The event this year is being held April 21st @ Watkins College or Art, Design & Film as they were generous enough to sponsor us and let us use their campus as the venue. It’s a great campus that instantly took me back to my college days as a TA and lab tech. Miss those days :p

We have two tracks this year, a User Tack and Developer Track. A little for everyone really, and we have a great sessions planned for each. Check out the Schedule. I know for a fact that I’ll walk away with more information than I can possible retain! It’s aways a good feeling when that happens! We’ll also be handing out cool t-shirt, stickers & wp-swag at registration, though I aways feel a little weird wearing a WordPress t-shirt it’s a really cool design!

We expect to sell out by the day of the event so if you find yourself here thinking, “Maybe I should go?”, well, you should! I guarantee if you’re thinking about using WordPress or you already use it, this is for you. No matter what level you are there will be something for you, even if it’s just the after party!

Yep that’s right we’re having after party where we can all get together and mingle to talk about the cool things we’re working on and other random things. And above all, drink some beer. Hope you can make it out and if you haven’t purchased a ticket yet you most definitely should. We’ll be ordering our shirts soon and you don’t want to accidentally get a x-small if you need x-large :p

Get your tickets here »

Anyway, here is an example plugin that I put together from my core theme that utilized WordPress WP_oEmbed() class. There is a basic metabox class that houses a field for the video url. On “save_post” it will take the url and run it through WP_oEmbed() and return the data. It will save the url and the video thumbnail as custom fields as well as the full data array returned. (Currently only vimeo and youtube are guaranteed to pull thumbnails, it really depends on the service, but the full data array is stored so you know it exists.)

The reason I built this was so that the users could have a pseudo featured video, plus it provided it’s own image. This version is a demo plugin since I’ll be the alternate speaker at WordCamp Nashville 2012.

Here is the code, have fun and let me know if you see any errors. ps github always messes with tabs so sorry if it’s all out of whack

Anyway, here is a function called has_children. It checks if any posts are using the given post_id as post_parent. There is a post_type paramater so that you can be specific.

Please keep in mind that this type of query is not dangerous, but in the current situation it became dangerous.

The Scenario

I have two post_types that need to be cross referenced for a query. Looking back I should have used a hidden associative custom taxonomy. At the time I decided to use post_meta to store associative term_id’s, which worked out well due to the method of post creation. Pulling the query seemed simple enough, and the amount of data in the query array was actually rather small.

The Issue

The issue came from with in the processing of the meta_query. In the midst of processing this query there was a temporary copy of the data in order to pull the results. This temporary copy was casing a huge hangup and eventually the CPU% would spike and cause a db error.

The Solution

One solution to this issue was to change the type of query I was running. I decided to pull the post id’s first using $wpdb->get_results() then use post__in with WP_Query() to get the actual posts.

This function is rather simple, but could easily be much more. This function is actually a method in a class so the naming convention is safe. However, if you plan to use it outside of a class I suggest that you change the name.

Get a WordPress users id from meta_key and meta_value:

If you found this helpful please let me know. If you have any questions, comments, or a more efficient way let me know.

If you have kids and don’t mind messy fingers touching your keyboard, screen and touchpad then you’re in luck! You should definitely go and check out some of the videos, games, crafts and their blog.

A Little Techno Babble

The site is built using WordPress as it’s CMS, but shares 80% of it’s content from Ooyala. Phase one of the site uses the Ooyala Backlot API to import all videos directly into a custom post type that parses out all the metadata into custom fields. Techno babble yes, but awesome! Nightly updates keep the content meta fresh and the video’s up to date.

Phase one of the site is a one way transaction between Ooyala and WordPress, simply importing video and publishing all it’s content. Phase two prospects two-way publishing, allowing WordPress to utilize the Ooyala Backlot API so the admin will be able to manage post meta on either platform. More techno babble yes, but still awesome!

Another aspect of this project is the ajax that is being used. I wouldn’t say we are doing anything above and beyond other development I’ve seen, but through this project we streamlined a functionality that has major potential for browsing post type content.

You’re definitely using WordPress, but hosting is confusing?

The easiest and quickest answer is to see who WordPress recommends. Check out their list of recommended hosting companies. This site is hosted with BlueHost. I have a basic account that allows me to host unlimited sites, domain names and a variety of other cool things. However the BlueHost basic account is shared hosting which can mean slow load time every now and then.

Side Note: If you’re thinking about Godaddy hosting right now, please stop and take an about-face in the other direction. Godaddy is good for domain names, after you’ve figured out the admin, but they are not a hosting company on pare with the vast majority of comparable alternatives. The only time you’ll ever hear Godaddy and WordPress in the same sentence is when a sad face is at the end of that sentence :( Plain and simple, your going to have more questions about things not working than you will have questions about doing cool things with your hosting.

Ok, No Godaddy. Then what?

Apart from the list of WordPress suggestions, the sign of a good hosting company is there customer service and their control panel. The majority of WordPress users do not need anything more than your basic shared hosting plan. Typically you’re looking at $10 to $15 a month maybe $7. If that’s to much for you than maybe you can find a friend to split it with. The vast majority of hosting companies I’ve dealt with have been dedicated servers, random companies that started in the 90′s and have never updated and a handfull of companies that are actually up to date with today web.

