We envision it to be a gateway for the plugin to reach out to other people by providing things users need easily – help, extension modules, showcase ideas: you name it! Hopefully it will be able to attract more users and developers, and together we can make CubePoints even better and more usable. :D

So check out CubePoints.com now and enjoy =)

This version brings a lot of bugfixes and improvements including:

• New donation and About Author dialog box
• 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.

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!

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

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!

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

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!

Before you Start

If you would like to have an example to play around with before you start, you can visit CubePoint’s live demo site here:
http://cubepoints.techcube.net/

What you Need

1. A hosting account separate from your main sites (with cron jobs supported)
   (that’s basically all you need!)

A Note of Caution!

In Wordpress, an admin account can potentially upload files with any file type (yes, including PHP). This can be harmful! To secure your set up, you are required to CHMOD all your files to 755. As such, we strongly recommend that you use a separate hosting account (you can use one of the many sites that offer free hosting) solely for this purpose.

Disclaimer: while nothing should go wrong by following this instructions, we are not responsible if anything happens (e.g. server crashes, files gone, site hacked, explosion of server – just kidding).

Getting Started

1. Grab the latest stable copy of Wordpress from here:
   http://wordpress.org/latest.zip
    
2. Unzip, upload and install
   (like you would normally do)

Customising your Install

1. Install your plugin / theme
   (remember to activate them through the admin panel)
    
2. Tweak and configure the site to your liking
   (remember to set a welcome page containing the admin password)
    
3. Allow public signups and grant administrator privileges to all new users *optional
   (if someone changes the admin password, others can still get immediate access by signing up)
    
4. Finalise how you would like your site to appear
   (check that everything is to your liking as changing something after this step would be difficult)

Setting Up

1. Export mySQL Database
   (you can do this from phpMyAdmin, usually found in your host’s control panel)
    
2. CHMOD EVERY file and folder to 755 (including parent directories) *IMPORTANT!
   (this is to prevent anyone from uploading any malicious scripts to your account)

Schedule Automatic Restoration of Site

Although your site should be secure by now, people sometimes try to ruin it by removing all your test accounts or adding rubbish to the homepage of your test site. As such, we would want to restore the site to its original state hourly or daily. All post data are stored in the mySQL database, so restoring your old export would do the trick here.

1. Writing the Script
   A PHP script would be needed to restore the original exported mySQL database. We have saved you the trouble by providing all you need here. All you have to do is change your database settings and upload the file! Upload your database export as well.Note: If possible, upload this in a folder outside your public web root

   <?php
   
   	// Name of the file
   	$filename = 'database.sql';
   	// MySQL host
   	$mysql_host = 'localhost';
   	// MySQL username
   	$mysql_username = '';
   	// MySQL password
   	$mysql_password = '';
   	// Database name
   	$mysql_database = '';
   
   //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
   
   // Connect to MySQL server
   mysql_connect($mysql_host, $mysql_username, $mysql_password) or die('Error connecting to MySQL server: ' . mysql_error());
   
   $query = 'DROP DATABASE `'.$mysql_database.'`';
   mysql_query($query);
   $query = 'CREATE DATABASE `'.$mysql_database.'`';
   mysql_query($query) or die('Error: ' . mysql_error());
   
   // Select database
   mysql_select_db($mysql_database) or die('Error selecting MySQL database: ' . mysql_error());
   
   // Temporary variable, used to store current query
   $templine = '';
   // Read in entire file
   $lines = file($filename);
   // Loop through each line
   foreach ($lines as $line)
   {
   	// Skip it if it's a comment
   	if (substr($line, 0, 2) == '--' || $line == '')
   		continue;
   
   	// Add this line to the current segment
   	$templine .= $line;
   	// If it has a semicolon at the end, it's the end of the query
   	if (substr(trim($line), -1, 1) == ';')
   	{
   		// Perform the query
   		mysql_query($templine) or print('Error performing query \'<strong>' . $templine . '\': ' . mysql_error() . '<br /><br />');
   		// Reset temp variable to empty
   		$templine = '';
   	}
   }
   
   echo 'Database Restored';
   
   ?>

   Download Source Code

2. Set up cron to execute the script
   Execute: “PHP /full/path/to/script/restore.php”
   (We recommend that you set this to once every hour or every few hours)

Test your Site

Once you done all the above steps, you should do some tests to make sure everything is working as intended.

