You can view examples of what the plugin does by checking out the sidebar of any Envato Marketplace blog and look at the Popular Files section. A quick note, the code for those sections is in the functions.php and it is not currently using this new plugin, but they are basically the same code just less option oriented since we only need them to use one API set and not pull from multiple ones.

EDIT: I added it to my sidebar so you can see it right here in action.

Installation

• Upload the envato-marketplace-itmes folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
• Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress
• Anywhere on your blog you would like to see the thumbnail gallery add the following code to you theme files (sidebar.php recommended).

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<?php 
if (function_exists('envato_marketplace_items')) { 
  envato_marketplace_items(); 
} 
?>

Download File

• Envato Marketplace Items

Donations

• Make a donation and help keep the awesomeness flowing.

Disclaimer

SimplePie, Oh Yeah!

Yes, we are using the amazing SimplePie feed parser to aggregate feeds and give you fresh daily links, images, and even twitter updates with the ability to paginate all the content independently and at the same time. By “at the same time” I mean you can paginate one section and it will not loose the place of the other section. Just a little added bonus I thought might be good to have. Also, I opted to not use the WordPress plugin for SimplePie due to it’s restrictive feel, I needed to do some very customized code and the plugin was getting in the way.

I have to say that this was by far the most complex and interesting use of SimplePie I have ever created. Normally you would not use SimplePie to pull twitter updates because the RSS output is void of any links but with a little PHP string manipulation everything is working perfectly (I hope) and the main thing is we can paginate the updates; I’ve yet to see a JavaScript version that can paginate twitter forward and back.

Snapshot

Some Final Words

Well, I hope you enjoy the new site and I am very interested to see if the new larger design is going to be a hit or not. Also, to clarify only 8% of the users who visit Creattica Daily have a screen that is not 1200px or above. So, this was the perfect place to test out this kind of design.

I use this function on my site and pretty much on every other site I’ve ever built. However, the only different is this new code is leaner and will test many levels deep. A very handy tool for the custom type themes that seem to be popping up in the wake of what I am calling a WordPress feeding frenzy. The popularity of this platform has been growing exponentially and who can blame it, I absolutely love working with WordPress.

Anyhow, this is the first plugin I have submitted to be hosted in the Directory, mostly I just wanted to test out committing a plugin to the directory and this seemed like a logical place to start. If you’re interested in what was changed here is the code. Also, you can update the old functions code with this much better code.

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/**
 * The parameter can contain the page ID, or page name
 *
 * @since 1.0
 * @uses $post
 * @uses $wpdb
 *
 * @param mixed $page either int or string
 * @return bool
 */
if (!function_exists('is_page_or_ancestor')) {
  function is_page_or_ancestor($page = '') 
  { 
    global $post, $wpdb;
 
    // If is not numeric get page ID
    if (!is_numeric($page)) {
      $page = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_name = '".$page."' AND post_type = 'page'");
    }
 
    // Recursive search through page hierarchy
    if ( is_page($page) || ( is_array($post->ancestors) && in_array($page, $post->ancestors) ) ) {
      return true;
    }
    return false;
  }
}

Sample Usage

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if (is_page_or_ancestor('about')) { 
    DISPLAY SOMETHING
} else {
    DISPLAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT
}

Download File

• Version 1.1

Donations

• Make a donation and help keep the awesomeness flowing.

Disclaimer

For example, the cat_is_ancestor_of() function comes in really handy and does a lot of the heavy lifting for this simple but very powerful function. I use this very function to build complex category based navigation and test for active states and use the appropriate CSS in the change we’re actually in one of the categories we’re testing for. If you have question feel free to ask by commenting below and enjoy mastering WordPress!

The Function

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// If is category or subcategory of $cat_id
if (!function_exists('is_category_or_sub')) {
	function is_category_or_sub($cat_id = 0) {
	    foreach (get_the_category() as $cat) {
	    	if ($cat_id == $cat->cat_ID || cat_is_ancestor_of($cat_id, $cat)) return true;
	    }
	    return false;
	}
}

Sample Usage

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if (is_category_or_sub(1)) { 
    DISPLAY SOMETHING
} else {
    DISPLAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT
}

Donations

• Make a donation and help keep the awesomeness flowing.

Disclaimer

This is pretty much the same function as is_page(), it lets you pass in a page ID or slug, your choice, but the only real difference is that it goes beyond a single page and looks for a family relationship. The function will return true for all children and grandchildren of the page id or slug you pass in. For example, you want to show two different sidebars, one for normal content and one for the portfolio section. You would use this function to do that. First, copy and paste this code into your functions.php and then take a look at the usage example below.

EDIT:
You can get an updated version if this function and as a plugin if you got to here.

