Customizing WordPress Child Theme

In this tutorial we will create Custom Post Types and add variables and functionality to them. Also we will add some styling for more user-friendly display in the dashboard.

Having set up our basic Child Theme structure we will now proceed with the customization. But before that we will do some basic WP configuration and go through the settings. You may be used to building WordPress based sites and therefore you may have some habits in as much as settings and configuration are concerned.

Semiomantics XO Custom Magazine for WordPress

Here is what I do in the dashboard:

1. Trash and permanently delete the Hello World Post.

2. Delete the default Links.

3. Set Permalinks to: /%category%/%postname%/

4. Under Settings General enter Blog Name and Tagline; for the purpose of this exercise I use  as a Title: WordPress TTP and as a Tagline: Tips, Themes and Plugins

5. Add some content to test content display by importing an RSS feed using a plugin such as Feedwordpress. I pulled into a new category called Blog the feed from my author-blog at:

http://yorgonestoridis.com/feed

We have set up a basic child theme for the purpose of modifying and customizing the Parent Theme. Creating structural modifications such as creating Custom Posts and Taxonomies are not strictly speaking theme relevant but should apply to all themes or as the case may be, to multiple themes in a Multi-user installation.

For this reason we will lodge the file which defines the custom posts outside any specific theme folder but inside wp-contents/themes.

We create a file called posttypes.php in wp-contents/themes. This file serves to define our custom post types and the way they integrate into the WP architecture.

In order to include the new Post Types in our Child theme, we include the posttype.php using an include function. This we doby adding a new file to our child theme; this file we call functions.php.

As you know, every WP theme contains a functions.php file; when creating a child theme which needs to expand the functions existing in the parent theme, then we just add a file with the same name, ‘functions.php’ to the child theme and append the functions defined in the parent theme.

Note: functions.php of the child theme does not override existing functions in the parent theme as is the case with styles (‘style.css)!

PHP allows us easily to include files in a script with the ‘include’ function and then by adding the URL to the file you wish to include.

Our ‘functions.php’ file will look as follows:

<?php
include_once (ABSPATH . 'wp-content/themes/posttypes.php');
?>

Please note that we use the ABSPATH function to construct the URL as the normal url path

 url(".../themes/posttypes.php") 

does not work here.

Save functions.php into your Child Theme Folder.

In order to set up our post types we proceed step by step:

1. Set up Custom Post Types
2. Add advanced Variables to Post Types
3. Add advanced custom post type functionality
4. Change the Menu Position (Dashboard) of the Custom Post Types
5. Add custom post type icon

Custom Post Types allow to separate different content from the traditional blog content. Blog content usually is edited as Posts and Pages, whereas Pages (static content) can be organized in a hierarchical way and posts are sorted by categories and tags. In order to display static content (pages) using customized layout, we can create different page templates easily.

Custom Post Types allow to sort content by Posts and Custom Post Types whereas custom post types are similar to posts but using custom taxonomies and as the case may be custom layouts or design adapted to the content. A typical example is a single product page from a shop compared to a single post page on the blog section of the website.

For the purpose of our exercise we will create 3 Custom Post Types

• WordPress Tips
• WordPress Themes
• WordPress Plugins

Setting up post types is relatively easy; while we could use plugins to create custom post types, I think hard-coding is a more solid and professional way of creating them. To create a new Custom Post Type we just need to add a few lines of code to the functions file or in our case to the abstraction file at posttypes.php which will then be included int the functions.php as per above where we have added the include function into functions.php.

We will create now the 3 Custom Post Types whereas the code used for each of them is the same except for the post type names and the function names.

To create the first post type, edit posttypes.php and paste in:

<?php

// Add new post type for WP Tips
add_action('init', 'wordpress_tips_init');
function wordpress_tips_init()
{
$args = array(
'label' => _x('WP Tips'),
'singular_label' => _x('WP Tip'),
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => null,
'supports' => array('title','editor','comments')
);
register_post_type('wordpress_tips',$args);
}

Save the file.

At the top we type a comment explaining what the following code is all about (Add new Post Type for WP Tips). Then we call the function in to WordPress with ‘add_action’ and at the bottom we register the post type. As you can see the function consists of a number of arguments which we will look into later ($args).

Check out your Dashboard now and you will see that the new post type is added to the menu just above ‘Appearance’.

To add new post types, you just need to copy and paste the above code and make simple changes to the name and labels of the post type.

The above post types work, however they are not well refined. For this reason we will add some more variables. As the new posts are still called “Post” in the editor for example we will need to relabel to display the real name of the post type. For this we will write a label variable which can take an array of labels and we thus relabel all instances of our Custom Post Type.

The variable we create with the array of labels looks as follows:

$wordpress_tips_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Tips', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Tip', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Tips'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Tip', 'wordpress_tips'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Tip'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Tip'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Tip'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Tip'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Tips'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Tips found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Tips found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);

We will insert this piece of code just before our block of arguments and then change the arguments accordingly as follows:

<?php

// Add new post type for WP Tips
add_action('init', 'wordpress_tips_init');
function wordpress_tips_init()
{

$wordpress_tips_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Tips', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Tip', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Tips'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Tip', 'wordpress_tips'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Tip'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Tip'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Tip'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Tip'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Tips'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Tips found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Tips found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);
$args = array(

/*      'label' => _x('WP Tips'), */
'labels' => $wordpress_tips_labels,
/*      'singular_label' => _x('WP Tips'),   */
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => null,
'supports' => array('title','editor','comments')
);
register_post_type('wordpress_tips',$args);
}

As you can see from the two commented lines, we have changed ‘label’ to ‘labels and defined with the variable from above ‘$wordpress_tips_labels’ and we have deleted the ‘singular label’ as it is replaced wby ‘singular name’ from the label variable.

For the other new post types it’s the same game, just copy and paste and change the labels accordingly.

Save posttypes.php and check it out in your dashboard.

You will now see all labels added and your site becomes a lot more user-friendly and less confusing.

We can define the functionalities of our new post types with an array under the variable ‘supports’; basically the ‘supports’ line defines which functionalities should be supported, i.e. which content should be displayed.

In our example, the line above looks like this:

'supports' => array('title','editor','comments')

When you go to your dashboard, and add a new WP Tip you will see the editor shows the ‘title’, ‘content’ and ‘comments’ fields.

While we can go crazy on adding supported functionality, we will here just look at some standard functionalities. To add more functionality we just need to append the array in the supports variable like so:

'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_tips'

By adding the above functionalities to the supports variable, we get something pretty close to the standard post editor, since we add the author, excerpts and custom fields as well as the featured picture functionality.

Also we can add a new variable, such as ‘has archive’ and then name the archive, in our example ‘WordPress Tips’.

This archive variable allows us to create an index page just for the WP Tips post  types.

Our Code for the WP Tips Custom Post Type is as follows:

<?php

// Add new post type for WP Tips
add_action('init', 'wordpress_tips_init');
function wordpress_tips_init()
{

$wordpress_tips_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Tips', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Tip', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Tips'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Tip', 'wordpress_tips'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Tip'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Tip'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Tip'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Tip'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Tips'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Tips found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Tips found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);
$args = array(

/*      'label' => _x('WP Tips'), */
'labels' => $wordpress_tips_labels,
/*      'singular_label' => _x('WP Tips'),   */
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => null,
'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_tips'
);
register_post_type('wordpress_tips',$args);
}

Copy and paste with the necessary changes for the other custom post types and save the file.

