A client asked for a small WordPress plugin to permit restricting page and post access to members only. Now there are a number of plugins that restrict the whole blog to members only but this plugin permits you to restrict an individual post or page without restricting the whole site.

To restrict a page or post put [memberonly] in the body. If the user is logged in the markup will be removed. If the viewer is not loggin in the message you set in Settings/MemByPost will replace the contents of the page/post.

Download

I have been working on a coffee roasting log plugin for WordPress. The idea of this software plugin is to log coffee roasting.

Here is a sample

If you float your cursor over a point it will tell you the time and temp of that point.

To put this in I just installed the plug in and in this post put

[ROAST:6.5:72,74,89,97,119,145,158,181,204,220,242,244,270,289,289,287,277,262,250]
[COFFEE:Mexican FTO Decaf]

The syntax is
[ROAST: minutes_roasted : temp_at_0, temp_at_.5, temp_at_1.0,…]
[COFFEE:name of the coffee]

Now I am roasting with a Caffe Rosto CR-100 and measuring the temperature through the glass lid with an infrared sensor so I know my readings are low but as long as they are consistent I am OK with that.

Download

Now I can post my roast logs on my site. On the balance of the post I can put any other information that I want.

Restrictions:

1. The plugin only handles one plot per page/post.
2. In IE8 must turn on compatibility mode to see the graph

NOTE: This version has been replaced with the HotTop supported version

While learning to use the Amazon SimpleDB services I looked for a sample PHP program. I could not get the one Amazon provides to work. Dan Myers’ wrote a SimpleDB PHP class but there was no sample code to use it.

This is a collection of small programs that use Dan Myers’ SimpleDB PHP class.

This is a very simple set of examples of working with the Amazon SimpleDB. It is written on top of Don Myers’ SimpleDB PHP class.

Download simpledbsamples.zip V1.0 July 28, 2009

Rich Helms rich@webmasterinresidence.ca

Uses Amazon SimpleDB PHP Class http://sourceforge.net/projects/php-sdb/ by heronblademastr

* listdomains [list all domains]
* createrecord (single) and domain tag [check if the "tag" domain exists and if not create, then create a record]
* getrecord (single) in domain tag [list that specific record]
* deleterecord (single) in domain tag [delete that specific record]
* createrecords and domain tag [bulk load records]
* listrecords in tag [list all records in tag domain]
* deletedomain tag [delete tag domain]

To install, configure config.inc.php with your awsAccessKey and awsSecretKey.
Copy to the host. Run index.php

Note: An important concept with SimpleDB is Eventually Consistent. This means when you update, add or delete a record you will not see it immediately. This is why the programs are broken into small programs, to give the system time to reflect the updates.

For details see:

• http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2008/12/eventually_consistent.html
  This is a detailed report
• http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonSimpleDB/latest/DeveloperGuide/index.html?EventualConsistencySummary.html
  Docs at Amazon on it

For the past few weeks, I have been exploring Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS consists of a suite of hosting services that you can purchase. The most basic is Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). This is storage that can be used to store data ranging from backups to online video. Access to the files is limited by a complex security scheme, or you can open up the files for all. An example of full access to read would be media for a website. I wrote a plugin for WordPress that lets me use a time-sensitive link to the video. This link is encoded to work for only so many minutes. This prevents people from using my video on their website. In my plugin, I also encode the file name so that stealing the video file would be difficult. Storage on S3 is $0.15 per gig per month.

But for me the real excitement is Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). This offers the ability to create virtual servers. Costs range from $0.10 per hour for a small machine and up. Servers can be brought online and terminated as needed. S3 was challenging to bring up the secure links, but EC2 has a steep learning curve. My goal is a Linux server with my campus WordPress work. I am not really a Linux person, so I have to depend on others to help me with configuring the machine. A big challenge is the Amazon cloud model metaphor. To create a machine, you launch an instance of an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). While the virtual machine has a file system, the data in it is around only until the machine is terminated or fails. If you want storage that persists between sessions, you need Amazon Elastic Block Storage (ABS). EBS is created and attached to an instance.

Once you create a machine from an AMI, you modify it to be the server you want. Now you create your own AMI for the next time.

Another aspect of the exercise is how to interface into the cloud as well as control it. Amazon created FireFox – a plugins called ‘S3 Organizer’ and ‘ElasticFox’ for controlling EC2 and EBS. Puddy and WinSCP applications are used to control the host.

I find the biggest challenge is gaining enough familiarity with the concepts that I can think in them. Like learning a new language, you can translate only so long. You have to learn to think in it.

A computer for me has always been hardware that sits in a physical location – somethig I can walk up to it and even touch. Addresses are static and when the machine is turned off, the disks hold the data. This old dog is learning new tricks.

Then I spent the weekend painting the living/dining rooms. I think cloud services are easier to understand.

http://aws.amazon.com/

I have been reflecting on the WordCamp conference. It was amazing sitting with other WordPress fanatics for three days and looking at how others use it.