The Function

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//If is page or subpage of $my_page, works with both ID or name.
if (!function_exists('is_page_or_sub')) {
    function is_page_or_sub($my_page) {
        global $post, $wpdb;
	$grand_parent = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT post_parent FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE ID = '".$post->post_parent."' AND post_type = 'page'");
	// If you pass in a string, get the page ID of $my_page to use below
	if (is_numeric($my_page)==false) {
            $my_page = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_name = '".$my_page."' AND post_type = 'page'");
	}
	// If this is $my_page or the child or grandchild of $my_page return true 
	if ( is_page($my_page) || $post->post_parent == $my_page || $grand_parent == $my_page ) {
	    return true;
	} 
	// Else return false
        return false;
    }
}

Sample Usage

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if (is_page_or_sub('portfolio')) { 
    DISPLAY PORTFOLIO SIDEBAR
} else {
    DISPLAY REGULAR SIDEBAR
}

If you have any question feel free to comment below. Have fun taking over the internet one WordPress blog at a time.

Donations

• Make a donation and help keep the awesomeness flowing.

Disclaimer

Well, Vesper Dark is pretty much exactly the same as the original theme named Vesper. The only real differences are in the header colors. A lot of what I am about to say is copied from the original post but here goes again anyhow.

Just like the original, Vesper Dark is a free widget ready 2 column fixed width template written in valid standards based code for the Wordpress content management system. Vesper Dark supports second level subpage navigation that is very similar to our own here. Basically, if a top level page has child pages it will display them in the sidebar when viewing that page, even if you have widgets enabled.

As well, Vesper Dark has support for a more advanced paging navigation through the use of the wp-pagenavi plugin. The template has the pagination style built into the style.css file and removes the call to the default CSS file that comes with wp-pagenavi by a simple remove action in the functions.php file in the Vesper directory, so everything should work right out of the box.

In addition, Vesper Dark is Wordpress 2.6 compatible and should also work in previous version but has only been tested in 2.3 and above. You can download the latest version of Vesper below and play around with it. If you have any questions, found a bug, or think there is room for improvement to the code please leave a comment.

Screenshot

Download File

• Download

Installation

• Download Vesper Dark
• Unpack the zip file
• Upload the ‘vesper-dark’ folder and all of its contents to the ‘/wp-content/themes/’ directory
• Activate the theme through the ‘Design’ menu in WordPress
• Download the wp-pagenavi plugin by Lester Chan
• Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
• Done, enjoy!

Features

Features include: Excerpt Reloaded; WP-Pagenavi; Recent Posts; Widget-Ready; simple, clean, organized layout; Valid HTML; Valid CSS.

Donations

• Make a donation and help keep the awesomeness flowing.

Disclaimer

We love giving back to the open source community and thought what a better way than to build a beautiful template. Vesper is a free widget ready 2 column fixed width template written in valid standards based code for the Wordpress content management system. Vesper supports second level subpage navigation that is very similar to our own here. Basically, if a top level page has child pages it will display them in the sidebar when viewing that page, even if you have widgets enabled.

As well, Vesper has support for a more advanced paging navigation through the use of the wp-pagenavi plugin. The template has the pagination style built into the style.css file and removes the call to the default CSS file that comes with wp-pagenavi by a simple remove action in the functions.php file in the Vesper directory, so everything should work right out of the box.

In addition, Vesper is Wordpress 2.6 compatible and should also work in previous version but has only been tested in 2.3 and above. You can download the latest version of Vesper below and play around with it. If you have any questions, found a bug, or think there is room for improvement to the code please leave a comment.

Screenshot

Download File

• Download from the Wordpress.Org Theme Directory

Installation

• Download Vesper
• Unpack the zip file
• Upload the ‘vesper’ folder and all of its contents to the ‘/wp-content/themes/’ directory
• Activate the theme through the ‘Design’ menu in WordPress
• Download the wp-pagenavi plugin by Lester Chan
• Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
• Done, enjoy!

Features

Features include: Excerpt Reloaded; WP-Pagenavi; Recent Posts; Widget-Ready; simple, clean, organized layout; Valid HTML; Valid CSS.

Donations

• Make a donation and help keep the awesomeness flowing.

Disclaimer

We can all agree that having a secure web site is very important but what people forget is that you need to actually do a little work to make it that way. Yes, Wordpress does a good job of doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us, but there are always ways to improve. This post is dedicated to the simple but affective solutions for enhancing your sites security and lowering your chances of being hacked. Mind you if someone is determined to get in there isn’t a whole hell of a lot you can do to stop them, but there is a lot you can do to deter them hopefully just long enough to move on.

