Please contact me using one of the following links to let me know if you are interested in beta-testing or translating or both.

See after the jump for details of the new changes.

Upcoming changes to version 2.5

• Added positioning options
• Absolute top, right. bottom, left positioning. Now able to specify horizontal and vertical position in viewport as opposed to center only.
• Fixed positioning that allows lightbox stays on page when scrolled.
• Rebuilt interface
• Changed interface to a combination of collapsible and tabbed to make it more concise and usable
• Separate settings into logical groups within tabs
• Added enhanced instructions and details of usage.*
• Improved and updated demos and tests.*
• Page/Post Options
• Auto launch on page. If auto-launch is set Lightbox Plus will automatically open the first lightboxed item on the page.*
• Per page loading. Ff per page options are set Lightbox JavaScript will only load for specified pages.
• Blog/posts only loading. if per page options are set Lightbox JavaScript will only load for specified pages.
• Image grouping
• Added more control over image grouping
• Fixed image X of X problem, can disable Image X of X
• Scrolling If ‘false’ ColorBox will hide scrollbars for overflowing content. This could be used on conjunction with the resize method (see below) for a smoother transition if you are appending content to an already open instance of ColorBox.
• Updated ColorBox to verion 1.3.18
• Fixed a regression where Flash content displayed in ColorBox would be reloaded if the browser window was resized.
• Added safety check to make sure that ColorBox’s markup is only added to the DOM a single time, even if $.colorbox.init() is called multiple times. This will allow site owners to manually initialize ColorBox if they need it before the DOM has finished loading.
• Updated the example index.html files to be HTML5 compliant.
• Changed the slideshow behavior so that it immediately moves to the next slide when the slideshow is started.
• Minor regex bugfix to allow automatic detection of image URLs that include fragments.
• Numerous bug fixes
• Fixed use WP Caption option. Works with singles images and WordPress built in galleries now.
• Fixed text links getting lightboxed even of option is not set.
• Fixed many small issues and text errors.*

* Still in progress

Parallels Plesk

Ubuntu Linux

Alternative PHP Cache (APC) is a PHP accelerator. PHP accelerators are extensions built to increase the performance and decrease the load time of software applications written using the PHP programming language. Most PHP accelerators work by caching the compiled bytecode of PHP scripts to avoid the overhead of parsing and compiling source code on each request. A PHP accelerator typically reduces server load and increases the speed of PHP code anywhere from 2-10 times.

APC is a free, open source accelerator that optimizes PHP intermediate code and caches data and compiled code from the PHP bytecode compiler in shared memory.

This should improve performance on both physical and virtual hosted machines. These instructions are aimed at Plesk users but should be easily adapted to any Debian based installation.

To install APC the first course of action you will need to take is enter the following command on your server:

sudo apt-get install php-pear php5-dev gcc apache2-threaded-dev

Once that has completed you should be able to run the following:

pecl install apc

You should see something like this:

downloading APC-3.0.19.tgz ...
Starting to download APC-3.0.19.tgz (115,735 bytes)
.........................done: 115,735 bytes
47 source files, building
running: phpize
Configuring for:
PHP Api Version:         20041225
Zend Module Api No:      20060613
Zend Extension Api No:   220060519
1. Use apxs to set compile flags (if using APC with Apache)? : yes

1-1, 'all', 'abort', or Enter to continue:

Hit Enter

Next you will need to enable the extension, use vi or nano or whatever your favorite text editor for Linux is.

sudo vi /etc/php5/conf.d/apc.ini

At the very minimum you will need to add the follow to the file:

extension=apc.so
apc.enabled=1
apc.shm_size=30

There are numerous options for APC so please see the following http://us3.php.net/manual/en/apc.configuration.php for details

Copy the apc.php file to your website:

sudo cp /usr/share/php/apc.php /var/www/vhosts/domain.tld/httpdocs

Edit the apc.php file and change the default username and password. These must be changed inorder to login to the APC control panel.

sudo vi /var/www/vhosts/domain.tld/httpdocs/apc.php

defaults('ADMIN_USERNAME','apc'); 			// Admin Username
defaults('ADMIN_PASSWORD','password');  	// Admin Password - CHANGE THIS TO ENABLE!!!

After that issue the following command

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

You should be good to go and APC should be running. To verify got to yourdomain.tld/apc.php.

