Announcing WPClassroom.com: Online WordPress Training
We are excited to announce the launch of our latest project: WPClassroom.com!
WPClassroom.com features online training classes for WordPress. Easily learn how to manage and maintain a WordPress powered website using the most powerful online training software powered by Cisco WebEx. Learn from a live instructor who will show examples, demos, use-case scenarios, and tips and tricks for managing WordPress.
Our first class, WordPress for Beginners, is scheduled for Wednesday, September 9th from 6pm-9pm EDT. Each class holds a max of 25 students so there is no overcrowding to worry about. WordPress for Beginners will feature a 2 hour training class on WordPress, followed by a 1 hour Q&A session. That’s a total of 3 hours of WordPress training!
We will begin to offer more advanced classes on plugin and theme development at a later date. We are looking forward to sharing our knowledge and experiences with anyone looking to gain a better understanding of how WordPress works!
WP-Announcements “WordPress Announcement Plugin”
Click on the image to see ShadowBox in effect!
Have you ever wanted to display a one time popup announcement message to any new visitor on your WordPress blog or website? Well our WP-Announcements plugin would be perfect for you! Your one time popup per visitor announcement could be a featured post, an important message, a community notice, an advertisement, a survey form, an email subscription form, an emergency alert or anything you can publish in a WordPress post. Popup announcements will appear using the popular ShadowBox JS or ThickBox WordPress plugins.
Perhaps you would like to periodically display a scrolling marquee accross the top of your WordPress blog or website with certain news alerts or messages. Well WP-Announcements does that too. Active marquees will scroll the title of any post you specifiy and link directly to that post.
All announcements can be set from the post page and every announcement created is added to a list on the “WP-Annoucements” settings page so they can easily be managed.
This plugin has been tested and works on WordPress 2.8.2 and WordPress MU (WPMU) 2.8.2.
Visit our WP-Announcements plugin page.
You can download the plugin at the Plugin Directory here: WP-Announcements on WordPress.org
If you experience any bugs please visit our Support Forum.
Post Google Map WordPress Plotting Plugin
Fresh off the dev table is our newest plugin, Post Google Map. This plugins allows you to add addresses to posts and pages. These addresses are then plotted on a google map in your sidebar when viewing the post or page! It’s a great way to localize your posts, news, stories, events, etc.
Hovering over a plot will display the title of the post, address, and also a thumbnail from the post if any images exist. Easily add and delete a single or multiple addresses to each post.
Viewing a single post displays only addresses attached to that post/page, viewing any other page will show the most recent plots across your entire site. You can also set a custom title and description for each address saved. If no title or description is entered the post title and excerpt will be used.
Installation
- Upload the post-google-map folder to the plugins directory in your WordPress or WPMU installation
- Activate the plugin
- Click on “Post Google Map” under Settings. You MUST obtain a Google Maps API key for this plugin to work. http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html
- Add the “Post Google Map” widget to your sidebar
- Add an address to any post/page
This plugin has been tested and works on WordPress 2.8.1 and WordPress MU (WPMU) 2.8.1.
Visit our Official Post Google Map plugin support page.
You can download the plugin at the Plugin Directory here: Post Google Map on WordPress.org
If you experience any bugs please visit our Support Forum.
Add an address to any post or page.
WordCamp Chicago Friday Pizza Party
WordCamp Chicago is this weekend and the entire WebDevStudios team will be attending!
Friday night (tonight) we are hosting an unofficial pizza party for anyone in the area at Lou Malnati’s in downtown Chicago. We will be at the 439 North Wells St. location.
The party will begin between 7-8pm, and I’ll be sure to post a tweet using the #wcchicago hash tag to let everyone know we have arrived. We’ll be buying a ton of pizza for everyone so come out and have a slice or ten!
We are looking forward to meeting all of the WordPress fanatics at WordCamp Chicago so make sure you track us down!
WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2009 Recap
WebDevStudios (Brad, Scott, and Chris) had the pleasure of attending WordCamp Mid-Atlantic this past Saturday, May 16, 2009 in Baltimore, MD.
Aaron Brazell, Jimmy Gardner, and Alex Hillman organized an amazing event, which converged in the great central location of Baltimore.
