Yogtec's Digital Technology » blogging

We are now LifeBaker.com

Ankit Duseja — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:11:03 +0000

We are happy to announce our migration to Life Baker, the new professional blog from Yogtec. The Yogtec’s Digital Technology will now continue under Life Baker >> Technology. So catch our future updates at www.LifeBaker.com

The Yogtec’s Digital Technology feed will be re-directed to the LifeBaker feed. However we still recommend you to subscribe to our Life Baker updates feed at http://feeds.yogtec.com/lifebaker. You can also subscribe to Life Baker updates on your mobile via Short Messaging Service (SMS) for free.

Hope you like our new blog.

Stay Beautiful,
The Yogtec Team.

Smart Way of Updating/Upgrading WordPress Manually

Ankit Duseja — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:22:19 +0000

WordPress releases updates for WordPress self-hosted blogging platform very quickly. As soon as they invent a new feature or a new bug-fix is created, an update is thrown to the public. This is annoying for the users but this is also important as there are always many bug fixes in almost every release of WordPress. Many people are scared of updating WordPress because they feel that if something goes wrong they should not lose their so dear blog. Below is the efficient and simple way of Upgrading/Updating WordPress manually.

The updating article at WordPress suggest that you should simply overwrite the files on server which is not a bad way, but if you want to decrease the downtime of your site the below method will help you. The downtime occurred with the following method is just for some seconds which is simply unnoticeable. Another misconception with some people is they don’t know that WordPress stores most of the settings in the database. Even the plugin settings are also stored in the database itself. The only thing we have to care is about the “wp-content” folder which contains the themes and plugin’s and the “wp-config.php” file which is used by WordPress to locate the database.

The effective way of updating is not by replacing the current files on server but by creating a temporary new directory & then uploading all the files (except config.php & the wp-content folder) to the newly created directory. Here are the step by step instruction on how to do it without worrying about the loss of data. We are assuming that the WordPress files are stored in the folder named “wordpress” on the server currently.

IMPORTANT: IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER FOLDER OR FILES THAT YOU HAVE CREATED MANUALLY NEEDS SPECIAL CARE AS METIONED BELOW IN 5TH STEP IN BOLD LETTERS.

Download & extract the latest version of WordPress.
Now rename the folder where you have just extracted the files with any name like “wordpress-new“.
Open “wordpress-new” folder and delete “wp-content” folder & “wp-config.php” file from it.
Now upload the folder “wordpress-new” to the server adjacent to, where “wordpress” folder is located.
Copy or Move “wp-content” folder, “wp-config.php” file and “.htaccess” file (if present) from “wordpress” to “wordpress-new“. (Also if you have created any files or folders manually, copy or move. This is very important, do not take it lightly.)

By this time your site is up & is ready to be updated. Your site will now go down as soon as you will follow the next step. But this downtime will last just for few seconds. Your site will be up again when you complete the last step.

Rename the folder “wordpress” to “wordpress-old“.
Again rename the folder “wordpress-new” to “wordpress“.
Now go the update link of your blog “http://www.example.com/(path-to-wordpress)/wp-admin/update.php” (Replace example.com with your domain and (path-to-wordpress) with the correct path to you blog where “wordpress” folder is located.

By this time your WordPress has been updated and your site should run properly. You may backup “wordpress-old” folder, so that if something goes wrong you can get it back.

Advantages of this method over directly over-writing all the files:

Less Downtime of blog: The downtime period of blog is just for few seconds, whereas when over-writing the files it could last for some heavy minutes.
Deletion of junk: Sometimes the files are not only added but also deleted in new release. Overwriting adds the new files but it does not deletes the files which have been deleted from the new version.
Less time consumption: In over-writing the files have to be deleted and then the new files are uploaded, while in this method the file does not have to be deleted thus consuming less time.
Provides Backup: This method keeps files of both old and new version thus providing backup, if something goes wrong you can easily restore your blog within seconds and try again.

WordPress 2.5 on the way!

Ankit Duseja — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:40:14 +0000

Just a few minutes back WordPress has released a splashing new RC version of the upcoming WordPress known as WordPress 2.5. Well WordPress badly needed an upgrade so the WordPress team finally built it up from the ground again. It has completely new looks with great features. All the codes remains the same, the thing which has changed is the admin’s interface. A cool icy look with pleasant colors has been brought to the overall interface. The width of content area in Admin panel has been limited to a maximum of around 990 pixels. Still we don’t know that its a bug or they have done it willingly.

Dashboard
Wordpress guys finally realized that most of their users were feeling the dashboard to be nothing more than a crap. So they finally bought some nice changes & colors. But still the “Other WordPress News” doesn’t have a option to be removed, making a bit of crapware still to be seen. Plugins news is the new feature which can be seen here.

Navigation

The navigation tabs have been cut to a number of four namely Write, Mange, Design, Content. A new bar at the top has been created seems to be inspired by the Blogger Navbar as the looks are same just the functionality differs. The link to Dashboard has been placed there while Login details are aligned to the right side. Two new links found with login details are Help linking to WordPress Codex and the other Forums pointing towards WordPress Support. Settings, Plugins, Users have been aligned to the right end of the tabs. Overall making the navigation quite precise, WordPress users will enjoy simple & useful navigation throughout their blogging time.Write
The writing panel gets a new feature “Full Screen Mode”. As the name indicates this new feature allows a user not to be distracted by other elements in the writing page just the Visual Editor can be seen. But wait it don’t takes to total full screen, it is limited within the browser. So you will have to get your browser also to full screen mode to get the perfect non-distracting experience. The other new feature in writing panel is the Permalink Editor. This allows you to edit the permanent link of the post.You now also have the functionality of uploading audio, video, pictures, files within the WordPress Admin Zone. These can be accessed while writing or editing a post or a page.