Upgrade Issues

The upgrade was not removing the old unneccesary files from the plugin – the plugin needs re-initialization at least once upon upgrading.  This will now remove old Lightbox Plus files assuming you have the correct permissions on you server to do so.  Otherwise you must manually remove the following files and directories:

.../wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/images/*.*
.../wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/images/
.../wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/js/lightbox.js
.../wp-content/plugins/lightbox-plus/css/*.css

This will give you a clean install.  You will still want to re-initialize or set and save the settings for Lightbox Plus before proceeding.

Automagical Usage

Lightbox Plus was not working with certain galleries out of the box this should be corrected already but I’d like to know if people are having issues.  Basically LBP should work automatically for any images laid out with the following format:

<a href="image/url" rel="lightbox[imagegroup]"><img src="image/url" /></a>

Lightbox Plus attempts to automatically add rel="lightbox[postID]" for any images meeting this criteria output during the WordPress content loop function.  If it cannot do this you must manually add rel="lightbox[imagegroup]".  If you are using a gallery such as NextGEN you should be able to specify to add that.  I would assume other galleries allow it as well.

Issue List:

• Upgrades leaving old files in place
  • Issue Fixed: Well mostly, you will need to reinitialize the plugin via the reset/re-initialize button on the plugin page.  This will remove the old files. This will be released today in version 1.5.2.
• Upgrade fails in some for or fashion
  • Workaround: Remove the plugin and install a new copy.  Use the reset button afterwards to remove old setting and instantiate new ones.
• Not working correctly with WordPress built-in gallery features – requires manual intervention
  • Still working on this problem – unless I can get the regular expressions to identify the output of the shortcode correctly this will probably not work
  • Workaround: Use one of the many gallery plugins that support lightbox, NextGEN Gallery, Lazyest Gallery, or Inline Gallery for example
• Some small errors on my part that was causing the slideshow delay to be inaccurate in the timing list
  • Issue Fixed: will be released today in version 1.5.2.
• When reseting/re-initializing LBP the setting do not appear correctly when the page reloads.
  • Workaround: click on the Lightbox Plus link under appearance and you will see the current settings.
  • Update: This problem is only apprent in Chrome and Opera.  Works fine in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.  These may be browser related issues but I am investigating the problem more
  • Workaround – Chrome: click on the Lightbox Plus link under appearance and you will see the current settings.
  • Workaround – Opera: for whatever reason Opera is completely failing to save re-initialization settings, you must manually set and save them.

I hope to correct all some of these issues today and release Lightbox Plus as version 1.5.2.

Please post comments here for issues with 1.5.x only so that I can track and correct them.

Actionable

Actionable has been languishing for a while now and needs some attention.  Among the work that needs done it to the following:

1. Allow editing of action items from the admin pages
2. Create additional views for analyzing the data captured
3. Add widget that displays statistics
4. Convert animations to jQuery UI library

Version 0.8.3 has the following changes:

• Updated animated collapse JavaScript to fix issue with jquery 1.3.2.
  • This was causing Facelift Image Replacement to not work when both were in operation together.
• Tested to work with WordPress 2.8.

Facelift Image Replacement for WordPress

I haven’t had time to do much more than minimal maintenance on Facelift Image Replacement. I’ve seen that there are number of issues with the plugin for WordPress. The roadmap for Facelift looks something like this:

Version 0.8.8 should include the following updates:

1. Add realFontHeight as a checkbox item for Elements to Replace
2. Add option for custom FLIRStyles in Elements to Replace
3. Add correct wrap for FancyFonts
4. Add check for get_browser – disable checkbox for IE 6 option if not available and add notice
5. Fix location of global settings for Automatic (wrap/progressive/etc.) – currently listed with Elements to Replace which only shows when using methods other than Automatic
6. Fix font name issue – probably will only note that fonts cannot contain spaces

I am planning the following for version 0.8.9:

1. Update FLIR to 2.0x whatever version is available when I get there.
   1. No longer planning to branch FLIR for tighter integration of the plugin more closely with WordPress plan the following instead:
      1. On upgrade recreate config-flir.php from stored settings in WordPress DB.
      2. Change the fonts path to wp-content/flir-fonts so user fonts are not removed when the plugin is updated from within WordPress.
      3. Change the cache path to wp-content/flir-cache cache will not cause the upgrade to fail of directory permissions are not the same a web server user.
2. Add ability to upload and manage fonts from within the plugin. Will include automatic renaming of fonts to reduce issues.
3. Fix the activation/deactivation of the plugin to clear the cache and hopefully eliminate the one remaining upgrade issue when upgrading from within WordPress.

