A project log using the WordPress 2.5 gallery features for a external hard drive case made out of maple, which happened to be left over trim material.
-John Havlik
New Database Server
So this past weekend the new database server was installed (physically) at the data center. On Monday JD installed Gentoo, and then I setup mySQL on it (plus some security things). Last night JD transfered over this blog and another over to the new database server for initial performance testing. Later this week and month, additional blogs hosted by Weblogs.us will be transfered over and performance tweaks will be applied. Hopefully, by June everyone will be on the new database server. At that point, signups for more blogs may be possible. It also looks like we may be reintroducing the Weblogs.us front page that I designed a while back.
Right now, the speed increase is apparent on this blog, especially when working in the WordPress dashboard. All those AJAX elements instantaneously load now. Additionally, Spam Karma 2’s administrative section loads much faster than before. There should not be any more of those failed comment submissions due to timeouts now, which is an all around plus.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]
Some Fixes
When static front pages were reimplemented in Breadcrumb NavXT 2.1, it seems some things slipped through the cracks. In particular there is a problem with the frontpage breadcrumb, when on the frontpage. This and the options for static front pages were never cleaned up (my bad, I know). Another, relating to a /blog/blog and // error in the hyperlink for some by date archives was reported. Both of these will be fixed in this month’s service release, 2.1.2. For 2.2 support for WPMU will be improved (the administrative interface has problems with it right now), along with a widget. That release is a few months out still.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]
Introducting mGPX
Searching the web for a good, and free, GPX importer for PHP yields not so great results. Last spring, as some preliminary work for WP Trainer took place, one wrote a simple ad hoc GPX importer for PHP. It then placed the points on a Google Map. Previously, there was a huge performance issue. However, today after looking over the code one found the error. What happened is the GPX importer didn’t import laps correctly for multi-activity and lap files. Instead of applying laps to the correct activity, the laps ended up summing and carrying over to other activities. The fix was simple, and the performance issue was resolved–300 points is not the limit, having several 300 point laps on the same map is what causes the problem.
With the fixes to it, the GPX importer is fast and ready for some extensive testing. WP Trainer is now viable, and effort will be placed into it this summer. mGPX will find its way to the code page as a separate
Added to this, Garmin added the feature to Garmin Training Center that allows exporting of individual activities, or groups to a file. Available in version 3.3.4, exporting is as simple as right clicking on a entry in the history section and selecting export in the pop up menu. This is great, as now end users can easily export small enough files (under 2MiB) for PHP to import.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]
Cran-Berry Build 100
A little late, but fully functional. School work prevented the intended release date for Cran-Berry. Several styling, and code fixes were implemented which should provide a more uniform experience for most browsers. This includes new code for centering the content on the page, and some other general fixes. This release is not a full ‘stable’ release like a one for Breadcrumb NavXT, but this should be usable for advanced users. In the zip is two folders, one containing the theme, the other containing the modified version of WP-PageNavi. The other two recommended plug-ins should be downloaded from their respective home pages. Naturally, Berry implements support for these plug-ins in a safe manner–not having them will not cause PHP errors or warnings. Upon activation of the plug-ins they will display immediately (in most cases).
To change options, look in the functions.php and there will be a $berry_opts array of options a la Breadcrumb NavXT. These are documented in the source right above the corresponding option. Additionally, the sidebar is WordPress Widget aware.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]