Nerdaphernalia » Webcraft

How to Close a WordPress Site

Stephen R — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:10:54 +0000

I recently was asked to close down a site I had put up using WordPress. I didn’t want to just delete the whole thing, as I figured somebody might want it put back up in the future. There are several easy ways to do this, but I think I’ve found the best.

My first impulse was to add an exit; line to index.php. The problem there is that it doesn’t close off the wp-admin section. I could comment out the database password in config, but that leaves a “Could not connect to database” message. I wanted every aspect of the site gone. Then it struck me: One file that absolutely every single call to WordPress must pass through is wp-config.php.

So if you want to “disappear” a WordPress site quickly and easily, just open up wp-config.php and add the following right after the opening PHP tag:

exit;

If you want to put up some kind of “goodbye” message in HTML, you can do something like this at the top of that file:


This site is closed.


Even more briefly, of course, you could stick a short message inside a die() statement.  The HTML gives you a bit more flexibility though.
Hope somebody finds this useful.  

© Stephen Rider 2011
This article was originally published at Nerdaphernalia.  Planet WordPress is authorized to reproduce WordPress-related entries.  If you're reading this at any other web site, the site owner is stealing copyrighted work.  Please visit the original page:

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Virtual Multiblog 2.6.1
Stephen R — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:38:35 +0000
Just released Virtual Multiblog v2.6.1. The primary new feature in the 2.6 line is auto-plugins.
That is, you can specify plugins that are automatically activated for all (or just some) blogs.
Check it out! 

© Stephen Rider 2009
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Strider Core — coming soon
Stephen R — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:09:45 +0000
It’s been pretty quiet around here lately, mainly because I’ve been working on something but having trouble hammering the last few problems out of it.
As I work on the various plugins I make for WordPress, I find that there are several common bits of code appearing in all of them, and as I improved it in one place I would then have to go through and copy/paste (with modifications here and there) to the other plugins.  This is a pain to keep track of, so I figured it would be a good idea to create a set of “core” files that I could simply drop in and have work.  I found this had various implications, such as what happens when two plugins are using the same core set — duplicate function names and conflicts suddenly started popping up.  How about when two plugins have differing versions of the core files?
So Strider Core was born.  Among other things, I’ve created a system wherein different plugins can all run on Strider Core, and if they each have different versions of the core files, it will figure out which one has the highest version and use that for all of those plugins.  Thus if Plugin A includes Strider Core 1.0, and Plugin B has Strider Core 1.1, the 1.1 core will be loaded for both plugins.  Thus, activating one plugin can actually improve the functionality of other plugins.
Most of what I’m including in the first go are little bits of polish for the Admin — such as settings links from the Manage Plugins page, Menu icons, and the like.  One significant addition, however, (and the thing I can’t quite get working right…) is a third party version checking system.  Thus, anyone who makes plugins that are not hosted on WP-Extend will be able to have their plugin check for new versions simply by integrating Strider Core and adding a single line to the code.
That’s the plan anyway.
I’m going to try and get things going this weekend (with some luck), but even if I don’t get the version checking going, I will probably do a “beta” release so people can see what’s happening.  I know some people have expressed interest in this system, so perhaps better to get it out sooner and get feedback before the “prime time” release.
If you’re interested, keep a lookout for an update to my Log Deprecated Calls plugin, as that is going to be the first plugin to use the new system.

© Stephen Rider 2009
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Comment Quiz plugin v1.1.1
Stephen R — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:40:16 +0000
A new version of the Comment Quiz plugin is up.  1.1.1 has some important bug fixes, so if you’re using any earlier version, I highly recommend picking this up.
I finally figured out SVN, so it’s on the official WordPress repository.  In layman’s terms that means that automatic update will do the job for you (look at the Plugins page in Admin).
Here’s the link.  Check it out for details.  Mainly bugfixes since 1.1, but a few other changes in the mix as well….

© Stephen Rider 2008
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Virtual Multiblog 2.5
Stephen R — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:52:53 +0000
I’ve just released Virtual Multiblog for WordPress version 2.5.  This has some significant bug fixes and other improvements.  If you’ve had trouble getting it to work in the past, I’ve reworked the code that determines which blog is active, and I think this will help a lot of people.
A major improvement in this version is the way it handles defaults.  Now you can set up defaults in the autoconfig file, and put just the differences into blog-specific config files.  For example, if all your blogs use the same database, you can set the database info one time in mb-autoconfig.php, and then make blog-specific config files that only contain the table-prefix and nothing else.
If you are upgrading, from a previous version, please note the following instructions:
Upgrading
1) Upload the new multiblog folder to your wp-content directory.  Copy wp-config.php and wp-config-vmb.php to the root WordPress directory.  [Update: New versions of VMB no longer use the wp-config-vmb.php file.  If you have it you can get rid of it; if you *don't* have it, don't worry about it.   ]
2) The system no longer uses define() in the config files.  Instead we are setting constants via an array called $vmb_const[].  For backwards compatibility, defines in blog-specific config files will still work for now (though it is deprecated).  Any constants set in the autoconfig must use $vmb_const[].
3) Note that both mb-autoconfig.php and mb-config-{blog}.php will now be loaded (previously it was either/or).  Anything set in autoconfig will be overridden by a matching pref in a blog-specific file.
That’s about it.  Check out the readme and the FAQ if you’re having issues.  Here’s the page again:  Virtual Multiblog for WordPress.

© Stephen Rider 2008
This article was originally published at Nerdaphernalia.  Planet WordPress is authorized to reproduce WordPress-related entries.  If you're reading this at any other web site, the site owner is stealing copyrighted work.  Please visit the original page:

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Virtual Multibug
Stephen R — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:11:46 +0000
I received a comment recently tipping me off to a bug in my Virtual Multiblog system for WordPress.  In certain cases, the system will show one particular blog no matter which address you go to.
If you’re having this problem and you’re using the $vusers[] list, try changing the order of the $vusers[] list.  This alone may fix things.
I’ll try to get a “real” fix out soon (probably this weekend).  A new version should be coming out anyway within days.  

© Stephen Rider 2008
This article was originally published at Nerdaphernalia.  Planet WordPress is authorized to reproduce WordPress-related entries.  If you're reading this at any other web site, the site owner is stealing copyrighted work.  Please visit the original page:

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JavaScript Pull-Quotes 2.2 for WordPress
Stephen R — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:01:54 +0000
I just uploaded the new version 2.2 of my JavaScript Pull-Quotes plugin for WordPress.
Improvements:

German translation (Danke Mattias… or is it “Dank“?)
Updated the .po files for people creating or updating translations
Improvements to how the system handles changes to the contents of the “styles” folder.
A menu icon for those using Ozh’s Admin Drop Down Menu plugin

…plus the usual regimen of minor code improvements here and there.

© Stephen Rider 2008
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Hit a Moving Target in your WordPress Plugin
Stephen R — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:54:09 +0000
In recent changes to WordPress code, users are more than ever able to customize folder and file locations.  [Edit: Refers to WordPress 2.6]  The wp-config.php file can now be located one directory up from the one containing WordPress.  The wp-content folder can be moved arbitrarily, as can (separately) the plugins folder.  What’s a poor plugin author to do in keeping track of these ever-moving targets?
When those last two folders are moved, it is done by defining specific constants: WP_CONTENT_DIR and WP_CONTENT_URL for the wp-content folder, and WP_PLUGIN_DIR and WP_PLUGIN_URL for the plugins folder.  In plugins it’s best to use these, except that they are not defined in a default setup, and don’t exist in earlier versions of WordPress.
The solution, fortunately, is simple:  Check if they are already defined.  If they’re not, then the folders are in the default locations and you can define them accordingly.  Then just use the constants as normal.  Here’s the code; just drop this somewhere in the beginning of your plugin:
if ( ! defined( 'WP_CONTENT_URL' ) )
	define( 'WP_CONTENT_URL', get_option( 'siteurl' ) . '/wp-content' );
if ( ! defined( 'WP_CONTENT_DIR' ) )
	define( 'WP_CONTENT_DIR', ABSPATH . 'wp-content' );
if ( ! defined( 'WP_PLUGIN_URL' ) )
	define( 'WP_PLUGIN_URL', WP_CONTENT_URL. '/plugins' );
if ( ! defined( 'WP_PLUGIN_DIR' ) )
	define( 'WP_PLUGIN_DIR', WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/plugins' );
There are a couple things to note:

By defining these, you might actually fix problems in other plugins — ones that assume these are defined and call them without checking.
I recommend not using the older PLUGINDIR constant at all.  It is both obsolete and problematic.  Use WP_PLUGIN_DIR instead.
You might be tempted to set WP_PLUGIN_DIR as something like dirname(dirname(__FILE__)).  Don’t.  First, it’s inefficient, as it unnecessarily calls dirname() twice.  Second, I’ve seen (albeit unusual) situations where it caused problems^*.

So.  Not so complicated after all — it’s just one of those rote things that’s helpful to know.  Use those four constants and you shouldn’t go wrong finding the right paths in WordPress.
*: Specifically, a plugin was being shared between two WP installs with a symlink.  Running in the second blog the plugin was calling the directory of the first blog.

© Stephen Rider 2008
This article was originally published at Nerdaphernalia.  Planet WordPress is authorized to reproduce WordPress-related entries.  If you're reading this at any other web site, the site owner is stealing copyrighted work.  Please visit the original page:

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