Long-term Memory

WordPress seems to have its security a bit too tight to let me do my job: I wanted to upload a Perl-script, but instead I got

File type does not meet security guidelines.

A bit of googling got me to Kristof Coomans’ blogpost which pointed me to the PJW Mime Config plugin. This plugin allows you to add custom file extensions and their corresponding MIME-types to be accepted as uploads.

Up until now, I logged into my blog using the standard username/password. Since my blog is hosted as a vhost, setting up SSL (https) is a pain: You either need a dedicated IP:port per ssl-vhost, or need to work with certificates that list multiple domains (Update 2009-04-18: SNI). Running SSL on a non-standard port works pretty well, but most firewalls don’t like that. Conclusion: the only widely available way to log into my blog is over plain http. Needless to say, I don’t like my password going in plaintext over the Internet.

Continue reading ‘OpenID’ »

Recently, I have been “upgrading” my blog by including some nice WordPress plugins. Some of them are barely noticeable, others get some sidebar-real-estate.

Here is a list of plugins I currently use:

• Akismet: Keeps the spam out of the comments
• Add From Server: Allows me to upload files in batch using SFTP and add them to the media library later
• Attachment Extender: Allows an attachment (image, video, file) to be updated. Normally you need to delete/re-add the item
• Better Blogroll: Displays a list of random links in the sidebar
• Blogroll Links Page: Generates a page with all links from the database; although I hacked in a little bit of functionality to have empty categories suppressed and to display the category description.
• CyStat: Gathers statistics on page visits, incoming referrers, most popular posts, …
• FLV Embed: The embedded flash player in some posts (eg this one)
• Search Unleached: Adds search highlighting to the pages; search through comments as well

I’m still looking for (a) plugin(s) to accomplish some things:

• Basically get the “Media Library” page from the admin-interface onto the blog itself. A bit like the Blogroll Links Page plugin does for links.
• Some plugin/hack/extension that allows the “Media Library” to be organized by tags and/or categories. Technically this isn’t a big task: the database stores attachements just the same as it does posts, so it’s only a user-interface thing.
• Search through the captions and descriptions of the “Media Library”

If anyone knows of a plugin to solve these issues, please let me know.

Update 2008-10-26

I basically wrote my own plugin to accomplish what I was looking for. It’s far from perfect, but it gets the job done.

Update 2009-06-17

I replaced CyStat with AWStats; it’s not a WordPress plugis, but gives me much more information. I also removed Search Unleached, since it wast not compatible with WordPress 2.8 (at the time of the descission).

Another update

I added Broken Link Checker. It’s a great plugin that routinely verifies all your links and notifies you when they’re broken.