Updating – Upgrading to WordPress 2.5

Posted on March 29, 2008
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Need help upgrading your WordPress to version 2.5?

Having worked with WordPress now going on 2 1/2  years one thing that seems to catch most people by surprise is the compatibility issues with some plug-ins and themes with successive developments. When the introduction of Tags was added to WordPress many themes simply would not work without modification.

For those who may find this a bit of a challenge I would like to extend the offer to perform the updates for you including any minor template fixes or simple modifications to plug-ins in order to bring you up to date with the worlds number one blogging solution.

Upgrading WordPress – $25 per project

Upgrading WordPress – $25 per project for any release from 2.0 to current.  Please feel free to use the contact me page to request an upgrade. 

The price is based on average time of 1 1/2 hours and includes DB and domain backup, compression of code, I remove white spaces from core code, and perform general SEF and SEO examination as part of the update. This examination includes a look at your HTACCESS for things like Canonical URL configuration, image caching, proper redirect and permalinks directives along with removing white space since HTACCESS does not cache the smaller it is the better for performance. I then add a robots.txt files which WordPress does not provide by default.  Most would agree that an update to WordPress is a mere 10 minute job which is true but why stop there when a detailed assessment and proper update and archive should be performed. 

Contact me today for an upgrade to WordPress 2.5

Special note regarding the WordPress 2.5 update process:

WordPress 2.5 does require a database update and I mentioned above that I always make a backup of the entire project folder prior to performing an update. This database update is essential to taking advantage of WordPress’s new features and careful attention to backup and recovery procedures should be followed.

An image just for the sake of putting an image.

update database

WordPress 2.5 Released!

Posted on March 29, 2008
Filed Under WordPress Wisdom | Leave a Comment

Finally after 6 hard months of work the geniuses behind WordPress have released a milestone in blogging called WordPress 2.5.

Eager to get this product installed so all my addons and plugins can be tested I’m taking down my site for one hour to move things into place.

Great work WordPress developers!

AWBS Template Master Layout

Posted on March 26, 2008
Filed Under Design | 4 Comments

AWBS Hosting Solutions Template Design Master Layout

I absolutely love AWBS for domains in need of a software package for their hosting solutions and shopping cart but one thing that has given me the biggest headache is skinning a template for AWBS.  Now before you AWBS experts sound off and beat me up understand my perspective;

AWBS templates are in fact exceptionally easy to build because the template method is quite similar to the old DRUPAL or even vBulletin method where you break your design down into 4 regions (head, footer, left, right) and the you simply wrap your template around AWBS.  Not difficult and really no different than the designs I’ve done for aMember. The frustration comes in when I try to make the design compliant and without errors.

AWBS is a great tool but having taken all the template files apart and re assembled them I realized I’d NEVER do it again so I’m going to do it right the first time and then create a template master and a few snippets in dreamweaver to make the task easier in the future. This however assumes that AWBS keeps the same template method.  I think I’ll just give away the template master once complete.  Its basically a template for AWBS in which I’ve cleaned up all the nested and broken nesting of tables and added module boxes throughout as well as adding <fieldset></fieldset> throughout the layout so styling can be done entirely in CSS and no major edits would be required to style a custom theme per se`.  Anyway you can visit the solution on The Brokers Edge here shortly and I’ll make this download available once I get it cleaned up.

WordPress Featured Listings Plugin UPDATE!

Posted on March 26, 2008
Filed Under Products | 3 Comments

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING EMAIL REQUESTS and DOWNLOADS

I PROMISE I’VE GOTTEN EVERY ONE OF THE REQUESTS AND I’M NOT IGNORING YOU.  We had to change a very important feature and overlooked potential issue with duplicate listings issues in Open Realty as one of the beta testers discovered.  I PROMISE EVERY PERSON THAT SENT ME AN EMAIL; I’ll send you an email this evening with download link and the URL to the brief video instruction guide because I still do not have PDF or printable documentation completed.

I’ve been up to my neck with updating my css-grids system and the Open Realty Dreamweaver Extension update pending the release of Open Realty 2.5 and it has kept me round the clock busy with that and catching up on client projects specifically a shopping cart AWBS project now almost complete.

