Introducing the wpseek Bot

While I am not tweeting much, I hired a guy called ‘wpseek Bot’. Since wpseek.com went online sometime 2009, the wpseek Bot keeps the data updated that wpseek.com is based on. Namely functions, hooks, filters and all that comes with it. He’s a busy guy (called by crons every now and then), so here’s a brief overview on what he’s tweeting about with the wpseek Twitter account:

WordPress development version updates (Checked hourly):

Whenever the core devs update to a new development version, the wpseek Bot will keep you updated on Twitter.

New WordPress releases (Checked hourly):

The Automattic guys just released another security release? Know when there’s a new WP version available to download.

New WordPress functions on wpseek.com (Updated twice a week):

As of now, you can browse through more than 5000 WordPress functions on wpseek.com. To keep data up-to-date, the wpseek Bot seeks for new WP functions regularly to add to the wpseek database. When there are new functions available, he will tweet about it.

New WordPress hooks/filters on wpseek.com (Updated twice a week):

Alongside WP functions you can find WP hooks and filters on wpseek.com. These are updated twice a week to keep you updated on the newest WP API stuff.

WordPress release reminder (Updated once a month):

Don’t know when to expect the upcoming WordPress release? Not sure if you’ll manage to get your plugin’s new version out before a new WP version will be released? The wpseek Bot will tell you once a month!


There are several more crons, parsers and updates running behind the scenes to keep the wpseek.com data stock up-to-date, but the 5 above are the most important and relevant for the random WP developer and designer.

• add_admin_bar_menus
• add_{$meta_type}_meta
• add_{$meta_type}_metadata
• admin_bar_init
• admin_bar_menu
• admin_title
• after_theme_row
• after_theme_row_{$theme_key}
• akismet_comment_nonce
• akismet_optimize_table
• akismet_show_user_comments_approved
• akismet_submit_nonspam_comment
• akismet_submit_spam_comment
• all_admin_notices
• all_themes
• bulk_actions-{$screen->id}
• can_edit_network
• comments_clauses
• custom_header_options
• default_hidden_meta_boxes
• delete_{$meta_type}_meta
• delete_{$meta_type}_metadata
• doing_it_wrong_run
• doing_it_wrong_trigger_error
• edit_profile_url
• edit_term_link
• enter_title_here
• esc_textarea
• force_filtered_html_on_import
• get_ancestors
• get_edit_term_link
• get_media_item_args
• get_meta_sql
• get_terms_args
• get_the_categories
• get_the_terms
• get_{$meta_type}_metadata
• in_theme_update_message-{$theme_key}
• is_post_type_hierarchical({$post->post_type}
• list_pages
• load-categoriesphp
• load-edit-link-categoriesphp
• load-page-newphp
• load-pagephp
• load_image_to_edit_attachmenturl
• load_image_to_edit_filesystempath
• login_enqueue_scripts
• login_footer
• manage_plugins_custom_column
• manage_sites_action_links
• manage_sites_custom_column
• manage_themes_custom_column
• manage_{$post->post_type}_posts_custom_column
• manage_{$screen->id}_sortable_columns
• manage_{$screen->taxonomy}_custom_column
• mature_blog
• media_upload_mime_type_links
• ms_user_list_site_actions
• nav_menu_item_id
• network_admin_edit_{$_GET[action]}
• network_admin_menu
• network_admin_notices
• network_sites_updated_message_{$_REQUEST[action]}
• network_site_users_after_list_table
• posts_clauses
• posts_clauses_request
• posts_search
• post_comment_status_meta_box-options
• post_format_rewrite_base
• post_type_archive_feed_link
• post_type_archive_link
• post_type_archive_title
• pre_get_comments
• pre_user_query
• schedule_event
• secure_auth_cookie
• secure_auth_redirect
• secure_logged_in_cookie
• secure_signon_cookie
• show_admin_bar
• show_network_site_users_add_existing_form
• show_network_site_users_add_new_form
• show_recent_comments_widget_style
• single_term_title
• swfupload_post_params
• swfupload_success_handler
• terms_clauses
• theme_action_links_{$theme_key}
• theme_row_meta
• the_comments
• tiny_mce_preload_dialogs
• twentyten_attachment_height
• unmature_blog
• update_{$meta_type}_metadata
• user_admin_menu
• user_admin_notices
• user_admin_url
• user_dashboard_url
• use_default_gallery_style
• views_{$screen->id}
• wp_admin_bar_class
• wp_after_admin_bar_render
• wp_before_admin_bar_render
• wp_get_current_commenter
• wp_insert_post_parent
• wp_nav_menu_objects
• wp_network_dashboard_setup
• wp_network_dashboard_widgets
• wp_unique_post_slug_is_bad_attachment_slug
• wp_unique_post_slug_is_bad_flat_slug
• wp_unique_post_slug_is_bad_hierarchical_slug
• wp_update_term_parent
• wp_user_dashboard_setup
• wp_user_dashboard_widgets
• wp_xmlrpc_server_class
• _network_admin_menu
• _user_admin_menu
• {$permastructname}_rewrite_rules
• {$prefix}plugin_action_links
• {$prefix}plugin_action_links_{$plugin_file}

I was just messing around with a custom post type loop,  and noticed that pagination wasn’t showing up at all. Neither posts_nav_link() nor the WP-PageNavi plugin was working and showing up navigation links.

I was basically using a custom WP_Query like this:

$custom_query = new WP_Query( $args );
while ($custom_query->have_posts()) :
...

