Ed N.

Not looking to simply “republish” pages/posts to sub blogs. I am looking for a way to, for the lack of a better term, “map” subdomains to use the main domain’s content.

I am building a website that will power a basic storefront. This storefront will be used by several different brands, so each brand needs its own distinct url and design. Currently, my plan is to give each brand its own subdomain, such as brand1.mystorefront.com, and then I would use a redirect to send them to mystorefront.com/?brand=brand1

This method allows me to use a php query of $_GET, and begin sessions to store the brand’s id, and pull in the appropriate design. Which for the most part works.

My problem is this… the brands will use this with their clients, and once the redirect is complete, the url will no longer show the store brand id. So when a client returns, if they forget to use the subdomain to get there (say they add a favorite after the redirect), they will no longer get the branding they expect.

So if I could keep them on the subdomain instead of having to redirect, but use the exact same content (pulling the main blog’s pages) then all my concerns are solved.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated.
Ed

When it comes to plugins, it would be nice to have a filter in the search feature that allows us to filter out plugins that are not current. In other words, I want to see only plugins that have been tested up to 3.0 (or whatever current version is available) For ideas on how this may work, look at the add-ons to Firefox where you can filter by version there.

Same for Themes. Should be able to filter for themes that have been updated to include new 3.0 features.

As for the Codex, this definitely needs to be updated. Possibly consider a legacy version for those still using older versions, but certainly update the details and images to reflect 3.0’s capabilities. Also, please document features better. There are a number of features that developers use that you can’t seem to find in the Codex, but have to reply on various attempts by other users, which in many cases can bloat code or open security holes.

One final idea, this actually applies to the new menu system in 3.0 (which I love, by the way!). When you are creating a detailed menu and end up with a lot of pages in the menu, the menu system becomes cumbersome. It would be nice if the subpages could collapse (tree style) so that when I add another page, it is easier to place where I want it to be. Since it is javascript heavy, it can get a little buggy and slow when you have larger menus. It is especially evident in Internet Explorer, which I do not use, but the majority of web users still do.

Thats it for me. I love WordPress, and love the direction things are going. WP should be the CMS of choice very soon, even if people still want to call it a blogging software package! LOL

So quick question about this… I typically hard code the GA code into the footer of my theme. Will any settings using the W3TC plugin have a negative effect on my GA readings if I manually install the code in the footer?

For me, there are 3 items of concern.

The first has to do with the WP + WPMU merge. The one bit of functionality I would love to see integrated with the merge is a stable and secure way to properly map domain names. WordPress.com does this so well, I would think this would be an easy thing to add, no longer requiring plugins that may or may not work or conflict with other plugins.

The second would be more CMS functionality, especially in terms of user levels and permissions. I know there are plugins that mimic this, but these can cause problems with other plugins and can be complicated. With the newer profile items, it would be nice to also be able to assign differing permissions as needed (or by default) per user.

Finally, my only other request is better documentation on the new features being added. Sometimes we have to search the web to find out information, particularly detailed information, on new features. This information can be hit or miss. In my opinion, these features should be very well documented for the community within the WordPress codex.

Above all, thank you WP developers for all you do in providing an awesome software package that really can do just about anything!

Update: I have tried removing all “required” fields and the Captcha, and still, not working

Could not find this anywhere, but I did look….

How do you add the Gallery Title to the gallery.php page?
I am using <?php echo $gallery->title ?> but nothing is showing, no matter where I place it in the file. Using WPMU 2.7.1 and NGG 1.0.2

Thanks

Same problem… WPMU 2.71 and NGG 1.0.2

I am having the same problem. Using WPMU 2.7.1 and NGG 1.0.2
I can upload images and work with galleries/albums… but I can not add descriptions or modify the Alt text… no matter what I add, the data is not stored in the database.

Alex… any ideas?

