Best blog system – WordPress, using php and mysql
WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.
Everything you see here, from the documentation to the code itself, was created by and for the community. WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it. (More than most commercial platforms.) It also means you are free to use it for anything from your cat’s home page to a Fortune 500 web site without paying anyone a license fee and a number of other important freedoms.
About WordPress.org
On this site you can download and install a software script called WordPress. To do this you need a web host who meets the minimum requirements and a little time. WordPress is completely customizable and can be used for almost anything. There is also a service called WordPress.com which lets you get started with a new and free WordPress-based blog in seconds, but varies in several ways and is less flexible than the WordPress you download and install yourself.
A Little History
WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-architectured personal publishing system built on PHP and MySQL and licensed under the GPL. It is the official successor of b2/cafelog. WordPress is fresh software, but its roots and development go back to 2001. It is a mature and stable product. We hope by focusing on user experience and web standards we can create a tool different from anything else out there.
2005 was a very exciting year for WordPress, as it saw the release of our 1.5 version (introduced themes) which was downloaded over 900,000 times, the start of hosted service WordPress.com to expand WP's reach, the founding of Automattic by several core members of the WP team, and finally the release of version 2.0.
After 1.5 we seemed to have something people really liked and we've experienced some fairly rapid growth. Here are some metrics for 2006 and 2007.
In 2006 we had 1,545,703 downloads, in 2007 we had 3,816,965!
As for plugins we had 191,567 downloads of 371 unique plugins in 2006. In 2007 there were 2,845,884 downloads (15x growth) of 1,384 plugins.
2006 saw the introduction of the first WordCamp in San Francisco.
In 2007 we adopted a regular release schedule, putting out major feature releases roughly every 3-4 months, or three times a year.
Because of the number of improvements in version 2.5 we took an extra 3 months on it, but 2008 looks on track to do three major releases again. It will be a very exciting year.
There are now dozens of WordCamps around the world, from Vancouver to Dallas to Milan, Italy.
To run WordPress your host just needs a couple of things:
* PHP version 4.3 or greater
* MySQL version 4.0 or greater
That's really it. We recommend Apache or Litespeed as the most robust and featureful server for running WordPress, but any server that supports PHP and MySQL will do. That said, we can’t test every possible environment and each of the hosts on our hosting page supports the above and more with no problems.
Key Features
* Full standards compliance — We have gone to great lengths to make sure every bit of WordPress generated code is in full compliance with the standards of the W3C. This is important not only for interoperability with today's browser but also for forward compatibility with the tools of the next generation. Your web site is a beautiful thing, and you should demand nothing less.
* No rebuilding — Changes you make to your templates or entries are reflected immediately on your site, with no need for regenerating static pages.
* WordPress Pages — Pages allow you to manage non-blog content easily, so for example you could have a static "About" page that you manage through WordPress. For an idea of how powerful this is, the entire WordPress.org site could be run off WordPress alone. (We don't for technical mirroring reasons.)
* WordPress Links -- Links allows you to create, maintain, and update any number of blogrolls through your administration interface. This is much faster than calling an external blogroll manager.
* WordPress Themes — WordPress comes with a full theme system which makes designing everything from the simplest blog to the most complicated webzine a piece of cake, and you can even have multiple themes with totally different looks that you switch with a single click. Have a new design every day.
* Cross-blog communication tools— WordPress fully supports both the Trackback and Pingback standards, and we are committed to supporting future standards as they develop.
* Comments — Visitors to your site can leave comments on individual entries, and through Trackback or Pingback can comment on their own site. You can enable or disable comments on a per-post basis.
* Spam protection — Out of the box WordPress comes with very robust tools such as an integrated blacklist and open proxy checker to manage and eliminate comment spam on your blog, and there is also a rich array of plugins that can take this functionality a step further.
* Full user registration — WordPress has a built-in user registration system that (if you choose) can allow people to register and maintain profiles and leave authenticated comments on your blog. You can optionally close comments for non-registered users. There are also plugins that hide posts from lower level users.
* Password Protected Posts — You can give passwords to individual posts to hide them from the public. You can also have private posts which are viewable only by their author.
* Easy installation and upgrades — Installing WordPress and upgrading from previous versions and other software is a piece of cake. Try it and you'll wonder why all web software isn't this easy.
* Easy Importing — We currently have importers for Movable Type, Textpattern, Greymatter, Blogger, and b2. Work on importers for Nucleus and pMachine are under way.
* XML-RPC interface — WordPress currently supports an extended version of the Blogger API, MetaWeblog API, and finally the MovableType API. You can even use clients designed for other platforms like Zempt.
* Workflow — You can have types of users that can only post drafts, not publish to the front page.
* Typographical niceties — WordPress uses the Texturize engine to intelligently convert plain ASCII into typographically correct XHTML entities. This includes quotes, apostrophes, ellipses, em and en dashes, multiplication symbols, and ampersands. For information about the proper use of such entities see Peter Sheerin's article The Trouble With Em ’n En.
