On my recent article discussing the search functionality within WordPress, a few folks in the comments suggested alternatives to try. One of those was the ElasticSearch plugin. My main complaint in that article was that there was not an easy way to tap into the Elastic Search service without having access to a dedicated server…
It’s time to clear up the debate once and for all. Despite all the doubts (and some haters), WordPress core is without a doubt one of the most secure platforms you can choose to put a site on. Of course, a WordPress install is only as secure as the plugins it leverages — but that’s…
On May 6th, the WordPress VIP team blog announced a new VIP service they’ll be offering centered around search. While at first it may be surprising that the default search in WordPress was not used in their latest project, the fact is, WordPress search in its current state can not perform complex search queries without…
Almost four years ago, the idea of having custom WordPress installation profiles was brought up. The initial idea was to change core around so that developers could pre-configure WordPress with a set of activated plugins while also being able to change/activate the default theme. The idea was championed at the time but the implementation was…
Over the past few days, I’ve read various posts regarding a security hole discovered in the popular W3 Total Cache plugin. According to a security bulletin published by Jason Donenfeld on Seclist.org, after installing the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository through the backend of WordPress, there are two avenues of attack left open. 1)…
John James Jacoby has published the 2012 year in review post for bbPress. It’s been one year since the project went from being stand alone software to a WordPress plugin. So far, it looks like the project is progressing along quite steadily. Among some of the cool stuff added to bbPress during 2012 are retina…
If you’re looking to use a Content Type or Custom Field plugin, your first stop should be this large comparison spreadsheet produced by Scott Kingsley Clark, Matt Gibbs and other plugin authors. The comparison spreadsheet shows the differences between the various plugins at a high level. Unfortunately, I can’t determine when this document was last…
For those of you looking for in-depth reviews of both paid and free WordPress plugins, you may want to add WPNuggets.com to your feedreader or bookmarks. The site is brand new and so far, features three different plugin reviews. From what I’ve read thus far, Adela does a good job of describing how the plugin…
Adam Burucus has published his overview of three different WordPress plugins that can be used to monitor a websites up-time. It seems to me that Pingdom is the most popular player in this market based on their history and how many major websites I’ve seen mention their service. At least by his overview, Pingdom is…
Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan has published a post on his personal site that addresses two common issues users are facing right now as they relate to AJaX. About 2 weeks ago, I release an update to r WP-Email, WP-Polls, WP-PostRatings and WP-PostViews which added some nonce check and moved the AJAX request to be handled by…
DynamicWP has put together a list of 11 plugins that are especially helpful for writers using WordPress. One of the nifty plugins from that list that I discovered is AP Style Dates And Times. This plugin automatically abbreviates times and months according to the AP Style guide. The second resource that you should keep handy…
WPBeginner has published an article that explains how they used the WP Favorite Posts plugin to give one of their clients a “personalized library” for their users which allowed them to favorite videos that they could watch repeatedly. In the article, they also explain how to use the plugin to provide that same personalized experience…
Plugin authors need to take serious notice of a recent phishing attack that is aimed specifically at plugin authors. Ipstenu, one of the volunteer WordPress.org support forum moderators has published a forum thread warning others that responding to the email wouldn’t be a good idea. The way in which this phishing attack works is pretty…
Interconnectit has announced that The Auditor (name to be determined later) has entered the closed beta process and is currently looking for people to test the plugin. The plugin is an event logger that tracks key options and content changes within a WordPress installation and contains a viewer that lets you view what’s been happening…
Congratulations to Michael Torbert as the All In One SEO Plugin recently reached the 10 million downloads milestone. That’s a heck of a lot of downloads with Akismet being about 1.24 million away from reaching the same milestone. By the way, All In One SEO reached one million downloads around January 27th, 2009. While this…