First though, what is FeedBurner? FeedBurner is a feed analysis tool, which was acquired back in 2007 by Google. The way it works is by redirecting your existing /feed/ to their URL, which can analyze who is consuming your feed. Let’s dive into how to do it.

Step 1 – Login to FeedBurner.com

Login to FeedBurner.com (note: you will need a Google account to do this)

Step 2 – Burn Your Feed

Find the input box with the label “Burn your feed right this instant.” Enter your domain and add /feed/ to the end of it. For example, http://wpvibe.com/feed/ — this would be our URL. Yours will be different.

Step 3 – Set Title and Address

You need to set the title and address for your feed. For ours, we used WordPress Vibe as the title, and WPVibe as the address.

Step 4 – Other Settings

I recommend selecting “Clickthroughs” and “I want more!” so you get full analysis of your feeds.

Step 5 – Install the FeedBurner Plugin

Let’s head back to your wp-admin dashboard now. You need to go to Plugins » Add New. Search for “FD Feedburner plugin” and install it and activate, as such below.

Step 6 – WordPress Settings

The last step is to input the correct settings for WordPress.

Go to Plugins » Feedburner Configuration

You will need to enter your FeedBurner URL. Ours looks like this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/wpvibe (note: you can go to feedburner.com, then select your feed, then go to “Edit Feed Details” to view the exact URL you need)

Step 7 – Sit back and relax

That’s it! Your feed should now be redirecting and FeedBurner will analyze who’s consuming your feed. You can go back and check another day to see how many subscribers you have and where they are consuming your feed from.

There’s an XML file that helps you do that.

http://svn.automattic.com/wpcom-themes/demo/test-data.2011-01-17.xml

What does this data do for me?

This data will provide you all the un-ordered lists, the blockquotes, the ordered lists, the small fonts, the bigger fonts, your h1, h2, h3, h4, images, and everything in between that.

It will help you thoroughly test out your theme so it’s ready and compatible for production, or to be distributed if you’re planning on selling it or giving it away for free.

How do I use this data?

First, go to Tools » Import, then WordPress. You will likely have to install the plugin to import content, so do that.

Next, go back to Tools » Import, then WordPress, then you will be able to select a file. Find where you saved that file to, and select it.

You will now have a WordPress installation with dummy data which you can easily test against. This will save you a lot of time instead of trying to create all the data yourself.

Other Resources

• WordPress Codex, Theme Unit Test – http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Unit_Test
• WordPress Automated Testing – http://unit-tests.trac.wordpress.org/browser
• WordPress Tests – http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress-tests/

Easy to do.

Install the WordPress.com Stats plugin, and the rest is magic.

You’ll instantly be given the option to insert the wp.me shortlink into your posts. You will also be be able to use the “get shortlink” button on the post screen, so it’s easy to access.

You should note though, that if you have any other URL shortening services plugins enabled, they may conflict with each other.

We use the “Twitter Friendly Links” plugin here on WPVibe, so you should be careful about what you have enabled.

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has a plugin called WordPress Stats. This plugin is simple and lets your track your visitors.

It’s simple to install, does the job, and doesn’t add too much overhead when loading the page.

Let’s dive in.

First, go to Add New under Plugins, and search for “stats” (no quotes). The first result you should see is WordPress.com Stats. This is the plugin you want.

Install it and activate it.

Next, you will need to input your WordPress.com API Key. This is the same as your Akismet API Key.

You will then be prompted with some options. Since you already have a WordPress.com account, you should link it to your account so stats can be tracked.

Done!

This will also offer you the ability to shorten your post URLs using the wp.me shortening service, provided by WordPress.com.

