Blog Archives
WordPress Database Junk
WordPress Database Contains a Lot of Junk
WordPress stores a lot of junk in the database. WordPress news feeds, theme and plugin update release notices and information, old plugin and theme stuff from removed plugins and themes that don’t clean out their data; and that’s before getting to the useful junk like post revisions and other data useful to WordPress users.
Storing junk in the database is nothing new to WordPress, as a .org support submission from 4 years ago shows.
I noticed my WordPress database was excessive in size, found it padded with 7,000 lines of WordPress “news.” Why is this stuff in my database, and how do I get it out? wordpress.org/support/topic/database-padded-with-junk-content
Interestingly, no-one bothered to reply to the submission.
Unnecessary Data Stored in Database
Views Reloaded
Revamping a Drupal User Guide
Some time ago I added a number of Drupal video guides from several sources to pages on one of my websites. These were really only intended for my use while getting to grips with Drupal CMS. Then they were forgotten. Recently I was Googling something and lo and behold, one of these pages was on page 1 SERP. (When I added the videos, I didn’t yet have the meta-tags module to include “noindex” for robots, so Google indexed the lot).
But these pages had no content; most just had the video, either embedded using YouTube or in iframes from vimeo. Seeing as I am in the process of reworking a lot of the web site, sorting out the taxonomy (tags) and adding headings and descriptions to these, as well as undertaking an appearance overhaul of pages showing teasers e.g. blog pages, article summary pages and so on, I decided it was time to do something useful to the numerous pages of Drupal video guides. The collection is being updated and re-published in the form of a Drupal ‘book content type’ at Drupal Guidebook (graphicline.co.za).
Changing WordPress Permalink Structure
If you want to change the WordPress permalink structure of your blog or website there are a few things to consider first, and preparations to make before proceeding
The structure of Permalinks WordPress uses is easy to change; selecting a new option and clicking the radio button will take care of it for you. But what is the effect on SEO, what about all the links from other blogs and referrers?
You need to make sure search engines will still be able to find the content, and backlinks from the thousands (hopefully) of sites linking to yours will still send visitors to the correct page.
Here are a few guidelines that will reduce the loss of search engine ranking, and take care of the backlinks.
osCommerce e-store
WPOnlineStore e-store for Graphicline
Finally, after several days trying e-commerce solutions, I am going to use osCommerce and WordPress for the PC store with the WPOnlineStore system.
As I mentioned, the Drupal 7 option requires several unstable modules; after running up a development Drupal system, there were clearly going to be some problems with the plugins that I don’t intend to spend time fixing.
WordPress commerce systems tried included WP E-Commerce, wpStoreCart and finally osCommerce which worked out the best of the lot, and is the easiest to set up as well requiring just a shortcaode added to a single page to create a full online store.
osCommerce is highly configurable with lots of functionality, and provided the appearance I was looking for anyway. A WordPress theme, probably Mystique, will be used on the front end; it looks good on the testing server, and matches some of our other themes (as well as this blog).
The Mystique theme is the Ajax powered version 3.1 from Digital Nature which also offers numerous options. Possibly using this theme is overkill as the WordPress part of the production store will be very basic, not much more than a front end for the shop.
The latest WordPress version will be used, version 3.3
osCommerce SSL Support
Another useful feature, osCommerce supports SSL (secure Socket Layer) adding security to the site for financial transactions. Although not required at the moment as only PayPal and Online transfer payment methods will e used, should the need to accept credit cards directly arise, the basics are already in place.
Other e-commerce systems tested:
Voice Dictation for Web Content
Creating Web Content by Dictation
Using ones voice to create content for websites and blogs opens doors for business executives to provide a ready stream of new and fresh content for their company website and blogs.
Content can be recorded using one of the many dictation devices available, or even a smart phone, pda, or many ordinary cell phones. Business people who don’t have time to add written content to websites can simply give their voice recordings to a transcriptionist, who will convert the spoken words to text. The text is then provided to the website content manager or even the company’s in house web operator. Result – new content on the site.
Consider the web site content that can be prepared; product reviews, descriptive articles, news releases and more.
Voice Dictation for Web Content Service:
Graphicline today launched the pilot of a new service turning voice dictation into web site content with a product overview outlining the benefits of using a comprehensive voice dictation for web site content creation A collaborative effort with Intelligent Verbatim’s transcription service offers a full spectrum web content management system for business clients. Customers can send their recording in any of the standard audio formats (e.g. mp3, wma, aiff, wav) to Graphicline (Johannesburg) or Intelligent Verbatim (Cape Town).
The supplied audio will be transcribed, optimised for keyword useage and edited if required, then returned to the customer for approval. Once the final text copy is accepted, Graphicline will add it the clients website or blog along with any required graphics.
This product is the first of an upcoming range from Graphicline’s Holistic Web Management Service.
CMS Website for graphicline.co.za
Drupal CMS Website
Graphicline switched over from a static HTML website to a Drupal CMS system. The new look site went live at about 16h00 SAST on 18 August 2011. Regular visitors may remember we are in the process of construction a client area on the site ‘The Zone’. The Zone is the basis for the new site, and was migrated to become our main website entry point. Drupal CMS First Overview.
CMS Website Theme:
For the present a stock Drupal theme is in use for the site. Eventually I will look to a more customised style; however that is some time in the future. Before then, there is much ‘backroom’ work needed to get things working the way they are required.
HTML not replaced;
The existing html content remains in place and available. The static site will be fully indexed into the CMS Website.