ASRock CIR (Nuvoton) and Windows 8.1

Posted by in Guides

Unlike most semi modern hardware, the CIR module provided by Nuvoton does not work out of the box in Windows 8. Additionally, the Windows 8 drivers (version 2.5.1003) that are linked to on all of ASRock’s motherboard pages do not work in Windows 8.1. The driver installation fails silently, giving the cryptic “This operation requires an interactive window station” error in Device Manager. Fortunately, there is a Windows 8.1 driver, its version is 2.9.1007 and you can find it on the driver’s page for ASRock’s VisionX series mini PC.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

WordUp Minneapolis 2013

Posted by in Events

Beginning in 2012, the Minneapolis/St. Paul WordPress community has put on a self organized, unconference centered around WordPress in the fall. This acts as a supplementary event to WordCamp Minneapolis, which will now be a yearly event in the spring (keep your calendars open for the last weekend in April 2014). A big thanks to Toby and Barbara for leading the organization effort for this. These are my pictures from the event.
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WordUp Minneapolis 2013 Slides

Posted by in Events

Unlike last year, where I was unable to attend WordUp Minneapolis. This year I prepared and lead a discussion titled “Tag Team WordPress Security”. Originally, this talk was to be presented with another person. However, due to uncontrollable circumstances (life gets busy), I was left as the only presenter for the talk. The talk covered several topics from basic security practices to how to spot malicious code, and many things in-between.

Unlike previous talks, rather than struggling with PowerPoint (and clones) for making the slides, I moved to a WordPress based presentation tool. Thanks to this, you can visit slides.mtekk.us to view the slides from my presentation. Currently, this site only displays the “Tag Team WordPress Security” slide deck. However, all of my future slide decks will appear there.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Changes to Note Before Upgrading to Breadcrumb NavXT 5.0

Posted by in WordPress > Plugins

Breadcrumb NavXT 5.0 is very close to being ready for release. Unlike a typical release, quite a bit has changed under the hood this time, hence the bump up from 4.4 to 5.0. Development for 5.0 focused heavily on making Breadcrumb NavXT easier to extend. In doing so, it had to part ways with how some things were done in the past. The following changes are the most likely to affect current Breadcrumb NavXT installs.

Move to PHP5 Object Model

This release features a move to PHP5’s Object Model, including changing the default constructor from the class name (C++ style) to __construct(). All member functions and variables are now explicitly scoped as either private, protected or public. Additionally, some member functions have been explicitly made static (to allow static calling without causing strict warnings in PHP5.4).

Organizational Changes

Several internal changes were made to reorganize the plugin. One change that will affect third party code is the move from bcn_breadcrumb_trail::trail to bcn_breadcrumb_trail::breadcrumbs. For 5.0, bcn_breadcrumb_trail::trail will exist as pointer to the same data held in bcn_breadcrumb_trail::breadcrumbs. In the future bcn_breadcrumb_trail::trail will be removed and it is recommended that existing extension plugins to Breadcrumb NavXT be updated to reflect this internal change.

WordPress Multisite Changes

Support for multisite WordPress installs has changed quite a bit in 5.0. To support the new Network Admin settings page introduced in this version, the way settings are handled in multisite installs has changed. By default the settings set in the ‘Network Admin’ settings page will take priority over individual site preferences. This is different from the pre-5.0 behavior. If you have a multisite install, please read Controlling Breadcrumb NavXT Settings From the Network Settings Page.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Controlling Breadcrumb NavXT Settings From the Network Settings Page

Posted by in Guides

Update 2015-10-30: Updated to reflect the default behavior change in Breadcrumb NavXT 5.3.

Starting with Breadcrumb NavXT 5.0, the oft-requested feature for a Network Settings Page for controlling the setting on all subsites in a WordPress multisite setup is now available. Since now there will be a combination of Network Settings and sub site settings, some extra intelligence is needed to pick settings appropriately. Given that the desired behavior will vary depending on use case, a few new globals have been added to switch between settings behavior modes.

Force Network Settings on All Sites (default behavior for 5.0-5.2)

Versions 5.0 through 5.2 used this mode as the default behavior for settings. In this mode, rather than default to the individual site settings (as they were the only ones that existed in WordPress multisite setups prior to Breadcrumb NavXT 5.0). Note, for 5.0 through 5.2, that all other BCN_* defines must be either not set or set to false to select this mode. Note that in 5.0.1 and later you should manually specify this mode:

define('BCN_SETTINGS_USE_NETWORK', true);

Force Individual Site Settings Only (pre-5.0 behavior, default behavior for 5.3+)

In 5.3 the default behavior was reverted to the pre-5.0 behavior of using only the individual sub site settings for Breadcrumb NavXT in a WordPress Multisite setup. Note, for 5.3 and later, that all other BCN_* defines must be either not set or set to false to select this mode. The following must be placed in your wp-config.php (or site specific plugin):

define('BCN_SETTINGS_USE_LOCAL', true);

Favor Individual Site Settings Over Network Settings

In Breadcrumb NavXT 5.0 this settings will merge the local (individual site’s) settings into the network settings (network settings are the ‘defaults’ for the wp_parse_args function). Use the following to enable this mode:

define('BCN_SETTINGS_FAVOR_LOCAL', true);

Note that the behavior of this mode is subtle and likely will look more like the local (individual site’s) settings than the network settings. In the future this mode may change slightly.

Favor Network Settings Over Individual Site Settings

In Breadcrumb NavXT 5.0 this settings will merge the network settings into the local (individual site’s) settings (local site settings are the ‘defaults’ for the wp_parse_args function). Use the following to enable this mode:

define('BCN_SETTINGS_FAVOR_NETWORK', true);

Note that the behavior of this mode is subtle and likely will look more like the network settings than the local (individual site’s) settings. In the future this mode may change slightly.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]