WordPress Tools

I take care of a large number of Wordpress-based web sites, both my own and those belonging to clients. Setting them up and keeping them up-to-date can be tedious, so I've put together a few tools to help streamline the process. This collection will be added to as I come up with new stuff.

Wordpress Plugins

Wordpress plugins I've written. Follow the links for information, usage, and downloads. All are released under the terms of the GNU GPL version 2.

Asset Helper

A simple implementation of key helper methods from the Rails AssetTagHelper class.

Current Version

The official Wordpress web site does not offer a way to programmatically check the current version number. I needed this for an auto-updater script I was writing and so had to roll my own.

The current Wordpress version is available at:
http://labs.corvidworks.com/wordpress/version

This URL will return a plain text string containing the current version number, updated every 24 hours.

Portable Config

A few versions ago the Wordpress team introduced the ability to set your site address and blog address via constants in wp-config.php. This was great news for anyone developing with Wordpress on one server and deploying on another, as it eliminated the need to edit the database to update hostnames. To make your wp-config.php file portable, add the following lines:

define('WP_SITEURL', "http://${_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/path/to/wp/install");
define('WP_HOME',    "http://${_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}");

The path in the first line, WP_SITEURL, should be adjusted to where ever you have Wordpress installed. If it's installed in your site's root directory, both lines should be identical.

Read more about portable Wordpress configuration files on CorvidWorks.com.