Anyway, create a file (e.g. fix_comments.php) and paste the following code inside and save it to the root of your WP installation (where you also find wp-config.php).

<?php
include("wp-config.php");
if (!mysql_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD)) {  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());  }
if (!mysql_select_db(DB_NAME)) {  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());  }
 
$result = mysql_query("SELECT term_taxonomy_id FROM ".$table_prefix."term_taxonomy");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
  $term_taxonomy_id = $row['term_taxonomy_id'];
  echo "term_taxonomy_id: ".$term_taxonomy_id." count = ";
  $countresult = mysql_query("SELECT count(*) FROM ".$table_prefix."term_relationships WHERE term_taxonomy_id = '$term_taxonomy_id'");
  $countarray = mysql_fetch_array($countresult);
  $count = $countarray[0];
  echo $count."
";
 mysql_query("UPDATE ".$table_prefix."term_taxonomy SET count = '$count' WHERE term_taxonomy_id = '$term_taxonomy_id'");
}
 
$result = mysql_query("SELECT ID FROM ".$table_prefix."posts");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
  $post_id = $row['ID'];
  echo "post_id: ".$post_id." count = ";
  $countresult = mysql_query("SELECT count(*) FROM ".$table_prefix."comments WHERE comment_post_ID = '$post_id' AND comment_approved = 1");
  $countarray = mysql_fetch_array($countresult);
  $count = $countarray[0];
  echo $count."
";
  mysql_query("UPDATE ".$table_prefix."posts SET comment_count = '$count' WHERE ID = '$post_id'");
}
?>

Simply run it online (www.yoursite.com/fix_comments.php) and do remember to delete the file afterwards from the server!!

UPDATE table_name SET column_name = replace( column_name, 'from_old_value', 'to_the_new_value' );

This post was written in the hope that it may prove useful for someone, and also as a “reminder” to myself as I seem to forget this simple yet powerful SQL statement

Download the XSL2SQL converter here, install and enjoy

Why and Who Would Want to Disable Automatic Updates

On managed WordPress hosting, the host usually takes care of automatic updates for users. But now with WordPress 3.7 this functionality will be available to all WordPress users. The problem is that some of them may not be ready for it yet. Despite warnings many users make modifications to WordPress core which may not be compatible with automatic updates and could affect their WordPress sites.

There are also users who run WordPress for clients and have their own ways to update WordPress when a new version is available. Lastly, there are users who just want to do their updates manually and have more control over it. Please note that even though you can disable automatic updates, it is still highly recommended that you update your WordPress install to the latest version as soon as possible for better security.

Disabling WordPress Automatic Updates

Disabling automatic updates in WordPress is easy. Simply add this line of code in your wp-config.php file:

define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false );

This will disable the WordPress automatic updater, and you will still get notified when there is a new version available, so you can update at your own convenience.

We hope that you found this tip useful. What are your thoughts automatic updates? Would you keep them enabled or use the above method to disable them? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

I know there’s ways of deleting multiple entries but sometimes I just need to find out WHO and HOW MANY. The following simple query does just that:

SELECT the_field_name, count(*) AS n FROM the_table GROUP BY the_field_name HAVING n>1;

Hope this proves useful for some of you having the same “problem”.

Should you just wish to remove any duplicate entries then take a look at Justin Cook’s article on the subject.

In my case I’m defining a unique page reference number for each “product page”, which obviously is the same for each individual language specific website, and an equal reference number for each image or image group. An example of a query/join statement that could “grab” your images could look like:

SELECT imageDB.filename, imageDB.filepath, websitePages.id
FROM imageDB, websitePages
WHERE imageDB.ref_number = websitePages.ref_number;

If you for some reason get a syntax error you could rewrite the statement as follows according to the ANSI SQL-92 syntax specification:

SELECT imageDB.filename, imageDB.filepath, websitePages.id
FROM imageDB INNER JOIN websitePages
ON imageDB.ref_number = websitePages.ref_number;

Note! The image table is named imageDB and the website table is named websitePages

The result gives you the name and path for your image related to a specific page/product. Quite useful isn’t it!?

More simple tips and online tutorials can be found e.g. here.

Simply add the following code (in PHP) to your page/system before the actual HTML stuff begins:

< ?php
function getFirstSentence($string)
{
    // First remove unwanted spaces - not needed really
    $string = str_replace(" .",".",$string);
    $string = str_replace(" ?","?",$string);
    $string = str_replace(" !","!",$string);
    // Find periods, exclamation- or questionmarks with a word before but not after.
    // Perfect if you only need/want to return the first sentence of a paragraph.
    preg_match('/^.*[^\s](\.|\?|\!)/U', $string, $match);
    return $match[0];
} 
?>

Then call the function somewhere on the page where you want the text to appear:

< ?php
    // The $string below could/should be a text string pulled from your database or similar
    $string = "Lentence oneasdasd asd asd asdasd, ?. Sentence two? Sentence three! Sentence four.";
    echo getFirstSentence($string);
?>

Comes in handy for search result pages, page titles and similar listings.

A few quick solutions

For those of us using the jQuery Java framework the “solution” is incredibly simple. Just call the following function in your header and all dotted borders are gone:

jQuery("a").focus(function(){this.blur()});

Using CSS it’s almost as simple (at least for all browsers except IE):

a:focus {outline-style: none;} 

Using basic JavaScript the following should do the trick:

for(var i=0;elm=document.links[i];i++)
{
elm.onfocus=function(){elm.blur();};
}

Some would probably say that this shouldn’t be done because the active/focus dotted border is there to show visitors who are using tabbed link selection which link is selected. But when we are using CSS we can style our own active/focus state and in this case the dotted border is not so necessary. I’ll appreciate your take on this as I’ve debated this “issue” with some of my clients on several occasions.

The latest release is now featured on Google code, and from my initial testing it appears to be flawless.

Before I continue I’d like to mention Dean Edwards IE7 JavaScript library which makes Microsoft Internet Explorer behave like a standards-compliant browser. It fixes many HTML and CSS issues and makes transparent PNG work correctly under IE5 and IE6. That saves you the hassle of making tons of IE specific style sheets and embedding them using these conditional comments (bottom of page).

So with IE out of the way there’s still a few Opera and Safari “bugs” that may need attention. Instead of relying on JavaScript, which will be ignored by some browsers or users that have disabled Java, you may try this PHP approach that I successfully implemented on one of my sites today.

The simple approach

Detect the Safari browser and insert your css like this:

<?php if (strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'Safari')) : ?>
    <style type="text/css">
    <!--
        div#safari{your-css-rules-here}
    -->
    </style>
<?php endif; ?>

Detect the Opera browser and insert your css like this:

<?php if (strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'Opera')) : ?>
<style type="text/css">
    <!--
        div#opera{your-css-rules-here}
    -->
</style>
<?php endif; ?>

Couldn’t be any easier than that could it You may off course link to an external style sheet as well if you like. The above is just meant to illustrate the method. If you got an even easier way please feel free to share!

markItUp! is not meant to be a “Full-Features-Out-of-the-Box”-editor. Instead it is a very lightweight, customizable and flexible engine made to meet the developer’s needs in their CMSes, blogs, forums or websites.

Note! markItUp! is not a WYSIWYG editor, and it never will be.

Visit Jay Salvat for more information, examples and to download the source.

The Spry framework is a way to incorporate XML, JSON or HTML data into pages using HTML, CSS, and a minimal amount of JavaScript, without the need for refreshing the entire page. Spry also provides easy to build and style widgets, providing advanced page elements for end users.

The Spry framework is HTML-centric, and easy to implement for users with basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The framework was designed such that the markup is simple and the JavaScript is minimal. It can be used by anyone who is authoring for the web in their tool of choice.

To see what is possible using Spry, check out the Spry home page, that show the Spry framework in action.

The Spry prerelease download was updated today to support the shipping version of Adobe AIR. Visit Adobe Labs to  download the new version.

Recently W3C announced that the initial draft of HTML 5 is ready. The working draft is made by W3Cs HTML Working Group, consisting of almost 400 members from companies like AOL, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia and Opera among others.

The web has changed dramatically since HTML 4 saw the day of light. Moving from static pages to advanced web applications and extensive use of multimedia.

W3C says Ajax and related innovations have pushed the need for a new standard that allows developers to create web applications that works on all platforms, both stationary and mobile.

The initial HTML 5 draft includes several news. Among them a new interface (API) for drawing 2 dimensional graphics, integration of sound and video, administration of persistent data storage on the client side and the possibility of on-line document editing (both in parts and full).

Presentation of common side elements are made easier through tags like section, footer, nav (for navigation) and figure. The latter is meant to add a title or image text to photos and other integrated content.

Some attributes to existing tags will no longer be supported since their functionality are handled better through CSS. One example is align, which is used with a lot of tags today and border in combination with table, img and object.

This specification defines the 5th major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web, HTML. In this version, new features are introduced to help Web application authors, new elements are introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention has been given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability. Developers may also want to read how HTML 5 differences from HTML 4.

Developers can choose between normal HTML syntax and XML syntax when constructing pages in HTML 5.

The future work on HTML 5 will remain public. Let’s just hope the browser companies (especially Microsoft) manages to follow the standards and deliver updates fast and frequently.

Perl is often included in the standard set-up for both Unix and Linux systems, and is widely used for executing local applications and as scripts in various web solutions.

The last main update from Perl, Perl 5, came back in 1994, but the language is still maintained. The latest version is 5.8.8, but Perl 6 is currently under development.

Perl is one of few languages that can do a lot from only a few lines of code. This again can make it difficult for anyone but the author to interpret what a piece of code actually does.

Perl supports modules, which is used extensively. CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) is a collection of alomost 13.000 Perl modules that offers tons of pre constructed routines available for other Perl developers.

Once again, Happy Birthday and best of luck!

Could these pages be a bit more innovative and actually prove useful? Yes they can! Take a look at the post “404 Error Pages: Reloaded” from Smashingmagazine.com and get inspired…