You are going to need to upload your plugin using SubVersion.

So, for those who need the simple and “Dummy” version, I use TortoiseSVN. It is free and for those who use PC. There are some others, including Adobe Dreamweaver – I think CS4… not sure on earlier versions.

So, if you are going the easy way and using TortoiseSVN, here is a simple tutorial on how to upload your files to the repository.

1. WordPress will give you a URL to your plugin’s location in the subversion repository. You will need your WordPress.org/ bbpress (what you use to log into the WordPress Support Forum) and your password.

2. Go to your folder with your files. If you have followed directions, you should have put your plugin files in a folder named trunk. Side Note: You do not have to have your files in a zip folder at all.

3. Right click in your screen and look in the dropdown for TortoiseSVN. There will be an arrow next to it. Hover over and select “Repo-browser”.

4. A little box will show up and ask you for a URL. Add your URL to your plugin’s subversion instance. You may be prompted to put your username and password in.

5. After this, you will see a window that will show the folders:

• /branch
• /tags
• /trunk

6. Right click on the trunks folder and select “Add File” from the drop down. Your computer will prompt you to find and select the files of your plugin – kind of like when you use FTP.

7. The files should add successfully. You may even have to tell your computer that you are allowing TortoiseSVN to operate depending on your security settings and anti-virus software.

8. Wait a few moments and it should appear in the WordPress Plugin Directory.

What other subversion control software are really handy for plugin developers?

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Image Source: http://www.pearsonified.com/

That’s right. The pharma hackers have cracked into your WordPress blog and you are now left looking like a pill pusher.

Bye Bye New traffic.

Fairwell Credability.

Bon Voyage Google Rankings.

So what can you do to increase the security on your WordPress site? Here are the top 10 plugins for your website to protect against spammers and black hat pharma SEOs.

Akismet

Yes, I know it comes as standard with a WordPress installation but how many of you are going to the trouble of activating the new API key and connecting it to the Akismet database?
The great thing about this plugin is that it actually accesses a database of black listed URLS and IP addresses and stops any bots or spammers from posting links on your blog. It also comes with an option to blacklist certain words and phrases to protect you from having any adult content posted.

Limit Login attempts

This plugin does exactly what it says on the tin. It limits the amount of times a particular IP address can attempt to login to your WordPress site. Although a word of caution, if you are the forgetful type you can find yourself being locked out of your own blog because you have entered the wrong password 3 times. But don’t worry it will let you try again after a couple of hours.

WordPress Firewall

This nifty little plugin stops all sorts of attacks on you r site by determining any unusual requests or parameters within the WordPress code. The plugin claims to stop
·         SQL Injections
·         Exe file uploads
·         Block known blacklist IPs
·         A list of parameters and queries that will make your eyes water.

WP security Scan

WP security scan scans the files on your WordPress site to check for any potential vulnerability in the file permissions. For example, if you have a writeable, readable and executable htaccess file, WP security scan will alert you to this fact and suggest the appropriate action in order to fix the security hole.

The great thing about the WP security scan is that it removes any footprints about the WordPress system you are using and also enhances the database security.

WordPress Database Backup

This is another self-explanatory plugin but an essential one, nonetheless. The WordPress Database backup allows for copies of the database to be created away from the main database location. This means that even if you website is hacked. You can create a fresh install and repopulate the site with the information on the site previous to the hack.

Login Encrypt

According to the dark coding wizards that created this one:
“An encryption plugin that ciphers the password using RSA and DES, securing login without SSL”
For the non-programmers out there, this plugin basically scrambles the password when you are typing it into your site. It then sends the scrabbled version to the database which is the unscrambled at the other end. This means that sensitive information is not transmitted; this limits the possibility of hackers gaining access to your credentials.

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We are taking the usual category code for WordPress.


<?php wp_list_categories(); ?>


and replacing it with the following code. This php splits up each category and into columns, much like splitting odds and evens. This code would go in your template where you want it displayed.


<?php
$cats = explode("<br />",wp_list_categories('title_li=&echo=0&depth=1&style=none'));
$cat_n = count($cats) - 1;
for ($i=0;$i< $cat_n;$i++):
if ($i<$cat_n/2):
$cat_left = $cat_left.'<li>'.$cats[$i].'';
elseif ($i>=$cat_n/2):
$cat_right = $cat_right.'<li>'.$cats[$i].'</li>';
endif;
endfor;
?>


After you have put the above code you are ready to add your HTML right after it. Remember you need to make sure to remember your css class definition, because you will be adding it to your theme’s stylesheet. Remember you can use your own definitions, but remember to make sure you are not already using them for another part of your theme.


<ul class="alignleft">
<?php echo $cat_left;?>
</ul>
<ul class="alignright">
<?php echo $cat_right;?>
</ul>


Now that you have the php and html done, you need to add your css. In the case of this tutorial, I have used alignleft and alignright for the classes.


