Nerdaphernalia » WordPress

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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Graceful Pull-Quotes is now “Official”
Stephen R — Tue, 03 May 2011 21:09:27 +0000
Just letting you all know that my Graceful Pull-Quotes plugin is now hosted on the official WordPress Extend repository.  That means it will automatically pop up updates in the WP admin, and hopefully more people will find it and use it.  It also makes it a bit easier for me to post updates, as I merely have to commit to the repository rather than manually creating a zip file, uploading to my site, and updating the plugin’s page with the new version info.
So… advantages all around.  Some small drawbacks as well (fiddly technical stuff).  No significant feature changes, just some minor code adjustments for the change of venue, and the plugin’s directory has been changed to reflect its new name.
If you install the new version you may have to manually deactivate and delete the old one — on my blog they both showed up as separate plugins.  This happens because of the change in the folder containing the plugin.  Just delete the old one and activate the new one.  You shouldn’t have any issues.
Enjoy!

© Stephen Rider 2011
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Add New Headers to WordPress Plugins or Themes
Stephen R — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:25:11 +0000
I’ve had a few patches committed to WordPress core in the last few versions, and have sadly neglected to do writeups about them so that others could take advantage of the new features.  I hope to remedy that in the next few posts.  First off, WordPress 2.9 has a new feature that allows you to add to the list of headers that are checked when you run either get_plugin_data() or get_theme_data().
For example:  Let’s say you want to make a plugin that works with other plugins.  For other plugins to be compatible with it, however, they need to provide some new piece of information, and you want to do this with a custom header.  So we’re going declare a new plugin header.  Let’s call it… oh…. “Demo Header”.  Here’s the code; just drop this in a plugin and activate:
function plugin_header_demo( $extra_headers ) {
	$extra_headers[] = 'Demo Header';
	return $extra_headers;
}
add_filter( 'extra_plugin_headers', 'plugin_header_demo' );
Pretty simple, eh?  What we’ve just done is added “Demo Header” to the list of headers that WordPress will check for when get_plugin_data() is run.   Now, along with Name, Version, Author, and so forth, a value for Demo Header is returned as well.
Note that this is only for cases where you want any plugin checked for this header.  This changes the get_plugin_data() function and takes effect every time that function is run, on any plugin.
Want to do it for themes?  The code is almost identical:
function theme_header_demo( $extra_headers ) {
	$extra_headers[] = 'Demo Header';
	return $extra_headers;
}
add_filter( 'extra_theme_headers', 'theme_header_demo' );
Note that this does not allow you to alter the pre-existing headers in any way.  You can’t, for example, remove the “Name” header.
Personally, I intend to use this for a third-party update check plugin, which will also be incorporated into Strider Core.  For that use, I’ll add an “Update URL” header (or similar).
Next up:  How to define your own custom get_XXX_data() function that works like the ones for plugins or themes.

© Stephen Rider 2009
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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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Virtual Multiblog helper app
Stephen R — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:16:06 +0000
Hackadelic has released a (beta) WordPress plugin designed to automate using Virtual Multiblog.  This is still in development, but the initial test I did looks promising.  Basically the plugin creates an interface in the WP admin for creating new virtual installs.
If you’re interested in playing with unfinished software, go check out the Hackadelic Multiblog Kit.  Looking forward to v1.0!

© 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
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