Staenz Web Solutions

Avoid No Thumbnail Or Unrelated Thumbnail Image While Sharing Post On Facebook

Tejaswini — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:11:17 +0000

Do you get no thumbnail image or very unrelated image like twitter icon or RSS icon as a thumbnail image while sharing your article on Facebook? As well, this would happen with your readers who share the smae article on their wall.

While sharing any post to Facebook wall, Facebook spans your page’s html source code to find all the tags and offers you the choice to choose one of them as the thumbnail image for the post, that best suits the title and the content of the post, to make the entry more engaging for your friends.

So if there is no image in the html source or if the images are not related to the post content (like twitter/facebook/RSS icons), then that is the problem for you while sharing. You definitely choose ‘No thumbnail’ option while sharing. Here is a very simple solution for the issue, I have included a solution for WordPress users as well as a very decent solution for Non-WordPress users.

For WordPress Users

Most of us now-a-days use a small thumbnail image on the front page which is pulled using the WordPress post featured image or thumbnail image for the post (WordPress 2.9 feature), though this image is not displayed in the actual post. We can use this image as the thumbnail image while sharing the article on Facebook. If there is no ‘Featured Image’ attached to the post, then we can specify a default image, which will be included while we choose the thumbnail for the post while sharing on Facebook, as the default image can be our blog or site’s brand logo, definitely better than having no choice other than the twitter or RSS icon.

For achieving this, in your active theme’s functions.php (On your WP Dashboard go to –>Appearance –> Editor –> On the right side you would find ‘Theme Functions’ –> Click open to edit it), place the below code before the closing php tag (?>):-

function insert_image_src_rel_in_head() {
	global $post;
	if ( !is_singular()) //if it is not a post or a page
		return;
	if(!has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID )) { //the post does not have featured image, use a default image
		$default_image="http://example.com/image.jpg"; //replace this with a default image on your server or an image in your media library
		echo '';
	}
	else{
		$thumbnail_src = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ), 'medium' );
		echo '';
	}
	echo "\n";
}
add_action( 'wp_head', 'insert_image_src_rel_in_head', 5 );

Note: Remember to replace the url for default image (http://example.com/image.jpg) by the actual default image specific for your site. This can be the image you have uploaded to your server or to the Media Library.

What this code will do:-

It will add a new meta tag to your post/page header representing the thumbnail image which could be used while sharing

1) This code will give you an option of the post featured image (if it exists) as a thumbnail image while sharing

2) If no featured image is found, you have a default image to choose from as a thumbnail while sharing the entry on Facebook

If there are other images attached to the post, they would also be shown while you choose the thumbnail at the time of sharing.

WordPress Plugin

For those who do not want or are not very sure about changing the Theme Functions (functions.php) file, there is a very simple plugin on the WordPress Plugin Directory named Add image_src Meta Tag which does the same thing. Just it does not have the “default image” setting feature. You can install and use this plugin as well, but this plugin did not work on Chrome and Firefox for me.

For Non-WordPress Users

You can definitely set the default image representing your site’s logo by putting the below code in your web pages head section (after and before the head section close i.e. )

Note: Remember to replace the url for default image (http://example.com/image.jpg) by the actual default image specific for your site. This should be the image you have uploaded to your server.

BEWARE: On my blogs, the .png images set as the default image and featured image did not work for the thumbnail extraction. So I suggest you to adhere to .jpg images for definite success!!

Thus, by using the default image, at least you get some good option specific to your site’s niche or logo to use as a thumbnail image while sharing, if there is no image related to the content on the page which is to be shared.

How To Add Post Thumbnail Or A Thumbnail Image To WordPress RSS Feeds

Tejaswini — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:14:16 +0000

You can customize your WordPress blog or site homepage and inner archives by showing a cute little thumbnail image on the left or right and then putting the post excerpt beside. Most of the themes have this feature. But we don’t have an inbuilt feature to have those thumbnails in our blog RSS feeds. So, I would like to show you how you can add a thumbnail to your site RSS feed using a very lightweight and extremely well coded plugin by Justin Tadlock and putting a small code in your active theme’s function.php (this small code is written and fully tested by me, you can check our RSS feed )

There is no need that you set a post thumbnail or a featured image (WordPress 3.0 nomenclature) for each and every post to get it in the RSS for that article. The plugin will scan the post and pull a thumbnail as follows:-

Looks for an image by custom field (default custom field is “thumbnail”).
If no image is added by custom field, check for a post image (WordPresss 2.9+ feature).
If no image is found, it grabs an image attached to your post.
If no image is attached, it can extract an image from your post content.
If no image is found at this point, it will default to an image you set.