Always use the most recent version of Wordpress

Make sure you update your version of Wordpress when an update becomes available. The main reason for this is because some people are not like the rest of us morally obligated humans. They spend a great deal of their time finding our sites vulnerabilities so they can insert malicious code or even take it over. When Wordpress comes out with an update it is usually to fix these holes and make your site more secure. I know the process of doing this can be a bit laborious and for some just not an option. For that reason you should visit Techie Buzz to download their Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin which automates the process and makes backing up and upgrading your Wordpress super simple.

Change the default Username & Password

You should never use the default username or password that is given to you when you set up Wordpress. First, sign into the administrative section of Wordpress and reset your password to something at least 10 alphanumeric characters long. Also, be sure that is not a real word but a combination of two or more and a number or acronym. Make them work for it, right? You can also check out an article on blogherald called Protect Your Blog With a Solid Password that is of some use. Second, sign into the PHPMyAdmin through your web servers account center and change your username from “admin” to something much harder to guess. If you leave the username as “admin” you have basically made a hackers job that much easier because half the work is done.

Login Lockdown Plugin

Login LockDown is a useful plugin that monitors the login attempts to your site. Basically, it checks how many times in a short period the same IP range has tried accessing your administrative files. If, in that period of time, they exceed the number of attempts allowed, Login LockDown will essentially lock them out and no more access privileges for the period of time you previously set. This is good for deterring brute force attacks on your username and password.

Protect your Wordpress wp-admin folder

A simple but powerful plugin that adds a 2nd layer of security to your site by requiring a username and password to gain access to anything in the /wp-admin/ folder, is AskApache Password Protect. It’s really easy to use, all you need to do is create a second username and password and bam, you got some more protection. It works by writing a new .htaccess file for that folder, and encrypts your new password. It’s super simple to use and highly recommended.

Backup Your Posts/Pages and Comments

This is to make certain that your able to revert to an earlier clean version in the face of disaster. I could suggest a plugin or two but am not going to because I don’t trust them. I think you should always do a full manual database backup as often as you feel necessary and use the export feature in newer versions of Wordpress to do a basic backup between full database backups. Always save your files in a couple of location in case one gets corrupted so you don’t loose your mind later.

Loose the Wordpress version string.

Displaying which Wordpress version you are running can leave you vulnerable to attacks. Hackers usually run attacks based on specific versions because there are know issues they can exploit. If you are proudly showing the your version it could actually bite you in the ass. Make it harder and keep them guessing is always my motto.

Below you will find two perfectly good ways to manually change your version or make it disappear altogether. However, I wrote a Remove-My-Version plugin for Wordpress a couple days ago where you don’t have to change any of your files directly, for all you lazy folks. This works by either making the meta generator completely go away or by replacing the wp-version with a random alphanumeric set of characters. So it will work for everyone, even if you haven’t upgraded yet, which you should!

Old way, below version 2.4
Open header.php and find the line that looks like the text below and change it or delete it all together.

Change:

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<meta name="generator" content="WordPress <?php bloginfo('version'); ?>" />

To:

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<meta name="generator" content="WordPress" />

New way, version 2.4 & above
The Wordpress version generator was moved into the core and standardized, since so many themes did it differently. You can remove it by adding this to your theme’s functions.php:

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remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

Make a blank index.html for the /plugins/ directory

If you view http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-content/plugins/ in your browser you will see a directory list. This is problematic because someone could potentially look at your plugins and see if you are using one with known security vulnerabilities and exploit them. Just make a blank index.html and put it in the /plugins/ folder and this is all fixed. Pretty cut and dry.

Block search engines from crawling your wp- folders

There is no reason you need to have all of your Wordpress files indexed, so it’s probably just a good idea to block them so when people search they don’t see those files. You can block search engines from crawling your wp- folders by blocking access via robots.txt file. Simply add this line:
Disallow: /wp-*

Lock It Down

Well, I hope you found this informative and useful and I want to also mention that there are more ways to secure your site and this is by no means an exhaustive list, but more of a jumping off point. happy securing folks.

Donations

• Make a donation and help keep the awesomeness flowing.

Disclaimer

The Remove-My-Version plugin is very simple and works in all version of Wordpress but just differently depending on what you have. In versions before 2.4 it will change the version to be a random string of alphanumeric characters. However, in newer versions it simply removes it all together. In addition, the plugin changes the wp-version in your feeds for all installations for added security.

Installation

To install the plugin just upload the remove-my-version.php file to your wp-content/plugins/ directory and activate it through the administration panel. This plugin requires no configuration, it just works.

Download File

• Version 1.0

Donations

• Make a donation and help keep the awesomeness flowing.

Disclaimer