Side note: I hate using a blog as a thread for notices like this so I’ve finished my new site design and matched the design to BB Press so you I can provide support instead of using this blog and comments for such things.  I did finish the final stages of the flash presentation feature in the WP Featured Listings Plugin so you can have an animated flash slide show directly in the featured.  I’m sure it will break on some sites because the inclusion of SWFObject.js has proven not to work on two blogs which to this day I’m fully baffled as to why.  Anyway thats from beta testers so maybe they should update their blog theme.

THANK YOU SINCERELY FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

Open Realty Release 2.5 Pending

Posted on March 25, 2008
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Open Realty 2.5 on the horizon with new features.

After doing some research early today for a new set of articles, I set out to see what exactly Open Realty will offer in the next release and discovered an impressive array of improvements pending.  Open Realty is the premier application for building listings manager driven sites such as galleries for automotive, boating and real estate primarily because of its general abilities to handle user interaction and by providing a wide range of control over defined fields.

One feature pending release is one I raved about in EZ Pro Realty that provides designers a way to build search results and listing details templates specific to property classes.  What this means is that you can have a listings details page for the class of residential look and feature only fields and characteristics specific to that property class.

Giving credit where credit is due means I have to make this correction. I like to make sure my posts are as accurate as possible and as it stands I was mistaken about a feature in EZ Pro Realty.  Open Realty in fact provided the above mentioned feature prior to EZ Pro Realty and I had assumed otherwise.  I’ll post additional details a bit later.

EZ Pro Realty Features Summary

Posted on March 20, 2008
Filed Under General | 11 Comments

EZ Pro Realty standard features not so impressive as of yet.

Okay well yesterday I managed to finally look in depth at EZ Pro Realty on the demo site from the developers and I must say that I’m impressed but surprised more hasn’t been done as of yet.  I’m glad to be part of the project and the efforts but of the features that are included in EZ Pro Realty now, other products can easily adapt via plug-ins, add-ons and core hacks making EZ Pro Realty efforts moot.  Now I’m not going to give EZ Pro Realty a bad rap as of yet since the project is barely a year old and the effort of two people part time, but considering the time frame I would have expected more.  I guess the good thing is that these features are core features and once they implement my new admin interface contribution site owners wont have to mod and bulk up their installs with countless add-ons to achieve things that SHOULD have been in all real estate applications.

Again, although after I examined the demo I wasn’t substantially impressed with the features that were added I must say that the open attitude and features of the website in general are such that make this fork a worth while attention getter.  Everyone who reads my posts here and abroad knows my attitude toward sociopath forum moderators and one thing that has set off every qualified professional (hacks and geeks don’t count) is the relentlessly rude and abusive un-friendly attitude in the Open Realty forums.  Thank God Almighty that EZ Pro Realty will not only entertain feedback, contributions and open forum support for things that INCLUDE core modifications but welcomes all developers, designers and other persons regardless of experience with the same respect and regard. That to me makes EZ Pro Realty the true benefit even if the application failed to achieve anything in its updates.

