So after updating my theme, writing up a hack, and finishing my plugin, I finally had the time to test a couple of “WordPress Things” Christine from the Internet created for WordPress 2.3. One of those things would be the Tag Managing Thing. It made managing Tags and Categories for WordPress 2.3 a whole lot easier, what with the new “taxonomy” thing still being so…recent. It even, somehow, enlightened me how 2.3 treats categories and tags as both are referred to by WordPress 2.3 as terms, but please do not be confused. These two things are completely different, semantically at least.

Now I have a more organized Category structure and a more search engine-friendly Tags structure (I hope). The instructions in the readme file is not that really comprehensive, but once I started checking it out on my testing server, I kinda figured it out and it wasn’t that hard. AND there were no errors whatsoever.

I was also able to test Tag Suggest Thing, and it really helps in tagging posts, which makes the hack I wrote pretty much useless, unless there’s a term you wanted to re-use. It’s really a breeze to install and use.

After all this hoopla that is WordPress 2.3, I can’t help but wonder, what’s next? I’m guessing a few more plugins adding functionality to the new taxonomy system, and a whole lot of new themes that would somehow take advantage of its new features.

What do you think?

With the current lack of features of WordPress 2.3 with regards to tagging, I first wrote a hack to display the available tags while Writing a Post. This way, the blogger would know which tag they would like to reuse.

After a few minutes of tinkering with the core files, I decided to try making a plugin that would mimic Ultimate Tag Warrior‘s ability to display Technorati tags, a feature that I sorely miss, having to let go of the plugin I have come to know and love. I definitely know I have to do something about it. It’s the OCD-ridden kid in me that just has to scratch this itch.
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Feeling suicidal? Instructions for Adding a tag cloud in your Write Post section of your WordPress 2.3 Administration can be found here. Go ahead and unleash the daredevil in you.

In case you haven’t noticed, Gormful is now powered by WordPress 2.3. So far, so good. Nothing’s breaking yet, admin- and theme-wise. I have updated/replaced/removed some of the plugins already to make sure everything’s peachy. The only thing I wish for in 2.3.1, one I hope to be released soon, is the addition of a UI for tag, or terms, management. AND a list of the terms available for me to tag my post properly. A tag cloud in the Write Post page would be nice, at the least. And I’m sure a lot of people are asking for this feature also.

In the meantime, I will be trying to hack into the core and make sure I have something of a tag cloud in my Write Post page. Make a plugin out of it? I’ll try. I’m not much of a coder, or a PHP wrangler, but if I can make it work, then what more can the more-experienced coders make available for everyone.

So the first goal is to add the tag cloud in the Write Post page. After that would be the plugin to do just that. After reading up on various resources, like Writing a Plugin and Plugin API, it doesn’t seem feasible to write a plugin and it would be easier to hack the core WordPress file edit-form-advanced.php. So I’ll just post a new page to instruct anyone interested on how to do that.

I won’t be keeping my fingers crossed. Else, how am I supposed to type with them if they are.

Bleh!

Upon learning that WordPress developers are cooking up a new version of my beloved blogging platform, I asked myself if I should upgrade once the new version is out. So should I? I think I should. It definitely fixes a lot of various bugs and security issues. I would also like to try it out since they used jQuery, which they say is “800% faster” than what they used before. Also, they announced that a built-in tagging system is in the works. So it’s definitely something to check out.
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Gormspace, Gormspace 2C, and Integrati has been recently updated to be WordPress 2.3-friendly. Shutterview, however, will no longer be updated nor developed. Thanks to all those who are still using my theme.

With WordPress 2.3‘s release within a few days, I decided I need to check out my themes and find out if it will break or not. One of the key features version 2.3 boasts of is the built-in tagging system. I’ll be focusing more on the new tagging system as it is the most obvious improvement WordPress made. No, they did not simply integrate a tagging system plugin to the core. They also changed the database system’s schema, in which a lot of database-dependent plugins that directly queries the category-related tables will be impacted.

This is really great, having a built-in tagging system, but WordPress developers didn’t have enough time to put in a configuration page for the tagging system. There were new Template Tags to use but that’s it. It’s not yet complete. The new Template Tags will let you show the tags for the current post, but does not yet have the capability to show the related posts/tags. You also can not make your tags link as Technorati’s tags, unlike with Ultimate Tag Warrior’s (UTW) technoraticommalist feature. Another Template Tag would be the wp_tag_cloud() and it does what it suggests. It generates a tag cloud. It can use some improvements also. At least have it render like Engadgeted‘s Heatmap plugin. But of course, it’s still too early to draw conclusions with these new Template Tags.

Anyway, if you’ve been using UTW, then you know you’re in for some sort of trouble. In case you’re wondering if one of your plugins has issues with 2.3, take some time to read this plugin compatibility list. And here’s what I found out when I tested Release Candidate 1 in my test blog.
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It has been a long time since I’ve used Google’s AdSense for Search as my primary search tool in this blog. I have customized it as much as I could so that it displays seamlessly in this blog. Of course, that’s what designers really do. Integration of both form and function in a neat little package. However, I remembered creating my very own search engine using Google’s free Custom Search Engine (CSE). It does searches of virtually anything everywhere, and to my knowledge, can help add to the revenue my AdSense account is generating. However, the url for my custom search engine doesn’t look friendly, and the layout needs improvement. A LOT of improvement.

I then researched on how to integrate it with my blog. And yes, it is possible.
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I was thinking of putting this post on the sideblog, but it just wouldn’t be right. I met him a long time ago, though not personally. He reintroduced me to good reads. He awakened my imagination from a long hibernation. And as my way of saying thank you, I followed his monumental epic. Some of the sequels were somewhat hard to read, but it was all worth it. Nevertheless, James Oliver Rigney Jr, or more commonly known as Robert Jordan, the acclaimed and respected author of the epic, Wheel of Time, has passed away last September 16, 2007.

As to what happens to Wheel of Time, in summary, there will be a twelth book, although I am not sure if this will be the final book. All I can say is “keep your fingers crossed.” I’m sure Jordan already thought of what to do from beyond the grave.

Epilog: Yes he is continuing to work through all of this medical calamity. MOL is going into the word processor and onto audio tapes almost daily. Not every day mind you, because the medical fight takes first priority. But, he told you he’d finish and he will. Fact is that it has been finished in his head for years. During a recent family sit around, he became the Gleeman and told the bones of it ALL to Harriet and me. You read that right, I did say ALL. Don’t ask, ain’t telling. Two and a half hours of story telling by the Creator himself went by in the twinkling of an eye. Truly magical. All I can say is WOW! Best stuff he’s ever done. MOL is going to knock your socks off! That’s a promise.

Ok, you can ignore what I said earlier. The quote above was taken from Robert Jordan’s blog.

The world has lost, yet again, another mind that is great, but tell me, how many were inspired to become great because of this one great mind?

With DLSU getting a lot of flack these days, something’s gotta give. Falsifying docs, a player testing positive for illegal drugs, and a lot of controversies going on about the investigation they conducted amongst themselves, it’s only a matter of time before they humiliate themselves more.

Right. Even the Pep Squad can’t help but get some of the shameful limelight DLSU is currently hogging.

Congratulations to UP‘s pep squad for bagging the coveted title in the recently concluded 2007 UAAP Cheer Dance Competition.