And by the time version 0.9.0 is released you should see the following features:

1. Add the long promised QuickEffects to the plugin.
2. Fix all the bugs caused by me in the previous release.
3. Add any last feature requests that seem to fit.
4. Should be considered beta for 1.0

Eventually a full verison (1.0) will be released and at that point the only real changes should be the following:

1. Use Facelift 2.0 once released.
2. Squash any remaining bugs and release.

Version 0.8.7.1 has the following changes:

• Minor adjustments to work with WordPress 2.8.
• Minor changes to jQuery method to ensure compatibility with jQuery 1.3.2.

Lightbox Plus

Finally Lightbox Plus is in need of a serious overhaul.  For this I have a number of plans:

1. Rebuild lightbox to use Colorbox for image overlay with the following advantages
   1. Supports photos, photo groups, slideshow, ajax, inline, and iframed content.
   2. Appearance is completely controlled through CSS so users can restyle the box.
   3. Written in jQuery plugin format and can be chained with other jQuery commands.
   4. Generates W3C valid XHTML and CSS, adds no JS global variables & passes JSLint.
2. Add enhanced features for use with NextGEN Gallery and WordPress built in gallery.
3. Solicit and implement language translations.

Finally version 1.3.4 of Lightbox Plus has been updated to work with WordPress 2.8

I’ve been thinking about some other plugin possibilities and I am looking for feedback regarding them.  I’ll post about them as soon as I can find my notes.

To get the project I need to finish out done by Thursday of next week I’m looking at some frameworks for PHP though I’m not sure they wouldn’t just slow me down.  Ideally they shouldn’t and right now I’m trying to decide between CakePHP and Symfony.  Both are good but it’s pretty much going to be whichever I can pick up on quickest tomorrow or Sunday night.

After I get back from being away I will still have more to do on the project but I should hopefully be able to put some time into the plugins – at the very least I should be able to do some support.  I hope everything doesn’t go to hell in a handbasket while I’m gone.

So I downloaded it and created a plugin from it.  Since then – Sunday – it’s proven extremely popular.

A lot of people seem to be having some issues with it and I think the bulk of them come down to two things:

First you need to have the GD Graphics Library built into your PHP installation.  This is probably the main contributor to the problem.  The second issue is probably not having your cache folder for the plugin be writable.  I’ll be glad to help anyone – within reason – get these issues resolved.

I am pretty much constantly trying to work on this plugin to get it up to version 1.0.0 – it currently sits at 0.5.5 and as such is functional but incomplete.

You can get it from Facelift Image Replacement and you can get support at Mawhorter.net Forums or via commenting on the plugin page.

As a freelance web developer, time is money. I use many different tricks to increase my productivity and these are my top selections for saving time. Please make you own suggestions for other time savers in the comments.

Drop Down Menus

All Web Menus (http://www.likno.com/allwebmenusinfo.html )
Whenever I need to add a complex drop-down menu to a site, I turn to All Web Menus. This program styles a complex multi level menu in less time then it takes to type the text. All websites need menus and for detailed menus, you should try All Web Menus.

Time saved: 1 Hour per menu.

Image Capture

Gadwin Printscreen (http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/)
Gadwin Printscreen utility replaces windows standard printscreen keyboard button with more options and flexibility. It loads on windows startup and runs silently in the background without consuming system resources but it’s always there when you need it. Instead of just capturing the entire screen view, Gadwin allows you to select a rectangular area very precisely with the help of a built in magnifying window. This tool is invaluable to my work. I often use it to grab different pieces to mock up a design.

Time saved: 2 Minutes per screen capture.

Read More at [Re]Encoded dot Com » 10 Ways to Save Time While Building a Website

PHP Logo

Today is 8/8/8, which is interesting for a few reasons, one of which is that it marks the end of PHP 4. What does this mean? It means yesterday’s release of 4.4.9 is the final release of PHP 4. More information can be gleaned from the mailing list archives, beginning with Derick’s request to drop support:

I am trying to gauge what people feel about dropping support for PHP 4 at the end of this year.

Derick caveated his suggestion with the idea of continuing to publish new releases that address security vulnerabilities. Rasmus didn’t see the point:

I don’t really understand what dropping support means if we will still release security fixes. That’s the mode we have been in for at least a year, so what would change at the end of the year?

He suggested a stronger stance:

I’d be more in favour of a statement that put a final death date on it which means no new releases of any sort. We could still say security-fixes only by the end of the year and then death by 08/08/08 or something like that.

So, here we are. PHP 4 is dead. Long live PHP.

Read More at Chris Shiflett: End of Life for PHP 4