Tips & Tricks

1. Show a countdown timer to let users know the duration before the next site restore.
    
2. You may temporarily set your cron jobs to every minute to test out if it works. Just remember to change it back after you are done testing.
    
3. You may want to create more than just one account so that people have alternative logins if someone changes the admin password.
    

That’s all! Any better ways to secure these these? Any security flaws?
Do share your feedback / questions or successes in the comments below!

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!

If you are using WP 2.7 or greater and uses the new wp_list_comments function to display the comments, please refer to the codex article to setup a custom way to display the comments. If you are not using WP 2.7 or the wp_list_comments function, you may skip this.

Open comments.php in your template folder. If you use wp_list_comments, in the functon you defined, put this in the beginning of the function. If you don’t, put this after the beginning of comment_loop, inside the after <?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>

<?php global $i;
if($i){ $i++; } else { $i = 1; } ?>

Then, put this code at where you want to display the number. It will return a number (1, 2, 15, 743, 8532943, etc.)

<?php echo $i; ?>

How does it work? It is pretty simple actually. At the beginning, we check if variable $i is defined. If it is, then we add 1 to the current number. If it isn’t (which it won’t be at he beginning), then we will make it one. Because this function will run when each time a comment is displayed, it works just about perfectly =)

Feel free to post any questions!

There are often two types of websites you will need: Reference websites and a community you can depend on.

References

There are often both official and unofficial reference websites for each programming language. I would usually prefer to stay on the official sites since they provide the most updated information on the syntax, usage and deprecation of both of them.

W3Schools (http://www.w3schools.com/) is a complete reference on just about any programming language that can be used on a website. If you are ever stuck on a part of your project, check about tips on programming in W3Schools, and hopefully you will get it figured out.

You can also check on PHP.net (http://www.php.net) for some PHP references, and also discussion on the usage as well for each function. Some languages, such as Javascript (or ECMA Script) doesn’t have an online documentation, but just  pdf file: http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm.

Community

Codes are dead and fixed, while user experience is alive. No matter what, you are still trying to put these dead codes into something that an user would like. The only way to test it is through a community. After you finish a project, you should always let some testers to test it before going out public. These community people are the perfect ones you are looking for.

Of course, reviews aren’t the only thing you can get from a community. When you are stuck, you should try to approach to the community as well. Someone with some more programming experience can help you, or sometimes, it is just better to have more people to think with you ;)

One of the biggest webmaster communities existed is The Admin Zone (http://www.theadminzone.com) They have a large user group, and offers detailed reviews as well. I am sure they will be glad to hep you. Another good one is Webmaster Hotspot (http://www.webmasterhotspot.com/), although relatively small, but they always provide answers in a fast speed.

Also, don’t forget about TechCube as well! If you ever need help, comment in one of the articles here or send us an email via the contact form, and we will be there to help!

Stay tuned for more programming/internet tips!

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)

We at techcube supports the second way, just because.. well, it’d be much cooler for your friends to see and think “wow, this guy runs a blog at a non-blog hosting service!”, and it d make you feel good. But, if you want to continue with the first way, you might want to visit these links:

• Blogger: http://www.blogger.com
• Wordpress.com: http://www.wordpress.com
• AxieBlogs: http://www.axieblogs.com

Well now, let’s continue on about setting up a blog at your own hosting space. These are the steps to set up a blog:

• Find hosting space
• Download the script, and prepare for installation
• Install
• Customization + Done!

You will need a FTP software for this. May I sugest Filezilla: http://filezilla-project.org/

Now, let’s do it step by ste, and yes, all these steps can be done without any charge (legally as well)

Find Hosting Space

Sometimes, free stuff can be good too, just like these free hosting space. Sometimes different hosting providers might let you host for free for a certain amount of posts on their forum, display their ads on your website, or a certain amount of referrals. I found this really good directory here: http://www.free-webhosts.com/. Please note that you will need a host that provide MySQL and PHP support for you in order to install your blog script.

