Finally, the WordPress Google Analytics Alternative!

by Seth Czerepak September 25^th, 2012 9 Responses

Tired of logging in to the Google analytics dashboard to see what’s going on with your WordPress site?

Well now you can see exactly what’s going on with your WordPress site, without having to fumble through the complicated settings in the Google analytics dashboard or relearn it very time Google changes the layout.

I’m talking about a FREE, real time analytics WordPress plugin called Wassup.

Okay, so maybe the plugin name is a little “Generation x,” but check out what this plugin does and I think you’ll be ready to download is and see Wassup for yourself.
No Kidding, REAL TIME WordPress Visitor Statistics

development, tutorials

WordPress Plugin Construction for the Non Programmer: Part VII

by Seth Czerepak September 11^th, 2012 2 Responses

Welcome to the seventh post in my series on building a WordPress plugin from scratch. This tutorial series requires no programming experience, but I do suggest you start from the first post in this series if you’re a total newbie to WordPress development. Just a couple things to keep in mind about this series if you’re just tuning in:
Five Official “Cover my Butt” Statements

At the time of this writing, the most up to date WordPress version is 3.4.1. It might be different by the time you read this.

Development

A Visual Guide To Setting Up WordPress for Business Sites

by Craig Grella September 5^th, 2012 2 Responses

SimplyBusiness, a UK based company, has recently created an easy-to-read online flowchart for installing and maintaining a WordPress website for business purposes.

The WordPress installation flowchart follows a 24 step process where you answer simple yes/no questions regarding your installation and WordPress acumen, and get design specific tips from leading WordPress websites across the globe (including this one!).

Development, Plugins & Theme Tutorials, Tutorials

WordPress Plugin Construction for the Non-Programmer: Part VI

by Seth Czerepak August 28^th, 2012 Leave a comment

Welcome to the sixth post in my series on building a WordPress plugin from scratch. This tutorial series requires no programming experience, but I do suggest you start from the first post in this series if you’re a total newbie to WordPress development.

Just a couple things to keep in mind about this series if you’re just tuning in:
Five Official “Cover my Butt” Statements

At the time of this writing, the most up to date WordPress version is 3.4.1. It might be different by the time you read this.

Development

Why Adding Custom Styles to WordPress Plugins is a Bad Idea

by Patrick Cohen August 18^th, 2012 3 Responses

“What? I can’t style my WP plugins? Oh no!”
Depending on how you go about it, adding custom styles to WP plugins can lead to a real clunker of a site. But don’t fret, although it is a bad idea to add styles to the plugins you have installed on your WP site, there is a better way. Let’s take a look at why you shouldn’t, then we’ll see how you can.

Reason #1

WP Plugins Custom Styles - Adding custom styles to WordPress plugins is a bad idea (6)

Community, development

Stay Informed with WordPress.org Notifications

by Paul Kaiser August 6^th, 2012 Leave a comment

Do you develop or contribute to WordPress? Participate in support forums? As you probably know, a group of official blogs exists for people like you. The “Make WordPress.org” group is home to P2-themed microblogs for the following development areas:

Core
Support
Plugins
UI
Accessibility
Themes
Polyglots
Systems

Keeping your ear to the ground
Some of these blogs can go awhile without seeing any traffic, but you can subscribe to individual “Make” blogs by email and RSS–hopefully ringing your bell when new topics of interest come around.

Just yesterday, August 4th, the team added a new way to keep your ear to the ground. Dubbed “WordPress.org Notifications,” it notifies you:

WordPress Notifications-Girl listening to playground ear trumpet

Development

4 Ways to Provide Better WordPress Plugin Support

by Paul Kaiser July 27^th, 2012 Leave a comment

When a WordPress site uses your plugin and something goes wrong, they usually need help as soon as possible. Even if your plugin is freely-available in the WordPress Plugin Directory, it’s a good idea to provide prompt user support. After all, a good reputation will serve you well should you decide some day to develop premium plugins for a profit. Good customer service is more visible than great coding, and should be taken seriously.
Find out about user problems ASAP

Development, Tutorials

Using Subversion with the WordPress Plugin Directory

by Paul Kaiser July 24^th, 2012 1 Response

Follow these step-by-step instructions to add and update plugins in the public WordPress Plugin Directory.

Essential steps from the video follow
Getting started with your plugin
Whether you just have an idea or are nearly finished with version 0.1, you need a name and description for your plugin. Make the name short and descriptive, giving some idea what the plugin does. “Wax on Wax off Plugin” is not a good name. “Drop Shadow Maker” is much better. You don’t need to add “Plugin” to the actual title.

wordpress subversion-Confusing control panel represents new developer fear

BuddyPress, BuddyPress Development, Development

BuddyPress 1.6 RC1 Released: Start Testing Now!

by Sarah Gooding July 20^th, 2012 Leave a comment

For those of you who have been waiting on the edge of your seats for the BuddyPress 1.6 release, you’ll be happy to hear that it’s almost here. We weren’t sure exactly when it would be released, but now we are closer than ever with RC1 out the door today. Time to fire up your BuddyPress development environments and start testing! We’re all very excited about the new features that BuddyPress 1.6 will include and the more people testing, the faster we can all squash any remaining critical bugs.

BuddyPress Developers: Make hay while the sun shines…