Add this code to your functions.php file is you want to remove the admin bar from WordPress:

[sourcecode]/* Disable the Admin Bar. */
add_filter( ‘show_admin_bar’, ‘__return_false’ );

/* Remove the Admin Bar preference in user profile */
remove_action( ‘personal_options’, ‘_admin_bar_preferences’ );[/sourcecode]

Want to disable it for specific requests? Done. Use this code:

[sourcecode]if ( isset($_GET['bar']) && ‘no’ == $_GET['bar'] )
add_filter( ‘show_admin_bar’, ‘__return_false’ );[/sourcecode]

I’m not a fan of it yet, but it might grow on me once we upgrade to WordPress 3.1. I’m still just using WordPress 3.0 on all my sites and 3.1 only on my development sites.

Keep it or leave it? What do you think?

Update: With the release of WordPress 3.1 yesterday, there is also a way to remove it for just you. Go to Users > Profile and then uncheck these two check boxes, as shown below.

It’s a simple quick and dirty function to update the WordPress logo/image on the wp-login.php page, to your own.

[sourcecode]function wpvibe_login_logo() {
echo ‘<style>.login {
background-image: url(/your_top_header_background_gradient_here.png);
background-repeat:repeat-x; }
#login h1 a {
background: url(/your_custom_logo_goes_here.png) top no-repeat;
width:500px;
margin-left:-90px;
margin-top:-73px;
}</style>’;
}
add_action(‘login_head’,'wpvibe_login_logo’);[/sourcecode]

The above is just an example of what you could use if you say, wanted to make it wider than it already was, or wanted to move the logo up and to the left. You can customize this to your exact needs, this is just to get you the idea.

There are plenty of IDs and classes available you can hook into, to design your own custom login screen — and you don’t need a plugin for it either.

You can create some really cool login pages, here are some examples.

First, here’s how you exclude a category from your RSS feed.

[sourcecode]add_action(‘pre_get_posts’,'wpv_remove_cat’);
function wpv_remove_cat() {
if ( $query->is_feed ) // if you’re accessing the RSS feed
$query->set(‘cat’,'-5′); // the ID should be whatever category you want to exclude
}[/sourcecode]

Here’s a slight variation if you want to exclude a category based on the category name, rather than just the ID.

[sourcecode]add_action(‘pre_get_posts’,'wpv_remove_cat’);
function wpv_remove_cat() {
$wpvMyCat = get_term_by(‘name’, ‘My Vibe Category’, ‘category’)->term_id;
if ( $query->is_feed ) // if you’re accessing the RSS feed
$query->set(‘cat’,'-’.$wpvMyCat); // the ID should the category you want to exclude
}[/sourcecode]

If you have an environment where the category IDs may differ or for whatever reason they’re changing often, this is a great way to be consistent across the platforms.

Most people don’t even think about how to spell WordPress, at least most of my non-techie friends don’t even think about it. They’ll spell it Wordpress or wordpress usually, but in fact, it’s actually WordPress.

This small function will actually change how you spell WordPress so it uses a capital P in Press.

I’m not a huge fan of people telling me what to do when I’m writing, so for WordPress to automatically change how I spell WordPress isn’t always a great thought – despite knowing that I always spell it like WordPress anyway.

Is it a branding overkill?

[tweeted]http://twitter.com/pingdom/statuses/23404539314966528[/tweeted]

That’s up to you to decide.

Do you want to stop WordPress from capitalizing your P’s for you? Here’s how. Add this code to your functions.php file:

[sourcecode]remove_filter( ‘the_content’, ‘capital_P_dangit’ );
remove_filter( ‘the_title’, ‘capital_P_dangit’ );
remove_filter( ‘comment_text’, ‘capital_P_dangit’ );
[/sourcecode]

There’s an easy solution to utilize this on your site:

Generate your own code here, which will look something like this:

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fdevelopers.facebook.com%2F&layout=standard&show-faces=true&width=450&action=recommend&font=verdana&colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:25px"></iframe>

The portion where it has href= and then shows the URL, that part is where you need to edit particular to WordPress.

