Category Archives: PHP

Orbital Feed Reader 0.1.5 Codenamed “CHICKEN HAT” is out!

Dev, PHP,

It’s been a busy couple of months for me. I’ve had my first user feedback on Orbital Feed Reader – a fella who’s trying to use it on GoDaddy’s Awful Hosting. I haven’t fixed all of his issues but I’m getting closer. Lil Peanut has been smiling, grabbing things, laughing, and peeing on me.

http://instagram.com/p/fYqTrGjpqD/

What’s in 0.1.5? Some bug fixes, some UI fixes and a way to change the SORT ORDER!

Feed Names

When you put in a feed to autodiscover it will show you the actual feed names instead of just the feed URL. This is important because it lets you choose among many feeds in a smarter way.
Feed Names on Orbital

Sort Order

Henry Vitoski pointed out that most people will want to use Orbital differently than I do. I’m a completist, I like to start at the bottom and read EVERY SINGLE THING. The rest of you apparently are more interested in seeing new things first and then delving into the past. Now there’s a way to change the sorting. It will remember whatever you choose.
See more details at the changelog page.

Wordprss is now Orbital Feed Reader

Dev, Javascript, PHP, wordpress, ,

When I talked with Aaron about the name of the feed reader for WordPress I’m working on, he pointed out that it seems awfully close to the actual name WordPress. It also is impossible to say. I asked lots of folks for new name ideas, this is the one that stuck for me.

Orbital, because:

  • You can see a lot from orbit
  • I really like the band

  • It is easy to say and there isn’t a feed reader already named Orbital

In other news, I’m working with folks to install it on their servers and show them how to use it. Be my Alpha Tester, please!

How to export a data file from a WordPress plugin

Dev, PHP, wordpress, ,

As part of my hacking on WordPrss, I got to a point where I wanted to let folks import and export OPML files.
Exporting a file from a WordPress plugin doesn’t seem to be very well documented. I found an older article about it – here’s my take.

Provide a link to the file export

Export the data

This file isn’t getting included in through the normal wordpress mechanisms, so it has to do some more work than the rest of your plugin does. If you want to use the $wpdb or other handy wordpress items, you have to include those in.
I was about to hack up a way to include wp-config.php or wp-load.php when I ran across the simply named Don’t Include WP-Load, Please. He recommends a clever way to handle it all within wordpress, which I quite like. See below.

Now you can build out your export file – in this case export_opml.php – knowing that all of the WordPress utilities are there for you to use.

WordpRSS Status Update: pretty sweet

Dev, PHP, Software, wordpress, , , , , , ,

Current image of wordprssI’ve been using my kaizen hack time to work on a social feed reader for WordPress. Right now, here’s what it can do:

  • Install itself and set up database tables
  • Put in a few sample feeds
  • Pull feed entries down into the database.
  • Display the list of feeds
  • When you select a feed, display the items

Continue reading WordpRSS Status Update: pretty sweet →

How to show WordPress page hierarchies

Dev, PHP, Software, wordpress, , , , , ,

Got a request for help from some the Eyebeam list. 1 The folks organizing the Urban Wilderness Action Center for the international Electrosmog festival 2 wanted some usability help.  Navigating between subpages of their projects was too confusing.

If you like the way the sub pages are listed out on, say, the Berlin Micro-Turf Expedition – here you go.

<?php
// Does this even have a parent?
if($post->post_parent) {
$parent_title = get_the_title($post->post_parent);
?>
<a href="<?php echo get_permalink($post->post_parent) ?>"><?php echo $parent_title;?></a>:
<?php } ?>
<?php
//ok let's find our sibling pages, but we don't need to list the current page
if ( ($post->post_parent) && (get_post($post->post_parent)->post_parent) )
$children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->post_parent."&exclude=".$post->ID."&echo=0");
else
$children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->ID."&echo=0");
if ($children) { ?>
<ul style="display:inline">
<?php echo $children; ?>
</ul>
<?php } ?>
  1. The Eyebeam folks are doing a cool skillshare on how “Tools and Models for Online Collaboration”  (back)
  2. It starts March 20th!  It’s completely free!  Go!   (back)