Zenphoto—on its own, and paired with WordPress

By J June 13th, 2010, under LDW Clients, Zenphoto

One of my recent projects has been creating a website that is both a blog and an art portfolio. The art gallery needs to be attractive and also easy for the end user to manage; the portfolio is being moved from Flickr to the artist’s new, self-hosted website, so my goal is to provide a more professional-looking portfolio while keeping the ease of use that online photo sharing applications like Flickr offer.

To accomplish this goal, I have started working with a content management system called Zenphoto.

Zen strives to be simple and user friendly. Uploads, gallery management, tagging and categorizing are all very intuitive and could be figured out just by browsing the administrator panel. There are several themes available through Zenphoto’s website, as well as plugins for extending the function of your website.

This project is both a blog and a gallery, so I am using Zenphoto alongside WordPress to make this happen. WordPress has a great plugin that links the two admin control panels together. This way I can get to the back end of Zenphoto from a link in WordPress. It is also possible to fully integrate the two sites on the front end, though this is not the goal of my project.

In my experience, Zenphoto lives up to its philosophy, “Simpler is better.” So if you, like many people, have a large collection of digital images that you would like to make the main theme of your website, I’d recommend considering Zenphoto as your primary or secondary content management system.

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Embedding video directly into WordPress blog posts

By J May 30th, 2010, under The Latest

Many bloggers find it helpful to embed personal video and other media in blog posts.  It can be challenging to find an easy way to add multimedia to a blog post.  I will walk you through one process of making it possible to do so.

WordPress is somewhat limited in the media file types that it handles by default. To see if your favorite type is handled, check here. If it’s not, you may want to…

Expand your MIME types

MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension. It’s a communications protocol that allows for transmission of different forms of data such as audio, binary and video—it no longer refers strictly to email data transfer.

To expand the types of video (or other media) you can upload and stream, first install the PJW Mime Config plugin.  Once the MIME plugin is installed, you can add any of the file extensions that  you would like to upload to your WordPress blog.  The first one I added was .3gp, the type of video used by many mobile devices today.  In the plugin, I added .3gp as the file extension and video/3gpp as the associated MIME type.  Now WordPress will happily accept my .3gp video uploads.

Here is an extensive list of Mime types you may like to add http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mime-types.shtml

Upload and play your video: All-in-One Video Pack

Once you’ve made sure that your media file type will work in WordPress, you’ll need a player to play the video within the posts.  The player plugin I chose is the All-in-One Video Pack by Kaltura.  Once installed and activated, the plugin is ready to go, no additional configuration needed.  You will need to sign up for an account with Kaltura and this will be handled directly in your WP control panel. This plugin also comes with a sidebar widget that will show your latest videos if you would like to do so.

I chose All-In-One Video Pack for videos, but it will handle many other types of media as well. For instance, you can film directly from your webcam or insert photos or audio from your computer.  It also will pull photos from Flikr or NYPL; for audio, you can pull from Jamendo, CCMixter or your own collection.  For video you have the choices or Metacafe or PhotoBucket, along with your home collection.

The one down side I had with All-in-One Video Pack was browser crashes.  The upload process would sometimes stall and the browser would crash.  This only happened to me in Chrome and has not happened in a while.  Still, if using this plugin, I would save any text as draft before adding media to it… just in case.  All in all, All-in-One seems to be a decent solution to streaming video.

Once you’ve installed All-in-One, you will have a new option under Upload/Insert when you are editing your post.  You will see a red button called Add interactive video.  To add a video, simply click the button, choose upload, browse for the folder you would like to add in your post, and click upload.  That’s it—you now have your video playing in your blog post.

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Using Postie with your Wordpress Blog

By Geoffrey LDW May 28th, 2010, under LDW Clients, WordPress, plugins, tips

Cafe Campesino needed a way to post updates to their new blog while traveling to meet coffee farmers. I decided to try Postie, a WordPress plugin that allows posting by sending your post to a designated email address. There are some good instructions here about how to set up Postie.

This article is to help those using Postie to easily post articles, images and even movies to their WordPress blog.

Postie will only accept emailed items from a pre-approved address, so make sure you are using an address that is setup in the Postie configuration, let us know if you need to add a new address.

When sending an article, put the title of the article in your subject line, it will be converted by Postie into your title. If you are sending via SMS, put your title in hash marks “#your title here#”.

If you want to categorize the article in a single category, put the category followed by a colon (ex  News: Title) If you need to put it in multiple categories use  [Cat XXX]s (ex: ‘[Cat XXX] [Cat YYY] Title of My Article’ ). You can also wait to categorize your article until you are online and can log in to WordPress.

