When WordPress 3.0 came out, I thought everything was okay.

It turns out that the right column Category names vanish from the homepage. (That’s what’s going on, on my homepage.)

I’m researching the issue, but — as you know — I have just enough code expertise to be dangerous.  My role has been to provide support for people who, like me, aren’t technically minded.

Update: So far, code guys are telling me this isn’t fixable with the weird code in Branford Magazine.  Unfortunately, I don’t expect Michael Oeser, the creator of Branford Magazine, to tell us anything except “buy my Pro version.” (I do not recommend that version, unless you’re an even bigger fan of Branford Magazine than I am, and willing to take a chance on it.)

Short-term, I’m switching to Mimbo 3.0 for most of my websites.  Mimbo is the theme that supplies about 90% of the code to Branford Magazine, and — trying Mimbo 3.0 behind the scenes — it appears to work fine with WP 3.0.

For years, Mimbo users have been using my book to customize their websites, too.  So, a lot of the Mimbo theme will look familiar to you.

While I sort this out — if I can — my theme-related books are not for sale.

I’m not sure what to recommend for current Branford Magazine theme users.  If you don’t update, the WP 3.0 description mentions no security updates (v. WP 2.9.2).   So, I think you’re okay to leave your site “as is.”

However, if you do update, your right-column category names may vanish.

Thank heavens, there are plenty of good alternatives, some even better than Branford Magazine… depending on your priorities, of course.

I’ve enjoyed using Branford Magazine theme, but — since it drew so heavily from someone else’s code — it probably had a limited shelf life from the start.

You don’t have to stop using Branford Magazine… not yet, anyway.

Meanwhile, it helps to remember: The one and only constant, online, is change!

I haven’t tried this code.  It was suggested by Mats Stadin (of Stugun Pike Fishing, Sweden) as a possible fix.  I’m fairly sure he’s working with a newer edition of Branford Magazine.

And — of course — you’ll want to change a few things to fit your own website’s topics.

Though this is a “beta” concept rather than a proven answer to the question, it’s a starting point if you’re in a trial-and-error mood and want to expand your Branford Magazine homepage options.

(Remember, always save a copy of your working version of your homepage theme template, before making any changes.  Then, if it doesn’t work out, you can paste the earlier, working version back into your Appearance > Editor screen.)

This code may also inspire customizations in related themes, such as Mimbo.

<!–ORIGINAL CODE –>

// “Featured articles” module begins
query_posts(“showposts=$1;&

(I’m pretty sure this works with newer editions of Branford Magazine.)

Click on the image to see his screenshot, full size.

The code to change is in ui.tabs.cs, in your Appearances > Editor panel.

Your Appearance > Editor screen will look a little different.  It includes line numbers on the left.  That can make it easier to go back and tweak a line, without having to scan code to find it.

Also, if you add an “a href” link in your Editor screen, the program adds the opening and closing quotation marks automatically.

Some plugins may not be updated for 2.8 yet.  If you have any problems with them, you can either Deactivate them (in Plugins, on your WP dashboard) or delete them via FTP.  (I did the latter for the Limit Login Attempts plugin, if it locked me out.  But, that only happened on a few sites.)

So, go ahead and update to WordPress 2.8.

—

Also, here’s what I said when WordPress 2.7.1 launched:

If you’ve worried about updating from WordPress 2.7 to WordPress 2.7.1, you can relax.

In general, the changes in 2.7.1 are behind-the-scenes and affect minor code issues.  The biggest change you may notice is that most plugins work again, now.  (Chances are, you didn’t have a problem with your plugins, so you won’t even notice this.)

Your dashboard will look the same as before.  Everything should work the same or better.

So, it’s safe to upgrade to WordPress 2.7.1 if you were using WordPress 2.7.

(If you hadn’t upgraded to WordPress 2.7 yet, the new dashboard looks very different.  If you upgrade to 2.7 and you’re very confused about the changes, the new edition of my book covers the biggest changes.)

On my websites, I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1, and I can’t see any differences between that and WordPress 2.7.  Life is good!

Branford Magazine theme is a free WordPress theme. It was created by Michael Oeser using elements of the Mimbo and Revolution themes.

To save readers of Sites that Soar! time and frustration, I’m creating my own modified version of Branford Magazine theme.

The first variation, Branford Magazine – Aisling variation 1, is ready for release. It’s based on Branford Magazine 2.0.

Here’s what I’ve changed.

