Web Development, UI Dev » Did you know?

How to Include jQuery in Your WordPress Thesis Blog

Justin — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 01:18:05 +0000

The Thesis wordpress theme comes with the option to include jQuery in a site-wide fashion or just on the home page. I checked that option out and it’s including jQuery 1.4.2, which is kind of old, since jQuery is at 1.6.2 as of right now. So I wanted to be able to include my own jQuery to make it more recent. Here is how I did that.

Copy the code below into your custom_functions.php:

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function footerscripts() {
?>

< ?
}
add_action('thesis_hook_after_footer', 'footerscripts');

Of course you could use one of the CDN hosted jQuery libraries and just use their version.

After I include the jQuery library I usually next include any scripts I need. I steer clear of putting javascript in the file itself and prefer to link it to an external javascript file, like I do on this site.

I hope this helped you figure out how to include jQuery in your thesis theme. Your comments are welcome.

Thesis Theme – Remove Comments are Closed

Justin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:17:18 +0000

This is one of the first things I do when creating a site for myself or a client using the Thesis theme. It’s annoying seeing on pages where you clearly don’t ever want comments.. It’s a pretty simple line of css that goes into custom/custom.css. Here it is:

1 2	/* remove comments are closed statement */ .custom .comments_closed p {display: none ;}

That’s it! one line if you remove my comment. I leave it in to search for when I need to find the code quickly.

Quick Twitter Tip When Changing Cell Carriers

Justin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:44:39 +0000

I have recently changed cell phone carriers and I guess that means I needed to update my cell phone at twitter because DM’s were not coming to my new phone. To fix this login to twitter and choose Settings -> Devices and choose “Delete and start over”. Next, enter your cell phone number and twitter will send a pin to your cell. Get the pin and enter it into the screen on twitter. Your cell phone will then be all set and you can get DMs through it or messages from users you have device updates turned on.

Hope this helps! My phone was quiet for a day before I figured this out! Kind of odd I know!

Sending ping.fm Updates Through Google Chat

Justin — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:14:37 +0000

I use google chat alot and also ping.fm. For those of you who are not familiar ping.fm is a service that will update alot of statuses at once, or individually using their @ commands. Ping.fm has made it alot easier to use their service now through google chat. You can add their “bot” to your google chat list and send it messages to post to your various social media profiles. Now if you want to update everything you can without even going to the ping.fm website. You can find instructions on how to send out ping.fm updates on their site here. How do you use ping.fm? Is it a good tool? I have heard both ways on it’s merits. If I send out a ping.fm update I usually check on that service within an hour to see if anyone has said anything back to me. Your comments are welcome!

A Little Nintendo Wii Tip

Justin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:33:47 +0000

It was brought to my attention I have not posted in here in a while. All is well I have been working on client sites and also adding content to a couple of my other blogs. Here is a post I did today that I thought would be good on here too. It’s a tip on how to be a better Dodgeball player on the game Playground for the Nintendo Wii. I won’t add duplicate content you can read about Wii Dodgeball Tips here. Enjoy!

Cyber Monday: Make Your Purchases Safe While Online

Justin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:06:22 +0000

Here are some quick tips to stay safe while making your online purchases.

Look for a customer service phone number. If you donâ€™t feel safe ordering online call and order.
When you are checking out and giving out sensitive information (credit card info, etc) make sure the address bar starts with â€œhttpsâ€ and not just â€œhttpâ€
Look for a clearly defined shipping and returns policy page.
DO NOT pay by check or money order. If the merchant is a fraud there is generally no recourse.
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Be wary of any online merchant that only accepts one type of payment such as paypal only or only check or money order.
Look for seals such as BBB, Buy Safe, or Hacker Safe. These sites have been thoroughly verified.
Be wary (itâ€™s still ok to order if you like) or online merchants who do not give a physical address for their store.
Research deals by going to sites such as google product search(formerly froogle).
If possible pay by credit card (not your checking account debit card). You will have more recourse should problems come up after the sale.

Remember to stay safe while online. The biggest thing is that if it seems too good of a deal to be true it probably is. Stay safe while shopping online!

Maximizing Your Links Toolbar

Justin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:21:55 +0000

I’m a big fan of the favicon. It’s great for branding purposes and now I have a new use for it. In Firefox I can click and drag a site to my links toolbar to quickly add it. Now I found you can maximize the space even more by just showing the favicon and not the title of the page! Check out the image below:

Now I have quick access to my commonly visited sites and can maximize the space used on my links toolbar! Too bad all of my favorites don’t have favicons or I would just have a big list of favicons on my toolbar.

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Using a Specific Favicon Per WordPress Theme

Justin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:33:34 +0000

I really like using the favicon. Favicons are great for branding purposes as they show up as a graphic in the URL bar and also when a page is bookmarked. While themes do not change much in WordPress I thought it would be nice to have a favicon that is specific for that theme. If I switch themes the new theme will need a favicon or nothing (or maybe the default favicon I haven’t tried that) will be shown. First create your 16×16 pixel favicon as described in this post and upload the file called favicon.ico to your BLOG/wp-content/themes/THEMENAME/images directory. Next up in the wordpress admin (or shell or text editor) open up the themes header.php file. Add this one line:

Download text file, WP (or server) won’t show the correct line.

You will then see your favicon in your browser window ONLY when browsing your site. Not in the wp-admin area because your theme is not being used in the admin area.

What do you think? Sure this is extra work as you could simply put this in the root folder but the geek in me likes the control. This could also be useful for distributing a free wordpress theme and branding.

What is CommentLuv?

Justin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:28:24 +0000

CommentLuv is a great WordPress plugin that will attempt to parse someones blog feed when they comment on your blog. It will parse their feed and display the latest post (or let the commenter choose if they are registered at CommentLuv.com). These links are usually “do-followed” meaning that the standard “nofollow” tag it not there. This will help give the commenters blog some “juice” and boost their search engine rankings or google page rank. The plugin is designed to attract more commenters because it is difficult for blogs to get comments as most readers are in a feed reader or subscribed by e-mail. A blog with comments shows that the blogger has some authority on the topic of the blog. I have also made a “CommentLuv” found here badge for my blog it is in the sidebar on the right.

When upgrading CommentLuv it is recommended that you download the latest plugin from the site, deactivate it, upload the plugin, and activate it. The author of the plugin mentioned that the automatic upgrade was missing some features. One of the missing features was that for the admin the CommentLuv image was not being shown on posts. This made it look like the plugin was not working until the admin logged out and went to a post. Now when the user is logged in the badge shows up, letting the blog owner know the CommentLuv plugin is active.

What are your thoughts on the CommentLuv plugin for WordPress? Leave me a comment and see it in action.