Mark external links with CSS3

Who doesn’t know the problem with external links. You don’t want to expect target=”_blank” to your users so you let open links in the same window. To enable users to see that a link is external, you want to mark them. So a user can than decide to open it eventually in a new window/tab themselves.

I have seen multiple solutions for this problem. Some have been executed server-side, some of them used heavy JavaScript function client-side. Most of the time, the scripts searched for all links within a page to change them afterwards.

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Kau-Boy’s Backend Localization Plugin

This plugin enables you to run your blog in a different language than the backend of your blog. So you can serve your blog using e.g. German as the default language for the users, but keep English as the language for the administration.

Installation:

Installation trough WordPress admin pages:

  1. Go to the admin page Plugins -> Add New
  2. Search for kau-boy and choose the plugin
  3. Choose the action install
  4. Click on Install now
  5. Activate the plugin after install has finished (with the link or trough the plugin page)
  6. You might have to edit the settings, especially the language you want to use

Installation using WordPress admin pages:

  1. Download the plugin zip file: kau-boys-backend-localization.1.6.zip
  2. Go to the admin page Plugins -> Add New
  3. Choose the Upload link under the Install Plugins headline
  4. Browse for the zip file and click Install Now
  5. Activate the plugin after install has finished (with the link or trough the plugin page)
  6. You might have to edit the settings, especially the language you want to use

Installation using ftp:

  1. Download the plugin zip file: kau-boys-backend-localization.2.0.3.zip
  2. Unzip und upload the files to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  3. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress
  4. You might have to edit the settings, especially the language you want to use

Screenshots:

Screenshot of the settings page

Screenshot of the settings page

Screenshot of language switcher in admin menu (similar to qTranslate switcher)

Screenshot of language switcher

Screenshot of language selection on login form

Screenshot of language selection on login form

Change Log:

  • 1.6 Add WP3 CSS class for the language select on the login form
  • 1.5 Fixing the plugin for WordPress 3.0 MULTISITE feature
  • 1.4 Fixing the plugin for WordPress MU and fixing the login form selection
  • 1.3 Make the plugin working with PHP4. Thanks to David for the fix!
  • 1.2.1 Replace the do_action() function with the add_action() function for admin_menu to avoid issues with other plugins
  • 1.2 Adding support for new languages
  • 1.1 Removing “short open tags” which causes error on blog that don’t have “short_open_tag” set to “On”
  • 1.0 Adding language switcher to admin menu and option to hide language selection on login form
  • 0.6 Saving language setting in cookie to enable different languages for multiple users
  • 0.5 Adding language selection to login screen
  • 0.4 Display all languages that are installed in the WordPress language folder
  • 0.3 Activate new language after saving settings (no more need to refresh)
  • 0.2 Adding German translation for settings page
  • 0.1 First stable release

If you like the plugin or if something is missing I would like to here it. Just leave a comment on this page or on my WordPress plugin page.

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The magical select() function!

In my previous post about the Line-Duplicater I had to find specific tags within a DOM element. As I found nothing in the Utility Methods I had to use the getElementsByTagName() function. But only with this function I couldn’t solve the problem. I also had to use the $A() function to get an array of the elements. The result for all there form input types looked like that:

$A(newRow.getElementsByTagName('select')).invoke('clear');
$A(newRow.getElementsByTagName('textarea')).invoke('clear');
$A(newRow.getElementsByTagName('input')).each(function(elm){
	elm.clear().checked = '';
});

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Simple Line-Duplicater with Prototype

Many programmers might have the problem with form where multiple input lines should be possible for one field. Most of the time this is solved by using multiple text inputs which are arranged in a table. To give the visitor the ability to add another line, most of the forms are “submitted” but without runnig the saving algorithm. Afterwards the form is reloaded with an additional line.

But thankfully we are much further today. A solution with JavaScript was even possible in the past, but with the use of modern JavaScript frameworks like Prototype the whole problem can be solved with a single line of code:

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Form preview with jQuery Thickbox

English Translation will be following by tomorrow!

For one of my projects I had to implement a small form preview. As I am very satisfied with the result and the simplicity, I want to share the result with you.

The preview functions uses the jQuery framework and it’s plugin Thickbox. The use of Thickbox is only one alternative to implement a preview. Basically the building is quite simple.The JavaScript function sets the target and the action attribute of the form and sends the data to the defined target. The target can be a new tab or as in this exmple a iFrame which will be displayed in the Thickbox.

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Service-desert Germany???

Who does always say that there is no good support in Germany? If it’s than also free, most people don’t beliefe in good quality. I have to confess that I know this kind of support quite well. Most of the time you can’t even find a phone number on their websites and if you write an e-mail through a contact form, you’ll get a automatic answers with the FAQ to a keyword in your text.

But today i found a creditably exception. First I had to write a mail to the support and get an automatic response back. But the first diffrence was the response time of about 3 hours. And the second one was that the support staff called me, as he tought that he can’t explain the solution on a mail. In the following one hour telephone conversation he solved all my problems (and some additional problems as well). He was very professional and notices how much technical jargon I can handle and what he has to explain more detailed. That wasn’t my first positive support experience but one that really surprised my gladly.

To not make surreptitious advertising I just a small note to the supplier. It’s a antivirus company who’s product names are similar to a group in a real-time strategy game series.

CakeFest 2009 in Berlin

cakefest 2009 in BerlinI attended! How is was and what it was about you can find on the official CakeFest Website. I also recommend the twitter messages.

On my search for new inspiration in PHP programming I found the book Webentwicklung mit CakePHP (Webdevelopment with CakePHP). The content describes quite good the subject of my bachelor thesis. I have sticked to the principals of Ruby-on-Rails in my work on the thesis. If this book has been released six month earlier I would have saved a lot of time and problems.

I was convinced of the principals of CakePHP. On a visit on the Website von CakePHP I found some information about the CakeFest. And if you have the chance to attend on such an event in Berlin you have to take the chance.

For everyone who ever wished to be able to code as easy as you can do in Ruby-on-Rails, but having to stick to PHP, CakePHP is by far the best framework. It picks up the greates ideas of Ruby-on-Rails and extends it with many additional bright ideas.

Kau-Boy’s AutoCompleter Plugin

This plugin uses the script.aculo.us Ajax.Autocompleter to find posts having the search term contained in the title or content.

Installation:

Installation trough WordPress admin pages:

  1. Go to the admin page Plugins -> Add New
  2. Search for kau-boy and choose the plugin
  3. Choose the action install
  4. Click on Install now
  5. Activate the plugin after install has finished (with the link or trough the plugin page)
  6. You might have to edit the settings, especially if your search field has an ID other than s

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My first blog

I finally decided to set up my first blog. I decided to do that after I had to work with WordPress for my employer. I was searching for a nice auto complete plugin like the one used at Google Suggest. But I haven’t found a good one. So I determined to write my own little plugin for this feature.

After having coded a good first version I wanted to share it with the community. So I first build a small website to present the plugin. I also tried to translate the page using the gettext functionality of php which I finally solved successfully after many hard tries.

But then I decided to present the plugin where it’s supposed to be presented, in a blog. User can than also easiliy test it, being always up to date and see the changes.

I don’t know what the future post will be about. But it will mostly have to do with webdevelopment. I hope you enjoy reading the blog and you’ll get some new ideas. I would like to hear your comments and what you you would like to have as future features.