I switched to WordPress about a month ago from Joomla and I absolutely love it. While I was using Joomla I used to create customized mambots, modules and components for my site. Now its turn to give all WordPress users a new plugin.

After the move to WordPress I had started getting quite a few comments and to reply to them I had to always visit the post and reply from the comments form. This started to become more painful as I wanted to reply to all comments but they were across multiple posts and this made my task of replying to comments a bit difficult.

Then it came across to me that why not have a plugin where I could simply reply to the post from within the comment managing screen, that’s when the idea for Better Comments Manager came to my mind.

I am proud to release my first WordPress plugin to all users. Hope you like it and can put it to good use.

What is Better Comments Manager?

Better Comments Manager is an extension of the default WordPress comments manager. I have added two new features to the default WordPress Comments Manager.

1. Reply to comment from within WordPress Admin Panel.
2. View All Comments based by posts.

Ok so you don’t notice anything different than the default comment manager, have a look at this image

Now you see in addition to the normal tasks for a comment, there are two new links one which says Reply and another which says View all.

Features Explained

1. Reply to comment from within WordPress Admin Panel

The title says it all, you can reply to every individual comment from within the WordPress Admin so you do not have to go to individual posts to reply to comments.

Here are few screens which take you through the Reply to comments feature.

Clicking on reply links takes you to a page where you can reply to the comment.

Just enter your reply for the comment and click on Reply to Comment. That’s it the comment will now appear on the post and you didn’t even have to visit the individual post to reply to the user.

Now isn’t this a handy feature. This definitely helps me to interact much better with my readers.

2. View All Comments based by posts

This is a goodie which I thought should be a part of this plugin, it simply lets you view all the comments based on a particular post. So if you want to see the reactions for a particular post only then you can simply click the View All link in the Better Comments Manager.

This feature helps me track all comments for a particular post and makes organizing comments more better.

3. Installation

Installation is simple. Just unzip the better-comments-manager folder into your plugins folder and activate the plugin. From there, you and your users should be able to edit comments you should be able to edit comments and interact better with your users.

4. Requirements

WordPress 2.x and above

5. Usage

Once you are logged into the WordPress admin panel, clicking on Comments link will show a sub menu called Better Comments Manager, clicking on that link will allow you to use the features described above.

6. Change Log

Version 1.0 released Sunday, May 13th 2007

7. License

All files and their contents are licensed under the General Public License(GPL).

8. Support

If you feel this plugin has helped you can leave a small donation towards further plugin development.

The post Better Comments Manager – WordPress Plugin Release appeared first on Techie Buzz.

Update: This plugin apparently does not work well when the webuser and ftp users are different. I have overcome those problems and working on testing the latest version which works fine on all systems including the above ones. I would be releasing a new version later this week which will fix all the bugs that have been reported. Thanks for all your help in making this plugin more stable. Latest version released with all bug fixes. Click here to go to latest version page. I have away for the past couple of works partly due to being busy and partly due to this new plugin that I was developing for WordPress. With help from Ronald Heureca who has helped with automating the plugin I proudly release WordPress Automatic Upgrade.

What is WordPress Automatic Upgrade?

WordPress Automatic Upgrade is a plugin that automatically upgrades your WordPress version to the latest files provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the WordPress upgrade instructions.

WPAU as I call it helps you easily upgrading you to easily upgrade your WordPress installation to the latest version provided by WordPress, without having to download or upload any files.

In addition to this it automatically backups your current file and database and provides you with a link to download those. De-activates your plugins and remembers them so that after upgrading files it will re-activate those without you having to make any notes for which plugins you de-activated and the biggest saves you headaches of upgrading your WordPress installation.

Here is what WPAU does;

1. Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
2. Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
3. Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
4. Puts the site in maintenance mode.
5. De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.
6. Upgrades WordPress files.
7. Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
8. Re-activates the plugins.

The plugin can also can be run in a automated mode where in you do not have to click on any links to go to the next step.

FAQ

What is WordPress Automatic Upgrade?

WordPress Automatic Upgrade is a plugin that automatically upgrades your WordPress version to the latest files provided by wordpress.org.

Why use this plugin?

WordPress releases regular updates and security fixes to the software and after sometime makes it mandatory. Every time you have to manually upgrade your WordPress installation. This plugin helps you to upgrade your installation without any efforts. We also ensure you will always download the latest version.

Which version of the WordPress does it upgrade to?

It upgrades to the latest version that WordPress has made available for download.

What is the lowest version from which I can upgrade?

The lowest version of WordPress I have tested this to work is with WordPress 1.5.

Why don’t you provide a option for me to upload the version I want?

Couple of things here. a. You should always upgrade to the latest version provided by WordPress. b. I do not want users to upload files that requires me to do multiple validations. The WordPress files that this plugin downloads is the best one I could use.

Will it remember the plugins that were active?

Yes it will remember the plugins that were active before upgradation and only activate those plugins.

How much bandwidth does the plugin use?

The plugin using about 2-3MB of your bandwidth to download files. You will use more than that in a regular upgrade process.

How long will my files and db backups be available?

This plugin is to be used for a continuous process till completion, it provides you with backups which you should download before moving to the next step. If you do not download the backups, at the end of the process you will be given an option to download it. Clicking clean up will delete those backup files.

