Category: Content Management Systems

Installing the Schedule Posts Calendar plugin has made scheduling posts even easier. I can now select when I want the post to appear with a popup calendar instead of typing in a date. This is helpful when you want to post something on a certain day of the week but don’t know the exact date without looking at a calendar.

Plugins

The Google Analytics plugin I installed recently has a bug fix update. When I logged into WordPress there was a notification about it and gave me the option to read what the update does and install it.

This update installation was very easy with a few clicks.

WordPress

A new maintenance release of WordPress (3.8.1) was also available recently and installing this was also easy.

Backups

Before updating, the control panel warned to make a backup. I could have done this manually by dumping the database and copying the files with FTP, but there are many backup plugins that offer one click solutions including automated backups. I installed the WP Backupware plugin and downloaded the zip file it created. The plugin does not have a restore feature yet – hopefully it will not be necessary.

 

One of the features I like about WordPress is the ability to schedule posts in advance.

I wrote this almost 2 weeks ago.

WordPress has a community of developers who contribute features and so if you want to add a feature then “There’s a plugin for that”.

Choosing a plugin

Keeping track of the people (and search machines) visiting and viewing your website or blog is helpful. Google Analytics has become almost industry standard for tracking and reporting. Therefore I searched for Google Analytics plugins at in the WordPress Plugin Directory, found one that looked promising and installed the Google Analytics Dashboard for WP plugin.

Compatibility

Although it was stated as only compatible up to version 3.7.1. (We are using WordPress 3.8), two others had tested it with our version and it works.

Installation

The documentation (including video) was easy to follow. The plugin installed without a problem and then it was the simple matter of adding this property to our Google Analytics account.

We will report on more success and failures with WordPress plugins as we continue to develop and experiment on this blog.

For security reasons, it is advisable to use different username from the default (admin) and make it more difficult for hackers to attack your blog or website with brute force.

However, changing usernames is not always easy. On the profile editing form for WordPress is a warning that “Usernames cannot be changed”:

While it is true you cannot change the username with the profile editing form, it is possible to change it in the database. Contact your systems administrator if you don’t have this level of access and take care – a wrong database entry could break your whole blog or website.