At last! My sidebar login widget has evolved into ‘Sidebar Login’ which has both a widget and a template tag to allow you to have a login form in the sidebar of your wordpress powered blog.
It lets users login, and then redirects them back to the page they logged in from rather than the backend, it also shows error messages. Read more for more information and the download link.
This plugin has now been replaced by an updated version which you can find here
A number of users were experiencing errors with the sidebar login widget I created, issues such as bugs with cookies and headers sent. In a bid to stop these errors I have created a new version, compatible with wordpress 2.3.
This version is different to the others because rather than redirecting to the normal wordpress login page to log the user in, it has the code for login built into it, thus (in theory) solving the cookie/headers problems. Hoorar. Read more about the widget after the break.
Be honest, the title got you excited right? Anyhow…three of my wordpress plugins have been neglected of late so I have taken some time to do some bug fixing, add some new features, and get them working with wordpress 2.3. These three are Download monitor, Comment spam stopper, and sidebar login widget.
This plugin has now been replaced by an updated version which you can find here
Want to allow users to log into wordpress from the sidebar? Doing so is not as simple as it sounds, so to ease your stress I have created a widget to handle everything.
It lets users login, and then redirects them back to the page they logged in from rather than the backend, it also shows error messages. Read more for more information and the download link.
Widgets are a cool new feature built into wordpress version 2.2, and allow you to drag mini plugins into your widget-enabled theme’s sidebars.
They have all kinds of uses, searches, polls, you name it.
This article will show you how to create a customisable Recent post widget for yourself.
I have just uploaded 1.1.7 of MiniCard here and to the WordPress theme directory. This updates includes:
Hope you like it, and don’t forget you can show your support by purchasing the premium pack from here.
It’s been about two weeks now since I made the transition from a shared reseller hosting account to a VPS (Virtual Private Server) account – impressions so far, excellent performance but fiddly to configure.
The reason I wanted to change from shared hosting was the fact the server was always being hacked (even though ALL my scripts were secure), there was frequent downtime, support blamed me for problems every time, and it was slow as hell.
Those used to a shared hosting environment would probably not know where to start when faced with configuring a VPS. Luckily, a lot of it was pre-configured when I received my account – certainly some of the major security holes were patched. I was not satisfied with those however. As a victim of hacking in the past (previous host swears it was not there fault, something I don’t believe) I took extra care to secure it as a much I could – configuring brute force detection, the firewall, installing mod security (excellent rules for that here: http://www.atomicorp.com/wiki/index.php/Atomic_ModSecurity_Rules) and going though multiple guides (like this one: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=468168) with a fine-tooth comb.
The result? My pages are loading at least 6 times faster, I have had no down time (or at least have not noticed any), and I feel in control and happy. No longer am I at the mercy of shared hosts 
If your interested, I chose ServInt as my provider as they offered a great deal, as well as being a managed service (so I’m not on my own if I screw things up). I was tempted by the bells and whistles of Media Temple, but felt the ServInt service was better value.
Download Monitor has received some more love and has been updated. Here’s the change log from the new version:
If you have edited capabilities for download monitor user permissions, you’ll have to again sorry! This is because I named them too long. Also, you should check your forced downloads still work because there was a logic error meaning they may not have been forced after-all…
Enjoy.
Today I completed the update for the Wordpress Download Monitor Plugin – many tweaks, fixes, and features added. There were no changes to the database structure so people upgrading should be fine. Here is the list from the change log:
And yes, those category link bugs are fixed at long last, and you can edit category names finally. Phew!
