Friday, March 12th, 2010

Category: Programming

Merry Christmas with CubePoints 2.0!

Friday, December 25th, 2009 by Peter Zhang

Merry Christmas! We understand how important this day it is to you, so here we bring a hopefully wonderful present for you all: CubePoints 2.0. (Can I hear a woot woot?)

This version brings a lot of bugfixes and improvements including:

  • New donation and About Author dialog boxscreenshot-4screenshot-5
  • MUCH improved performance
  • Ranks System
  • Custom logging types for plugin integrations

We’ll be uploading to WP Plugins Directory shortly. Note that there are no i18n available for this version yet, but if you are interested in translating CubePoints, email us and we’ll send you a .pot file right away. Enjoy this awesome holiday and the present!

Beware of a known bug: somehow, you might not be able to see the ranks in about page after upgrading. If so, please report immediately as we have not yet find enough situations yet to determine really where the bug is

IMPORTANT: When you upgrade, remember to follow proper procedures including: deactivate the plugin, remove the plugin folder from wp-contents/plugins, and then put in the new plugin.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

Interested in Beta Testing?

Thursday, December 17th, 2009 by Peter Zhang

I just realized we haven’t updated in a long time…. two months in fact. But oh well, here’s a surprise =)

I spent some time over the past week basically recoding CubePoints, and to me it seems pretty stable and efficient now compared to CubePoints 1.3. I think I’m going to call it 1.5. Note that there are no new features in this version, but only IMPORTANT bugfixes.

Now, to make up for those stupid mistakes we have done before (including releasing a version without throughly testing it), I’m looking for a couple volunteers to help me beta test the new versions – the more plugins you run, the better! Please email admin@techcube.net if you are willing to beta-test for us and to make CubePoints better!

I’m guessing we can release this version before Christmas. So, stay tuned!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

CubePoints Store Beta Release

Friday, August 7th, 2009 by Peter Zhang

We have been talking about such plugin for like… 8 months? And now it’s finally here. Announcing a (really simple) CubePoints Store Plugin!

Now, this store does not work like others. In fact, it might not even be considered as a “store” plugin. Here is how it works:

  • Post a new post with the following tag: [cps]*Name of your item*|*Amount of points you want to sell it for*|*Link text*[/cps]
  • Your user will then click on the link to “purchase an item”. Points will be deducted.
  • You will receive an email saying this user bought this item. It will also show in the widget in your Admin Dashboard.
  • You can then choose to notify your user how to obtain what he just purchased.

Now for example, you can use this plugin to sell ad space. Put a link like that in a post, and an user interested will click on it. You will be notified that the user bought some ad space, and you will contact him for details/instructions.

Download the file here and put it in /wp-content/plugins/ (do NOT put it in cubepoints folder). And yes, obviously, it requires CubePoints to work.

“Wait, Peter, how is this a “store” then?” Here’s what I’d do. Create a category called “store” and exclude it from any category listing. Create your own theme file (category-*ID*.php in your themes folder) to set up a “grid” display (or a list). Take out all the tags/author/category displays, and it will look like it lists products instead of posts.

PLEASE tell us what you think about this. We will work more towards some more features on CubePoints. Next up: Allow users to buy points with paypal

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

The update you’ve all been waiting for – CubePoints 1.3

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 by Peter Zhang

Yes, it’s out. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cubepoints/

New changes to this release include:

  • Fix for Javascript files
  • Introduction of an API system (will improve later on)
  • Cron Automatic update now available
  • Minor database changes

All users are recommended to update to this latest version since it fixes a critical Javascirpt problem in the previous versions.

For more information on API, please refer to the docs for more details. Need more? Wait for the next release ;)

So what are you waiting for? Download it and install it now!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

Creating a centered DIV

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 by Jonathan Lau

This post briefly show you how to created a DIV which centers itself on the page.
It relies on pure CSS and does not require any JavaScript.

To center it vertically, you would need to set a fixed height for your page.

HTML:

<div id="centered">Your centered DIV</div>

CSS:

#centered{
width:700px;
height:400px;
position:absolute;
top:50%;
left:50%;
margin-left:-350px;
margin-top: -200px;
}

 

Preview

 

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

Setting up a Wordpress Test Site

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 by Jonathan Lau

Example Site

If you’re a Wordpress plugin or theme developer like we are, there might be times when you wanted to have a live demo or showcase on the cool stuff your plugin can do. However, most plugins are only configurable by administrators of the blog, and giving out admin permission on your Wordpress blog can be disastrous. Want to let your users have full admin access without compromising security? This post briefly runs through a few quick steps to get you started!

Read the rest of this entry »

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

Displaying the comment count for a specific post in Wordpress

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 by Peter Zhang

Phew, that was a long title. Anyway, to say it short, this trick helps you to display the count of the comment, such as “comment 1, comment 2, etc.”

I was trying to implement that in the new Dark Autumn theme, but my search did not return any helpful results. So I tried to do it myself, and I did it!

Read the rest of this entry »

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

Resources for Webmasters

Saturday, November 8th, 2008 by Peter Zhang

I am a webmaster, and I know exactly what benefits a webmaster the most (or at least, “benefits” from my point of view). There are a few websites that can help for webmasters to develop their websites easier.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

Setup your own website for free with Wordpress!

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 by Peter Zhang

Ever wanted to create one of your own blogs and record down your inspirations from life? With this guide, setting up a blog is made easy.

Usually, there are two ways for you to set a blog:

  • Use a blog hosting service such as Blogger, Wordpress.com, AxieBlogs, etc.
    • Advantages: Very very very easy setup
    • Disadvantages: Less competant to customize
  • Find a hosting space and instally our own blog script
    • Advantages: Full customization ability, even design your own theme, addons, etc.
    • Disadvantages: A bit complicated to set up (not anymore with this guide)

Read the rest of this entry »

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks

Porting your website design to Wordpress Theme #2

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 by Peter Zhang

This tutorial is a continuation of the Porting your website design into a WordPress theme, if you haven’t already read that post, or isn’t looking for specifically the things we will include in this post (listed below), we strongly recommend to check out that post first.
Today, we are going to talk about:

  • Single.php
  • Category.php
  • Comments.php
  • And other tips when you design.

We have already handled the four most important flies in the previous article, and so today’s tutorial is going to be relatively easier =)

If you like this post, Digg it here: http://digg.com/programming/Porting_your_website_design_into_a_WordPress_theme

Read the rest of this entry »

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks