I'm Gilbert Pellegrom.

Archive for August, 2009

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Top Wordpress Functions for your functions.php File

Categorized in Tutorials, Wordpress on August 27th, 2009

I’ve recently been looking at the kind of functions that I regularly see in Wordpress theme’s functions.php file. Here are some of the ones that I would recommend you include in your Wordpress functions.php file:

Plain Text Feedburner Subscriber Count

Here is the classic: get your feedburner subscriber count in plain text. Note most of these functions make use of cURL and this one requires PHP v5+ (so you can use SimpleXMLElement).

function get_subscriber_count() {
        $id = "YourFeedId";
	$url="https://feedburner.google.com/api/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=". $id;
	$ch = curl_init();
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
	$data = curl_exec($ch);
	curl_close($ch);
	$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
	return $xml->feed->entry['circulation'];
}

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My First Screencast

Categorized in My Projects on August 26th, 2009

Today I recorded my first screencast on the super simple web based screentoaster.com. It was for a video demo of my new web app MakeSomeTime. Despite my Scottish accent and my terrible inexperience with screencasts I quite enjoyed the experience and I might consider doing it more (if you don’t think so please let me know… in a nice manner).

Head on over and check it out on the MakeSomeTime blog.

Skipopia Free Website Template

Categorized in My Projects on August 20th, 2009

Skipopia is a theme that I worked on a while ago and never got to releasing it. So today I’m releasing it as a free website HTML template. It comes with 4 example pages, 3 different colour schemes and can be used a business/portfolio template for your website. Some features include:

  • Valid HTML /CSS – Tableless Layout
  • Good Documentation.
  • jQuery Cycle plugin for Homepage Scroller
  • 3 Colour variations

Skipopia Website Template

So head over to the project page and give it a whirl. As always comments and suggestions are welcome.

MakeSomeTime Launch

Categorized in My Projects, Web Development on August 19th, 2009

Today I have launched my side project that I have been working on for the last few weeks MakeSomeTime. MakeSomeTime is basically a time tracking web app that helps you keep track of your time and keep your times sorted by tasks, projects and clients. You can also generate reports that can be included in presentations and invoices. Great for freelancers and it’s free!

MakeSomeTime

I suppose you could call this a beta launch. As always feedback is appreciated and I have even set up a Get Satisfaction support page so I can organise any feedback that I get. I hope you enjoy the site and let me know what you think.

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WP-CMS 2.1

Categorized in My Projects, Wordpress on August 17th, 2009

I have just released another update to my WP-CMS Wordpress plugin. If you don’t know what WP-CMS does, WP-CMS is a plugin for Wordpress that changes the functionality of the Wordpress admin backend to act more like a CMS. The blog functionality becomes optional and the focus is on writing pages to make Wordpress as user friendly for you and your clients as possible.

WP-CMS

This version fixes a few bugs and annoyances that had been needing update for a while including:

  • Fixed “home” page creation when pages already exist
  • Fixed <?php tag bug
  • Fixed Plugins and Tools menu’s

Why not have a look and see what you think. As always comments/insults welcome.