• The stylesheet is modified from Branford Magazine 2.6. Links are underlined, but in black text. Space is added around images in posts and pages.
• There are just two tabs at the top of the page: Lead Article and Recent Posts.
• The sidebar includes “More from this category” and “Browse categories.” It does not include any advertisement space. You can use Widgets (in your dashboard’s Appearance > Widgets) to add more content, or manually add content in any WYSIWYG editor.
• The footer includes links to Sites that Soar and BranfordMagazine.com, as well as the original Branford Magazine, Mimbo and Revolution.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD AND USE THIS THEME

To download your copy, right-click on this file name and save it to your hard drive. http://www.branfordmagazine.com/downloads/branfordmagazine-aisling1.zip

To use the file, unzip it with any zip/unzip program such as WinZIP, and upload the theme to your WordPress files in wp-content > themes. Then, activate it in your WordPress dashboard, in Appearance > Themes.

Important note: There may not be a preview image when you activate this theme variation. Activate it anyway. This theme variation has worked fine at the three websites where I tested it, but it may have a few bugs in it.

(This is a “beta” version and will remain one because I don’t write code, I tweak it through trial-and-error.)

That said, you can always use this variation as a starting point and tweak it to meet your needs.

Remember, this is based on an older version of Branford Magazine. So, you will need to use relative URLs in your Custom Fields. (See more info, below.)

Also remember that I do not provide support for this theme variation. It’s free and my attempt to be helpful. However, I don’t write code. I can’t tell you how to further modify the theme, or how to fix something that you don’t like. (I recommend experimenting, trial-and-error, just as I do.)

HOW TO CUSTOMIZE YOUR THEME

You can customize this theme following the tutorial on the original Branford Magazine site, DER-PRiNZ.com or at Darren Hoyt’s Mimbo website.

For more complete customizing instructions, you can purchase my 150-page ebook, Sites that Soar! Or, you can find some tips at my Sites that Soar support site.

IMAGE URLS IN CUSTOM FIELDS

In this theme varation, you’ll continue using relative URLs for images in your Custom Fields.

Relative URLs look like this: 2009/2/yourimage.jpg

If you need more information on this, see my book or read When homepage images don’t show up.

IF YOU HATE IT

If you try this theme variation and don’t like it, simply overwrite the files with any other version of Branford Magazine that you prefer. You can find them at the Downloads tab at BranfordMagazine.com.

AN ALTERNATIVE TO THIS NEW THEME

If you’d rather keep your existing, older version of Branford Magazine, but have underlined links, you can use a new stylesheet with your current theme. Follow my instructions at Old Theme, New Stylesheet.

IS THIS LEGAL?

This is a legal modification of the original Branford Magazine theme.

The original Branford Magazine theme is a free WordPress theme created under the Gnu General Public License. The terms of this license include the following terms.

“You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License…”

The change notice is in the Stylesheet, and this theme is free and also licensed under GPL.

(This means you can further modify the theme and distribute it as well. Let me know if you do, so I can link to it.)

Here’s a spam comment at a blog that I set up but didn’t fill in, yet.  Yes, these people are commenting at the default WordPress post that says it’s a sample post.

Hi there,
Not sure that this is true) but thanks

Jinny

Here’s another one:

Hi.
It’s better to put reference link
Good Luck!

Steve

And another:

Hi there.
It’s uncommonly, very interesting thoughts

Thanks.  Anne

What do they have in common?  The phrasing is a little odd. These comments don’t add anything helpful to the conversation.  Also, despite different names, all of the commenters’ homepages are the same website.

They may have been posted by the Internet equivalent of sweatshop workers.  Or, they may have been posted by a computer program that randomly posts comments at WP blogs on a specified list. Then again, some eager spammer may be posting these by hand, on his or her own.

Why would people do this?  Simple:  They know that WordPress allows people to post comments (that appear immediately) if you’ve already approved a comment or two from them.  So, future comments are likely to be obvious spam… which you may or may not notice, if you’re as busy as I am.

So, when in doubt, don’t approve a comment.  Well, not unless you have time to check every comment before it appears at your website.

Also, use Akismet and keep it current.  It’s included with WordPress as a plugin.  It catches at least 90% of spam at my sites.

You can also add a list of spam words to your WordPress control panel.  If Akismet doesn’t block the spam, this list will.  It’s at the WordPress Codex. [Link]

Check which version of Branford Magazine you’re using.

If you’re using Branford Magazine 2.6, released in December 2008, the Custom Fields URLs are different from those in my book.

Instead of using a relative URL for your images, you’ll use the absolute URL.