“Do you have a recommendation for us?” Oh yes, Novahost is the best host I have ever been at. They offer cPanel, 800MB and 10GB bandwidth per month for nothing except for one post in their forums (your sign up post). Their support is usually 24×7 and there are friendly users to answer your questions as well. (These are all from personal experience)

Now that you have found a free hosting space, go to your admin panel that your admin has provided you and open your ftp client and log in to it as well, then we will continue on setting up.

Download Script + Preparation

We are going to use cPanel here for demonstration how to prepare. Other admin panels should be about the same.

We are going to download a script called “Wordpress”, and it is a general accepted fact that it is the best blogging system ever existed. So now, we are going to go to its download page at http://wordpress.org/download/. (Note that it is NOT Wordpress.com)

Click on the big red link at the right, and you start downloading =)

I suggest you to open this file instead of saving it, as you are not going to use the archive anyway =). After then, extract to a place easily accessible, then go to your FTP client.

In your FTP Client, access to your /public_html folder in the “remote panel” or something similar (it is usually the case, but sometimes it might not be the root folder). If you want your users to access to your blog via a directory (such as yourdomain.com/blogs), then create a folder and access to that folder; if not, then leave it as it is.

Access to the folder where you extracted the wordpress archive in your “local panel”, and pull all the files over to the remote panel. This will upload the files from your local drive to the hosting space.

After you upload, we will need to create a wp-config.php. In your file browser, create a file called wp-config.php, and upload it to the root folder. Right click the file you just uploaded, choose FIle Attributes, and enter 777:

After then, we will need to setup a MySQL Database for your blog to use. (We are going to use cPanel as an example here)

Go to your cPanel, and look for an icon that says MySQL Databases

Click on that, and we will see the create a MySQL database screen. Enter name for your blog’s database to use (eg. blogs), and click “Create Database”

Then, click “Go Back”. Notice that when you successfully set up the database, it will be named to *username_db*, where username is your cPanel username and db is your database name. Scroll down till you see the “MySQL Users” section.

Type a username (just a name, doesn’t have to be the same as the cPanel username), then type a password (or generate one), and then click “Craete User”. Then, click “Go back” to go back to the previous screen.

Choose the user you just created, and select the blog database you just created. Click “Add”.

Click “All Priveleges” on the top of the table, then click “Add”

There! Remeber the your MySQL database name, MySQL username and the password for it, and let’s continue onto the next step!

Installation

Wordpress is one of the easiest script to install. The first step: Go to your blog website (wherever you uploaded it.. let’s say you uploaded it at /blog, go to http://yourdomain.com/blog)

A screen like something above would show up, click on “Let’s go” and continue. You will then see a config screen that lets you enter database name and user. Enter the the info you got from the last part, but don’t touch the host and table prefix – it is only going to confuse you =)

Click “Submit” after you are done. You will then see a confirmation screen. Confirm your inputs, and then you are done! Use the login details Wordpress gave you and go into your blog!

Customization + Done!

You are done with your Wordpress installation! Now, we are going to show you how to install themes and plugins onto your Wordpress installation.

Themes

There are some great themes located at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/. They would be awesome when you decide to mess up with the design a bit. If you want to create your own theme, design one yourself and follow this guide: http://techcube.net/2008/10/porting-your-website-design-into-a-wordpress-theme/

Browse for a theme in the theme directory that you like, and download it by clicking on the button at right

Extract it to a convinient place, and then open FileZilla. Access to the folder you just extracted in the local panel, and go to your blog site in the remote panel. Then, navigate to /wp-content/themes

In your local panel, go up one directory so that you can see the folder that the theme files are in, then pull that folder to remote panel.

After that is done, in your Wordpress Admin Panel, go to the “Design” tab, and click on the theme you want to install, and click “Activate” in the top left corner.

Go to your website by clicking on “Visit Site”, and you are done!

Plugins

There are tonnes of plugins available at the Wordpress website as well: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

The installation is similar to themes installation. Pull the plugins folder onto /wp-content/plugins, then activate them under the “Plugins” tab, and it is done!

The plugins configuration may be in the different tabs, so sometimes you might need to find for it for a while =P

Alright! Start Posting now!

Now all of these hardwork is finished, now you can start adding posts/pages to your website! Go to the “Write” tab and start writing =)

Remember: Your article is not going to show up in the website until you press the “Publish” button! Good luck =)

Stay tuned at TechCube for more Wordpress related articles! If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask us =)