Top 10 EZ Pro Realty Features that Impressed me

  1. Search Results and Listings Details Templates by property class.  This feature I list as #1 because this is long over due.  When real estate companies have more than one class, they often have different fields of data applicable to that single class that should not or normally would not show up on the listings details template if it is not needed.  Now although Open Realty solves this by assigning fields to areas of the template using tags like {top} {center} etc… this does not solve the need for different layouts and design features of the class specific search results and listings details pages.
  2. FEATURED LISTINGS ON TOP OF SEARCH RESULTS. This is a real cool feature. This allows a site owner or real estate company to list their listings on top of search results and custom style those results so they stand out. Now my initial concern was that it would make the search results look spammy but after seeing it live and in use I was truly impressed with the potential.  If a company were to import 10,000 listings and the search results for any particular criteria brought back say 1,200 results for example then the mere addition of having 3, 5, or even more featured listings up front based on that criteria is very impressive.
  3. CSV Loader and XML Import Features.  This was going to be #2 but its not one many will use even though its very effective.  This is a commercial feature in Open Realty and as such adds instant value to EZ Pro Realty in that data can be imported via XML formatted sources.  Export methods are also on the list of features and when that happens maps for popular services like Trulia or Movechannel will be included.
  4. TRUE SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY FEATURES  EZ Pro Realty has a very effective feature for the SEO types by providing the ability to customize the page title, meta tags, URL and header includes (which I’ll cover next) per listing or per page.  When you create or edit a listing or page in the editors, you are presented with options to set the browser title or <title>{browser_title}</title> wording separate from the URL which lends a great deal to the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.  Also the biggest issue and by far the most confusing one is why exactly Open Realty felt that URLs would look good with page-The+Name+Of+Your+Page.html is beyond us. Not only is it baffling to try and relay that to someone its not at all SEO friendly.  I’m happy to say that EZ Pro Realty does it proper by first FORCING the URL to lower case and separating with hyphens as opposed to plus (+) signs.  the-name-of-your-page.html or even the-name-of-your-page/ is possible.
  5. HEADER INCLUDE VARIABLE EZ Pro Realty provides an impressive yet simple feature for content publishing which allows you to paste in code like JavaScript, CSS and other header includes types of scripting on a per page basis.  Why have javascript present on all pages when its needed in only specific areas? Why have form validation code and other types of variable includes displayed on each and every page when they are not needed? This feature allows you to specify what pages get what code.
  6. TEMPLATE TRANSITIONS BASED ON CLASS I love this feature but honestly can only see its use in companies that either do fsbo type sites or have a lofty rental or other types of management features for commercial properties.  This feature changes the look of the site to pull in a totally separate main.html template based entirely on property class or user defined type.  That means that your rental site could look like a rental site and your commercial site can look like a commercial site all from the same database and domain.
  7. SUPPORTED BRIDGING WITH WORDPRESS BY DEFAULT WordPress is the worlds premier blog solution and Realtors are discovering its power in marketing properties. One thing that is not easily done is integration Open Realty with WordPress nor is it an easy task to put WordPress features into Open Realty. EZ Pro Realty accepted my three contributions to the core which allow for three very important features that BTW will work with Open Realty as well (and they are free I might add).  EZ Pro Realty provides a new globals.php file that lets you do things like include Latest Posts or Latest Comments directly into your template and or pages for great cross linking features.  This globals.php also has other features I’ll cover shortly but a big part of this is the USER REGISTRATION BRIDGE which provides a way to have registrations to either EZ Pro Realty or WordPress and simultaneously add the user to both applications even if they reside in separate databases.  Now I funded this feature and I’m glad to say it will be a free snippet on my site for those who wish to use Open Realty and WordPress together as well.
  8. GLOBALS.PHP Has some key features. The first part is the simple inclusion of functions that can be called from within templates and or template pages and can even be used as a sort of mini-addon system by providing a quick way to add {template_tags}  What this means is this; if you have a website project for example that you represent ski lodges or properties in a recreational community where swimming, sports, events, and other things are key attractions then this feature natively supports an IF THEN type of scenario for showing data.  Still not clear? Well look at it this way. In Open Realty if you want to show an icon that represents a swimming pool or ski lodge as a sort of quick visual reference in the listings details page you either have to seriously work the existing system or alternatively build an add-on. With this feature in EZ Pro Realty the same can be achieved as plainly as "IF the field-name value is true, show this, if not, show this or nothing at all" So, if the property comes with a swimming pool, then show the little swimming pool icon you made and if it doesn’t then show the little swimming pool icon you made with an X over it or show nothing.
  9. Form Mail Manager Tool This tool is similar in features as pbflash’s commercial form add-on but in EZ Pro Realty it’s a standard feature.  I asked that one of my form processors be made optional to the project and if that happens that EZ Pro Realty will have all the necessary features for form processing and data capture it could need from the start. The current feature which basically provides custom fields and form processing on three primary default areas of the site is a nice feature but if they include my form tool then Realtors can have unlimited numbers of contact forms for things like CMA, mailing lists, news letter requests, online loan summary applications and more all of which the fields will be stored to a database for later retrieval.  I’m trying to encourage them to use this and if they do, as I said, it will make EZ Pro Realty sing.
  10. Google Maps  Last in this list but by no means last in features is the google maps feature that is at present a commercial option available in Open Realty.  EZ Pro Realty provides a way with a new template file that features an inline google map of the property and also a map feature for search results complete with baloons and photo thumbnail.

