Archive for Developers

Webcast: Building Sustainable Websites Using WordPress

Posted by: Terrell Sanders | Comments (0)
Monday, March 22nd, 2010

URL: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/5727147

(Original live broadcast: Friday, March 26, 2010)

With it’s thousands of community-provided themes and plugins, WordPress offers an array of options never before available to web developers. But it also brings new challenges for building sustainable websites – those that can be upgraded without breaking, maintained and enhanced without shattering into pieces.

In this session we will discuss principles and guidelines for using WordPress or other open source tools to build sustainable websites. We will discuss the challenges and hidden gotchas of both open source software and community-provided addons, and strategies for making sites easier to support and enhance in the future.

If you are a WordPress developer, or a businessperson looking at WordPress as a platform for your next website, this session will give you some great guidelines for avoiding the “dark side” of open source software.

The session is presented by Adam White, who leads the customization team for MainStreetOpen.com.

Categories : Developers, Open Toolbox, Small Business, Uncategorized
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Benefits of Brochure Websites

Posted by: Terrell Sanders | Comments (0)
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Sometimes when business owners first start investigating websites they get overwhelmed by the options and costs. They see huge content-driven sites with $10,000+ price tags and immediately decide they can’t afford a website.

In our latest video, I address the simple “brochure” type website that is a great starter site for most businesses. These sites are available for less than $1,000 and require no ongoing maintenance.

Check out the video for more details on brochure websites.

Categories : Developers, Open Toolbox, Small Business
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Insider Secrets: Hosting Contracts

Posted by: Terrell Sanders | Comments (0)
Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Hosting contracts are sweet deals — for the vendor.

Since just about everything in technology gets cheaper every year (except labor costs), multi-year hosting contracts allow vendors to lock in long term revenue without having to remain competitive. Labor based service contracts can be a good deal for the customer, but hosting and any other software and technology will certainly get cheaper every year. Why sign a contract to guarantee today’s higher price?

Some vendors offer discounts for annual prepayment, which can be a good deal if you have the spare cash. But beware of contracts for more than one year.

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Small Business, WordPress
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It’s Time to Upgrade WordPress

Posted by: Terrell Sanders | Comments (0)
Sunday, October 18th, 2009

If you are running an older version of WordPress, it’s time to upgrade. The current version is 2.8.4, which we have found to be very stable and include some great features not found in prior versions.

Personally, I don’t recommend you blindly upgrade every time a new version comes out – in any software. New software versions almost always bring new bugs with the new features. I like to sit back a while and let other people find the bugs on their sites.

But today we have a stable version in 2.8.4 and there are several security issues with many of the older WP versions. Bad guys have written worms to find sites running older versions and to do malicious things to them. Unfortunately, we regularly get calls to restore and secure hacked sites.

If your site (or your client’s sites) are not running 2.8.4 we would strongly recommend this is a good time to get “up to date” , before they get discovered by a malicious worm!

Before you update:

Remember to backup your site (and your databases) before updating and always check your plugins before updating a WordPress site. A plugin that is not compatible with the current version can crash your site.

Main Street is available to help you with upgrades or to do an audit of your plugins before you install the update.

Categories : Developers, Ministry, Small Business, Uncategorized, WordPress
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WordPress 2.9 Coming Soon

Posted by: Terrell Sanders | Comments (0)
Friday, October 16th, 2009

WordPress version 2.9 is expected to be released this year. The beta is expected to be available at the end of October, and if everything cleans up well, the final release is expected around early December.

What to expect in 2.9? Some pretty cool stuff is being promised:

  • Dedicated thumbnail images on posts. A separate image you can upload for use as a thumbnail.
  • Trash function for deleted items. Pages and posts that are deleted will go to “Trash can” and can be un-deleted rather than lost forever.
  • Basic image editing built-in. Uploaded images can be rotated, flipped, cropped and resized inside WP.
  • Widgets outside the sidebars. New functions will allow widget placement anywhere on the page.

Fun stuff! As usual, we don’t recommend our clients (or their clients) rush out and upgrade as soon as 2.9.0 is released. Let other people find the hidden bugs, and keep your site stable until 2.9 has been patched a couple of times.

After that, we think 2.9 will have some great new features that both WP developers and WP users will enjoy.

Categories : Developers, Sales Professionals, Small Business, WordPress, WordPress Plugins
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