Some Details

First: be sure to notice the lettering for the header image (the ‘W’, ‘o’, ‘o’, etc.). It was drawn by my nine-year-old daughter. How fantastic is that!? And my wife drew the now official Woolie T. mascot you see in the footer. I’m pretty fond of my family.

The actual content area is larger by a couple hundred pixels, and the sidebar along the right is correspondingly smaller. I didn’t want this blog to become a collection of sidebar widgets and ads that would overshadow and dominate the content.

Some posts will have an associated image to spice things up (on both the ‘front page’ view as well as the ’single page’ view). I used the Wordpress get_custom_values in the backend to add those images (some of which will be mine, most of which will be via the Creative Commons at Flickr). I’m pretty sure there’s a better way for me to use that feature (too may invidiual custom fields, I need to combine them into a single unit), but it works for now.

I really like (and am a bit proud of) the line that runs the length of the page, delimiting everything from the header to the footer posts and all the items in between. One of my original goals with this design was creating some sort of linking graphic like that….something that would tie the page together from top to bottom.

Comments look a ton nicer as well now, though there’s no new functionality (no replying to an individual post, comment feeds etc.).

Anyone reading this with IE6? Everything is basically visible and looks somewhat the same. The drop-down menu for “Categories” doesn’t work at all. but I don’t plan on I’m going to touch the IE6 specific style sheet again. Peace out.

Some ToDos

The sidebar, though pretty small now, still needs more items. I just don’t know what I want to put there yet. I’m trying to avoid too much of the standard stuff, because I want to keep it interesting. It will most likely become a sort of experimental spot at which I’ll throw new code.

The footer area is basically blank as well. It will probably end-up with some of the more standard sidebar type items (e.g blogroll). But again, I just don’t know.

I’d like to have something more dedicated to support for my Wordpress plugin (and any others I eventually create), but for now the WP forums is the best place to keep track.

Vote for Me

I hope those who stumble across this place enjoy the look. I’d like it to be a good first impression. If you’ve visited off-and-on in the past, then maybe the change will add a nice little jolt to your day.

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Yah New Look

Details, Details

I previously was calling a function I wrote to set the URL to the plugin root directory. This was then used to register the script with WP and was also passed down to the javascript using wp_localize_script.

The one-liner function:

function wt_rmrh_getBasePath()
{
    return get_bloginfo('wpurl') . "/" . PLUGINDIR . "/" . plugin_basename("read-more-right-here/");
}

With the 2.8.1 update, the above no longer worked. Before 2.8.1, the path in a page’s header was (in part):

   plugins/read-more-right-here/js/wt_rmrh.js

After the 2.8.1 update, the path became:

   plugins/read-more-right-herejs/wt_rmrh.js

Needles to say, that javascript file isn’t going to load.

I looked through wp-includes/plugin.php and found the plugin_dir function which

Gets the URL directory path (with trailing slash) for the plugin __FILE__ passed in

(their function comment).

So I deleted the function (which was only being called once) and replaced

$pluginUrl = wt_rmrh_getBasePath();

with

$pluginUrl = plugin_dir_url(__FILE__);

Everything seems to be in working order now. At least until the next Wordpress version!

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RMRH Update for WP 2.8.1

I just updated this site to use the latest WP (2.8) and now my “Read More Right Here” plugin doesn’t work quite right. When you click the “Read More” text, the rest of the post successfully downloads and is displayed. However, the next “click” takes you to the post’s single page display instead of just collapsing the new content.

I will hopefully get this sorted out soon. Whenever I do, I’ll update here.

UPDATE:

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to fix this. The problem is caused by the latest version of jQuery (1.3.2), to which WP apparently updated. Actually, it was caused somehow in the changes made in between 1.2.6 and 1.3.

Specifically, the function curCSS is throwing exceptions during the animation of the new content “away” (i.e. hiding).

800

var computedStyle = defaultView.getComputedStyle( elem, null );

The elem parameter being passed to getComputedStyle that causes the exception is a “\n“. With jQuery 1.2.6, I don’t see that element being passed to that function.