Yes, I know that’s confusing if you’re not used to writing code.  Here’s what it means:

My book tells you to use a relative URL for images in Custom Fields.  They look like this – 2008/12/yourimage.jpg

You’ll need to change that to the absolute URL in the Custom Fields form.  That image URL will look like this – http://www.yourdomain.com/yourWPfolder/2008/12/yourimage.jpg

However…

If you’re using Branford Magazine 2.5.1 or earlier, use the following steps to resolve the image problem.

Right-click where the image should be.  Copy the image location.  Paste it into your browser to see what it looks like.

The image URL should generally look like this:

http://your domainname.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/imagename.jpg

(Of course, it’ll include your domain name and file names.)

If you click on that, it should show you your image… the one that you want on your homepage.

However, does the image URL looks like this, instead?

http://yourdomain.com/subdomain//home/accountname/public_html/yourdomain.com/subdomain/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/imagename.jpg

The key to the problem is the part where the code includes a double forward slash in the middle of the URL.  In the example above, that’s //home/

That’s telling you that your database is looking in the wrong place for the images.

It’s not your problem… it’s at your hosting service.

Contact them with the exact link URL that you’re seeing when you right-click on where the image should be.

Within minutes, they can fix the problem so the URL “resolves” to the correct file.  (Tell your hosting service that the file isn’t resolving correctly.  They’ll know what that means.)

If that’s not the issue, and you’re sure that you’ve followed the Custom Fields steps in my book, read the post and the comments at this article: No images? Weird placement?

At least one of those suggestions should help.

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One is the WordPress Automatic Upgrade, which upgrades your WordPress version to the current one, easily.  A few clicks and the whole thing is updated.  This plugin has saved me hours this week.

The other is the WP Easy Uploader.  With this free plugin, you can upload additional plugins, themes, and other files with one click.  You don’t need to unzip them first, and you don’t need to use FTP.  Install WP Easy Uploader, and adding plugins becomes vastly simpler.  It’s another timesaver worth adding to your WordPress plugins.

If your images aren’t showing up in the Custom Fields areas, here’s one reader’s solution:

Instead of entering something like this 2008/08/imagename.jpg in the Custom Fields area, use something that looks like this:

yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg

Please be very careful about those forward slashes, especially at the beginning of the URL.

That should solve the graphics issue. If it doesn’t, start with the full URL of the graphic and start removing parts of it, one section at a time, until it works.

In other words, start with something like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg

If that doesn’t work, try
www.yoursite.com/yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg

If that doesn’t work, try
/yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg

If that doesn’t work, try
yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg

… and so on.

IMAGE ALIGNMENT

Some images in the posts and pages seem to need extra help in the newest WP.

I’m tweaking them manually in the HTML version of the post. Yes, it’s annoying. I’m hoping that this will be resolved in future versions of WordPress.

Here’s what I’m doing: To the information within the <img src …> brackets, I add things such as

align=”left”
class=”left”
border=”0″

and so on.

LEAD IMAGE POSITIONING

One other person had difficulty with Custom Fields images lining up correctly in the Lead Image spot. That reader solved it by adding something like this code:

align=”left” hspace=”10″ vspace=”10″

Important: That goes in the ui.tabs.php file, in the code section related to the Lead Image.

WHEN YOU HAVE PROBLEMS SUCH AS THESE

Generally, these are specialized issues beyond what my book is intended to address.

Based on my email, the book works for 99% of readers, but there are exceptions related to MySQL and hosting service quirks.

Or, you could have an issue with the WP version you downloaded; new versions and tweaks are being added steadily. (The WordPress support forum is the best place to start, when you have a problem. It’s searchable, and a lot of people will usually chime in with advice.)

I do want to hear from readers, so I know which issues to address in future editions of my book.

However, if it’s a rare problem, I generally refer people to the guys who created Mimbo and Branford Magazine.

Try the Branford Magazine support forum: http://www.der-prinz.com/support-forum/

Or, contact Michael Oeser, the designer of Branford Magazine at support[at]der-prinz.com

In addition, Darren Hoyt provides a list of freelancers who can help with the components that are based on Mimbo:
http://www.darrenhoyt.com/referrals/

Note: HUGE thanks to Freddie of www.InvestWithPassion.com for advice on image solutions!

IMPORTANT

–> Still have an image problem?  In almost every case, this occurs ONLY with people who have installed WP in their root directory. That is, your WordPress homepage is in http://www.yoursite.com/ instead of http://yoursite.com/wordpress/

If you’ve installed your WordPress there and the above solutions aren’t helping, contact your hosting service before spending frustrating days trying to fix it yourself.