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Perishable Press

Digital Design & Dialogue ~

Fruit Loop: Separate any Number of Odd and Even Posts from any Category in WordPressNovember 17

Recently, I discussed how to implement a horizontally sequenced display order for WordPress posts in two columns. In that tutorial, I explain how to separate odd and even posts using a dual-loop configuration and PHP’s modulus operator. Such technique serves well a variety of configurational scenarios, but is limited to the display of the default (admin-specified) number of posts from all categories. In this tutorial, we adapt this odd-and-even loop configuration to accommodate a much greater degree of customization. Specifically, we will focus on separating any number of odd and even posts from any specific category or group of categories. Several additional configurational customizations will also be covered.

The Problem

In that previous dual-loop article I was telling you about, the dual-loop configuration is based upon two if(have_posts()):while(have_posts()): queries:

<?php if(have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) :

Yahoo! Lies about Obeying Robots.txt DirectivesNovember 16

There are two possibilities here: Yahoo!’s Slurp crawler is broken or Yahoo! lies about obeying Robots directives. Either case isn’t good. Slurp just can’t seem to keep its nose out of my private business. And, as I’ve discussed before, this happens all the time. Here are the two most recent offenses, as recorded in the log file for my blackhole spider trap:

74.6.22.102 [2008-10-06 (Mon) 15:37:31] "GET /blackhole/ HTTP/1.0" Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp) OrgName: Inktomi Corporation OrgID: INKT Address: 701 First Ave City: Sunnyvale StateProv: CA PostalCode: 94089 Country: US NetRange: 74.6.0.0 - 74.6.255.255 CIDR: 74.6.0.0/16 NetName: INKTOMI-BLK-6 NetHandle: NET-74-6-0-0-1 Parent: NET-74-0-0-0-0 NetType: Direct Allocation NameServer: NS1.YAHOO.COM NameServer: NS2.YAHOO.COM NameServer: NS3.YAHOO.COM NameServer: NS4.YAHOO.COM NameServer: NS5.YAHOO.COM Comment: RegDate: 2006-02-13 Updated: 2007-03-09 RAbuseHandle: NETWO857-ARIN RAbuseName: Network Abuse RAbusePhone: +1-408-349-3300 RAbuseEmail: network-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com OrgAbus

Three Years and CountingNovember 16

Perishable Press is three years old! I first launched the site during August/September of 2005 using the cutting-edge B2-Evolution blogging engine. Admittedly, for the first year or so, I had no idea what I was doing, but was having a blast absorbing and applying as much design-related information as I could find.

At first, Perishable Press was nothing more than a virtual workshop, a learning tool, and a place to dump notes and ideas. I greatly enjoyed working on the site, and soon found myself hooked on standards-based web design. I began reading every web-design and development book I could get my hands on. I subscribed to all the popular web-design and blogging sites, and spent endless hours reading in-depth tutorials, tips and tricks.

Fortunately, after a few weeks of intense study, I realized that WordPress would probably be a better platform choice than B2-Evolution for customization and development purposes. After making the switch, I began designing theme after theme, studying different techniques, crafting my own solutions, and posting information for future reference.

For the next y

The Ultimate Guide to swfIR Image ReplacementNovember 9

In this ultimate guide to swfIR, you will learn how to use swfIR to replace your ordinary images with richer, stylized graphics. swfIR enables efficient, practical and scalable application of drop-shadows, rounded corners, and even image rotation to any number of specified images throughout your site. From concept and application to examples and recipes, this guide covers everything you need for successful swfIR implementation.

The Challenge..

There are many ways to enhance the visual presentation of your images. Popular visual effects include rounded corners, drop shadows, and image rotation. To achieve these effects, designers often use either CSS, direct image manipulation, or some combination thereof. CSS may possess limited ability to round image borders in certain browsers, but for drop shadows and image rotation, designers must either modify each image individually, or rely upon convoluted techniques employing additional graphics and CSS to get the job done. This may be suitable for a single header graphic, but for any significant number of images, hand-editing each one in Photoshop with the desired visual effect is neither efficient, practical, nor scalable.

The Solution..

Fortunately, JavaScript provides a far better sol

Better Default Directory Views with HTAccessNovember 2

Beautify your default directory listings! Displaying index-less file views is a great way to share files, but the drab, bare-bones interface is difficult to integrate into existing designs. While there are many scripts available to customize the appearance and functionality of default directory navigation, most of these methods are either too complicated, too invasive, or otherwise insufficient for expedient directory styling. In this comprehensive tutorial, you will learn how to use the built-in functionality of Apache’s mod_autoindex module to style and enhance your default directory views with a smorgasbord of stylistic and functional improvements.

Before diving in..

Default directory views are very common on the Web. Any directory that does not contain a default index file, such as index.html, index.php, default.asp, or something similar, may present its contents via default directory view. Whether or not default directory views are enabled depends on several factors. First, your server configuration must allow default directory listings. For shared hosting, this option may be specified via the account’s control panel. Once directory listings are allowed at the server level, the directory itself needs to have its file permissions set to all