I tried some of the other animation techniques, but they I guess they all hit curCSS at some point or another. Even plain old hide causes problems.

So…..sorry. As of right now, the RMRH plugin does not work with WP 2.8. The only solution I can see at the moment is to include the older version of jQuery with the plugin. But I’m not sure yet how that will work out.

UPDATE 2: FIXED

It’s funny how a day away can make a difference. It only took about 10 minutes to get this fixed.

So I knew that jQuery couldn’t have a defect that serious that wasn’t already fixed. The most recent version has been available for more than four months now, and too many people use it for that issue to still be around. I figured the the problem had to be how I was creating the new content that is inserted into the DOM.

My previous method for doing this was:

var newEl = $j("<p> + newContent + </p>");

And the fixed method of the above code is:

var newEl = $j("<p>").html(newContent);

All I can think is that the use of "<p> + newContent + </p>" somehow results in newline characters (/n) being inserted as part of the string. The new method does not use string operators, only the <p> element and its html content are created.

Anyway, it’s fixed. If you use the “Read More Right Here” plugin and have updated to Wordpress 2.8, you need to update the plugin to version 1.0.3.

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Wordpress 2.8 Breaks RMRH Plugin

And awesomely enough, he found the cause of the problem!

The Defect

I was constructing the path to the plugin’s directory using the Wordpress function get_bloginfo, and passing to that function the value 'url'. However, the doc shows that value will result in Wordpress returning the blog home URL, and not the location of the actual core Wordpress files (which is what I needed). To get that path, you have to send in 'wpurl'.

Another Problem

But this fix uncovered another problem. That same path I assumed to be correct is hardcoded in the javascript function used to create the “loading” animated gif that appears while the “read more” content is being pulled. I fixed this issue by having the javascript asynchronously (ajax) ask Wordpress for the correct path (using the now updated function I described in the previous section). But that’s not really how I wanted to do it.

More Ideally

WOW, I FEEL STUPID.. I just typed a whole section here describing how I would rather have the javascript value used as the plugin URL somehow set by Wordpress. I envisioned something similar to wp_enqueue_script that could be used to inject some javascript value to the header along with the linked script sources.

So of course, after I’ve spent loads o’ time trying to find such a solution, figured “maybe next time” and officially updated the plugin, now I find this article (and I quote):

WordPress provides an elegant way to pass parameters to your JavaScript code using wp_localize_script function.

Arg and Doh and all that. Be on the lookout for another release!

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Defect Fix for RMRH Plugin

If you’re reading this on the wooliet main page (with multiple posts listed), you can see it in action by clicking the link below. If the is the “single post page” display then..well….there’s nothing to see! Just go to Wooliet and find an entry with a link to more content.

(Updated with official WP plugin link)

I’ve tried to make it a very quick and easy plugin that can easily be thrown in and activated on any standard Wordpress installation. Another goal was to keep it ‘unobtrusive’ in that, once deactivated, there would be no trace left behind in the Wordpress database. Of course, at some point (if enough people use it), additional options might be necessary and beneficial. But we’ll see.

I’m still in the process of getting it listed and hosted with the official Wordpress plugins repository, but at the moment, the new subversion area for the code doesn’t yet seem to be available (anyone know how long that should take?). It took three days for the Subversion path to become active. The plugin should be available at the official location, which is right here.

As an aside and helpful tip for anyone else considering submitting their plugin to the official Wordpress listings: they have a “readme.txt” validator you can use to verify the correct syntax and content of the required “readme.txt” file. It was extremely helpful for me.

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Announcing the ‘Read More Right Here’ Wordpress Plugin

Until then, here’s one way to get there from here: LINK.

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Archive Page

Despite the quality (or lack thereof), it is a much better feeling knowing that it’s all mine, and not some twiddled version of somebody else’s work. There is the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction at having created something of your own that you just can’t get by dropping in a theme yanked from the internets.

So look for revisions and updates and new items to the right from time to time. Before you know it, we’ll be at version 1.0!

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Woolie T Theme

So, on we go.

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RE: The Beginning