Where are the files and db backup stored?

The files are db backups are stored in a folder called wpau-backup in the root folder of your site.

Does WordPress automatic upgrade provide a rollback?

No it does not, the function of WPAU is to seamlessly upgrade your versions. Rollback features will be added in future versions.

Installation Instructions

1. Download the wordpress-automatic-upgrade.zip file to your local machine.
2. Unzip the file
3. Upload `WordPress-automatic-upgrade` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
4. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Usage Instructions

Go to Manage -> Automatic Upgrade and either click on the link provided to run or use the automated version link to let the plugin run in a automated way.

Change Log

Version 0.1 released Tuesday, July 17th 2007

License

All files and their contents are licensed under the General Public License(GPL).

Support

If you feel this plugin has helped you can leave a small donation towards further plugin development.

Please note this plugin is still in beta state and may have bugs. If you find any bugs or want to report any problems you have faced please feel free to leave your comments or you can send me a email.

The post WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin appeared first on Techie Buzz.

Update: WordPress Automatic Upgrade is completely compatible with WordPress 2.6, so go ahead and upgrade now. Enjoy.

Update 1:49 AM EST: Released 1.2.0.1 to update user debug message to use forums instead of emailing me.

Update 2:36 AM EST: Released 1.2.0.2 to fix a issue with Snoopy being instantiated twice on home page loads.

Update 2:46 AM EST: All download links for WPAU lead to the latest release, if you are a regular user you will receive a push update to upgrade the plugin to WordPress 1.2.0.2, please do that it’s mandatory.

Update Friday, July 18 8:30 PM EST: Pushed a new release 1.2.1 which allows users to skip files and database backup steps, this feature was requested by several users.

Update August 21st, 2008: Pushed a new released 1.2.2 to properly fix bugs, also added a new nag to the dashboard when files from old upgrade are not cleared out.

Matt really put me in a fix by releasing WordPress 2.6 almost a month ahead of the scheduled date, this definitely put several of my plans down the drain. That said this version upgrade is just a push release to fix critical bugs that users have been complaining about.

There will be a major release in the next week or two that will bring in a much needed interface changes I have been working on. That said here is a major revision that fixes several bugs and also improves in some areas.

WordPress Automatic Upgrade Consists of quite a few fixes as listed below:

• Fixed a major issue where plugins could not be activated, due to WP installation logging users out after upgrades.
• Fixed a issue where users were not being able to download backup files when WordPress URL and Blog URL were different.
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade will only run if your WordPress is out of date.
• WPAU now uses Snoopy to download files rather than using regular PHP methods.
• Added a WPAU Nag where users will see a message to start automatic upgrade if a new version is available.
• Automatic Upgrade option will only be visible to Administrators.
• Disabled Automated Mode.
• Few other minor changes.

Unfortunately this version does not include fixes where WordPress Automatic Upgrade fails while putting the site into maintenance mode. I have posted a little workaround on the forum for such situations, allowing users to still use WPAU.

I request all the users of WPAU to use the support forum to post your bugs and feature requests, as it’s really painful for me to sift through 100s of mails and comments to find your bug.

Note: While re-activating plugins WordPress may log you out, but do not worry WPAU will take care of the logout and finish the upgrade like normal once you login, just remember to stay in the same browser instance you started the upgrade in.

The automated mode option has been disabled since I am working on a new interface which is much more interactive and worthwhile, so I am phasing out Automatic mode with this release. If anyone of you wants the automatic mode to still work contact me and I will send you the version with automatic mode enabled.

Well like I said there are several features I am leaving out of this release and will bundle it with the WordPress Automatic Upgrade 1.3 which I am working on. Here are a list of features that will be included in WordPress Automatic Upgrade 1.3.

• • A better user interface including verbose output where users will see what’s being done in real time.
  • Ability to skip certain tasks or run tasks on demand, so users can run file backups, database backups etc selectively.
  • Ability for users to choose the language of WordPress they want to download from.
  • Complete Internationalization support.
  • Cleanup of code to make WPAU more faster.

Also don’t forget to use the Support forum for WordPress Automatic Upgrade to send me your bugs and queries.

I have already pushed the latest release through WordPress Extend SVN Repository, so old users should see a notice to upgrade the plugin.

Download WordPress Automatic Upgrade 1.2 downloaded times

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If you want to use PostgreSQL with WordPress there is a WordPress plugin that will allow you to do it without making any changes to the internal WordPress codebase.

PostgreSQL for WordPress (PG4WP) gives you the possibility to install and use WordPress with a PostgreSQL database as a backend. It works by replacing calls to MySQL specific functions with generic calls that maps them to another database functions.

When needed, the original SQL queries are rewritten on the fly so that MySQL specific queries work fine with the backend database.

Support for other database can also be added if the appropriate drivers are written for them.

We tested this out on a local installation and were able to use PostgreSQL with WordPress without any issues.

The only problem we see with the plugin is that you need to perform a fresh install for this to work, however it might work on older installations if you are able to import the MySQL database to PostgreSQL.

The post Use PostgreSQL for WordPress Instead Of MySQL appeared first on Techie Buzz.