Check it out from the Dashboard Menu and the Editor.

As per now, our custom posts menu in the dashboard is positioned just above appearance and below comments. As custom posts are similar to posts, we want to move the custom post tabs just below the Posts tab.

As you can see from our code above, the menu position is set to ‘null’. The value ‘null’ makes that the custom post types are added at the bottom of the first section of the dashboard menu.

Depending of where you want to position your custom posts, you will need to change the value ‘null’ to another value according to the below reference scale:

0 — at the very top
5 — below Posts
10 — below Media
15 — below Links
20 — below Pages
25 — below comments
60 — below first separator
65 — below Plugins
70 — below Users
75 — below Tools
80 — below Settings
100 — below second separator

As we aim the spot below “Posts” we will use the value ‘5’, which will result in

...

'menu_position' => 5,

...

If you want to set a particular order, you can also use 3 different numbers, like 4,5 and 6 respectively.

Do the modification inside the arguments of each post type and save.

By repositioning the custom post type menu items , we signal priority and importance.

Check it out from the dashboard and note that our custom posts are right below ‘Posts’ now.

In order to make our custom post types stick out from the menu and to add user-friendly visual identifiers, we replace the default icons with custom icons.

There are two sizes needed, 16px and 32 px for the menu and the page title area respectively.

I have created sample icons and psd files for your convenience: please download from HERE.

Decompress the downloaded rar file and copy the image folder into wp-contents/themes (as we had done with posttypes.php, as we want to make these images available to all themes.

To add these icons we introduce a new function to posttypes.php with a function batch including some css/html code for styling purposes:

// Add new Custom Post Type icons
add_action( 'admin_head', 'wordpress_icons' );
function wordpress_icons() {
?>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
#menu-posts-wordpress_tips .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/tips-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_tips {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/tips-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}
#menu-posts-wordpress_themes .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/themes-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_themes {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/themes-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}
#menu-posts-wordpress_plugins .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/plugins-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_plugins {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/plugins-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}

</style>
<?php }

Note the incomplete php delimiter at the end which is needed to switch back to php from css/html code.

At this stage, your posttypes.php looks as follows:

<?php

// Add new post type for WP Tips
add_action('init', 'wordpress_tips_init');
function wordpress_tips_init()
{
$wordpress_tips_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Tips', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Tip', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Tips'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Tip', 'wordpress_tips'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Tip'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Tip'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Tip'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Tip'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Tips'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Tips found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Tips found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);
$args = array(
/*        'label' => _x('WP Tips'), */
'labels' => $wordpress_tips_labels,
/*        'singular_label' => _x('WP Tips'),   */
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => 5,
'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_tips'
);
register_post_type('wordpress_tips',$args);
}

// Add new post type for WP Themes
add_action('init', 'wordpress_themes_init');
function wordpress_themes_init()
{

$wordpress_themes_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Themes', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Theme', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Themes'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Theme', 'wordpress_themes'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Theme'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Theme'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Theme'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Theme'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Themes'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Theme found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Theme found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);

$args = array(
'labels' => $wordpress_themes_labels,
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => 5,
'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_themes'
);
register_post_type('wordpress_themes',$args);
}

// Add new post type for WP Plugins
add_action('init', 'wordpress_plugins_init');
function wordpress_plugins_init()
{

$wordpress_plugins_labels = array(
'name' => _x('WP Plugins', 'post type general name'),
'singular_name' => _x('WP Plugin', 'post type singular name'),
'all_items' => __('All WP Plugins'),
'add_new' => _x('Add new WP Plugin', 'wordpress_plugins'),
'add_new_item' => __('Add new WP Plugin'),
'edit_item' => __('Edit WP Plugin'),
'new_item' => __('New WP Plugin'),
'view_item' => __('View WP Plugin'),
'search_items' => __('Search in WP Plugins'),
'not_found' =>  __('No WP Plugin found'),
'not_found_in_trash' => __('No WP Plugin found in trash'),
'parent_item_colon' => ''
);

$args = array(
'labels' => $wordpress_plugins_labels,
'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'query_var' => true,
'rewrite' => true,
'capability_type' => 'post',
'hierarchical' => false,
'menu_position' => 5,
'supports' => array('title','editor','author','thumbnail','excerpt','comments','custom-fields'),
'has_archive' => 'wordpress_plugins'
);
register_post_type('wordpress_plugins',$args);
}

// Add new Custom Post Type icons
add_action( 'admin_head', 'wordpress_icons' );
function wordpress_icons() {
?>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
#menu-posts-wordpress_tips .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/tips-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_tips {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/tips-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}
#menu-posts-wordpress_themes .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/themes-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_themes {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/themes-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}
#menu-posts-wordpress_plugins .wp-menu-image {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/plugins-16x16.png) no-repeat 6px !important;
}
.icon32-posts-wordpress_plugins {
background: url(<?php bloginfo('url') ?>/wp-content/themes/images/plugins-32x32.png) no-repeat !important;
}

</style>
<?php }

?>

Check it out from your dashboard and you should see something similar to this:

Custom Post Types with Custom Icons

Related posts:

1. How to build a Custom WordPress Site 2
2. How to build a custom WordPress Site
3. Custom Widgets for WordPress
4. WordPress 3.4 Beta
5. Facebook Strategy with WordPress

Build a Custom WP with Semiomantics XO

This post focuses on setting up our Main Theme and a Child Theme. For the purpose of this exercise we will use Semiomantics XO as the parent theme because it’s flexible, user-friendly and highly optimized. In fact you can use most any decent WP theme to follow this tutorial, namely the TwentyEleven which comes with the WP installation.

Semiomantics XO for WordPress — Custom Magazine

Like on any live site, our test site on BitNami allows us to add themes either from the Dashboard (upload the theme’s zip file) or by pasting the theme into the themes folder in wp-contents.

Access your BitNami environment using Windows Explorer and surf to the themes folder. You will see the same folders and files structure under htdocs as you are used to when accessing your WordPress folder on a server using an FTP client.

Folders on BitNamy WP Stack

In order to add Themes, we just drop theme folders into the ‘themes’ folder as per above. As you can see, I have amongst others) added my Semiomantics XO (the ‘xo’ folder under themes). XO will serve as the parent theme of the new website. Instead however of customizing XO directly, I will create a child theme which will contain all modifications. The advantage is clear: when an update or upgrade of the theme becomes available, the parent theme can be updated without destroying the child and restarting the customization job from scratch.

A WordPress child theme consists first of all of a Folder to which we add a style-sheet.

This style-sheet contains a commented header which defines the parent theme folder as well as other optional data and it usually imports the parent theme’s style-sheet with a simple line of code (no need to copy paste the whole style-sheet). Also we will add a screenshot which will serve as a thumbnail in the Themes tab of our WP Dashboard.

Style-sheet for Child Theme

As you can see above, I am editing my files using the free PSPad which is handy to edit the various files we need to develop.

1. Add a new folder to the WP Themes folder under wp-contents/themes; name it as you like your theme to be named, in my case: yorgo12

2. Create a new file called style.css using your editor and save it into the new theme folder.

3. Edit the style.css file by adding a commented section defining:

• Theme Name  (yorgo12 in the above case)
• Theme URI    (this is optional and can be your website where you may talk about your theme; in my case: semiomantics.com)
• Description    (Optional; I have added a simple description, but you may well describe your Child theme, for example: 3 column minimalist child theme for Semiomantics XO.
• Author:           (Optional; put your name.)
• Template:  This is important: put the FOLDER NAME of the parent theme, in my case xo.
• Version:          (Optional: I start with version 1.0)

You could add other data as some authors do, such as Author’s URI and more, but that’s not necessary.

NOTE: All the above information sits between comment tags (/*.….….*/)

Next, we import the style-sheet of the parent theme with the following line of code:

@import url("../xo/style.css");

I have then added a comment to remind that you should not edit above unless you know what you do.

Your style.css file reads now similar to the following:

/*
Theme Name:       yorgo12
Theme URI:        http://semiomantics.com
Description:      Child Theme for Semiomantics XO 12
Author:           Yorgo Nestoridis
Template:         xo
Version:          1.0
*/
@import url("../xo/style.css");
/* Edit here below*/

Save the file into the new Child Theme folder.

4. Add a Thumbnail

Usually the image represents a screenshot of the new site but it can also be a brand logo or any other image. Important: the image should be called ‘screenshot’ and be in png format to fit into WP. Use image size 300px x 225px for best display.

screenshot.png

Drop the image into the Child Theme folder.

Let’s now activate our new Child Theme from the WP Dashboard under Appearance/Themes.

What you will see is an out of the box XO when looking at the front-end of the site.

Having set the base for our custom development, we will start now to adapt the site to the needs of the hypothetical customer. Continue reading the next post.

Related posts:

1. How to build a custom WordPress Site
2. Semiomantics XO Transparent WordPress Drafts
3. How to make WordPress Themes Responsive
4. WordPress Themes and Development
5. WordPress 3.4 Beta

Custom WordPress Design and Developments

This post will start a series of articles about building custom Websites based on WordPress and the Semiomantics XO Theme.

We will therefore use most of our remaining daily Ycademy calls this month to go into advanced customization issues. But first we will start at the beginning by planning and formulating a project which will allow us to test code, functions and design.

Semiomantics XO Custom Theme for WordPress

For the purpose of this exercise, we will build plan and execute a hypothetical customer’s project.

The new website will be about WordPress, namely about WordPress Tips, Themes and Plugins. It’s a site for a WordPress developer and web designer.

The structure of the Website will be based on WordPress and include some static pages such as the About, Contact, Imprint and Privacy pages as well as structured dynamic content.  As the site will focus on 3 main topics, Tips, Themes and Plugins, we will build for each of these topics custom Posts and Taxonomies.

To build the new website in a test environment, we install BitNami and namely the WordPress stack (free download). BitNami creates an independent (Apache) server environment with MySQL server and installed WordPress, ready to use via our browser. If you are used to Firefox and Firebug, you will find it easy to customize your styles and designs.

Now we can access the WordPress Dashboard via the browser and the files using windows explorer.

We are ready to start working on our project. Please look forward to the next related post where we will start adding Semiomantics XO and start building our custom child theme.

Related posts:

1. XO Photo Press WordPress Theme
2. Elegant WordPress by Semiomantics 101
3. How to Customize your WordPress Typography
4. Semiomantics XO Transparent WordPress Drafts
5. WordPress Personal CMS and Blog

Common Changes

This post lists some CSS snippets to customize WPTouch Pro.

Note: When removing the page title area we recommend using a child theme’s stylesheet and applying the code below to its corresponding stylesheet, per the instructions on applying custom CSS.

In the iPhone theme:

.page-title-area { display:none !important; }

In the iPad theme:

.page .title-area {display: none;}

.idevice .post .thumbnail-wrap { -webkit-box-reflect: none; }
.idevice .calendar-box { -webkit-box-reflect: none; }

Change every instance of 46px to your desired size

.post .thumbnail-wrap { height: 46px; width: 46px; } .post img.attachment-post-thumbnail { width: 46px; height: 46px; }

.post img.attachment-post-thumbnail { -webkit-mask-box-image: none; }

p.nocomments, #respond { display:none !important; }

#respond, ol.commentlist, a.com-toggle { display: none !important; }

.comment-bubble { display:none !important; }

.archive-text { display: none !important; }

#header { background-color: #ffffff !important; }

where #ffffff can be customized to suit.

#hellobar-container, #hellobar-wrapper, #hellobar-pusher {display: none;} 

Related posts:

1. XO Mobile Theme with WPTouch Pro
2. Customizing WP Shop Theme
3. Customizing Post Editing
4. Best WP Business Theme
5. Hosting South Africa Fun Theme

eval base64 on WordPress or other Sites

WordPress and other CMS powered sites are often targets for hackers who mass-inject some code into php and or html files.

The cases I came across so far showed a hack just before the closing body tag in form of a short script pointing to an external source. Also, in some cases I found some php file in the uploads folder (in WP the uploads folder should not contain any php files).

Once the script executed, a long string starting something like this:

<?php /**/ //eval(base64_decode("aWYoZ...

is placed on php and/or htm/html files. This eval base64 encoded and injected PHP code will hit all php archives.

To start with: change your passwords (FTP and Admin). Make sure your site script WP and Plugins are updated.

Check your footer.php (theme folder) and delete eventually the script added by the hack (or just load your backed up footer.php and replace the file).

Check your uploads folder for php files and delete them. Check your plugins folder for unusual php files and as the case may be delete them.

If you are not familiar with Ruby, PuTTY and Shell access, then there is a relatively simple solution available by running a php script from your root. The script will back-up the hacked files, replace the hack with another string and save the repaired file.

A second script can be used to delete the backed-up hacks once we are sure that all works fine.

These scripts have been developed by Sergi Rodrigues Rius and published on his spanish website. They work on the most common php CMS.

Download from HERE.

Upload the search_and_replace.php into the root folder of your site and run it by opening the page in your browser.

Once you are sure all is working fine, run the second script (this can be done after a few days or weeks).

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How to build a Local Website

Go Local is the name of the game in 2011/12 and the success of bringing the global web developments back home is a trend of the time. First it was about tagging people, now we tag locations, be it on social networks such as Facebook or on Photo sites, such as Picasa or Flickr.

Based on the fact that surfers search for and prefer local business to cross border transactions, social networks namely have built in the local tags and stimulate users to hook media and events to geographically tagged locations.

In order to dominate the local market, you need to assess the use of the internet your neighbors make; chances are that they mostly hang out on social media, search Google and use email. This is of course an extremely simplified view but it gives an indication about where we need to build high visibility.

You also want to have an idea about how people access the net and websites; you will notice an increased use of mobile deices, which means that your content needs to be formatted and optimized  for desktops as well as for tablets and mobile phones.

Finally you may notice that surfers prefer visual content to text, which impacts on editing and publishing for multiple platforms.

In order to build high visibility on search returns, you need

• a local website.
• make use of all possible Google Listings pertaining to the geographic location.
• great content and consistent publishing to provide useful information and trigger conversation.

To dominate social networks (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn) we need

• optimized profiles.
• Facebook Pages.
• a consistent flow of information to trigger attention and conversation.
• an optimized set-up to assure traffic back to our websites (let the social networks work for us instead of the opposite).

To dominate the mobile web we need

• mobile versions of our websites (tablets and smartphones).
• mobile search optimization.
• ideally an App.
• easy to use interactive functions.

The answer is similar to managing a business online. There are three main elements I like to focus on:

• an optimized workflow to assure maximum productivity.
• high quality content and content providers.
• an integrated publishing network to hit all the important targets with per platform optimized content.

• Ads from Local Business.
• Ads from external Business wanting to do business locally.
• Eventually by integrating a local directory.
• Eventually by integrating a real estate classifieds feature.
• Eventually by integrating a service and products exchange.
•  … and more.

Just a few ideas:

• Talk about people.
• Talk about events.
• Talk about stories concerning the community.
• Talk about Local Sports, Clubs, Associations.
• Publish Pictures (people like to see their face and place).
• Talk about local business.
• Integrate a news wire from the major’s office.
• Have a local Gossip column.
• Let visitors contribute and discuss content.
• Don’t forget rating.
• Create competitions, contests, top 3 lists.
• Exchange advertising space with local media to promote your site quickly an consistently.
• Bring the conversation from social networks back to your site.
• … and so much more!

I hope this post helps your brainstorming when creating your local project. I will publish shortly a detailed project for my demo community, Vouliagmeni.

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Mobile WordPress and Social Media

The fast evolution of the mobile web has created new needs for publishers, whereas the objective remains to integrate mobile web targets into an existing workflow and to optimize productivity with the help of automated conversion scripts and tools.

At Semiomantics the starting point for our development is the most comprehensive conversion plugin, called WPTouch Pro. WPTouch has released its latest version end of March 2012 with some adjustments for iOS 5.1 and many other fixes and developments:

• * Added: Custom advertising options for iPad

• * Added: Simple caching of desktop functions.php

• * Added: Russian language file

• * Added: Automatic archiving of previous settings in wptouch-data directory

• * Added: Compatibility setting for BuddyPress Mobile AJAX support

• * Fixed: Changing user-agent matching that may have interfered with advertising in certain scenarios

• * Changed: Replaced include with locate_template in theme files, should allow child overrides of custom WPtouch Pro template files

• * Changed: Algorithm to reload settings; may have caused settings to be lost in a certain scenario

• * Updated: All translations based on 2.6 strings

• * Fixed: An issue with Register and Lost password links in Classic

• * Fixed: Video issues with jwPlayer and other video sources and plugins

• * Fixed: An issue which could cause the Share button not to show in Classic mobile theme

• * Fixed: Improved appearance for Embedded Google maps

• * Fixed: Issues with Tweet text encoding in sharing options for Classic

• * Fixed: Search form issues with Skeleton theme

• * Fixed: Admin issues for non-English languages

• * Fixed: Issue where style.min.css was never loaded in child themes of Classic

• * Fixed: Broken admin icons when SSL was enabled in the admin

• * Added: Hungarian language

• * Changed: Adjustments for memory management in Classic iPad theme

• * Fixed: An issue with MapPress embeds

• * Fixed: An issue with JetPack videos

• * Fixed: An issue with Smart Youtube plugin videos

• * Fixed: Issue with blank spaces in custom user agent string

The above recent change-logs indicate the extent of considerations necessary for a serious development of an integrated mobile WP based solution. The reason for such complexity lies amongst others in the following:

1. Increasing WordPress complexity and advanced plugin developments.
2. The multitude of mobile operating systems, browsers and devices of different sizes, display resolutions and aspect ratios.
3. The improved algorithms of Mobile Search.
4. The complexity of Semiomantics’ unbeaten optimization for conventional and mobile search.
5. The popularity of mobile and smart devices and the automated Mobile Search privileging mobile site versions.
6. The popularity of Social Networks and their ever changing integration parameters.

At Semiomantics we aim to make complex matters simple for day to day use. As an author or business, you don’t want to spend your time with technical issues or sitting logged into social networks to keep up with the continuous stream of information and exchanges. You want to do your business and be assured that your message gets spread broadly and that visitors requests are piped to proper destination without your intervention.

Semiomantics Developers are trained to build high end customer specific solutions assuring optimized productivity and workflow.

Based on the above, the Seminar will provide all necessary updates and upgrades for existing and new installations of high end websites, namely those built on Semiomantics XO and EVO frameworks.

During numerous Workshops we will knock participants personal sites into shape to comply with the highest standards.

We will go step by step through the set-up and development of the customized version of each participants author site. This includes the following workshops:

1. Build a Mobile Child Theme for your Website.

2. Build OS specific Icons.

3. Build a Start up screen (image).

4. Build Mobile specific WP 3.0 menus.

5. Custom Links and Icons.

6. Integrate Advertizing: Adsense, Admob, Custom Ads.

7. Custom Post formats for the Mobile theme.

8. Test Plugin compatibility and create your mobile plugin menu.

9. Embed media for Mobile content, YouTube, Vimeo or self-hosted standard h.264 encoded media.

10. Specifics for tablet computing, namely for the iPad and other touch tablets.

We will focus on Facebook in particular. Mobile Facebook is quite restrictive; it is therefore important to learn about what is visible on mobile FB and what cannot be accessed, respectively, how we may work around some of these restrictions.

In fact: Mobile Facebook is quite disappointing, be it whether you access it via the App or the browser. Custom content on app driven canvas pages and page favorites don’t display! Even promoting their link on the wall will not trigger any display. There are some workarounds by using different browsers where you can modify browser settings and simulate a desktop browser, but that’s not a solution for the masses.

Facebook is not here to promote YOUR site but just to grab your content for it’s own purpose.

• We will show you how to work around the problem and take advantage of the FB App and Mobile Site to get most out of it. The goal is to achieve that Facebook works for you and not you for Facebook.

• We will also come back to the desktop version of Facebook, showing how to build the most neutral and minimalist Facebook page for full and perfect control of all your content.

The Ycademy Online Seminar will take place on April 28/29, 2012 starting daily as usual at 1 p.m. London Time and closing at 9 p.m. London time.

All materials and scripts are provided and included.

The cost for this seminar is $85; discounts as usual for Ycademy Pros (please mail Bianca at bianca(at)ycademy.com for the coupon code.

Click on the below image to get your ticket.

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WordPress 3.4 Beta Custom Headers and Backgrounds

The release of WordPress 3.4 Beta raises a number of problemsquestions for theme designers in as much as Custom Headers and Custom Backgrounds are concerned.

The implementation methods via add_custom_background() and add_custom_image_header() will be depreciated and replaced by a more powerful method via add_theme_support().

Due to the depreciation of the old calls, we will need to update the themes and make the modifications needed to take advantage of the new features provided by WordPress 3.4. The new theme versions will work with WP 3.4 minimum and must not be used with previous WP versions.

Custom developments and child themes may need a special treatment, depending on the degree of customization. I will arrange for some developers calls or set up some tutorials in due course. For the time being I am testing WP 3.4 Beta to check backwards compatibility using our themes.

I will keep you posted on results and updates.

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Facebook Page Publishing with New Timeline

As from March 30, Facebook pages will change their look and features. I have presented the new options at last week-end’s Ycademy Seminar. In order to take advantage of the new features, companies, brands or people in general must adapt to the new format and can optionally expand visibility and interactivity using a well thought publishing concept. The concept I am talking about is the Semiomantics Facebook Publishing Concept.

Semiomantics Facebook Publishing Concept

Semiomantics has been focused on developing high performance scripts for online publishing since 2008. Originally the main target was SEO to reach Google Top 10 listings and to gain high visibility and traffic on and from search engines.

Semiomantics main concern has always been to control and secure content and to make it available online in the customer’s own rights, rather than to entrust third party sites such as social networks with the content and letting them handle the publication. The second most important concern is productivity and an efficient workflow, allowing to edit and publish on one place only all content for the web (including the mobile web) and to channel it then to the different target locations, networks and sites.

The Semiomantics Facebook Publishing Concept is in line with Semiomantics proven SEO.

In the center of the concept we position the Semiomantics Publisher, a WordPress based website expanded with all necessary bells and whistles to communicate with Search Engines and Social Networks as well as with the Mobile Web.

The most popular base is Semiomantics XO, the semantic framework and theme developed since 2008. It is not what you add to Semiomantics XO but how you add it that makes the difference when it comes to plugins and add-on software. That’s why Semiomantics XO is mostly used for Customized Websites by professional Developers and Designers.

For the purpose of efficiently publishing to Facebook (and other social networks) Semiomantics has integrated, optimized  and further developed the best Facebook integration scripts out there, allowing to provide customers with an easy to use, homogeneous solution.

Once expanded with Social Media Publishing scripts, the Semiomantics publishing framework provides custom taxonomies specially designed for FB Content creating, publishing and managing. The idea behind this concept is, that all content is published on our own website and when the Facebook page is called, the traffic hits our own site.

From the Dashboard we can set-up an unlimited number of such pages easily and quickly using the same editor as we use for WP dynamic posts or pages.

To get the pages hooked and deeply integrated into Facebook, we need to use the Facebook App and OpenGraph features. Don’t worry, it’s easy to handle once set up:-).

So, once we have created our FB Page content on our website, we create a Facebook App and then a Facebook Page. We link the App with our Website (from the Dashboard) and with the Facebook Page. Adding our App to Favorites on Facebook, we end up with a Favorites Tab on timeline (to the right below the cover image).

Facebook Timeline Page

Facebook Timeline Pages let us display 3 Featured Tabs on the first line, the Photo tab being fixed and cannot be replaced. Using the small icon on the right of the tabs, the page reveals another 8 tabs for additional use and display of apps. There we will lodge our additional pages created on our Website.

We end up with a Facebook page with highly visible tabs leading to content on our website, be it a shop, images, videos, sliders or any other content. By interlinking the so created pages and apps we offer easy navigation for our Facebook readers and can provide all the content you would never want to entrust Facebook with or share a license with Facebook, like for example on your graphics, logos and other content. (See Facebook’s terms.)

The following post will detail the set-up and procedure.

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Best Portfolio and Photo Custom Theme: Semiomantics EVO

WordPress offers a perfect backbone for Media Publishing and eCommerce on a single site.

Semiomantics Developments for WordPress assemble the best modules available to offer custom solutions to satisfy the needs of professionals. EVO is a theme base for custom design and development focusing namely on media producers, photographers, graphic and web designers.

Semiomantics EVO is based and inspired by the work of the best designers and developers out there who take advantage of the latest developments of WordPress, HTML5, CSS3, Java, Ajax and the mobile web.

Code and Scripts have been adapted and modified to satisfy Semiomantics’ highest standards of optimization for excellent publishing, targeting Search Engines and Social Networks.

Semiomantics EVO replaces the flash template Semiomantics Evo and constitutes a second cord on Semiomantics Arc.

The recent release of XO Edition 2012 remains the blockbuster product of Semiomantics in 2012; however we are working on a new XO which will replace XO 12. A new architecture will allow to eliminate some of the heavy plugins we are using at present with XO namely to satisfy the standards of mobile development.

Semiomantics EVO is the ideal platform for high quality editing, media publishing and eCommerce. Semiomantics Developers and Designers are invited to join the Ycademy February Online Seminar which is held this coming week-end.

Shoot Images and Videos with your camera or mobile device, load them to your EVO (can be done from the mobile device directly) and let EVO share your content with your friends and acquaintances on Social Networks without losing the control over your media or products. The shop is easily accessible, fully integrated and can also be added to your Facebook page for example.

Look out for more soon.

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Semiomantics EVO Developer Theme

2 years ago, about at the same time of the year, we have built Evo, an Action script driven Flash photo and portfolio website.

This time we will make use of HTML5, CSS3 and Java Script to customize Semiomantics EVO, a Semiomantics development for Developers.

Flash is not anymore a smart option for development for as long as Apple mobile devices are as popular as they are and for as long as mobile Apple devices will not display Flash. Therefore we have been looking for an alternative to produce smashing and eye-catching sites based on HTML5.

Of course the good old Evo Flash driven sites still look great. As a lot of work has been put into them we will try to use namely all the edited images and footage in the new EVO version.

Semiomantics Evo Flash Version 2009

Semiomantics Evo Flash Version 2009

The biggest changes are:

• EVO is now powered by WordPress
• EVO does not use any Flash but is a responsive HTML5, CSS3 and Java script theme.

The new EVO assembles the ultimate in WordPress design and features for modern media display. Ideal for photographers, EVO features not less than 6 different Gallery Types. Galleries can be displayed most anywhere and the number is unlimited.

EVO can also display EXIF and location data.

The high resolution background slider will assure clean display also beyond resolutions of 2500 px equivalent.

Custom sidebars for pages and categories.

Finally: the script is eCommerce ready!

Semiomantics EVO 2012 Developer Edition

Semiomantics EVO 2012 Developer Edition Light

Become familiar with a new generation WordPress Theme and develop on the given bases a personal template for further customization.

Learn how to replace the existing Evo sites with the WordPress based responsive EVO.

(More to come.)

Licensed Software is provided.

To build the new site, add a sub-domain to your main site (author blog) and call it for example media, photo or portfolio or similar. (We will discuss this at the pre-seminar call on Tuesday February 21, 2012.

Ticket price $85, the usual discounts for Ycademy Pros apply. Please ask Bianca for the discount code: bianca(at)ycademy.com.

Click to Get your Ticket

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Basic CSS3 to Customize your WordPress Theme

With the increasing browser compatibility of CSS3, additional customization of websites is in the reach of most anyone (Even a Monkey can do it, according to Nikos Advertizopoulos …). Tonight we will start with a series of calls to become familiar with the possibilities arising from the use of CSS3 on WordPress to improve typography and font styles.

You may follow the progress of the work at the Ycademy Demo Site which features the Semiomantics XO Theme.

Looking forward to seeing you on YorgoLive tonight.

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Transparent WordPress Custom Theme

Playing with the XO Theme Version 3.3.x from Semiomantics and CSS3, I notice how easy it is for most anyone to customize the XO Theme by adding transparencies and other CSS3 elements. Here below you find some drafts. You may visit the test site from : http://globalthebrand.com.

On the test site we use the Semiomantics Widgets and Theme Handler plug-in as well as a modified Supersized plug-in; the latter needs some more work to make it more responsive. Also we use TubePress which behaves fine also on mobile.

The Theme is Semiomantics XO with 3 custom child-themes; any theme can be associated with any page, post, category, tag or sidebar.

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New Semiomantics XO Theme for WordPress

The above Screenshots represent just some of the pages, features and looks the 2012 Edition of the high performance XO Theme for WordPress has up its sleeves. The above site is the fruit of the 2 Days Ycademy Online Seminar for Semiomantics Developers and designers.

The 2012 Edition of XO is focused on even more flexibility in as much as editing, cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility are concerned.

The Site displays perfectly on Mobile devices, showing responsiveness also of the plugged in scripts chosen of which some have been adapted to satisfy the high standards of Semiomantics Publishing Scripts for Excellence.

The site elaborated at the Ycademy Online Seminar this past week-end features some smashing features, such as:

• Background Slideshow, customizable for each page, post or archive
• Built in Directory
• Media Library for YouTube and Vimeo
• Pro-sliders which can be deployed anywhere on the site
• In addition to the responsive design, a separate light Mobile Version is available
• Bold and Efficient Navigation
• Built in Custom Fonts
• Social Network connectivity and publishing
• and much more.

The XO script is well commented and offers designers a clean and straight forward environment for custom developments. XO uses best practices for WordPress development and makes the best use of the possibilities offered by the WP back-bone, assuring smooth integration and optimized conflict handling.

XO is a great playground for designers. The DIY version allows anyone to adapt layout and colors to taste right from the back-office; there is no need to have any knowledge about coding or designing. The theme behaves like a Chameleon and adapts to specific needs with just a few clicks of the mouse: pre-configured layout elements transform your XO quickly into a Magazine, Newspaper, personal Author Blog, a Media Hub, a Shop, a Marketing Machine, a Social Media Publisher, a Product Promoter or a Fan Site or most anything your imagination dictates.

For the professional designer, XO offers a well commented environment. Custom code can be added right from the dashboard or, as I prefer using a child theme. XO is tuned for HTML5 and CSS3 use, making it a modern and inspiring framework for exceptional design effects.

Out of the box, the XO Theme for WordPress provides a stable and reliable, robust and optimized solution for common use. It provides built in features such a slider with multiple transitions and a one click selector for easy use.

Layouts can be easily adapted to needs and purpose of the site. In fact, most custom designers rely on the theme engine to format efficiently layouts.

The site featured in the above gallery uses a few pro plug-ins to add functionality in function of customer requirements. The integration of such add on scripts is a relatively simple process for designers and developers.

XO has been developed for high performance, productivity, excellence in publishing and flexibility. For the professional users, the XO Theme constitues a solid base with a huge potential for customization and creative artistic expression.

The release of XO Version 3.3.x is planned for the first week of February. The present Release Candidate has been thoroughly tested. A few minor issues will be taken care off before XO will be available to the public.

If your site is running on Semiomantics XO suing basic customization, the theme can just be overwritten. (Save your custom CSS beforehand.)

If you are using a custom version with custom developments or a child theme, some of your customization will need to be adapted to the enhancements of XO 2012. This concerns namely custom headers and footers as well as custom functions.

Support for developers and designers is available as usual at our Ycademy Online Calls and Seminars or through Semiomantics Pro Support.

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Semiomantics XO with CSS3 and HTML5

Time has come to learn about new technologies available for web designers and developers. All common browsers are increasingly able to read and interpret CSS 3 and HTML5 and about all computers are equipped to read java and jQuery. Therefore new possibilities become available to XO developers which we will focus on during the January Seminar.

XO has evolved over the past 4 years along with WordPress Developments. The theme has become responsive and shows perfectly on smart phones and tablets.

Subsequent to the release of WordPress 3.3.x XO needed some adjustments and updates which we have implemented and tested. New design functions become available for advanced customization. XO remains the most flexible theme for custom development, accessible to most anyone.

The goal of the seminar is to become familiar with XO and it’s new features as well as to learn how CSS3, HTML5 and jQuery allow to adapt XO to most any customer’s needs.

Some of the technical issues we will have a detailed look at are:

• Transparencies with CSS3
• Background Sliders
• Mobile Verions using WPTouch Pro
• Content and Frame sliders with Pro Slider and SlideDeck Pro
• Social Network connectivity with FacePages
• How to make a WP theme responsive (adapting to different screen sizes such as Smart Phones Tablets and bigger)

The most obvious expansions are via plug-ins. We will show how to make the best use of plug-ins for the Mobile Web, Social Networking, Social Media Publishing, Social Network Marketing as well as for more attractive display. Time permitting we will look into additional functions, such as shopping cart or marketing specific scripts.

We also will start looking into another important chapter:

How to convert your XO sites into a Mobile App!

In order to make the understanding easier, we will build a new site during the 2 days event. Please join our pre-seminar call on Thursday to prepare the event by setting up a new XO powered site.

All materials will be provided. You will just need some images/photos, videos and other content you may want to use to populate the XO site.

Saturday and Sunday, 28/29 January, 2012 from 1 pm London time till 9 pm London time.

Tickets are available on our new shop at HIOD.com. Please click on the below image to order.

Discounts as usual for Ycademy Pros: Please mail Bianca at bianca(at)ycademy.com for the coupon code.

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A clip with XO 2011 Sites

 

The clip presents some of the custom sites built on Semiomantics XO 2011.

Semiomantics XO 2012 will be released in January to catch up with the latest WordPress developments.

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10 Steps to Implement your Facebook Strategy with WordPress

Implementing your Facebook Strategy will be at the center of the November Ycademy Seminar. This hands-on Seminar and Workshop will stretch over two days and build with participants an eye-ball-twisting Facebook presence. See the seminar schedule at the bottom of the post.

The Seminar is designed for WordPress Developers and WP users who are looking for high productivity and customized publishing and marketing solutions.

This topic deals with efficient strategies which will efficiently improve your Facebook presence.

Visit the Semiomantics Facebook Page

Surfing through Facebook we notice some common errors well intended people commit when building their Facebook presence. We will discuss these issues and show you how to eliminate them from your personal or business Facebook.

While content is king, there are different ways of making it accessible to visitors. We will discuss the recent changes Facebook has implemented and show you where the focus should be in order to improve your visibility, traffic and business or network expansion on Facebook.

Function of your strategy we will define and optimize privacy settings in order to grant potentially interested visitors access to relevant information. Privacy, Accessibility and List-building as well as Targeted Communication are the essentials of this key session.

For people looking for you, your business, services or products, your Profile and Info page are of the utmost importance, the more that your info is visible from outside Facebook and therefore Google efficient. We will set up with participants an efficient Info Page.

We will discuss the recent changes implemented by Facebook and how they impact on our strategies.  Friends, Fans and Subscription features impact on the way we expand our network and influence on Facebook.

Overview of the Facebook Page feature. Integration techniques, Apps, Content, Canvas and Pages.

The focus is on the technical set-up of a Facebook Page. As  content we will use a graphic, picture of video.

What is it you actually wish to display on your Facebook page? In fact there is no limit and it depends entirely on your strategy.

This is the center piece of the seminar. Creating Facebook Page right from your WordPress site is now possible. We will set up a reveal page and different Facebook pages depending on participants needs. In fact we show you how to create a whole website in Facebook, straight from your WordPress.

While this works with most any WordPress 3.1 enabled Theme, we will demonstrate the integration with Semiomantics XO.

In fact we will work with a professional plugin modified for Semiomantics XO.

The Seminar will guide you to master the following and more:

• Create Unlimited Facebook Fan Pages with WordPress

• Increase Likes by 150% with Reveal “Like” Tab Gateways

• Unlimited Customization Options When Designing Your Fan Pages

• Create Unlimited Custom Pages with the WordPress Page Editor

• Create Custom Menus and Navigation with Just a Few Clicks

• Comments, Like, Send and Over 50+ Custom Shortcodes for Enhanced Customization

• Facebook Open Graph Integration for Enhanced Facebook Integration and Google SEO

• Auto Post to Facebook From Your WordPress Blog

• Use Your Facebook Albums and Photos on Your Blog and Fan Pages

• Add Google Maps to Your Facebook Fan Pages

• Create Squeeze and Sales Pages with Just a Few Clicks on Facebook

Add Facebook related widgets to your front and/or content pages. Google+ and Twitter buttons. Pull in Facebook Albums, Events, like Buttons and more. Use Facebook Connect to log in to or to register with your blog.

Create content which is only accessible after visitors clicked the “Like” button. A smashing filter which allows you to manage accessibility right from your XO.

Saturday and Sunday November 26/27, 2011.

We start at 1 pm London Time and end at 9 pm London time both days.

You need a WordPress blog preferably with FTP access.

Scripts and all other materials are provided.

We will install the necessary scripts for you previous to the Seminar; please get your Tickets early. If we are not yet in possession of the FTP access to your site, please send it by email to Bianca Gubalke at bianca(at)ycademy.com.

The Price for Participating, Materials and access to recordings is $85.

Click to get your Ticket

Discount as usual for Ycademy Pros. Please contact Bianca Gubalke at bianca(at)ycademy.com for the code or any other question you may have pertaining to the Seminar.

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WordPress 3.3 Update for XO by Semiomantics

Semiomantics XO users: update to WP 3.3 and appreciate the new admin bar featuring also your XO theme menu. Also new: the drag and drop media up-loader as well as the admin menu :-).

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How to Use WordPress for Online Marketing

The August Ycademy Online Seminar will focus on transforming your WordPress CMS into a powerful Marketing Machine.

Online Marketing is about gaining high visibility within a target market and submitting to targeted audiences our products and services. While a business website is the base of the online presence, the visibility and traffic remain the essential part of the marketing process.

Semiomantics has proven for years its ability to gain high Google rankings, visibility and traffic in most any niche and under most any keyword. The XO script allows us to out-perform competitors when it comes to publishing.

Attracting potential customers to our website is the first step, keeping visitors on the site and making them return is a second issue all together. Also, with the often large number of affiliate links users have to fight with, we need to implement features which make the workflow more efficient and allow to automatically promote affiliate links under multiple keywords. In fact, this does not only concern the promotion of Affiliate links, but any link to which we want to drive traffic.

The Semiomantics XO Framework is built with all the characteristics required for a high performance marketing website. Flexible layouts, easy customization and above all, highly optimized for Search Engines, XO serves as the ideal starting point for any online marketing effort.

Depending on the marketing strategies, various scripts can be added to XO to execute marketing tasks.

The Seminar will focus in depth on two main strategies:

1. Email Marketing
2. Affiliate Marketing

We will look into two aspects of Email Marketing:

1. Technical issues
2. Look and Perception (Design)

Email Marketing allows to follow up on visitors and their interest in our content. These follow ups can be implemented by using features such as

• Opt-in list building
• Auto-responders
• Newsletters
• News blasts
• Individual mails
• Lead capture pages

…  and so on.

Follow-ups aim conversion as well as bringing our content in front of a highly targeted audience (warm market).

The first part of the Seminar will resolve all technical issues and make sure that all participants are fully equipped to launch email campaigns as per individual needs. This means mainly that we will configure and set-up the mailing scripts and features, test them and build one or multiple newsletters to which visitors can subscribe.

Designing a Newsletter is similar to designing a Website in as much as the Look and Feel goes. Also, a newsletter, namely its online version can include functions for feed-back and interaction. We will distinguish between the emails being sent out to subscribers and the online version of the newsletter.

Once the functions decided, we will apply graphic design to make the mails and newsletters look attractive and functional.

To start personal Newsletter Theme Development, each participant will receive a copy of the XOmail theme, which will serve as a bases point for customization and adaptation to individual needs.

At the seminar we will customize the Email marketing publications to fit into each participants XO theme design (Logo, color, graphics, fonts, layout).

The set-up and implementation of the above will take a good part of the Seminar’s 2 day schedule.

To conclude the Seminar we will have a closer look at one aspect of Affiliate Marketing, namely the integration of automated link promotion. This is not only important for affiliate marketers but for all those who sell own products and services as well (target your shop). In fact, you could also just promote and automatically build links back to your main authority posts or pages.

Join the Seminar and we will show you how :-).

As usual, the Seminar will take place Saturday and Sunday from 1 pm — 9 pm London Time.

Ticket price: as usual: $85

Discounts for Ycademy Pros as usual — please ask Bianca for the Code. (bianca(at)ycademy.com)

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Semiomantics XO PhotoPress

This website is dedicated to the beauty and functionality of publishing Photos with WordPress. Photo Press is the Photo Website of YORGOO Press; it demonstrates various layouts and ways to present photos in a user-friendly, attractive and useful way. The site displays perfectly on mobile devices as well.

PhotoPress for WP — Home

XO PhotoPress — Gallery Navigator

XO PhotoPress — Small Gallery Slider

XO PhotoPress for WordPress — Large Gallery Slider

XO PhotoPress — Blog

XO PhotoPress — Contact

No need to say much about XO for WordPress, its extraordinary performance has been proven times and again. The present site shows the flexibility of XO allowing professional designers to apply the most exciting designs to a high performance script without impacting negatively on the overall performance.

XO PhotoPress is a custom built WP theme based on the XO Framework from Semiomantics. It displays as well Photo Albums and Galleries as well as an integrated Blog; it also can serve as an image Aggregator displaying media in most any format and layout. The Theme is designed for Professional and non-professional use and can easily be used by individuals without advanced knowledge.

More to follow.

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Google Top 10 with Photos on XO for WordPress

Last night, the participants of the Image Editing and Publishing  Seminar by Ycademy, have demonstrated with a live test, how a well published digital photo can reach Google Top 10 on the general as well as on the image search engine.