.alignleft {
float: left;
}
.alignright {
float: right;
}


Of course, if you want to play with the css and do other things, by all means go ahead.

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The problem is that I keep hearing from clients about past encounters with other WordPress designers and developers who will not go that extra step to make sure their client can efficiently use their website. In fact, they are turning to premium themes because they cannot find someone to make their project idea a reality.

Remember, WordPress is no longer a blog platform. It is a full fledged content management system that with coding and imagination, a site can become extraordinary!

Here are a few tips when stepping into designing WordPress themes:

1. Know the code. If you are not familiar with HTML or PHP, you should not be designing as frankly, it makes other designer’s job a pain when they have to step in a correct your errors.
2. Know WordPress. This goes for the coding, and how to use it.
3. Design with the client’s experience in mind. Be prepared to offer them ways to use their WordPress in the easiest and more understandable way. You may need to walk them through it. Not all of your clients will be as WordPress savvy – some may not be as Internet savvy.
4. Design logically. If you are designing for someone else and they have some coding experience, they might be a bit ticked off if your code looks terrible or you took the roundabout way to get to a solution. Streamline it. There will always be a better way to code a site. (Also, make hidden notations in the theme files case your client is familiar enough to make edits, but might not know where exactly to make them.)
5. Be knowledgeable on site tools that will enhance the website. Whether it be an actual design or for search engine optimization, it is important to keep up-to-date on this type of news.
6. If you do not know something, then ask around or do some research. The WordPress community is really friendly. You can either use the WordPress support forums or go to various WordPress related sites to find out.
7. Whether it be WordPress, another CMS or static HTML, check your site in most browsers before handing it off to the client. Not everyone browses the same way as you.

Even if you are not designing for a client, you can take a lot of these suggestions with you.

What other tips can you suggest?

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It is obvious that I am going to say that the post name (formerly known as pretty permalink) structure or the /%postname%/ option in your WordPress Permalink General settings is the best structure.

However, I am going to go a step further. Search Engine Optimization is fun to play with in regards to your domain’s URL structure. It can be a way to optimize what your article is, other than just organization.

What we know in basic WordPress use for structure purposes are as the following:

Permalink Structure for Posts

We can control how our permalink structure can look whether by post ID, month and date and more. We can even designate tags and categories to these posts and call them to pages using custom WordPress queries. For example you can call a category and show only tags and a certain number of many posts.

The reason why the post name structure (/%postname%/) works best for a post is because it shows the post title closest to the domain, showing how important it is to the site. The structure within the web page itself will also emphasize this using heading tags (h1, h2, h3, h4, and so on.) Now, if you listed by category (and I have seen people recommend that), depending on how your category is labeled, you are telling the search engine that the category is far more important to crawl than the actual title of the post.

WordPress naturally has the base “category” as a name and you can group posts under those categories. It is okay to display your posts on your site in a category. Most people believe including categories makes your posts duplicate content. NO! It is only if you are posting the same thing again on your site or the same exact thing on another site (like if you do guest blogging.) The search engines are not dumb.

Now, here is the fun part as well as the tricky part. What if you do use the category structure? How can you make it clever enough to draw more attention to your title. WPCandy actually exercises this clever way by naming the category’s slug an action. Yes, just the slug as you can designate a different name pointing to a different slug.

Just some examples:

News is reports
Opinion is thinks
Tutorials is teaches

Pretty cool, huh? As a note, the posts do group under the general “category/category-name”.

In this, we are telling (using the WPCandy example) that WPCandy.com reports such and such title, giving it an actual sentence. And you know, it nearly makes this former English major cry happy tears. (Oh I am such a geek!)

Permalink Structure for Pages

Pages are kind of fun and since WordPress 3.0′s menu addition, your control over pages has increased with several options. You can use the older hierarchy structure with parent and child pages. Remember, pages in WordPress are normally known for being used for static content.

The older hierarchy structure adds the slug of the parent page into the URL structure. SO, if you have like a parent page and then three deep into children and grandchildren, your URL structure might get a bit long. That might not be a good idea for search engine optimizing as it takes away the importance of that page.

However, the hierarchy structure is not the only way. You can use the WordPress menu option in your WordPress administration (Under Appearance>Menus) to organize your website and keep your URL structure for your pages simple. You can publish a page without using the hierarchy and use the WordPress 3.0 menu to organize your website without adding more length to your page’s URL structure.

Now, both methods can be used and Google will pick up and group areas of your site that have been optimized as a group. For example, if you have defined that your main sections of your website are your ‘About’, ‘Contact’, and maybe… as an example say ‘Resources’, like I have here in Blondish.net, Google will pick up that structure if you do have a set up pages that are relevant to that main area.

As a note, We can also apply these techniques to custom posts types since WordPress 3.0.

In Summary

Your permalink structure is both a way to organize and help search engines, but can also be great in helping your visitors navigate your website. The best permalink structure to use in WordPress is one that is the most coherent for search engines to deliver the best results to potential visitors. Play around with your site and see what is best for you.

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