Gallery2 and Plugins

I have spent the majority of the day trying to get a good workflow from iphoto to wordpress. I finally settled on iphoto -> Gallery2 -> Wordpress. It has been a couple of hours to get everything configured and set up but I am dangerously close.I am hoping not only to post more photos in a more effectient manner but also to use up some of that massive hosting that I pay for by backing up my images online.

Wordpress & Blogging for Pastors

I came across this site as I was trying to do some research on building a volunteer info site for the creative team. I haven’t had time to read it really throughly but it looks like something that would have some good info and insight…let me know what you think!

Visit Here

Post Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was an unusual mixture of turkey, family, sorrow, and enjoyment. The turkey was amazing; the family was crazy (but awesome); the sorrow was because it is most probably the last time we will be in our house as an entire family period, much less the last Thanksgiving; and enjoyment because regardless of the location, if you are with my family you can’t have a bad time!

I am hoping to have pictures up soon…

UPDATED: The Pictures are up from thanksgiving! Click Here!

Creativity at its Finest

I came across this video @ Collide. It is a great example of what we can do with the gifts that God gives us when we apply them to the glorification of the the one we love.

Mrs. Claus came early

Mrs. Claus Mrs Claus came early this morning! Actually, it is Ms. Nancy Newton but it was a great moment regardless. This is what I love about working with the children’s ministry: we still have that childhood sense of fun!

Updating Wordpress Revisited

One of the things I dread most about upgrading wordpress (and actually the thing I least like about wordpress over all) is the actual deleting and uploading of the upgraded files.

However, with the new MacFusion (which uses MacFuse from Google) it is super easy to mount an FTP site through an SSH connection. Now mounting an ftp drive in the mac finder was not a big problem; being able to write to it was: Finder will mount an FTP site but it is read-only. Until now it was all a matter of hunt and delete to find the right files to delete; sometimes certain files in a folder needed to be deleted while others needed to be left alone. Needless to day, it was a huge pain! But now sunny days have come and we are all able to grab hands, sing, and dance all the day long…or something like that… So here is how to have the sunny days arrive…

It goes without saying (but I will say it anyway) that you should have EVERYTHING (MySQL, Wordpress, etc) backed up. This cannot be expressed to severely. Check out this post for more information on how to back up you wordpress site.

First, you will need a few downloads:

1. MacFusion (and MacFuse)

2. ChronoSync (or some other type of folder sync program)

3. the newest version of Wordpress

Once everything is installed and unstuffed, go ahead an run MacFusion and mount your webroot/ftp site.

Next, start up ChronoSync (or your sync program of choice). Then select the unstuffed, upgraded version of Wordpress that is on your local computer as the master folder (or the one which is the basis for the sync). Next select the wordpress folder on your remote ftp site. NOTE: Be careful to not hit the sync button at this point. You could erase all your posts and content if you do.

Now comes the really important part: setting up the rules for the sync.Basically you need to set a rule up for each file that should NOT be repalced by the new upgrade. There are 5 or 6 folders/files that should not be upgraded depending on what kind of installation you have and how you use Wordpress. Those files are: wp-config.php file; wp-content folder; (Special Exception: the wp-content/cache and the wp-content/plugins/widgets folders should be deleted.); wp-images folder; wp-includes/languages/ folder–if you are using a language file do not delete that folder; .htaccess file; robots.txt file.

This is a screen shot of the rules that I use in ChronoSync.

ChronoSync Rules Screen Shot

Pay special attention to the logic in the rules. I set it so the listed files are not included in the sync from the local folder;

another-wards they are the only files that are not replaced.

Once you have all the rules set up (and have saved the sync settings so you don’t have to go through all this the next time an update comes out), if your sync program allows you to, do a trial sync. Check the output log and make sure that none of the files that are replaced are the ones we have listed above as exceptions.

Finally, double check that you are all backed up and hit the sync button. The program does all the rest of the work and next time you have to upgrade it will but just a few clicks of the button (assuming you saved the settings) and you will be good to go.

Don’t forget to go to the ../wp-admin/upgrade.php file in order to install the upgrade once it is done syncing/uploading.

Upgraded

Got it all upgraded…it was touch and go to say the least there for a little while…the site has had some issues outside of Wordpress… Anyway, it finished and it is working except for a little glitch on the domain side that changes the URL from dailymirror.us to www.lifebloodproject.com/wordpress. Ahh well….

Upgrading Wordpress

I just finished upgrading to the newest Wordpress (2.3). Here are a couple of sites to make upgrading a little easier (not to mention safer!)…

Backups:
_Upstart Blogger

Upgrading:
Wordpress Upgrade

Wordpress Upgrade Extended

One click and Scribefire

The Daily Download: OneClick your way to a shapelier blog

I found this as I was perusing the net looking for a new piece of blog software. the Scribefire plugin wasn’t working for hte longest time…login issues that apparently other people were having as well. Then all of a sudden it started working again…ahh well.

BTW, here is a list of the programs that publish to Wordpress Blogs.

Limericked Jesus

Footprints in the Sand

There was a man who, at low tide
Would walk with the Lord by his side
Jesus said “Now look back;
You’ll see one set of tracks.
That’s when you got a piggy-back ride.”

I found this on Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks. I like it. That’s about it.