If you have to move a large site witha number of hierarchical categories from one WordPress installation to another, you may come across a problem we at Substrakt have faced quite a few times.

WordPress deals with hierarchical taxonomies like categories in a strange way. It not only stores the categories in the relevant taxonomy tables, along with parent IDs, it also stores an array of those parent-child relationships in the wp_options table.

The upshot of this is that, if you import a blog and you find that not all of the categories you've imported are appearing, fear not, chances are they've imported just fine, it's just that the category_children option within wp_options hasn't been updated.

When you setup a new site, you'll probably find the value of this option is something like “a:0:{}”. Problem with that is that WordPress recognises that it's an array of options, so doesn't bother to correct it. If however, you clear that value out of your database - using something like phpMyAdmin or the below SQL statement - you should find the next time you get a list of categories, the hierarchy will be displayed correct.

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = '' WHERE option_name = 'category_children';

This happens because WordPress first checks to see if that value is an array. If it is, as I've mentioned, it'll take the value as read. If not - ie: if the value of that option is blank - it will rebuild the tree and resave the value. The next time you look at that value in your database, you should find something a bit more verbose.

Hope that helps. And if you're having any WordPress issues at all, get in touch with us and we'll see if we can help.

Here's a simple plugin produced in record time, and implementing our best practices, which prevents users from registering for an account on a WordPress site without first accepting a set of Terms and Conditions, which can be defined on a standard WordPress page.

This easy-to-implement plugin adds a tickbox to the registration form. If that box is not ticked, the registration won't go ahead. And the great news is, it works with plugins like Customize your Community, which can completely reformat the standard registration form.

It's in its absolute infancy, so please take note of the notice at the bottom. If you like it, find it useful or have any suggestions on how we can improve it, drop us a comment.

Download the plugin

This source code is provided "as is", with no warranties, and confers no rights.

A good foundation is the best way to start any project, that's why a few months ago we started looking at how we could improve the default templates we use to build the majority of our sites. We decided to take the awesome WP-Blueprint and put it on a diet, compressing and combing the default stylesheets into a single lump. This made quite a bit of difference. Next we streamlined some of the JavaScript libraries that we used and looked at the fastest and easiest way to serve them up.

What we ended up with is Redprint a blank but incredibly fast WordPress template for building great sites.

• Redprint gets a an A Grade on all Client Side YSlow tests.


• It's total size is only 52.5K on an empty cache.


• Uses sensible CSS defaults from Blueprint, so if your familar with these it's very easy to get started.


• We've added in support for jQuery, SWFObject and all the hooks for Google Analytics, plus there's a neatly defined functions.js to keep all of your jQuery out of the way.

We've been using Redprint in house for the past couple of months, now we've decide to open it up to outside contributors, this means that you can use the same superfast template that we do and share your modifications back with the rest of the world.

Visually Redprint isn't anything special but under the hood it's a well formed blank canvas ready for your theme to take shape.

To get started head over to Github and hit Download a copy.

If you'd like to get notified when the template is updated start Watching the project and finally if you've got ideas for additional features or would like to make some changes Fork the project and start hacking.

Enjoy!

For the last couple of weeks we have been using every spare bit of time to put together our new web site. The site is built on the delight that is Wordpress and includes the odd sprinkle of jquery to add a few interactive touches. The new site was sparked from a desire to more effectively display our portfolio of work, including recent projects Maybird Shopping Park, CABE and Willow Brook Centre.

We have also secured a move to new studio space. The new space is still in Digbeth at Fazeley Studios, it is quite a lot larger allowing for comfortable growth as well as giving us room to swing a cat or two. We will be fully moved in and up and running on the 1st December.

We are also pleased to announce that we have been shortlisted for a ‘creative city award’… outstanding business development. We will find out the results at the awards ceremony on the 29th November.

Just stumbled accross this.

Most likely just a gimmick, but was actually surprised how well it seemed to work after being skeptical reading the description.

While i'm on the subject of Wordpress... here is one of our latest sites, built with the help of our friend WP...

Ankerside Shopping Centre (Tamworth) needed a web upgrade. The new site offers them full content management, including the ability to easily add content to the 'what's on' section. The site also features an interactive store guide.

www.ankerside.co.uk

This weekend we headed to WordCamp UK 2008 which was, conveniently for us, held in Brum. We only made it to the Saturday due to other commitments, so are looking forward to seeing the feedback and resources from the Sunday.

The day was very interesting, and it was especially encouraging to see that other people, like us, are making the most of Wordpress as a CMS. The SEO for Wordpress was also of great interest, so we can help fire our clients fresh WP sites up the web ranking! It was also good to meet and network with a few like minds from Brum as well as from all over the UK and further.

More resources and info to be found on:
The WordCamp UK 2008 Blog
&
The Wiki