That was the top ten but these are worthy of mention;  EZ Pro Realty also has an inline mortgage calculator in the listings details template, dozens of included templates to chose from for design base, dozens of details, results, and featured templates to chose from and will also have bridging for Joomla users in the very near future.  The site bolsters external code hacks and snippets that make things easy to achieve simply by following some well documented instructions.

One thing I found interesting about EZ Pro Realty is the implementation of several new fundamental features all sites have and the inclusion of two new database tables bringing the total to 29 tables.  EZ Pro Realty added to its default package a /scripts folder, a /media folder and an /images/stories folder each of which has some default content used in the distribution version.  A brand new installer is also available which loads 11 default content pages, 15 default example listings (3 for each of the 5 default classes), two default example agents, and new default templates.  Things missing are the vertical-menu and cms templates included with Open Realty. Also removed are all the templates provided with the Open Realty SVN package as of the forks official diversion date which was a few weeks back. 

If you recall, legal council took a snap shot and copy of the Open Realty license from three locations including the SVN as of a certain version build so they could document the Open Realty permission to use their product in subsequent products providing criteria is met. That was done naturally in the event a change in the license pending version 2.5 were to take place preventing such a fork.

It is important to note that EZ Pro Realty is NOT developed as a rivalry to Open Realty, it was being developed as an alternative set of features and to provide more friendly and open support to members. It was taken down a new path since no other means to achieve changes were possible aside from add-on hell which is the loading up of Open Realty with dozens of add-ons just to get it to perform as it should.  Add-on hell is avoided as the fork includes most features as standard features normally found in add-ons.

WordPress 2.5 Release

Posted on March 18, 2008
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WordPress 2.5 Release Pending – Templates and Themes Changes?

Well I’m glad to say that in the past month, being on the beta testers subscribers list have netted me a great deal of insight into WordPress 2.5.  If I were asked to summarize WordPress 2.5 I’d simply say "clean and beautiful" as the admin interface is as well organized as any application I’ve seen and the structure of the code makes template modifications with plugins and overwrites truly endless with possibilities.

Today I just reinstalled a fresh copy of the release candidate and tested a few menu ideas I had from one of my old stock templates and I was amazed at how quickly it came together.  One major contributing factor is the structure of the menu in the admin panel and the rest of the layout will make customization a welcome task instead of a chore.

WordPress powers to be hint at the possibility of releasing version 2.5 as early as today.  This news comes at just the right time for me personally as I was able to test my two pet projects for WordPress plug-ins and I’m happy to say that they work just fine.  Although having only been previously released for clients and beta testers, the moment WordPress 2.5 releases I’ll release my new plug-ins, the Featured Listings plug-in and the WP-Post Planner.

WordPress 2.5 Templates and Themes

Naturally my initial concern was any last minute changes to template code and or template tags used in templates and if that code in any way effected the bridging scripts we use for Joomla and or Open Realty. I’m glad to say that only minor modification was required for our registration bridge and the rest works like a charm.  So to are the templates and themes having been built for the 2.3 series of WordPress.

To read more about this release news, please visit this link for WordPress Sneak Peek

Plug-in Translators Needed

Posted on March 17, 2008
Filed Under Products | 2 Comments

The Featured Listings WP Plug-in Translation

We have added a new file and folder in the plug-in for languages and would like to hire translators for 5 paragraphs of documentation. and 22 specific words in the language file.  For anyone interested we are looking for the following languages and need to know what your FEE will be for the translation.  German, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian and any other languages of interest are welcome.  Please use the contact form on my site if you are interested.  Although this plug-in is available by request I’d like to make it available with multi-lingual support.

General Dynamics Itronix Laptop Software Drivers

Posted on March 16, 2008
Filed Under Real Estate Websites | 3 Comments

IX250 IX260 and IX260+ (plux) Drivers

Here is a collection of all drivers for these laptops that I’ve once again updated after digging them out of the archive directory.

I get a lot of emails and traffic to the original post regarding the laptop drivers I had assembled.  After spending a great deal of time locating them, I packaged them up in to a single download which I’ve updated again today. 

