While the WrodPress system is Opensource and Platform Independent, many of the internal functionalities require a greater understanding of the Operating Systems they may reside on, the php settings that prevent/allow certain actions and last (definitely not the least) file/folder permissions on your Web server’s directories.

Windows and Unix based systems have a fundamental difference in how it handles the file permissions on a directory. Linux systems (derived from unix based) are pretty simple – Read Write and eXecute (rwx) permissions on the 3 basic groups – Owner, Group and Everyone. the 3 digits in the permissions – say 755 – means that System has rwx permission (7 – the first digit), Group and All have rx permissions (5 – Read/Execute).

Windows has always been a mess – a solid structure built with a rotten base. However, as most of us humans are infected by the Windows Gangrene, it’s useful to review the system of user permissions there.

If you are using a Plesk control panel (you will have different levels of access dependent on your Admin unless you are configuring a Dedicated Server), you have to go into the File Manager in Presk, click the ‘lock’ icon to get to the permissions – then click the Advanced button.

In windows (Plesk) there would be TWO entries – one for the Folder’s permission, one for the Files’ permission. There will also be multiple Users dependent on your IIS Server Settings. What you are looking for is the Internet User account – IIS_ or IUSR_ or similar. And don’t forget to ckeck the box for ‘apply to child objects’ check-box.

The Automatic Plugin Upgrades were problematic. un-checking the ‘php safe-mode on’ box to turn safe-mode off makes the ftp upgrade allowable.

This describes the structure of WP Themes and has links and resources to make WP behave more like a CMS.

I found these very interesting and feel they can be integrated into a WP that is used more in a CMS environment.

WP Plugin API list pdf document.

Once someone goes beyond a theme and wants to create plugins, this becomes an ideal cheat-sheet to the possible API calls.

For those starting out with the JavaScript libraries, this is a great website to see the limitations front-end programmers run into and (maybe) to find a jQuery solution to their problem.

For people running into various problems with plugins not working right, etc., please remember that the Remote Procedure Calls are more easily handled using PHP5+ on your server (php4 doesn’t support a lot of the required functions). While a Linux system is not crucial to host a blog on, it does make life a lot easier as well.

There are a few items necessary for this integration:

• A facebook Developer registration is required to be able to create a facebook ‘application’ required for this integration – http://www.facebook.com/developers/

After registering, you must create a new ‘application’ must be created, which gives you the API Key and the Secret Key required for this integration

• To have people be able to comment without logging in, a line of code needs to be added to comments.php in your template/theme

Other information is available from the makers of wp-facebookconnect

Development of a truly worthwhile application arises from needs of an organization and the resources available.

The WBGO Events Calendar (also known as the music calendar) was comprised of a list that the Marketing Manager would update a couple of times a month. It turns out that all he was doing was emailing a list generated by an Access database to the Web person. The actual work was being done by the Events Coordinator.

When I took over the Website and had the Web Server in-house I was working a lot with ASP. So I made a page that connects directly to the Access Database and pulls up the data for the day. I even made a little calendar that lets people look ahead at the events.

After this was done, however, this section was destined to become very popular – as it is one of the only Jazz and Blues listing in the NY/NJ metro area. This meant that the updates to this listing now needed to be consistent and timely. Once a week, I would replace the server database which added the new content to the calendar. While the process was great, it still taxed the Events Coordinator over one entire day to update all the requests that came to her. A more efficient process could not be in place at the time.

Over the years WBGO established a great relationship with NJ.com who even helped WBGO stream online in the beginning. Years after this process was established, I came to know of siLive.com – owned by the same parent company – who was compiling similar lists for a much broader spectrum of events. I was able to establish a relationship and a possible partnership where our Events Coordinator would be the final authority on what goes up in the ‘Jazz and Blues’ listing (WBGO had more listings than silive.com at the time).

The biggest hurdle, by far, was the integration of their data with WBGO.org’s website. I had to learn the use of variables within their custom application, modify the SQL and create custom templates in addition to creating integration components using AJAX and PHP on WBGO.org.

To further enhance the experience, I created a Google Maps integration for the venues and another for listing all the events from a single venue.

A couple of weeks back I was thanked personally by the Events Coordinator for helping free up her time to do the other things that she enjoys doing.

For the shadows on the font, I’m using the ‘dropshadow’ jQuery plugin (http://eyebulb.com/dropshadow/index.htm) and the code in the HEAD tag:

$(document).ready(function(){
$("#header h1").dropShadow({left: 1, top:1, blur: 3, opacity:0.35});
$("h4").dropShadow({left: 1, top:1, blur: 3, opacity:0.35});
$(".post-title").dropShadow({left: 3, top:-5, blur: 2, opacity:0.25});
});
So there are three types of tags on this page that are getting shadows:

1. the <h1> tags in the element whose ID is “header” (<div id=”header”> in this case)
2. all the <h4> tags in the document wherever they are
3. all the elements whose CLASS is “post-title” (<tagname class=”post-title”>)

The $(document).ready function makes sure that the entire DOM is loaded before the JavaScript in this function fires up. This prevents the script to try to modify something that may not have been loaded in yet.

This is same reason Google asks you to put their codes ‘right before the tag.’ The entire analytics function can be put in here and will work as expected (maybe my next project?).