The solution

global $wp_query;
$clone_page_total = $wp_query->max_num_pages;
$wp_query->max_num_pages = $custom_query->max_num_pages;

wp_pagenavi();

$wp_query->max_num_pages = $clone_page_total;

Just make sure to put your pagination function call (wp_pagenavi() in this case) before we restore the $wp_query property to it’s original value (in line 7).

What does it do?

The problem is that WordPress pagination functions need the $wp_query object. They don’t care for a custom $custom_query object. We basically just pretend there is a $wp_query object by cloning the needed property max_num_pages to $wp_query.

Requirements

• WordPress 3.0 (if you use custom post types)

Well, I guess it’s not too often that you need to get the ID of a particular meta entry from the postmeta table in WordPress. However, Matthew on the wp-hackers mailing list needed exactly that.

The solution

So here’s a function to get the ID of a meta entry based on the given meta_key:

function get_mid_by_key( $post_id, $meta_key ) {
  global $wpdb;
  $mid = $wpdb->get_var( $wpdb->prepare("SELECT meta_id FROM $wpdb->postmeta WHERE post_id = %d AND meta_key = %s", $post_id, $meta_key) );
  if( $mid != '' )
    return (int)$mid;

  return false;
}

What does it do?

The function returns the ID of the meta entry in the postmeta table or false if no results are returned. Invoke the function like so:

get_mid_by_key( your_post_id, 'your_meta_key' );

Requirements

• WordPress 2.3 and above

Anyone who would like to add a column to the edit users screen in the admin panel, listing a custom field like the age or membership status of a user, take a look.

The solution

Here’s a basic working example plugin. Just add a folder ‘user-column’ to the plugins folder, put a file ‘user-column.php’ into this folder and paste the following code into the file:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Custom User Column
Version: 0.7
Plugin URI: http://www.wpquestions.com/question/show/id/74
Description: WordPress 2.8+ only - Display Custom User Fields on Edit Users Screen
Author: Oliver Schlöbe
Author URI: http://wpseek.com/
*/

function cuc_column_userfield( $defaults ) {
  $defaults['cuc-usercolumn-userfield'] = __('Age', 'user-column');
  return $defaults;
}

function cuc_custom_column_userfield($value, $column_name, $id) {
  if( $column_name == 'cuc-usercolumn-userfield' ) {
    //if ( current_user_can('edit_users') ) // uncomment this to add a capability check
      return get_usermeta($id, 'age'); // 'age' is the custom meta key
  }
}

add_action('manage_users_custom_column', 'cuc_custom_column_userfield', 15, 3);
add_filter('manage_users_columns', 'cuc_column_userfield', 15, 1);
?>

What does it do?

The plugin adds a column “Age” to the user listing page displaying a custom user meta key ‘age’. Change it for whatever custom meta key you like.

Requirements

• WordPress 2.8

Sometimes you need to get the ID of the parent category when you’re browsing a child category page. Don’t you?

The solution

Get the ID of the parent category with a few lines of PHP code:

<?php
if( is_category() ) {
  $q_cat = get_query_var('cat');
  $cat = get_category( $q_cat );
  echo $cat->category_parent; // Print the ID
}
?>

Requirements

• WordPress 1.5.1 and above

Wished you could check if any bookmarks exist on your blog?

The solution

Here’s how. Five lines of PHP Code:

$bm = get_bookmarks(array());
$bm_count = count($bm);
if($bm_count > 0) {
  wp_list_bookmarks('title_li=');
}

What does it do?

We use the function get_bookmarks() to count the number of bookmarks. If it returns 0, there are no bookmarks. Pretty easy, huh?

Requirements

• WordPress 2.1 and above

How to auto-tag your posts with the plugin “Auto Tags” after they’ve been published already without manually edit and save each post to get them auto-tagged? Additionally, you don’t have SSH access to your server and the PHP max_execution_time is limited to 30 or 60 seconds so a script’s runtime would exceed and result in a blank page or fatal error?

The solution

Put a file auto-tag.php (or whatever you’d like) in your WP document root and fill it with the following contents:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);
require('./wp-blog-header.php');
global $wpdb;

if( !isset($_GET['offset']) ) {
  $offset = (int)$_GET['offset'];
}

$all_post_ids = $wpdb->get_col("SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_type = 'post'");
$post_ids = $wpdb->get_col("SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_type = 'post' ORDER BY ID ASC LIMIT " . $_GET['offset'] . ",3");

if( $_GET['offset'] >= count($all_post_ids) ) {
  die('Done.');
  exit;
}

foreach( $post_ids as $post_id ) {
  do_action( 'wp_insert_post', $post_id );
}
$offset = $_GET['offset']+3;
echo '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2; url=' . $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] . '?offset=' . $offset . '">';
?>

What does it do?

To avoid the script being aborted due to the PHP max_execution_time, the above script auto-tags 3 posts at a time, then automatically reloads the page, auto-tags the next 3 posts and so on. All you have to do is watch the script do the work for you, and get a coffee.

Requirements

• WordPress 2.0 and above
• Plugin Auto-Tags

I’ll make it short and sweet: I’ve been hanging around in the german WordPress Support forums as a moderator pretty often and try to help out people with their WordPress problems. As such, I’ve been coming across some tricky WordPress issues I tried to solve with the forum peeps, and these solutions I’m going to store in here. That’s it and that’s what this blog is for.

Chances are high that most people won’t need most of the stuff here, however for some this blog might be of value… eventually. Keep in mind that the problems and solutions discussed here are individual demands on the german WP forums, means, they helped at least one person (but I guess the number won’t increase ), and are tested to work properly. But they are not going to heal cancer or something.

I won’t update the blog regularly. It depends on the user’s problems they “provide” in the forums, but every now and then I’ll try to update the blog.

So, happy blogging… to me.