Mike Brawley Exploring the World!

Bulk Edit WordPress Post with MySQL Command

Bulk editing WordPress post can be tricky. The best way to do this is actually with a SQL command.   For instance lets say we want to change every post in our wordpress site with the word  My Company to My New Company

Log into your web hosting provide and open phpMyAdmin  and run the following SQL command against your database

UPDATE `wp_posts` SET `post_content` = replace(`post_content`, 'My Company', 'My New Company');

WordPress errror: Is its parent directory writable by the server?

Last night I moved a couple WordPress websites to a new webserver.  After doing so and changing all settings in the wp-config.php file and verifying the websites where worked. I ran into an error when trying to upload a file into a post or page.  I did a quick search on the internet and found people thinking it was a permissions issue in the uploads folder. I double checked all my folder permissions and they where all correct to what WordPress requires. I did some digging and found a setting for uploading files inside the WordPress admin Dashboard. Below is the error and step by step instructions on how to fix the error.

When I went to upload a file to my WordPress blog, I received the following error on the Media upload page.

"screenshot.png" has failed to upload due to an error
Unable to create directory /home/OLDPATH/public_html/BLOG/wp-content/uploads/2011/10. Is its parent directory writable by the server?

1. Log into your WordPress admin page
2. Check the settings at Settings > Media and I found the culprit under Uploading Files.
3. The path to the uploads folder is wrong. So I entered the default path and now it is working correctly.
4. If the default path does not work, put the full path to the uploads folder like this:  /home/NEWPATH/public_html/BLOG/wp-content/uploads

Hope this helps anyone else having the same issue!

4 must have WordPress plugins!

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a special XML site-map which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.  Not only will this plugin auto generate your XML site-map but it will also automatically submit the updated site-map to Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask.com! Make sure your blog is found on major search engines by installing this plugin. I use it on all of my WordPress sites.

http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

Google Analytics for WordPress

Google Analytics is the best way to know how many people are viewing your website. Google Analytics is not just a website counter, it gives you full analytics of what kind of traffic is on your site. Geographical location, time on site, referral sites, search engine info and more.   After all if no one is viewing your blog what is the point in creating new post.

http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/#utm_source=wordpress&utm_medium=plugin&utm_campaign=google-analytics-for-wordpress&utm_content=v407

Wordbooker

Wordbooker is a plug-in that will integrate WordPress to your Facebook page. You can have post automatically posted to your personal Facebook page or to your company Facebook page.  You can also enable Facebook like buttons on all of your post automatically.  Facebook like buttons are a great way to have viewers spreed the word about your blog by advertising your blog on their Facebook page.

http://wordbooker.tty.org.uk/

WordPress Database Backup

Working in the IT field for over 10 years now I have seen users loose important information all to often. After all of the hard work you have put into your blog you don't want to loose all of it in the event of a server failure. I know most web server hosting companies automatically backup their servers but I definitely don't trust their backups or that they even do it at all. This plugin will automatically backup your WordPress database and email it to you on a scheduled basis. I wouldn't ever build a site without it!

http://austinmatzko.com/wordpress-plugins/wp-db-backup/