Brad Williams gave his presentation, Advanced Thesis Techniques and Tricks, to a packed room full of WordPress Enthusiasts. After flying through his presentation he had a Thesis Q&A for about 30 minutes.
We met a lot of great people and made connections that will last for a long time to come. If you’ve never attended a WordCamp we highly recommend it!
Next up: WordCamp Chicago!
New WordPress Support Packages!
We are excited to announce the release of our new WordPress Support Packages!
Currently we offer three different support package levels: Standard, Gold, and Platinum.
Keeping your WordPress installation current is the single most effective way to keep your website secure and safe from vulnerabilities and hacks. Our support packages also offer plugin and themes upgrades, offsite backups, support ticket system (with unlimited tickets!), and even phone support.
Stop worrying about your website. Stay protected with updates, backups, and a support staff that truly understands WordPress and WordPress MU. Get signed up for a support package today!
Deadliest Catch Cornelia Marie Relaunches with WordPress
F/V Cornelia Marie, one of the fishing vessels featured on Discovery’s Deadliest Catch, was relaunched on Tuesday with a brand new WordPress powered website built by WebDevStudios.com!
We had a great time working with Morgan Howard to create the new CorneliaMarie.com website. The website was built using the popular WooTheme: Papercut. As with any website we build, we don’t just launch a premium theme, we customize that theme to make it unique to you and your brand.
The Cornelia Marie website also features Facebook Connect integration, allowings visitors to connect their Facebook account to CorneliaMarie.com. This pulls in the users profile image and information from Facebook and displays on comments and other various places on the website.
CorneliaMarie.com also utilizes the popular ad management plugin OIO Publisher. This gives them the ability to fully automate their website banner ad system, making it extremely easy for advertisers to upload banners, links, alt text, etc and even pay via PayPal. OIO Publisher also offers detailed stats for advertisers to see what they are paying for.
Deadliest Catch season 5 premiered last Tuesday and new episodes can be seen every Tuesday at 9pm EST. Be sure to catch Captain Phil and the entire Cornelia Marie crew in action, and also visit CorneliaMarie.com to join the fun!
How To: Display Error Messages in WordPress
One question we get a lot at WebDevStudios is what to do when you receive the dreaded WordPress White Screen of Death. WordPress by default hides all error messages from displaying. This is for security reasons as error messages can actually help hackers penetrate your website.
So how do you display error messages in WordPress? Easy! Just add the line of code below to the top of your .htaccess file in the root directory of your WordPress website.
php_flag display_errors on
That’s it! Error messages will now display across your entire WordPress website.
Another method used to display WordPress error messages is the WP_DEBUG flag:
define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);
Just drop that line of code in your wp-config.php file and errors will start displaying.
Remember to only use these techniques to help troubleshoot errors and remove it as soon as you are done.
New Jersey WordPress Meetup on April 1st
The next WordPress Meetup is scheduled for this coming Wednesday, April 1st at the WebDevStudios office in Belmar, New Jersey.
Topics scheduled for the Meetup include:
- Using WordPress as a CMS Tips and tricks to help tranform WordPress into a CMS
- WordPress 2.8 is coming! We’ll be discussing new features in 2.8 for developers, designers, and users.
- WordCamp Mid-Atlantic is on May 16th.
Information on the upcoming WordCamp in Baltimore.
You can view the official April Meetup page here:
http://www.meetup.com/The-New-Jersey-WordPress-Meetup-Group/calendar/9809084/
We are looking forward to another fun WordPress filled evening and hope to see everyone there!
Official Sponsor of WordCamp Chicago
WebDevStudios.com is an official sponsor of WordCamp Chicago!
The WDS team will also be attending the event and can’t wait to hang out with other WordPress fanatics in the windy city. WordCamp Chicago has an amazing lineup scheduled for the June 6th-7th event.
Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, will be giving the keynote: The State of the Word. Many other WordPress rockstars will be in attendance including Chris Pearson (Thesis), Brian Gardner (Revolution), Lisa Sabin-Wilson (WordPress for Dummies), Jeff Chandler (WP Weekly Podcast), and more!
If you are planning on going make sure to contact us so we can meet up at WordCamp Chicago!