* Intelligent text formatting — If you've dealt with systems that convert new lines to line breaks before you know why they have a bad name: if you have any sort of HTML they butcher it by putting tags after every new line indiscriminately, breaking your formatting and validation. Our function for this intelligently avoids places where you already have breaks and block-level HTML tags, so you can leave it on without worrying about it breaking your code.
* Multiple authors — WordPress' highly advanced user system allows up to 10 levels of users, with different levels having different (and configurable) privileges with regard to publishing, editing, options, and other users.
* Bookmarklets — Cross-browser bookmarklets make it easy to publish to your blog or add links to your blogroll with a minimum of effort.
* Ping away — WordPress supports pinging Ping-O-Matic, which means maximum exposure for your blog to search engines.
CSS Improvements in Visual Studio 2010
One of the major areas of work in ASP.NET 4 Beta 2 has been around rendering HTML that is compliant with the latest HTML standards. This includes changes to how ASP.NET Web server controls use CSS styles.
Compatibility Setting for Rendering
By default, when a Web application or Web site targets the .NET Framework 4, the controlRenderingCompatibilityVersion attribute of the pages element is set to “4.0”. This element is defined in the machine-level Web.config file and by default applies to all ASP.NET 4 applications:
<system.web>
<pages controlRenderingCompatibilityVersion="3.5|4.0"/>
</system.web>
The value for controlRenderingCompatibility is a string, which allows potential new version definitions in future releases. In the current release, the following values are supported for this property:
· “3.5”. This setting indicates legacy rendering and markup. Markup rendered by controls is 100% backward compatible, and the setting of the xhtmlConformance property is honored.
· “4.0”. If the property has this setting, ASP.NET Web server controls do the following:
· The xhtmlConformance property is always treated as “Strict”. As a result, controls render XHTML 1.0 Strict markup.
· Disabling non-input controls no longer renders invalid styles.
· div elements around hidden fields are now styled so they do not interfere with user-created CSS rules.
· Menu controls render markup that is semantically correct and compliant with accessibility guidelines.
· Validation controls do not render inline styles.
· Controls that previously rendered border="0" (controls that derive from the ASP.NET Table control, and the ASP.NET Image control) no longer render this attribute.
Disabling Controls
In ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 and earlier versions, the framework renders the disabled attribute in the HTML markup for any control whose Enabled property set to false. However, according to the HTML 4.01 specification, only input elements should have this attribute.
In ASP.NET 4, you can set the controlRenderingCompatabilityVersion property to “3.5”, as in the following example:
<system.web>
<pages controlRenderingCompatibilityVersion="3.5"/>
</system.web>
You might create markup for a Label control like the following, which disables the control:
<asp:Label id="Label" runat="server" Text="Test" Enabled="false">
The Label control would render the following HTML:
<span id="Label1" disabled="disabled">Test</span>
In ASP.NET 4 Beta 2, you can set the controlRenderingCompatabilityVersion to “4.0”. In that case, only controls that render input elements will render a disabled attribute when the control’s Enabled property is set to false. Controls that do not render HTML input elements instead render a class attribute that references a CSS class that you can use to define a disabled look for the control. For example, the Label control shown in the earlier example would generate the following markup:
<span id="Label1" class="aspNetDisabled">Test</span>
The default value for the class that specified for this control is “aspNetDisabled”. However, you can change this default value by setting the static DisabledCssClass static property of the WebControl class. For control developers, the behavior to use for a specific control can also be defined using the SupportsDisabledAttribute property.
Posted in: software General | Tags: rendering vsts vs 2010 visual studio css improvement compatibility disabling xhtmlProject Template Changes in Visual Studio 2010
In earlier versions of ASP.NET, when you use Visual Studio to create a new Web Site project or Web Application project, the resulting projects contain only a Default.aspx page, a default Web.config file, and the App_Data folder, as shown in the following figure:
Visual Studio also supports an Empty Web Site project type, which contains no files at all, as shown in the following figure:
The result is that for the beginner, there is very little guidance on how to build a production Web application. Therefore, ASP.NET 4 Beta 2 introduces three new templates, one for an empty Web application project, and one each for a Web Application and Web Site project.
Empty Web Application Template
As the name suggests, the Empty Web Application template is a stripped-down Web Application project. You select this project template from the Visual Studio New Project dialog box, as shown in the following figure:
When you create an Empty ASP.NET Web Application, Visual Studio creates the following folder layout:
This is similar to the Empty Web Site layout from earlier versions of ASP.NET, with one exception. In Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2, Empty Web Application and Empty Web Site projects contain the following minimal Web.config file that contains information used by Visual Studio to identify the framework that the project is targeting:
Without this targetFramework property, Visual Studio defaults to targeting the .NET Framework 2.0 in order to preserve compatibility when opening older applications.
Web Application and Web Site Project Templates
The other two new project templates that are shipped with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 contain major changes. The following figure shows the project layout that is created when you create a new Web Application project. (The layout for a Web Site project is virtually identical.)