Start your article with “:start” and finish with “:end”, this will strip out any signatures etc. that follow your article, and only what is between these tags will be published.

If you want to add tags, add this at the bottom of the article in this format:
tags : one, two, three (must be in lower case). You can also add tags later when you get to a computer and login to WordPress

To add a comment to a post, use ‘Re:’ in your subject line. For example, if your original post had a subject line “New Post”. If you then send an e-mail with the subject line “Re: New Post”, it will get posted as a comment on the original post.

You can delay posting of the article with the following:

  • delay:1d – 1 day
  • delay:1h – 1 hour
  • delay:1m – 1 minute
  • delay:1d2h4m – 1 day 2 hours 4m

    • If you are sending a picture, with or without text, use the :start and :end tags and the following:

    #img1 caption=’caption for the image’# (the caption is optional)

    You can attach more than one photo, just make sure to attach them in the correct order to correspond to your img1, img2 etc.

    If the float is set up, the image will allow any text added after the tag to float around the image. If you want the image to float in the body of your text, include the #img1# at the place where you want the text to begin wrapping.

    Add video’s one at a time. Send them as and attachement and put any text inside your :start end tags.

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    Quick n’ Easy Image Resizing for Lucky Linux Users

    By J May 24th, 2010, under Linux, The Latest, tips

    UbuntuFor those of you using the Ubuntu with the Nautilus file manager, or any other Linux distribution with Nautilus, here is a quick and easy tip for resizing images.  It is called the Nautilus image converter.

    To use the Nautilus image converter simply go to the command line and install by typing “sudo aptitude install nautilus-image-converter”, no quotations. Once installed restart nautilus by using the command “nautilus -q”.  Now you can simply right click on any image and have the option to resize or rotate it in the drop down menu.

    For Gimp users there is a plugin called David’s Batch Processor.   It can be downloaded for linux or Windows here or installed as part of the “gimp-plugin-registry” using Synaptic package manager.   This plugin allows many more options than the Nautilus option including batch resize.

    For more information on image optimization or if you prefer an online solutions to image resizing please refer to this blog.

    Enjoy!

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    Joomla articles without menu items

    By Geoffrey LDW May 24th, 2010, under Joomla, tips

    Sometimes you need additional articles in your Joomla website that don’t have direct access through your menus. In example you want to provide an ‘additional resources’ link within an article, or perhaps you just want an article for internal use that does not have a public link. Here are the simple steps to make this article linkable from within another article or module in your site, or from another website.

    First create a new menu and call it “hidden” or something useful for yourself to remember. Do not create a corresponding module for this menu, alternatively you can create a module but mark it as ‘registered’ or ’special’ so it will not be seen by the public.

    Using this new menu you can create links to articles, or any other available menu item choice. When you create the menu item there is a field called “Link” that is automatically populated when you create the item. This is the relative URL of the page (add http://yourdomain.com/ in front of it for a complete URL to use on another site). If you are using Joomla SEO settings, you can use the alias field to create user friendly links to this menu item.

    Note: Though this menu is not published, you can still set your modules to show or not to show on the pages of this menu, or you could even create a different template for these pages.

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    WordPress: Two Plugin Reviews

    By J May 16th, 2010, under Joomla, The Latest, WordPress, plugins

    I’ve been doing a lot of work for a client using WordPress this week. Briefly, WordPress is an open source platform for blogging. It also offers many more features than just a simple blog. Here, I review a couple of optional plugins that you can use on WordPress. These plugins offer your WordPress site visitors a photo gallery (Webpsilon Morfeo Gallery) or an email subscription option (Subscribe2).

    A WordPress Plugin Review: Webpsilon Morfeo Gallery

    Here at LDW, Morfeo Show has been one of our favorite plugins for our clients’ Joomla! sites. Thanks to Webpsilson Morfeo Gallery is also available for WordPress.  I find the WordPress version every bit as user-friendly as the Joomla! version. It provides for basic image needs very well.

    While the Joomla! version is more advanced and offers a wider range of gallery themes, I do not believe the WordPress version is limiting. It’s meant to display within blogs, whereas the Joomla! version has been developed to be very versatile for websites’ many needs.

    There’s one limiting factor with Morfeo on WordPress: you have to get your photos to the site using ftp, and many bloggers are not familiar or comfortable with the ftp side of a website. There is a workarround for this by changing your default upload location to the Morfeo image folder, but you have to remember to switch it back to the default once you are done.  Even with this limitation I feel that this is a plugin worth mentioning.

    Thanks to the developers of Webpsilon Morfeo Gallery—it was just what I was looking for.

    A WordPress Plugin Review: Subscribe2

    The Subscribe2 plugin is a way for your WordPress visitors to sign up to receive an email subscription to your blog. You can configure the frequency with which subscribers receive emails: every time you post something new, weekly, daily or even hourly if you prefer. I set mine to only send out an email when there is something new to read.

    My goal was to create a separate page on a WordPress site which would give the visitor a place to sign up for the subscription. I was provided with two options: I could manually insert the Subscribe2 token into a newly created page, or I could simply press the Subscribe2 button in the WYSIWYG and it would be inserted on the new page. I picked the latter, and there it was. Subscribe2 also has a widget option, in case you would prefer a widget on your blog’s sidebar rather than having a separate page for email subscriptions.

    I really enjoyed working with this software. Plugins can sometimes be a struggle to get to work, but with Subscribe2 this was not the case. I am happy with this plugin’s performance and would recommend it as a simple and effective way to handle email subscriptions on a WordPress site.

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    Learning something new

    By Geoffrey LDW May 12th, 2010, under The Latest, tips

    Had an interesting conversation with someone tonight. He said “I don’t even know how to turn a computer on.” After talking to him for a bit, he shared that he would like to learn how to use a computer, but nobody has shown him how.

    I shared that I would be happy to set a time to help him get started, I had quite a few similar students while I was in New Orleans. I also shared that like anything it takes practice. Earlier that day, I was reading a Hanes Manual. Anyone who has worked on cars is familiar with this book, it has step by step instructions and illustrations showing how to dis-assemble and re-assemble every part of a vehicle. About 6 years ago, when I was travelling around in an old vehicle I was not at all intimidated to dig in with this book and fix virtually any problem the car may throw at me. Today, I experienced intimidation looking at the book. I still have the same skills, but as I haven’t done it in quite a few years, it felt very different. Computers are the same way. As long as you continue to give it a set amount of time each day, or at least each week, it gradually becomes easier. I thing learning any new skill is like this. No matter how intimidating it may seem, with practice, one day you’ll look back and wonder what was so intimidating.

    I suppose the most important thing is overcoming any intimidation and taking those first steps. I remember some of the folks in New Orleans, and other places where I have taught computer use, I can say from experience, those that learn the fastest, and make the most solid progress are those that try things. They say things like “Ok, let’s see what happens if I do this…” Whereas those that make the slowest progress are those that say “I’m worried if I try that I might break something.”

    So I say go for it, obviously make sure that you back things up, or ask somebody to do this for you, and then just start clicking on links, and hitting buttons and see what happens. This can be applied to trying a computer for the first time, or trying to use a new Joomla website, or fixing a car for that matter, you wont learn if you don’t try.

    Now, if you find that what you’re doing is not getting the right results, reach out and ask someone what else to try, don’t ask them to do it for you, just let them tell you about it so that you can do it yourself. Even if somebody told you how to do something, you can still celebrate the victory of having done it by yourself.

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    WordPress App for Android

    By J May 9th, 2010, under Mobile updates, Online tools, Phones, WordPress, web

    If you are a blogger and are not always around your computer when you feel the urge to blog, I suggest taking a look at one of the many applications available for your smartphone.  I have recently started playing around with the  WordPress Android App on my HTC Incredible phone.  While it is possible to type your blog on the phone I found this app to work well with the voice to text translator that comes stock with the phone.   If I (theoretically) didn’t have computer access, it would allow me to just speak my blog post into the phone and upload it as a draft to the web.

    I have found that this application works well to get my basic ideas in one place and up on the website in draft form. When I do get to the computer all I have to do is proofread it, get the layout right and send it on its way.  I am also able to add categories and tags right from the phone. Note: there was more editing to do with voice to text than if I would have simply typed the blog post.

    The mobile wysiwyg has the ability to add links, bold, blockquote and italics.  It even enables the user to add images. However the image uploader works much better on the web based version of WordPress. When done from the phone I was not able to pick where the photos would be displated or how large they would be.

    This week I found it to be an entertaining way to post my blog.  Time will tell if it is just a novelty.

    Well, here goes nothing… post!

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    Picking colors for your website

    By Geoffrey LDW May 7th, 2010, under Online tools, plugins, tips, web

    So now you’ve picked out a template and it is time to do some customizing Figuring out a color scheme can be fun with a great online tool called Color Scheme Designer. Often the best way to start is to look at a picture that you want to use in the site, either as a banner, or a prominent picture. Install a great little plugin in Firefox called ColorZilla. Once installed, restart your browser and open that picture in Firefox (you can use file, open from a browser window). In the lower left corner of firefox, you will now see a little eydropper, click on that eyedropper and then click on a region of the picture with a color that you would like to use as a starting point. You will see the color changes in the lower left icon. Right click on this color and copy to clipboard.

    Open Color Scheme Designer, to the lower right of the big circle, you will see ‘RGB:’ and some number, click on these numbers and paste or type in the color you chose with colorzilla. Now you have your starting point. Depending on how many colors you would like on your site, you can chose mono, compliment, triad etc from above the wheel to see complimentary colors. To take a look at how the colors work together on a website, below the boxes of color on the right, click on ‘Light page example’ and ‘Dark page example’.

    You should also take a look at the ‘Vision Simulation’ link at the top right, to make sure that someone with a different visual perception would see your site. Once you have finished playing around and have decided on a color palette you like, you can click on ‘color list’ below the big circle, highlight all the colors and past them into an email to send to your favorite web-design team, or use them yourself when constructing the css file for your website.

    If you have other ways that you have picked out a color scheme for your website, please add a comment so that others can benefit.

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    What we like about Linux..

    By Geoffrey LDW May 1st, 2010, under Fixes, Linux, Performance, The Latest, Windows, collective, tips

    LinuxMany years ago I first tried Linux on some old PCs that were donated.  It was fun, and as a hobbyist, I enjoyed the challenge of getting everything to work; to be honest, however, I seldom succeeded.  Then, quite a few years later, I took another look and found much progress.  Unfortunately, my desire for Linux to become widely used was unrealistic as it still required a person with good technical savvy and acumen – or at least a certain amount of confidence – to install and use Linux.  News spread about how growing amounts of people, especially corporations, were finding how much more stable and secure Linux was; this occurred around the same time that people were becoming increasingly disappointed and disenchanted with Microsoft after its release of Windows Vista.

    While serving in New Orleans, I met others who were not only experimenting with Linux, but were using it as their primary operating system.  Meanwhile, my dissatisfaction with Windows was exacerbating, particularly due to constant worry about whether or not I was protected enough against viruses and spyware.  In fact, my protection was eating up all my resource, yet I still didn’t feel secure.

    So, I took the leap of faith and switched over to Linux, hoping that it would enable me to accomplish all that I needed to do.  I did mess around with dual boot (utilizing both Windows XP and various Linux distributions on the same machine), and I still had my share of challenges getting everything to work, but before long I was proudly promoting the benefits of Open Source* with my computer running Debian Linux.  During my time in New Orleans, we tried many different distributions, especially in the computer labs which we were establishing. With donated computers, it was a way around the expensive license fees required if we were to install legitimate versions of Windows.  Linux was very stable, very easy to use once installed, and a great way to introduce others to Open Source. We found that Ubuntu and Xubuntu were the most uncomplicated for end users to operate, and in effort to better understand and help them, I switched to Ubuntu on my own laptop.

    After leaving New Orleans, I offered that laptop to J, which is part of the reason that he got excited about computers and now is pursuing a career in web design.  So this journey uncovers another great reason to use Linux:  it gives more of a hands-on experience, which may lead to discovery of  previously unknown natural talents.

    We have both just upgraded our systems to Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, and I must say that it is now certainly more advantageous to use Ubuntu than it is to use Windows:  easier to install, safer and more secure, and a heck of a lot more fun as there is no limit to the amount of customization you can do.

    So with the attractive price tag of FREE, why doesn’t everybody switch?  If you still find that you have programs that need to be run in Windows, you may have to tinker with Wine (a Windows emulator that allows you to run programs in Linux) VirtualBox, (creating a virtual version of Windows that runs inside Linux), or using dual boot (utilizing both operating systems side-by-side so that one can choose which to use upon start-up).  All of these options add a level of complexity that some may wish to avoid.  Some may feel like they have more support if using Windows, but often that support comes at the tradeoff of a high price tag.  Now that so many people are using Linux, the support abounds, and there are hundreds of forums, many of which are very “newbie” friendly.  I think the primary reason more people haven’t yet switched is because they have never tried and are thwarted by fear of the unknown.

    Is it time for you to make the move to Open Source Linux?  We highly recommend Ubuntu Lucid Lynx.

    for the first timer if you have a newer machine, although there are a lot of other distributions from which to choose.  If you are ready to make the move but are unsure of yourself, we would be happy to offer any advice and welcome any questions.  Please just let us know.

    *Open Source is a concept of sharing intellectual properties without concern for compensation. Lowthian Design Works uses many open source applications, including this blog, published in Wordpress, and open source content management system.

    Thanks Amy Tyson for proofreading this post.

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