Semiomantics XO is in my opinion the best publishing framework for WordPress. XO powered websites reach high visibility and perform extremely well on search engines namely on Google. Since the release of XO 2011, pre-configured custom post formats are available, namely for media publishing.

Page 2:

Page 3:

The search term: Publishing Digital Photos on WordPress returns over 19 million results. Before our publication, WordPress and related sites were on top. As you can see from the above shots, all top 30 positions have been grabbed by seminar participants’ author blogs or related websites.

The above is also a nice demonstration of the power of the YORGOO Publishing Model as presented a few years ago and revised recently.

Besides the general search results, we also the Google Image search:

Click to see the results on Google Image Search

5 of the top 7 are images published during the seminar following the XO Publishing recommendations, namely Ranks 1,2,4,5,6; Rank 3 features an image posted earlier on Joe Cettina’s site.

Here are just a few of the images published by seminar participants (sorry guys, I just pinched them from your sites):

Ute Schaedler’s High Speed Flower

My Low Speed Greek Fishing Boat

Joe Cettina’s Bridge

Zo Nicholas Garden

Bianca Gubalke’s Rainy Day

My Wall from Syros

Christelle Kleinhans Wedding Flowers

Barry Bell’s Birding Trip

High visibility with media files is the essence of successful media based marketing. Showing nice images is one thing, providing visitors with services and goods is another issue. The publishing power of your XO, the quality of your graphics and images constitute a powerful tool to market most any product.

The Ycademy August Seminar will focus on: How to use your Publishing Power and Media to flatten the Path to Profitability.

I am looking forward to seeing you there.

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Digital Photography and WordPress

“How to Edit and Publish Digital Photos” is the focus of the Ycademy Online Seminar in July.

Taking photos has become a relatively easy and cheap task with the proliferation of accessible digital cameras and mobile devices, such as smart-phones and tablets. Of course the quality of the pictures varies in function of the quality of the camera and the skill of the photographer. Some of the shortcomings can be compensated by improving skills and post editing.

The Seminar will deal with editing digital photos using namely Photoshop and OnOne Professional Photo Tools.

Original 124 Kb

… after some basic editing …

Edited 153 Kb

… for web and devices with reduced JPEG quality.

30% JPEG for Web 27 Kb

Editingand post editing have a lot to do with the purpose of the image as well as on the destination platform. We will look into different options and detail specific requirements for the mobile web.

The above sample shows that editing makes the image heavier! The more filters, masks and brushes we apply the more Kb we ad and the slower the image will load once on the site. Here it is getting interesting: the above image counts 124 Kb as shot (it has just been cropped to 300 pixels wide), then we have added 29 px while editing and in the end reduced the JPEG quality to end up with a final 27 Kb, i.e. 2 Kb less than what we added by editing, amd yet, the image is more dynamix, vibrant and sharper.

In order to use editing tools efficiently, we must acquire some knowledge about the different filters and masks. We need to learn some terminology and we need to learn to translate the desired results into professional lingo, so that we use the appropriate tool to achieve the desired result.

The absence of such knowledge results in a “roulette approach” and therefore to unpredictable results and bloated file sizes.

Publishing Images and Photos with Semiomantics XO on WordPress

With WordPress 3 many new features became available and Semiomantics exploits them with the recent XO versions. In as much as images, videos and galleries are concerned, XO provides special post formates which are ideal for Media Publishng.

We will explain the custom formates and how to create a specific media feed stream throughout an XO publishing Network.

To apply the new skills and knowledge, we will build a photo content management system on XO. To anticipate the work and to make the best use of the time we dispose of, we will start building the Photo Site during the 2 Pre-Seminar calls on Tuesday and Thursday next. During these two sessions we will namely focus on customization and design of the XO to end up with a photo site which will provide multiple media streams to be used on other sites of the network.

July 30 — 31, 2011 as usual starting at 1 pm London Time each day and ending at 9 pm London Time.

Tickets: $85 with the usual special discount of $50 for Ycademy Pros; please get the Ycademy Pro Discount code from Bianca (@) ycademy.com as usual.

Click on the Image to get your Ticket — Thank You.

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XO Press Aggregator Script for WordPress

Brilliant new YORGOO Press set ups! After the recent move from News Cast scripts to Semiomantics XO, and the clean out after an important hack, the YORGOO Press sites have been set up with a new structure, whereas each site got it’s own independance.

Here some screenshots of the recent YORGOO Press Developments on Semiomantics XO.

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How to customize WPTouch Pro for XO

Customizing your WPTouch Pro skin is similar to customizing your XO all together, In fact, from an editing and design point of view, be prepared to some work! To display your Mobile XO on multiple platforms of the mobile web, you need to take into account the different screen resolutions and of course screen sizes, which means that you may have to load different versions of your graphics and images.

For the purpose of the XO Blog Mobile version, I have thought about sticking to my preferred design colors and fonts: red and gray scale as well as Helvetica for easy reading.

As you can see, from the above blog home, I have taken out backgrounds, round corners, paddings and margins to just separate posts by a dotted line. Header size, icons and post thumbnails have been increased in size for a better surf experience.

The menu page underwent the same cure:

As you know, I like it bold and minimalist and I guess it’s pretty much what you get here.

The same style you find on pages, such as the author page which includes the contact form:

/*WPTouch Pro Style for Semiomantics XO Mobile
Author: Yorgo Nestoridis
Style URL: http://semiomantics.com/xo/xo/xo-mobile-them…th-wptouch-pro
Designed for Semiomantics XO Blog at http://semiomantics.com/xo
tags:mobile theme for wordpress, wordpress mobile, xo, mobile, semiomantics xo.
Date: June 29, 2011
*/
.post .thumbnail-wrap {position: relative;float: left;display: block; height: 90px;width: 120px;margin-right: 8px;}
.post img.attachment-post-thumbnail {width: 120px;height: 90px;border:2px #FFF;}
body.wptouch-pro {background:#fff;}
.clean-white a#logo-title {color:#000000 !important; text-shaddow:none !important;text-shadow:none !important;font-variant:small-caps;font-size:24px;font-style:bold;}
.clean-white #header {background:#FFFFFF;color:#000;height:70px;border-bottom:3px double #000;}
.clean-white a#header-menu-toggle {background: #D40000;width:40px;height:40px;}
.clean-white #tab-bar {background:#ffffff;border-top:3px double #000;}
img#logo-icon {width:57px;height:57px;}
#main-menu{margin-top:18px;}
.post {padding:0px !important;margin:1px 3px 0 3px;border-bottom: 1px dotted #222222;border-top:0 !important;!important;border-left:0 !important;}
.post h2, .post h2 a {font-weight:bold;}
#content{margin-top:9px;}
a#logo-title {padding-top:22px;}
a.read-entry {background:#d40000;color:#FFFFFF;margin-bottom:5px;}
.post.page-title-area img{width:114px;height:114px;}
#main-menu ul li img {width:48px;height:48px;}
.clean-white #main-menu ul li a {background:none;color:#111111;}
.rounded-corners-8px {border-radius:0;}
a.read-entry {margin-left:10px;}

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