The project includes a number of files that were not created in earlier versions. In addition, the new Web Application project is configured with basic membership functionality, which lets you quickly get started in securing access to the new application. Because of this inclusion, the Web.config file for the new project includes entries that are used to configure membership, roles, and profiles. The following example shows the Web.config file for a new Web Application project. (In this case, roleManager is disabled.)
The project also contains a second Web.config file in the Account directory. The second configuration file provides a way to secure access to the ChangePassword.aspx page for non-logged in users. The following example shows the contents of the second Web.config file.
The pages created by default in the new project templates also contain more content than in previous versions. The project contains a default master page and CSS file, and the default page (Default.aspx) is configured to use the master page by default. The result is that when you run the Web application or Web site for the first time, the default (home) page is already functional. In fact, it is similar to the default page you see when you start up a new MVC application.
The intention of these changes to the project templates is to provide guidance on how to start building a new Web application. With semantically correct, strict XHTML 1.0-compliant markup and with layout that is specified using CSS, the pages in the templates represent best practices for building ASP.NET 4 Web applications. The default pages also have a two-column layout that you can easily customize.
For example, imagine that for a new Web Application you want to change some of the colors and insert your company logo in place of the My ASP.NET Application logo. To do this, you create a new directory under Content to store your logo image:
To add the image to the page, you then open the Site.Master file, find where the My ASP.NET Application text is defined, and replace it with an image element whose src attribute is set to the new logo image, as in the following example:
You can then go into the Site.css file and modify CSS class definitions to change the background color of the page as well as that of the header, as in the following example:
The result of these changes is that you can display a customized home page with very little effort:
Posted in: General | Tags: web application vsts vs 2010 web site project templates web application template web site template rolemanagerASP.NET MVC improvement in Visual studio 2010
ASP.NET MVC was introduced as an add-on framework to ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 in March 2009. Visual Studio 2010 will include a preview of ASP.NET MVC 2. When Visual Studio 2010 ships, it will include the RTM version of ASP.NET MVC 2. The version of ASP.NET MVC 2 that is included in ASP.NET 4 Beta 2 includes new features and capabilities.
Areas Support
Areas let you group controllers and views into sections of a large application in relative isolation from other sections. Each area can be implemented as a separate ASP.NET MVC project that can then be referenced by the main application. This helps manage complexity when you build a large application and makes it easier for multiple teams to work together on a single application.
Data-Annotation Attribute Validation Support
DataAnnotations attributes let you attach validation logic to a model by using metadata attributes. DataAnnotations attributes were introduced in ASP.NET Dynamic Data in ASP.NET 3.5 SP1. These attributes have been integrated into the default model binder and provide a metadata-driven means to validate user input.
Templated Helpers
Templated helpers let you automatically associate edit and display templates with data types. For example, you can use a template helper to specify that a date-picker UI element is automatically rendered for a System.DateTime value. This is similar to field templates in ASP.NET Dynamic Data.
The Html.EditorFor and Html.DisplayFor helper methods have built-in support for rendering standard data types as well as complex objects with multiple properties. They also support basic customization of rendering by letting you apply data-annotation attributes like DisplayName and ScaffoldColumn to the ViewModel object.
Often you want to customize the output from UI helpers even further and have total control over what is generated. The Html.EditorFor and Html.DisplayFor helper methods support this using a templating mechanism that lets you define external templates that can override and control the output rendered. The templates can be rendered on a per-class basis.
From: http://aspnetmvc.info/wp/2009/09/asp-net-mvc-improvement-in-visual-studio-2010/ Posted in: General asp.net | Tags: .net 4.0 mvc visual studio visual studio 2010 asp.net mvc framework data annotation attribute validation support html.editrofor displayname vewmodelWindows Tip, How to add or remove Windows Components by using Sysocmgr.exe
You can use the Sysocmgr.exe tool at a command prompt to add or remove Windows components. You can use the following command-line switches with Sysocmgr.exe:
- /i:path to Sysoc.inf file, where path to Sysoc.inf file is the full path to the Sysoc.inf file, for example:
c:\windows\inf\sysoc.inf
- /u:path to answer file, where path to answer file is the full path to the answer file that contains a list of items to add or remove.
- /q - runs Sysocmgr.exe in quiet mode (without display pages)
- /r - suppresses reboot (if needed)
The answer file can be any Windows answer file and only parses the [Components] and [NetOptionalComponents] sections. An example file is shown below:
[Components] Netoc = on Reminst = on Paint = off pinball = off Solitaire = off [NetOptionalComponents] lpdsvc = 1 SimpTcp = 1 wins = 1
To start the installation or uninstallation of these components using Sysocmgr.exe, type the following command (file saved as c:\ocm.txt):
sysocmgr /i:%windir%\inf\sysoc.inf /u:c:\ocm.txt
For more information, please refer to the unattended documentation.
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
- Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for Itanium-Based Systems
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition