Breadcrumb NavXT Line 53 Error

If you are receiving an error similar to the following while activating Breadcrumb NavXT, please continue reading.

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or ‘}’ in /wp-content/plugins/breadcrumb-navxt/breadcrumb_navxt_admin.php on line 53

This should be only caused by PHP4. The line of code PHP is failing on is protected $version = '3.5.1';. Specifically, it is the protected part that PHP4 does not know about, and subsequently chokes on. Some users have claimed to receive this in a PHP5 environment. If you receive this error, please insert

<?php
if (current_user_can('administrator')){
    phpinfo();
}
?>

somewhere in your footer. Then, open up a page on your site and look in the output from phpinfo for your PHP version. If the version is not PHP5.2 or newer, please inquire with your webhost on how to migrate to a modern PHP installation. If the output states you have a version of PHP that is 5.2 or newer, please copy the output and e-mail it to me (full output). Feel free to provide an abridged output in the comments section of this page.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Breadcrumb NavXT is in a Book

So today I received an email stating that a plugin of mine is featured in a book about WordPress—I wonder which one it was. After doing a little research I confirmed that the book does, indeed cover Breadcrumb NavXT—the email wasn’t very specific as to which plugin they were talking about, and I almost passed it off as spam.

The book is “WordPress and Flash 10x Cookbook” by Peter Spannagle and Sarah Soward. As the title suggests it covers WordPress and integrating flash elements into it (Yes, I find it odd that Breadcrumb NavXT is in it, but whatever). The section covering Breadcrumb NavXT is in chapter 2, and does a decent job representing it. Though, personally I would have elaborated a little more on it. In particular, I would have been a little more specific in the installation instructions—the provided instructions could lead to a different plugin being installed.

Unfortunately, with the fast pace of software development, the book is sort of out of date (not as bad as a WordPress 2.8 Themes book released this month by the same publisher). Luckily, Breadcrumb NavXT has not changed enough for the instructions in the book to be invalid or misleading. If you are looking for a book on WordPress and Flash you may want to check it out. You can pick up a copy from the usual place (Amazon).

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Breadcrumb NavXT 2010 Roadmap

With the first beta of WordPress 3.0 being available, it’s time to think about Breadcrumb NavXT once again. Currently, the SVN version of Breadcrumb NavXT works in WP 3.0. All versions of Breadcrumb NavXT prior to 3.5 (not released yet), have known bugs in WP 3.0.

As Breadcrumb NavXT 3.5 is already upping the minimum WordPress version to 2.8, support for custom post types won’t make this release. Some modifications to the core will be done to enhance extensibility for those who don’t want to use OOP techniques (e.g. filter/action hooks will be added). The first “beta” of this will be available, without updated translations, in the next two weeks. After a month of beta status, translations should be updated and a release in early May (will be moved up to be within a few days of the WordPress 3.0 release, if not before).

Breadcrumb NavXT 3.6 will require WordPress 2.9 as custom post type support will be added. Depending on the time available this release may have enhanced multi blog support. Currently, it looks like this will show up sometime in July.

Breadcrumb NavXT 3.7 will wrap up any multi blog support not covered in 3.6. Depending on how WordPress 3.0 and 3.1 turn out, this version may require WordPress 3.0. This will be a fall release, probably sometime in October.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

An Unexpect End Error

Ok, so a few of you have reported a PHP error involving an unexpected $end in breadcrumb_navxt_admin.php on line 1567. After some searching and thinking, the cause was found. Line 1248 of breadcrumb_navxt_admin.php has an improper opening tag (<? instead of <?php). For some reason only Windows based PHP installations were catching this. None-the-less, this has been fixed in the SVN trunk and a bug fix release, 3.4.1, will be made next week.

As one has not been able to reproduce this error on either of one’s testbeds, feedback from those who had this error is essential to ensuring that it is fixed. If you experience the error with Breadcrumb NavXT 3.4.0, please try the SVN trunk and see if it is resolved and report back in the comments section of this post.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Vista-Like Breadcrumbs for WordPress

applevista-breadcrumbs2

Update: This was modified on February 10, 2015 to reflect changes in suggested calling code for Breadcrumb NavXT. Note that the Breadcrumb NavXT Multidimension Extensions plugin handles the PHP side of things covered in the guide below.

Update: This was modified on January 11, 2011 to reflect changes in the code base of Breadcrumb NavXT. Note that this should now work for all newer versions of Breadcrumb NavXT (3.6.0 up to 4.0). It will not work for the proposed Breadcrumb NavXT 4.0.

Previously, one revealed how to apply Janko’s Apple.com-like breadcrumb trail tutorial to WordPress using Breadcrumb NavXT. After several requests for a breadcrumb trail a la the one found in Explorer since Windows Vista, this guide was created. While this guide will not provide a method to exactly recreate the Vista breadcrumbs, it will be in the same spirit. The Apple.com breadcrumb trail style will be extended; a simple replacement of images and minor CSS tweaking will result something behaving very similar to the vista breadcrumb trail.

Download sources | View Demo

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