A common question for WordPress designers/developers is how to handle plugin upgrades and upgrades of WordPress itself. I recently logged into a client site for maintenance to find that someone had “attempted” an upgrade of WordPress, but that it had…

While manually upgrading a bunch of old WordPress sites, I realized that the WordPress htaccess rules for permalinks had changed. For many years and versions, the htaccess code that enables WordPress permalinks went unchanged, resulting in an almost sacred set…

In this DiW post, we transform three slices of code into a clean & stylish tabbed menu that visitors can use to login, register, and recover passwords from anywhere in your site. Too many features & details to explain up…

Congratulations to all 10 of our Holiday Giveaway Contest Winners! Thank you to everyone who entered (click through to see who won)! Direct Link to Article — Permalink on DiWLike the article? Get the book! © 2010 Digging into WordPress…

To celebrate this magical time of year, we’re giving away FREE copies of Digging into WordPress and throwing a HUGE Holiday Sale! PLUS we’re selling a limited number of slightly damaged books for $15 OFF. Here’s the scoop on all…

Without touching a line of code, you can harness the power of Ajax to boost performance, improve usability, and fill your site with win. Direct Link to Article — Permalink on DiWLike the article? Get the book! © 2010 Digging…

We’ve set up a new system for downloading DiW updates. It’s designed to make the upgrade process easier for everyone. Here’s how it works: Go to http://digwp.com/wp-login.php Use your purchase email address to reset your password After logging in with…

Quick WordPress tip for you today! A reader recently asked about displaying the total number of blogroll bookmarks on their site. This sounds simple enough but not everyone meddles with code these days, so here is a nice PHP snippet…

If you’re looking for some great plugins to bring more interactivity and user participation to your WordPress-powered site, check out my guest-post over at ProBlogger – it covers Google Search, Star Ratings, Favorite Posts, and other techniques to empower your…

One of the awesome things about WordPress is that it’s a dynamic publishing system that uses a database to store your site’s information: posts, options, plugin and theme settings – all of this data is stored in your site’s database.…

There are many ways to customize the WordPress Dashboard. Over the years, the Dashboard has evolved into a highly flexible information portal, enabling an overall, big-picture view of the main components of your site, while also providing granular data on…

We’re now accepting orders for printed editions of Digging into WordPress version 3.0. The books are currently finishing up at the printers, and should be ready to ship within the next week or so. Here are a few shots featuring…

Save time by replacing your most commonly typed words and phrases with WordPress shortcodes. For example, if you are frequently typing your blog’s URL, you could place the following code your theme’s functions.php file: function shortURL() { return 'http://your-site.com/'; }…

In our recent post on pimping the wp-config.php file, we explain that using strong Security Keys is an important part of securing your WordPress installation. In this post, we want to zoom-in on Security Keys and look at what they…

It’s here! Digging into WordPress Version 3.0 is here and it’s packed with goodness, including a new chapter on WordPress 3, updated core content, and a super-sleek new cover. Check it out: DiW3 cover by Chris Coyier Updated Core Material…

Easily, the most important file in your WordPress installation is the wp-config.php file. It serves as your site’s base configuration file, controlling key aspects of WordPress’ functionality and enabling WordPress to do mission-critical stuff like connect to the database.…

Here are some sweet SQL code snippets for easy comment management. Sometimes it’s easier to modify comment status and delete unwanted comments on a sitewide basis. Using a program like phpMyAdmin makes it so easy to do stuff like…