• Hostgator
• BlueHost
• Dream Host
• Network Solutions
• Host Monster

Hosting Admin

One of the biggest tasks you will ever face when having your own host is using the admin for your hosting account. Some hosting companies have their own custom control panel and some will use a WebHost Manager type control panel. My favorite is cPanel. Widely used amongst affordable shared hosting cPanel offers the easiest web interface to manage your account. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of other very usable and reliable systems out there, I just think cPanel is the easiest.

Never Let Me Down!

My personal preference for hosting is HostGator. Great support, cPanel, WHM and a slew of pricing options. The only reason I’m still with BlueHost is because I’m to lazy to move all of my friends sites that are sitting on this account. Hostgator is scalable for many different uses, but I feel like it’s the best option for a first time user.

The One Click Install!

If you’re new to the this hosting thing and are a little worried about getting WordPress installed, rest assured there is a thing call “One Click Install”. It’s really that easy, and if you can’t find that click call support, that’s what they’re for.

Recap

• WordPress recommended hosting companies.
• No Godaddy Hosting
• $7 – $10 – $15 per month is a good price.
• cPanel is your friend :)
• I like HostGator
• One Click Install

Original Post
For the last 3yrs I’ve been working on a single theme framework I call ParentTheme_VC. I completed my last update at version 3.4.3 and am now at the level where I can truly use my theme as a framework. I recently updated this site using my latest version and I’m rather satisfied with the results :)

I’m not close to a public release yet, but honestly there are so many well done frameworks out there I doubt I need to try and compete. There are also a few items that I need to stream line before I would feel comfortable offering this theme to the public.

Here’s are the basics

• Filter include() & include_once();
  I am using filters on my available include functions and using a template files. This allows for conditionals to be ran on all includes making it very easy to target special needs.
• Actions
  There are a number of actions placed through out the framework making it easy to add content from a plugin or the functions file. As well all content from ParentTheme VC is added via Actions so that you can remove anything that is annoying or in the way.
• Library VC
  A library of custom functions for all post items. This utilizes $objects of post content so that you can use the same function for all items such as get_pages() or get_post().
• Video Meta VC
  Uses custom fields api to create shortcodes for video embeds. This takes out the need to embed full scripts. There is an admin section to set height, width & the embed code. It also has two different widgets for “Featured Video” and tabbed video player that reads via post category.
• Post and Page Widgets
  There is a widget for both Post and Page that will allow for the use to insert a list of posts or page with a number of different options including thumbnail, excerpt or full post, post offset and category specific. (there are more)
• Child Page Loop
  I have added a meta box to the page editor to allow for users to display child pages below the parent page content. This allows users to break up long pages of information into smaller child pages and list them out by menu order. This has been very handy when dealing with lots of content on a single page.
• General Options
  • Favicon
  • Head & Footer Script
  • Post options for excerpt & thumbnail
  • Archive Headers
  • 404 & Search page
  • Password Protect
  • There are many more small tweaks available, but these are the major concepts

ToDo before Public

There are a lot of things to do before I can make this an “out of the box” theme. However, most of all the functionalities I’ve built into the theme come from an internal plugins directory so adding things to existing frameworks is a matter of dropping them into the theme folder.

Layout, Design & Networks are a few items that are still done manually due to the major differences from project to project, but I think a general plugin for managing them should be good enough.

I can definitely say this is more of a developers framework. Honestly I feel like I could use a major overhaul from another developers perspective. But for the most part it’s pretty solid.

Here is a little of what you’ll find.

Our Goal

Our Goal is to represent Nashville to the WordPress community, and to provide the opportunity to connect with other WordPress users in the local area. We would like this community to be your resource and an alternative to endlessly scouring the internet for the tinniest answer. We hope that what is found here will fall directly in line with what you’ll read on the WordPress.org/about page.

Everything you see here, from the documentation to the code itself, was created by and for the community. – WordPress.org/about

Our Hope

Through meeting up every week or every other week we hope to provide a steady, useful group of WordPress users that are willing to help out those of us who have pulled our hair out over the simplest questions. We encourage face to face hands-on learning from friends, piers and other WordPress users. Above all we hope to encourage meeting new people. Learning WP is great, but meeting other people in your local community is made so much easier when you have something in common. Reading about other people’s lives has encourage most of us to start writing about our own, and in turn we’ve meet countless people we would have otherwise never known.

So to curb my need to publish I though I would share a WP function that I have found to be a huge time saver, and something WP uses a lot. As you’ll see below it’s not much to speak of and it’s fairly basic in the scheme of things, but it will save a lot of time when comparing incoming variables with default variables.

wp_parse_args()

You can find this in wp-includes/functions.php -> line 2887 wp3.0 beta1

Here is an example being used in the form function of a widget class, which is a great place to set defaults variables.

So yeah, really exciting stuff right? Maybe not, but hey if you’re into php & WordPress you should check this out for sure. It’s been around for while so there is really no excuse.