Category: Software

Plugins, themes, and anything to do with software

Redirection beta-testing

I’ve got a substantial update to Redirection just about finished off and ready for release. Rather than dropping this out and running the risk of upsetting a lot of websites, I’ve decided to try a private beta-test to iron out any final problems.

The new version gives much better management of redirections and error logging, and adds very powerful support for native Apache .htaccess files (i.e. you can use Redirection to edit .htaccess). If this sounds like something you want to help out with then drop me a line. The only requirement for this is that you are familiar with backing up and restoring your site database, or that you have a test WordPress site. The biggest help will be from people who are already using Redirection and have data to import into the new version.

Thanks in advance for any help!

WordPress 2.3 – Tagging and HeadSpace

I upgraded to WordPress 2.3 over the weekend and other than a few bumps it seemed to go relatively smoothly. The bumps were very curious and coupled with a melt-down of the server resulted in the site being out of action for a few hours. Eventually everything magically resolved itself, so I’m going to chalk it down to just ‘one of those things’.

One of the new features in WordPress 2.3 is tags, and I’m very happy with the way that they’ve been integrated. The developers have chosen a softly-softly approach, leaving the door open for others to take it further (as detailed by boren.nu). Being one of these others I’ve updated my HeadSpace plugin to make full use of the new 2.3 tagging facilities. HeadSpace takes the default tags further, adding many extra features, which I’ve decided to demonstrate in a short video.

Continue reading WordPress 2.3 – Tagging and HeadSpace

HeadSpace2 3.2 – Modules, importers, and mass-editing

This is a biggie so I’ll try and not write too much. HeadSpace is now running at version 3.2 and has had a thorough overhaul and feature boost that is designed to push it past other meta-data plugins. This includes:

  • Modularization – everything is now a module and can be enabled or disabled and re-ordered. You can decide exactly what meta-data you are interested in and how it should look
  • Site modules that affect the whole site and add Google Analytics, Mint, StatCounter, Crazy Egg, and more
  • Much better tagging, with a smart auto-suggestion that matches similar words
  • New modules for custom ‘more tags’ and no-index capability
  • Mass-editing mode that allows you to edit all your meta-data from one page
  • Importers – now you can easily import data from other meta-data plugins directly into HeadSpace. This includes UTW, SEO Title Tags, and All-in-one SEO

Phew!

Anatomy Of An Attack

In an effort to remove all invalid links and redirections from my site I’ve been paying very close attention to my access logs. Courtesy of the list that Redirection maintains I’ve noticed that my site has been under a prolonged attack.

No, there’s no panic just yet, and so far this is not something I’m worried about. The attacks appear to be part of a general ‘find any weakness in any website’ method, rather than a specific and directed attack. Let me give some details of the URLs that are being accessed:

/plugins/spamx/MTBlackList.Examine.class.php?_CONF%5bpath%5d=someURL

/wp-content/plugins/myflash/myflash-button.php?wpPATH=someURL

/wp-content/wp-content/plugins/wordtube/wordtube-button.php?wpPATH=someURL

/wp-content/plugins/Enigma2.php?boarddir=someURL
Continue reading Anatomy Of An Attack

HeadSpace2 3.0.8: RSS options & update notification

Version 3.0.8 of HeadSpace2 brings with it:

  • RSS options – Change the RSS title and description for your site and category pages
  • Update notification – The HeadSpace2 plugin page will now show any updates to the plugin when they are released
  • Hack to allow HeadSpace2 to work with ImageManager plugin
  • Bug fix to remove error message when saving options