Two things surprised me at the conference. First was the Microsoft sponsorship. WordPress is all about Open Source – the opposite of what Microsoft preaches. The two Microsoft speakers were well versed in WordPress and showed how PHP, MySQL and WordPress play in a Microsoft world. Very interesting. IIS7 even has put in code to speed up PHP execution.

Second was the discussion on the FireFox browser. Like WordPress, FireFox supports plugins. I use a few basic plugins in my FireFox installation, but had no idea how powerful this capability is. My current work is exploring Cloud computing with Amazon Web Services. Amazon has written two plugins to control their services. The first is S3 Organizer for controlling S3 storage. The second is ElasticFox for controlling the EC2. Just as WordPress provides a platform to build sites and new capabilities, FireFox does the same for browsers.

I am a definite FireFox fan. While I have all of the popular browsers on my systems, my default is FireFox. The rest are for testing.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

I love a good self-help book. George Moon’s “Lessons Learned” is a memoir of his experiences in development and management during more than 30 years in R&D. Each story concludes with a collection of the lessons he learned as a result of that specific situation. When my wife bought me the book at a recent meet-the-author event, she suspected that I would relate to George’s tales – and I did. Like George, I have over 30 years of R&D development and management experience.

While the technologies are different, I found myself saying, “this is just like the time when…” The book is an easy read, and even though I had no familiarity with George’s R&D area, I always understood the lessons.

For someone new to technical management, there are many excellent lessons here. This is not a book on development techniques or processes. It is more like sitting down with George over a pint, listening to fables and the morals each story conveys. I read the book in two days and had trouble putting it down.

Lessons Learned

Management and Leadership for a Technical World

Through Experiences Remembered

George C. Moon, M.Sc., P.Eng.

ISBN 978-­0-9812181-­0-­6

$24.95

http://moonlitesystems.wordpress.com/book-orders/

I hate SPAM. SPAM to me is litter on my manicured lawn. Spammers are the lowest technical scum on the net, the bottom-feeders. The Akismet plugin is great about filtering out the SPAM comments and quarantining them to the SPAM folder for later deleting.

But I wanted more. I am yet to have a valid comment from Russia, China or Nigeria. There are a few companies with static IP addresses that bombard my site with airline offers. They always end up in the SPAM folder, but once a day I end up deleting them, like cleaning up my lawn.

This weekend I found a new plugin – WP-Ban by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan. Lester has written some of the best technical plugins.

Installation is typical. Then go to Settings – Ban and start blocking SPAM. You can even configure the banned message that appears.

The down side is you could block desired comments. Who knows – maybe there is a valid comment from Russia.

Download: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-ban/
Plugin Site: http://lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-ban.html

I love learning about WordPress. The package has become tremendously popular, and is now being used for applications far beyond what the creators envisioned. Teaching WordPress has become so popular that there is now even a WordPress TV channel -  www.WordPress.tv – a site with exclusively shows about WordPress. The programs range from beginner topics such as how to write a post, to advanced programmer content and talks by key developers.

An interesting aside is the domain TV has nothing to do with television. In fact, .tv is the Internet country code for the island nation of Tuvalu, a ten-square-mile island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. The tv domain has become a very profitable enterprise for Tuvalu.

For WordPress television, visit www.WordPress.tv

In my work with WordPress I sometimes find the unexpected. ComicPress is an example. ComicPress is a theme and plugin for creating a comic site. Tyler Martin created the original WordPress ComicPress theme in November 2005. In May 2008, programmer John Bintz developed the ComicPress Manger WordPress Plugin to make the management of the site easier. Together these ComicPress elements form a powerful web comic publishing system.

I am a big fan of comics, and WordPress is a great vehicle for creating a daily feature. Every morning I start my day visiting some 28 comic strips.

WordPress has a feature called scheduling a post. This means you set a date/time in the future, and at that time the post will become visible. When I used to write automotive articles for the Toronto Sun, they bought 30 days exclusive first rights to the article. I would put the article on my blog and post-date it for 30 days later. I didn’t have to remember; it would just appear. With the WordPress scheduling feature, comics can be placed on the site to appear at a regular interval.

ComicPress makes it easy to manage a comic site, reducing much of the administration. Who’d a thunk it?

http://comicpress.org/ Comic Book WP Theme
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/comicpress-manager/ Comic Manager

Newseum.org is a perfect example of how the Internet has affected newspapers. The interface is a map with dots of newspaper locations. Float over a dot and a thumbnail of today’s front page appears. Click on the dot and a PDF of the front page opens. From there you can click on a link to the full newspaper online edition.

The site is created by the The Newseum, a 250,000-square-foot museum of news located in Washington DC adjacent to the Smithsonian museums.

What an interesting way to browse major happenings around the world.

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/

Thanks to Pam Kullo for introducing me to this site.