I’ve recently started using DynamicWP‘s Simple White Theme.  The theme is excellent, but generated around 60 validation errors.  Luckily these were caused by a scant half dozen errors in the source code.

Here is a quick summary of the errors, why they need to be fixed, and how to fix them.

footer.php – line 8
Why: Target isn’t a valid XHTML attribute
From: <p>Powered by <a href=”http://www.wordpress.org/” target=”_blank”>WordPress</a> | SimpleWhite by <a href=”http://www.dynamicwp.net/”>Dynamicwp</a></p>

To: <p>Powered by <a href=”http://www.wordpress.org/” >WordPress</a> | SimpleWhite by <a href=”http://www.dynamicwp.net/”>Dynamicwp</a></p>
index.php – line 63
Why: The & symbol should be escaped to &amp; when used in URLs. The element needs to be closed. The alt attribute needs to be included.
From: <img src=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo catch_that_image(); ?>&w=275&h=120&zc=1″>
To: <img src=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo catch_that_image(); ?>&amp;w=275&amp;h=120&amp;zc=1″ alt=”" />

line 69
Why: The element needs to be closed
From: <hr>
To: <hr />

sidebar.php – line 24
Why: The element needs to be closed
From: <img src=”<?php echo catch_that_image(); ?>”>
To: <img src=”<?php echo catch_that_image(); ?>” />

line 26
Why: The & symbol should be escaped to &amp; when used in URLs. The element needs to be closed. The alt attribute needs to be included.
From: <img src=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo catch_that_image(); ?>&w=40&h=40&zc=1″>
To: <img src=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo catch_that_image(); ?>&amp;w=40&amp;h=40&amp;zc=1″ alt=”" />

line 29
Why: The alt attribute needs to be included.
From: <img src=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/images/noimagesmall.jpg” />
To: <img src=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/images/noimagesmall.jpg” alt=”" />

line 42
Why: Error.  The <ul> should be </ul> to close the list.
From: <ul>
To: </ul>

From the WordPress Blog:

I like to moderate comments when I’m waiting for something: a checkout clerk to help me, the dentist to call me back to the office, a soy chai to be made. I don’t lug my laptop everywhere I go,* so I love it that we have mobile apps that make this possible. I don’t know of any other blogging platform that has mobile apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Do you? [emphasis added]

So if you are one of the 85% of people without one of these high end devices, you are out of luck. No managing your WordPress Blog for you.

This is – as PPK writes in The iPhone Obsession – a colossal mistake.  To ignore the majority of phone and focus significant developer resources on a minority of platforms just doesn’t make sense.

So, how do “ordinary” mobile users access their Blogs’ admin area?

Enter WordPress Mobile Pack

The WordPress Mobile Pack (which I help develop) doesn’t just make your blog viewable on all mobile browsers – it also makes your WordPress Dashboard options available.  Take a look at these screenshots.

Mobile Comment Moderation

This page is simple enough to work on any phone with an HTML browser.  Sure, you can argue that it’s not particularly attractive – but that’s the point of progressive enhancement.  Get it working, then add all the bell, whistles, JavaScript and CSS that you want for high end phones.

No need for an app or a widget. Bookmark your blog’s admin URL and you’re done.  You don’t need to worry about security updates, corporate policies which lock down your device, compatibility with the latest firmware, nothing.

You only need a web browser.

(The more astute among you will notice that this screenshot is from a BlackBerry – rest assured, this page works on all the phones I’ve tried it on.)

Wait! There’s More!

This is the front page of the Admin Panel. As you can see, just about everything you can do on the regular WordPress, you can do on mobile.  Create and edit posts, approve or trash comments, edit the settings.

Admin Panel

Almost every setting which is available to you in WordPress should also be available via mobile.

Settings

Prettifying It

As I’ve said, this isn’t the prettiest pig in the sty. On an Android device, the site takes on a more attractive style sheet.

Android CSS

So Why Use An App?

I think apps have tremendous potential – they’re at their best when they are taking advantage of a phone’s unique hardware / software.  3D graphics, geo-location, accessing the camera etc.

But why would you spent time and money writing an app for moderating WordPress comments? It just doesn’t make sense!  You don’t take advantage of the platform, you duplicate effort across multiple devices, and for what?

If you want broad reach across all of your users’ devices – write a website.  If you want to look cool, waste money and alienate the majority of your customer – build an app.

You can install WordPress Mobile Pack from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobile-pack/

By liberating, I mean that one isn’t tied down to the product roadmap and release schedule of the developers.  If I find a bug, not only can I report it, I can fix it myself.  If I can’t fix it myself, I can often find someone to fix it for me.

Imagine writing to MicroSoft and saying “Please can you make this change to Office – just for me?”  If you ever got a response, it would be “No”.  To be fair, you may also get the same reply from OpenOffice – the free replacement for MicroSoft Office – but because OpenOffice is Open Source, you can scratch the itch yourself.

If your itch-scratching is useful, others will benefit from it.  If you are the only one benefiting from it, so what? You’re happier and more productive.

I use WordPress Mobile Pack.  It creates a mobile version of this blog.  It’s a very easy to use and very powerful plugin.

Unfortunately, like all software, it has bugs.

WPMP Bug

What you’re seeing in the screenshot is WPMP picking up a shortcode and, rather than ignoring it, rendering it as human readable text within the teaser.  It’s ugly and confusing.

So, I raised a bug report and though “I bet I can fix this!”.  Now, I’m not the world’s most talented programmer – but with my knowledge of PHP and WordPress plugin architecture, I was able to locate the problem, fix it, test it and deploy it within half an hour.

if(strpos($content, '[')!==false)
{
   $content = "Read more";
}

That’s it.  Judicouly applied in the correct place made my problems disappear.

So, that’s why I love Open Source.  It places my destiny in my hands.

This scrap of code is a WordPress Plugin. it allows me to write something like
[youtube id="p5ACl4iBGd0"]

The code then outputs either the XHTML 1.0 embeding code or the XHML-MP code which links to the mobile version of the site

function youtube_func($attr)
 {
 //Get the name of the WordPress Template being used
 $name = get_template();

 //If this *isn't* a mobile theme
 if(stristr($name, 'mobile') === FALSE)
 {
 //Link to embeded YouTube video source
 $ytURL = "http://www.youtube.com/v/" . $attr['id'];

 //XHTML 1.0 Strict way of embeding movies
 $s = "<object type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" style=\"width:450px; height:366px;\" data=\"" . $ytURL . "\">"
 . "<param name=\"movie\" value=\"". $ytURL . "\" />"
 . "</object>";

 return $s;

 }
 else //This is a mobile theme
 {
 //Link to mobile YouTube
 $mYtURL = "http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=" . $attr['id'];
 //Image of the video
 $mYtIMG = "http://i.ytimg.com/vi/" . $attr['id'] . "/default.jpg?w=128&amp;h=96";

 $s = "<a href=\"" . $mYtURL . "\">"
 . "<img src=\"" . $mYtIMG . "\" />"
 . "</a>";

 return $s;
 }
 }
 add_shortcode('youtube', 'youtube_func');

Many thanks to the WordPress API, this excellent WordPress Plugin Tutorial, and this Valid XHTML YouTube embed code generator.

You can download the plugin while I wait for it to be made available at WordPress.

I’ve been persuaded by Torgo and others to play with WordPress. All I knew about it before today was that every blogger on twitter keeps moaning about it – so I really wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

Well, 15 minutes after downloading, I’m faced with an excellent interface, some very useful options and a system that suits me fine.

I really like what I see here, so, on with the show :-) Time to configure the hell out of it.