Îñţérñåţîöñåļîžåţîöñ

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Ever since we released Export to InDesign, the #1 requested feature has been to add support for more non-English characters.

We’ve heard the feedback, and have been hard at work on version 1.10, which is now available on WordPress.org

This version adds support for many, many more special characters, including the now famous (infamous?) string “Îñţérñåţîöñåļîžåţîöñ”

In addition, any characters that are not recognized will be rendered as a box, so when the text is placed in InDesign, it will be easy to spot any errors.

It is a big job, but we are working to add support for even more special characters in the future, so if you do encounter a problem, please contact us at plugins@dirtysuds.com and we will work to find a fix.

Introducing TinyWP

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TinyWP is a new way to install WordPress quickly.

Rather than downloading a full WordPress install to your machine, extracting the code, and uploading to a remote server, TinyWP cuts out the middle man by downloading WordPress directly from your server.

You only need to install a small (less than 500 bytes) PHP file in the same directory where you will install WordPress and then TinyWP takes over. It will download the latest version of WordPress to your server, extract all the files and start the setup process for you. TinyWP will even remove itself from your server once it’s no longer needed.

TinyWP is brand new, so download it and give it a try and report any issues you have to the issue tracker on Google Code.

VaultPress with CloudFlare

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Found out this week that VaultPress needs a little help to communicate with a WordPress site behind CloudFlare.
And I do mean a little help.

Brian at VaultPress showed my that all it takes is adding one line to your wp-config.php file to make everything work.

/**
 * For compatibility with CloudFlare
 */
  if ( !empty( $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'] ) )
    $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];

CloudFlare and VaultPress now play quite well together. We have noticed many of our pages are loading a good deal faster, and domain name resolution happens in a flash.

VaultPress

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We’ve been using VaultPress for a couple of months now and, let me tell you, it is really fantastic.

It connects directly to our server using SSL and automatically backs up any changed files, settings, posts… you name it.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to restore a site using the VaultPress backup. I was on vacation in the Florida Keys, away from my main computer, and quite nervous about how the process would go.
Fortunately, it turned out to be a breeze.
The whole restore, from a fresh WordPress install to everything being back to normal, took about an hour.

If you’re not already using an automatic backup solution for WordPress, I beg you to set something up now. Like, before you get up from where you’re sitting. Otherwise you won’t think about it until it’s too late.
And, while there are a number to choose from, VaultPress’s extreme ease of use, tight integration with WordPress, and competitive pricing make it the backup solution of choice for all Dirty Suds clients running WordPress.

Oh, and if you’re looking for a Golden Ticket for the VaultPress beta, let me know. I could probably hook you up.

New version of Better YouTube Embeds

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The response to our Better YouTube Embeds plugin has been tremendous. Lots of blogs have made their YouTube videos mobile compatible just by installing a simple plugin.

We’ve recently made some improvements to the plugin, and I wanted to take some time to address these.

Clearing Cache by Default
When the plugin is first activated, it will clear WordPress’s oembed cache for all previously published posts. This will ensure that all posts will receive the iframe embed code, not just new posts.
This is not an option you need to select, or a page you need to visit, it just works out of the box.

Using WordPress’s own Embed Functionality
With the large number of YouTube shortcode plugins out there, it seems many people don’t know about one of the coolest features of WordPress.
Since WordPress 2.9, you can embed any YouTube video just by pasting the URL into its own line in the post editor. Alternatively, you can use the WordPress shortcode

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dTrBOZ4Gi4[/embed]

This will embed the YouTube video in your post, no plugins necessary for that part.
Better YouTube Embeds hooks into this functionality and simply tells WordPress to grab the iframe code, instead of the old Flash object code. This way, WordPress still handles all of the caching, and you don’t need to change any of your code.
If you ever decide to stop using the Better YouTube Embeds plugin, all of your embeds will continue to work, you’ll just go back to the Flash embed code instead of the iframe embed code.
This makes it a much nicer choice than using special video embed shortcodes, which just stop working if the plugin disappears.

Embed YouTube iFrame

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YouTube has started using a new type of embed code for putting YouTube videos on external sites.
This new code gives YouTube much more flexibility for things like delivering H.264 video to iPhones and Android devices, delivering HTML5 video (like WebM) to browsers that support it, or using plain old Flash.

Unfortunately, WordPress is still using the old embed code. This means that, even with a mobile enabled theme or other mobile plugins, devices without Flash are not capable of viewing videos YouTube videos embedded on WordPress sites this way.

Until Now.

I have created a plugin, Embed YouTube iFrame, that changes the code that WordPress uses to embed videos, and embeds the new iFrame embed code.

The best part is, you don’t have to change anything about your posts.
There is no shortcode to learn, no HTML to fiddle with, no settings at all. You just install the plugin and, when you include the URL of a YouTube video in a post, WordPress will fetch the mobile-capable iFrame version to embed.

This plugin is already in use on several high traffic video blogs and, as with all of our plugins, we are committed to supporting and updating the plugin in the future should the need arise.

Kill Howdy

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From an actual message a client sent me.

This is sorta random, but do you think it is possible to change the greeting on WordPress so that it doesn’t say Howdy? it kinda pisses me off. Ahaha maybe something along the lines of, “Hello, Your Majesty,” or something other than “Howdy”

After I stopped laughing and picked myself up off the floor, I decided that he was right. Something had to be done about “Howdy.”

So I killed it.

I created the “Kill Howdy” plugin that will replace Howdy with one of several random greetings (including “Hello, Your Majesty,”).