Apostolos Dountsis

As you may have noticed, the site layout got a refresh. I hope that you like it and as always I welcome your comments (especially the negative ones). I really like this layout as it fills the 97% of the web browser and it feels more relaxing to the eyes.

Also, the version of WordPress that powers the site was updated to its latest version (2.5). This new version features a lot of drastic changes to the maintenance interface (Dashboard) and its internal mechanisms.

“WordPress 2.5, the culmination of six months of work by the WordPress community, people just like you. The improvements in 2.5 are numerous, and almost entirely a result of your feedback: multi-file uploading, one-click plugin upgrades, built-in galleries, customizable dashboard, salted passwords and cookie encryption, media library, a WYSIWYG that doesn’t mess with your code, concurrent post editing protection, full-screen writing, and search that covers posts and pages.” -More

For one, the Dashboard got a complete make-over. Actually, I prefer the new color scheme and re-arrangement of the menus and options. The only complain would be the huge orange “Right Now” Header that I could live without as it obscures my view every time that visit the page.

Also, the extensions can be automatically updated with the press of a button and guess what… It works! I tried it on 4 plugins and all of them were updated successfully. My only suggestion is to disable the plugin manually before clicking on the update button as it seems that it does not do that automatically!

Finally, the site feels faster but it could be that Dreamhost decided not to slow down my site as they usually do with no explanation. Sending a ticket to them corrects the issue, but that happens for the next 12 hours. After that, the site tends to slow down again but this is another story…

The next major revision of the Social Bookmarks plugin for WordPress is almost complete. Social Bookmarks 4 has a number of new features and fixes of existing problems that people have reported. The number of supported sites has increased exponentially even with the removal of a couple sites that are now history.

The changes do not affect only the behind the scene code (which has been completely re-written). Also, the front-end of the plugin (the part that your visitors see when they visit your posts and/or pages) has a new look-and-feel with new buttons and the use of AJAX. It is the first time that the front-end gets an overhaul but after 4 major revisions, I felt that a flesh look was a good idea.

Possibly the most exciting new feature is that the plugin now can be localized by downloading additional Language Packs. Social Bookmarks 4 ships with a list of English international social bookmarking sites. However, If you are running a German site then you may want to have German social sites included as well. With version 4, you can download a German Language pack which will give you the ability to have both the English international sites and the German ones on your disposal.

For those who want to create Language Packs, a Language Template Pack will be available for download which has all the files and information required to develop your pack. The separation of the Social Bookmarks core and the Language Packs will ease people that until now were re-bundling my plugin with their sites.

I am looking for volunteers who want to develop Language Packs. I could host the packs on the downloads section of the site so that there is one central place for the plugin and its language packs. If you are interested, then use the contact form in the about section of the site to contact me stating which language pack you want to develop for.

Update: The plugin is now available through the Download section of the site.

You may have noticed that for the last four days (at least), the site has been experiencing terrible downtimes. I have contacted DreamHost, my hosting company, and reported the issue every time.

However, they are unable to trace the source of the problem. Their current suggestion is to move the site to another apache instance the next time that the site goes down.

If you notice that the site is down again, please drop me an email or a comment in this post (when the site comes back on) with the time and date as this will help me and the hosting company to diagnose the issue.

Until yesterday, I was running WordPress 2.0.x as the site engine. I was thinking of upgrading to 2.1.x but I stumbled upon this post, that said that the 2.1 version won’t get any updates. Therefore, I took the plunge and upgraded to 2.2.2.

The process was quite painless. So far, I had to modify only my theme. I am not sure if widgets were added to the WP core in 2.1 or if it is a 2.2 feature (in 2.0 an additional plugin was required). I tracked down a widget for UWT, uploaded it on the /plugins/widgets/ directory, enabled it on the plugins page and then added it to the sidebar.

The widgets implementation in the WP admin screens is quite messy as one plugin may have more than one widget. These shouldn’t be included in the plugins page, but instead they should have their own page. Also, in the WP file structure, the widgets directory should be at the same level as the themes and plugins and not as a sub-directory of the latter.

The revision of the Social Bookmarks that I am planning to release (when it is ready) is working fine in 2.2.2 with no extra coding lines. I have installed it on the site so that you can have a taster of it. I am very tempted to write a widget for the plugin, but I haven’t decided if I should bundle it with the plugin or release it as an additional download.

If you spot anything that does not work or behaves in a weird way, please let me know, so I that I can investigate further.

It’s been a long time since the last update on the site. Since then, I have moved from England to Greece and dropped the keyboard for a G3A3 gun as as part of the Greek military service :-).

The military service is now almost over and therefore I am now (almost) ready to restart my projects and publish more articles on the site.

Social Bookmarks Update: There is a new version of the Social Bookmarks plug-in in the works that features a new look among other things. I have read all the emails and comments that you have sent me and I have taken on board your feedback and problems. Once the new version is out then I will start working on porting the plug-in to other systems (Drupal comes to mind ;-)). As always, I look forward to your suggestions as to which system should I develop for.

The website now features a bug tracking system that you should use to submit a bug or feature requests for any of the projects that are available on the site.