I’m toying with the idea of splitting the rock/metal stuff on this blog off into its own little page. I have an old domain name that’s lying fallow and would suit things perfectly, allowing me to tie them in a little better with the Mosher’s Music Page facebook page. I may rename that page to fit with the domain name… I think I can do that once without having to pay facebook or give them the still-beating heart of my firtborn or whatever they demand.
Wish I’d thought of this before the holidays, not when I just have a day left. Still, how long can it take to create a new instance of WordPress, then selectively export and upload the relevant database records?
Just a quick whinge to see if anyone else is having this issue. I’ve trawled the WordPress support groups and posted myself, but had no responses.
Since upgrading to v3.0, my “Add New Post” dashboard won’t remember where all my widgets are placed. I drag and drop them, create a new post… and next time I go back, they’re back in “default” positions again. Yes, I’ve tried disabling plug-ins and I’ve had no joy.
It happens regardless of browser (tried Chrome, Firefox and IE – on multiple machines) and operating system (Windows and Ubuntu). I’m running two blogs on v3.0 and the issue is the same on both.
Full credit for this solution goes to “vtroia” on the WordPresssupport forum. However, just to ensure the information’s available in more places I’m popping it here.
Symptoms: When trying to use the inbuilt auto-upgrade of WordPress, you simply get a message stating:
Downloading update from http://wordpress.org/wordpress- …
The ending will vary depending on the version you’re trying to update to. Nothing else happens, or it’s just damn slow. There’s no way to tell.
My host is 1and1. I noticed others on the original problem thread had the same one, though I suspect the problem could relate to others as well.
Solution: You need to edit the relevant .htaccess file on your server. This is one of those “for crying out loud, make sure you know what you’re doing” situations, like hacking the registry. Do ensure you have a backup and do ensure you only make the following changes. Make sure you change the correct one, as well.
The problem is that WordPress is either using the wrong version of PHP on the server, or is confused as there is more than one available and it doesn’t know which to pick. Regardless, the solution is to tell it to use PHP5.
To do this, locate and edit the .htaccess file (you may have to download it, edit it and re-upload) and add the following lines:
# Ensure PHP5 being used
# For WordPress auto upgrade
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php
The first two are only comments, but it’s useful to know what code is doing.
Once saved, retry your upgrade. I found that I now get a pause of around 15-20 seconds when I click on the “Upgrade Now” button, the screen refreshes and the upgrade is done.
Afterwards: Change it back again, or at least add “#” to the bottom two lines. I found that by not doing this, some functionality in WordPress was jiggered. Specifically, the display and edit of the Permalink underneath the post title as you’re entering/editing it. I’m also still missing the “Recommended Link” section from Zemanta but only on Firefox – it’s reappeared when I use Chrome since I restored the .htaccess file. This could be a caching thing, so I’m going to do some more checking and will update this post as and when I find a fix.
Update: The links issue was a Zemanta problem which they’ve swiftly repaired. However, I am now left with a half-functional dashboard page. This isn’t Zemanta – I’ve disabled it to check. I get only the left column of my opening admin screen and none of the pop-up menus work. As soon as I click on one of the non-popped-up buttons, I go to the relevant default screen and everything works again. It’s only the main admin screen. Gah.
Update 2: Seems there are a lot of issues with plug-ins and WordPress 2.8. If you can, check your plug-ins for compatibility before upgrading. However, note that some of the ones I’m having issues with claim to be compatible with this new release.
Update 3: I re-enabled the lines in the .htaccess and it’s resolved most of the issues. And created one tiny one that seems to be ironing itself out. By which I mean sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. Bizarre.
Just as a disclaimer, it ain’t my fault if you screw your .htaccess by doing this. Be sure you know what you’re doing before to edit it. As long as you only enter the lines shown, as far as I’m aware it will not cause any problems that you can’t sort out by removing the lines again but every installation and setup is different!
After running the default WordPress theme since transferring this blog over from Blogger, I’ve finally found a nice 3-column theme that I can tinker with. It’s called Atahualpa and you can get the latest release from BytesForAll‘s web page.
I’m having a little fun with it – I’d like to have the categories across the top, but it won’t sort them into alphabetical order (although it’s meant to) and I have too many of the things anyway.
Please do let me know if you like it or if there are any niggles. Next (tedious) job is to categorise 650+ posts that I wrote in the days before categories and tags. Argh.
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