Having read this, there are 2 points that I would like to agree with and chime in on…

1. Development Cycles
It does seem that the next version of WordPress comes out way too quickly after that last one. Its one thing if you find a major security issue, but for those of use that make some changes to the core, this gets frustrating. I know, core changes are highly discouraged, but in many cases needed. I am looking for beefed up security as well as a real CMS powered by WP. This leads me to point #2.
2. Direction of WP
You mentioned that the direction is clear but obviously not communicated… and still not communicated within the response! Not a dig, but just something that should be noted.
In my humble opinion, WP has matured well beyond just a blogging platform and is just a few real tweaks from being a major player in the CMS world. Sure the WP.com side is focused on blogs, but us .org users tend to lean towards more of the CMS side and I for one would love to see this direction embraced. But all I have read and found on my own indicates a major resistance to the idea of WP as a CMS at its core.

So how do we change the communication? That is a great question… one I do not have a real solution for. However, I would ask that whatever is used would allow a user to quickly identify what version of WP the information applies to. Maybe even allow us to search based on the WP version we are using… this could even apply to the Plugins section, where some of the plugins are no longer supported but you have to weed through so many to find ones that work for a specific version.

Regardless of all this, WP is my first choice for any website I am developing. Second choice would also be WordPress, so little chance of my leaving to another! I love you guys and this program.

I just noticed the comments by richschmidt and deanjrobinson about the flyout menu…

Dean, personally I feel the flyout provides me more flexibility and I love the look. See my prior comment about my concerns with IE though.

Rich, I have to disagree on the useability of the flyout. For my uses it makes it much more sense… but every user is different, right?

I think the answer is providing an Option for the menu… collapse or flyout. That way the user can decide which way they want it to work. Or as codeispoetry stated.. make it Themeable. If the admin side could be themed or skinned easily, I think we’d see some GREAT designs come forward. But as it stands, there are only a few and they are hard to find!

Personally I voted for Fluency2.

The current menu has pros and cons. Pros include a clean look and the ability to allow more room for additional menu items. Cons for me is the fact that its on the side and to access items you have to expand the menu to reach them. (With no “collapse” or “expand” all option)

To me, it is frustrating to constantly have to scroll down to access certain features on the menu when making changes. The more items that are expanded, the more I have to scroll.

What I like about the fluency design is that when I hover over the main item, I get a flyout menu that allows easy access. It makes the accessibility much better and I don’t have to scroll!

That being said, Fluency2 isn’t perfect. The letter/number shortcut options (while a cool idea) fail to keep a great look when working in IE. Hey, I know we should all use Firefox, and personally I have made that change with FF 3.0, but the masses still use IE, so we must keep that in mind when styling.

I would be fine with keeping the current style as is if we could add a simple OPTION to use javascript menus that do what Fluency does. This would give the user more control over how they wanted to use it.

For now, I am using the Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu plugin which places the admin menu back at the top. For me it just makes life easier, feels more intuitive and allows customization! If someone can make the new admin menu more flexible I’d probably convert.

Let’s say I want to have 2 loops… the first one displays the most recent 5 posts, the second a random selection of posts; however I want the most recent 5 to be excluded from the second loop. How would you go about doing that?

ody3307 says:

This syntax will only work from within a function.

Yet, I set the same variables and can use ANYWHERE but the footer. In addition, standard WP functions (such as is_front_page() ) are not available in the footer.

Anyone got a better idea?

Erick,
You are not alone as I am also finding this problem and it appears this is popping up more and more. The problem is not in the forum, but that for some reason this is either a case by case issue (doubtful) or that few are using variables within their footers.
I am also having the same issue and it goes beyond the variables I set myself. It also includes WP functions such as is_front_page.

I have seen another reference to this solution that ody3307 refers to, so obviously this works. However, there is a further problem here.

WordPress functions also get emptied in the footer.php section of a page. For example, I can not call is_front_page() in the footer. I had read that this might be a one time call (which made no sense) but I have called it in the header and again in the page and both have worked. But if called in the footer, it is ignored.

So while I can re-global variables, how am I to get the wordpress functions valid again?