finally released my new look / theme for Howl @ The Moon!; hopefully there are no fundamental bugs or flaws left in it at this point!

I have to thank Ender from CoyoteThunder.Com for the banner graphic. I’m useless at Photoshop stuff so it was great to have someone who could create what I wanted. Also a big thanks is due to the folks over at the WordPress Support Forums who provided invaluable feedback on various iterations of the theme during the development process and also helped me out with some CSS issues.

I had so many requests during the last few weeks to release this theme once it was complete that I created a Download area on the site, so if you want to get this theme for your own site please feel free to use it. All I ask is that you credit me with a link to this site for anyone who may need assistance / support for the theme.

I’ll stop talking now because this is beginning to sound like an Oscar speech

The Calm Before The Storm…

A period of relative calm has settled here at Howl @ The Moon!, as I prepare to upgrade the site to the latest version of WordPress and then transfer the site onto my latest theme. I’ve been busy working on a test site over here knocking the theme into shape and it’s ready to go, more or less. Still some small refinements, but I’m just about ready to do the upgrade and move the theme in place. Thing is – experience tells me to wait a day or so

I’m probably too tired and too focused to do this job right now – more than likely I’d make a complete bollox of it and miss something important in the process. So – I’m going to settle back for a day or so, wait for any last minute changes to come in (from reviewers) and then when I’m not as tired and shagged out as I feel now, I’ll do the transfer and launch the new site. Still – that’s a hell of a photo to induce some “calm” isn’t it?

New Look – What do you think?

Well – some late nights and lots of trial and error has resulted in an almost completed theme at the test site. I’m still working on a number of areas, but I’d be very interested in any feedback you may have on how it’s progressing at this stage. The title/banner needs work, the navigation menu will follow, I’m currently working on incorporating a flickr gallery and of course final tweaks have yet to be made… but the general theme and design is there to be seen at this point.

So – what do you think of the new look and direction? Any suggestions or advice? Please feel free to comment as now is the time to make the changes before I do the final transfer and upgrade. Thanks in advance.