Also the ‘Write’ tab gets a new addition of “Link” which has been derived from the previous ‘Blogroll’. Blogroll can now also be managed from the ‘Manage’ tab as the Blogroll is now being treated as under writing & managing tasks.Manage
Coming over to manage tab, some new features like managing tags, link, link categories has been added with Posts, Pages & Categories. And the main new feature here is the Media Library. It allows you to manage your uploaded assets for the post. All videos, audio, pictures, etc. can be managed here. Links can be edited from the links tab and additional information can be added to the links.

Import & Export feature still exist there as they are the primary features to backup and restore your blog.

Design
Designed derived from the Presentation tab in previous builds contain the same Themes, Widgets, and the Theme Editor. Theme & Theme Editor continues the same functionality while Widgets get a negative change i.e. the Drag & Drop thingy has been taken off and a simple Add-Edit has been introduced.

Comments
The comments tab seems to have same functions with a little bit changes. Instead of ‘View Mode’ & ‘Mass Edit Mode’, ‘Detail View’ & ‘List View’ has been written. But a good new feature is when there is an awaiting comment it shows it in the main Comments Tab. (See Picture)

Overall the nice changes and light colors give WordPress a useful rebirth but the disappointing thing is that still no work of AJAX is to been seen there.

Links
Download: WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate is now available for download. WordPress team says it is ready for the final launch and they might have done it today but still in order to retest they have released a RC version to let the interested users try it and report the bugs to them if any. However when I had a test on it, it seem to work properly. So interested users might give it a try.
Download WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 1
Report A Bug by joining testers mailing list or e-mail it here.

Installation & Upgrade: As the file names are almost the same, the normal installing & upgrade methods of previous builds can be used. Still here are the links:
Installing the WordPress
Upgrading the WordPress

On WordPress Blog: Read about WordPress 2.5 on WordPress Blog here.

Google Gears to take Gmail, Blogger, Google Docs Offline

Ankit Duseja — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 13:00:04 +0000

Google is currently the leader of online world i.e. Internet. But will it continue its leadership in coming years? Thus they are working to take their web applications like Gmail, Blogger, Google Docs, etc. to offline mode. Google Gears developed by Google can be called as next generation of Web Apps as it will take the current web applications offline.

We don’t have exact dates when Google will be doing that. But the development of offline blogger has been started & here is its proof:

The other project from Mozilla known as Prism is also out in Beta stage. If Google Gears is bundled with Mozilla Prism then surely a new generation of web application will come out. These software working together can give same look & feel as of installed software on a local computer.

Moreover, we heard a rumor Microsoft is also developing a competitor for Google Gears. If this happens we will see a complete change in Internet World. Not only web application but basic sites & blogs will also get an offline touch. Thus you can call this combination as Offline Internet!

But if many platforms are built, again there will be a problem. Imagine you will have to install a product from Google for Google products & another for yahoo & another for adobe & this continues till new companies are born. Thus we hope that all the companies should stick on one platform only creating a simpler offline applications world.

Download BlogThis Plugin for Windows Live Writer

Ankit Duseja — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:00:17 +0000

Windows Live Writer is getting popularity day by day, & has been identified as the most popular way of offline blogging. But when it comes to feature like blog-this in it people hesitate to switch to Live Writer. Making it simple here is a Firefox plugin that functions just as other Blog-This bookmark button functions. The difference is that, it quickly launches windows live writer with the highlighted link or text in the post.

Download the plugin from below link. After download is complete simply run that file, when installation is complete you may not see the button by default in Firefox. To make it appear follow these steps:

Open Firefox.
Then goto View>Toolbars>Customize.
From the “Customize Toolbars” window, drag Blog-This icon out to a menu bar at the top of the FF browser window.
Click “Done”.

Click here to Download Windows Live Writer BlogThis Plugin for Firefox

2007 Roundup – Best Articles of 2007!

Ankit Duseja — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:05:18 +0000

Loads & loads of articles published this year but some touched the hearts of our readers. Some gained more than 300 views in a week. Some even got lot of good back-links which raised our Google PageRank to 4. I collected some of my articles which both our readers & I enjoyed this year on YDT. Here is the quick roundup:
Top 10 articles written in 2007:

Top 10 most visited in 2007:

Some of the greatest news delivered:

Overall YDT had more than 5000 unique visitors this year & page views were recorded in 5 digits. Income was however much disappointing. Adsense performed very poor this year which has forced me to search for another advertising company. I’m willing to have blogads but the problem is I have no invitation. If anyone has one please let me know by mailing me. My e-mail address is located near my avatar on this site. So a beautiful year passed up with some little trouble & a lot of success.

Adding tags to post in WordPress using Windows Live Writer

Ankit Duseja — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 13:49:44 +0000

Windows Live writer one of the popular offline blogging tools is just getting better & better everyday. However, if you have a WordPress self-hosted blog, you may face problem while specifying tags for your post. Posting categories with a post is easy but when you try to provide some tags with it, you get confused.

WordPress recently started support for tag which Windows Live Write adopted very quickly.

So all you have to do is to just update your copy of WordPress to the latest version. Here ia the complete way of making your Windows Live Writer support tag for your WordPress.

Download & update your WordPress to the latest version available. (Must be 2.3.1 or higher)
After your WordPress is updated, open windows live writer. Go to your weblog settings & update your template style.
Now you will see a field name as “Keywords” in the more section.
Enter your tags there (separate multiple tags with commas: cats, pet food, dogs).

Mostly people get confused with tags option in th right bar of Windows Live Writer. But that right column tag section is made for other service like blogger tags, technorati tags, etc.