To achieve this for WordPress, do this for the href=:

<?php echo urlencode(get_permalink()); ?>

So it will look something like this…

.../like.php?href=<?php echo urlencode(get_permalink()); ?>&amp...

This will ensure that your link is URL encoded properly and you can share that page with your visitors.

Any questions, please leave them in the comments.

Enjoy!

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=&layout=standard&show-faces=true&width=450&action=recommend&font=verdana&colorscheme=light” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowTransparency=”true” style=”border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:25px”>

First, you need to decide what resolution you want your thumbnails to be. For this tutorial, we will be using what we use here on WP Vibe, which is 150px by 150px.

Step 1: Create Your Custom Thumbnail Image

What we do here is we build a separate image that is 150×150 and upload to the specific post. Then we grab the link URL of the thumbnail image you just uploaded and copy it.

Then close out of that box and head back to the post. We have a custom field called “thumb” which we use, but you can use whatever value you want.

Paste that link into the custom field as the value, such as below:

Next, the actual code to make the magic work.

Step 2: Integrate the Code

First, we check to see if the user has input anything into the “thumb” custom field for the post, which would be pointing to the thumbnail image.

[sourcecode lang="php"]<?php
$thumb = get_post_meta($post->ID, "thumb", true);
if ($thumb != "") { ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" rel="nofollow">
<img src="<?php $values = get_post_custom_values("thumb"); echo $values[0]; ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="alignleft" /></a>
<?php
the_excerpt();
?>[/sourcecode]

Second, if the “thumb” field is empty, we run a loop to go through a specified folder of images for our categories.

[sourcecode lang="php"]<?php
$newthumb = "news.png";
$category = get_the_category();
$catid = $category[0]->category_nicename;
$okCats = array( ‘news’, ‘interviews’, ‘resources’, ‘reviews’ ); //Maybe even filter this so it can be extended
if ( in_array($catid, $okCats) ) {
$newthumb = strtolower($catid) . ‘.png’;
}
?>[/sourcecode]

The first bit of code, $newthumb = “news.png”; is to set a default thumbnail, in case you have a category that doesn’t have a specific thumbnail. Next, we grab the current category for the post. Next, we naturalize the name so it’s all lowercase and easy for the server to process.

Next, we build the array of categories that we have. For us, we have “news”, “interviews”, “resources”, etc etc.

We have images made for each category so that it knows what to display for that category.

If an image doesn’t exist for one of the categories, it will go bac and use the default news.png which we previously specified. Now, to actually use the thumbnail link which was just built.

Step 3: Building the Thumbnail Link

Here is the PHP code which actually displays the image now for each category.

[sourcecode lang="php"] <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" rel="nofollow">
<img src="<?php echo get_stylesheet_directory_uri(); ?>/images/thumbs/<?php echo $newthumb; ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="alignleft" /></a>[/sourcecode]

All the Code Together
Here is what everything looks like together.

[sourcecode lang="php"]<?php
$thumb = get_post_meta($post->ID, "thumb", true);

if ($thumb != "") { ?>

<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" rel="nofollow">
<img src="<?php $values = get_post_custom_values("thumb"); echo $values[0]; ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="alignleft" /></a>
<?php
the_excerpt();
} else {
$newthumb = "news.png";
$category = get_the_category();
$catid = $category[0]->category_nicename;
$okCats = array( ‘news’, ‘interviews’, ‘resources’, ‘reviews’ ); //Maybe even filter this so it can be extended
if ( in_array($catid, $okCats) ) {
$newthumb = strtolower($catid) . ‘.png’;
}

?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" rel="nofollow">
<img src="<?php echo get_stylesheet_directory_uri(); ?>/images/thumbs/<?php echo $newthumb; ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="alignleft" /></a>
<?php the_excerpt(); } ?>[/sourcecode]

In the end, you have a way of ensuring you always have a thumbnail appropriate to the post category, and the option to customize per post

Any comments or suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.