Back when I purchased a handful of these laptops on ebay I discovered that none of them came with driver software which made the task daunting to get an OS loaded. 

These machines are not top of the line in CPU and memory speed but I can’t suggest a better more affordable or durable computer to toss in your truck to go camping or fishing or even for use in service vehicles for lawn care, construction, security services, or anything where you need mobile computing. The mere fact that these computers can connect to a standard Motorola 9211 radio makes them ideal for contractors that want to use them for GPS mapping among other things.

Next on my list is a pair of vehicle mounts and a pair internal radio updates.  To visit the updated collection of software drivers please visit the Downloads Area

How to remotely backup your domain FTP

Posted on March 15, 2008
Filed Under Products | Leave a Comment

Remotely backup your domain to our FTP backup service

Shane, my partner in hosting and I have about a half dozen servers across the web with various providers we market as Click Once Hosting. A few days ago after considering our expenses and each servers usage had come up with the idea that one server we have gets literally no traffic and that rather than try to fill it with websites and site hosting maybe we could use it to provide a way for people to remotely backup their sites on a scheduled bases.

Now the idea behind remote backups is to provide a secure way for people to backup their data from their existing domain by providing only ftp accounts and blocking all other IP’s from connecting as to avoid any unwanted traffic. Since cPanel or Plesk will not be needed we decided to start offering this feature to people interested in keeping backups of their data and set a pricing schedule based on bandwidth.

But is there a benefit for using this type of method for backing up data? I think so, one thing I’ve always been lucky enough to do is regularly backup my domains once a week and the database once a day to my local Linux box that sits right here next to my work station. Facts are facts and servers don’t last forever. Hard drive failure, viruses, hosting company loses power or doesn’t pay their bills and goes out of business among other hosting hazards are ever present.  So this solution to me seems like one people would be interested in having and I’ll be promoting it openly even though we generally do not provide open hosting this is a service we will make available to anyone interested. That leads us to yet another service we now offer.

Hosting your site on a mirror hosting server.

Shane and I had discussed taking our largest server with Rack Space in Texas and using it for mirror hosting for companies that need to have a backup solution for directing traffic in the event of high usage and or failure on the primary domain.  The facts are, many small companies that suffer from a virus or other tragic event regarding their domain NEVER come back.  Statistics show that most companies who lose their website having put time, energy and countless types of resources into never make a second attempt if all is lost.  Although many products and or site solutions do provide database backup utilities, some things are only salvageable by having an offsite backup or archive that may include the actual software running the site or simple things like media elements and documents.

Since the name of the game is rapid recovery, most companies that can afford mirror hosting use mirror hosting in having some redundancy to their products and services websites.  We wanted a way for the small entrepreneur or blogger to have a similar feature without breaking him in half.  Now many would argue another server or hosting provider will work just fine, why bother with a solution that is specifically setup for mirrors.  The simple fact is the risk factor involved in hosting mirrors on shared hosting servers that are not specifically setup for this service.  Many potential hazards can present itself causing sites to index incorrectly or even worse.  I personally maintain a mirror of all my blogs and all my sites on a server elsewhere that I update changes to daily in the event of an issue.  I simply go and switch my DNS to the new location should something happen to this server.  Here is the current pricing structure we have setup.

Remote FTP Backup (NOT HTTP WEB ACCESSIBLE)

  • Basic plan up to 3500 meg per month $5 per /mo
  • Silver plan up to 10 gb per month $7 per /mo
  • Bronse plan up to 25 gb per month $8 per /mo
  • Gold plan up to 50 gb per moth $9 per /mo
  • Corporate level packages and Realtor solutions where there are large databases are quoted on a per client basis.

DNS Domain Mirror Solution

  • Mirror 1 plan up to 30 GB space per month $6 per /mo
  • Mirror 2 plan up to 50 GB space per month $6 per /mo
  • Mirror 3 plan up to 75 GB space per month $10 per /mo
  • Mirror 4 plan up to 100 GB space per moth $12 per /mo
  • Corporate level packages and Realtor solutions where there are large databases are quoted on a per client basis.

I’ve not written sales material on this yet or even tried to promote it but I will get to that later in the week.  So please, if you need this service please do not hesitate to contact us.

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