As well you can specify any custom size for the image fetched.

Two steps to get it working

Step 1: Download the WordPress Plugin “Get the Image” from WordPress Plugin Directory and activate it. It is a very powerful wordpress plugin, which do not load any CSS or javascript in your page header. It is just a new template tag which enhances the WordPress thumbnail image fetching.

Step 2: Include this small piece of code in your theme’s functions.php file. You can edit this file thru your WordPress Theme Editor. Go to Dashboard—>Appearance—>Editor and select “Theme Functions” from the right hand Templates list. Include the below code before the closing php tag (?>), if this tag is not present at the end, just put the code at the end.


function display_post_thumbnail_in_rss($rss_content) {
    global $post;
    if ( function_exists( 'get_the_image' ) ) {
        $rss_content= ''.get_the_image(array( 'default_image' => '', ‘image_scan’ => true,  'width' => '150', 'echo' => false ) ). ''.$rss_content;
    }
    return $rss_content;
}
add_filter('the_content_feed', 'display_post_thumbnail_in_rss');

add_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'display_post_thumbnail_in_rss');

In the above code, you can put the url of a standard/default image which will be shown in the RSS, if there is no custom field or thumbnail or image found attached to the post. As you can see in the code, you can specify the width of the image. If you do not specify the height, it will take the height as proportional to width (this is good, I must say!), but yes, you can definitely specify the height separately. Also, you can specify any CSS to the image, yeah, that would be an inline CSS.

After finishing the above two steps, just refresh your blog’s RSS feed by publishing a test post or a regular post. And you can see the thumbnail images floating to the left side of the content in the reader, may be you can check in Google reader or whatever reader of your choice. Doesn’t that look awesome, tell me??

This is useful when you show excerpts in your blog’s RSS feed rather than complete content. But still those of you who keep complete content in RSS, can as well use this feature to display a very small image at the start of the article in RSS, so that the feed looks attractive and engaging.

In my blog’s feed screenshot, attached above, I am using Google Chrome browser with RSS Subscription Google Chrome Extension to read the RSS.

If you got it working, do share it with all our readers thru the comments section below.

28 Free Buddypress Themes Compatible With Buddypress 1.2 and Above

Tejaswini — Mon, 10 May 2010 05:18:00 +0000

Now-a-days social networking is on its own boom, almost all of us need a flying community,always active all around our site. The websites today have become the best means to share, build network and make a different impression.

The growing popularity of WordPress as a blog as well as a CMS platform is now well known. And to add a social networking features to a WordPress site, Buddypress is a amazing platform (a plugin for implementation). Buddypress 1.2 and above can be integrated with WordPress MU as well as normal WordPress. As well, Ning, a social networking platform, has shut down all its free networks, so it is a great opportunity for the web community to try Buddypress. Buddypress is growing like a wave and a lot many new developers are chipping in contributing to buddypress plugin development adding features to buddypress as well as designing and coding themes, giving a perfect look to your buddypress site.

I am listing below some of the amazing free buddypress themes that are available and which are said to be working on the latest release of Buddypress i.e. Buddypress 1.2 and above. If you are a theme developer and developed some cool theme/s on buddypress, please submit it to us thru our contact form.

Free Buddypress Themes

9. Malleable Buddypress Theme

Malleable is a child theme for the Hybrid theme framework.

Download

10. Bleeding Buddypress Theme (Lightly buddy)

(This development on this theme for buddypress 1.2 looks to be in progress at the time this article is being written, so before downloading, please check the changelog.)

Download

11. Jet Green Buddypress Theme

Download

12. BP Nicey Buddypress Theme

Download

13. Cosmic Buddy Buddypress Theme

Demo Download

14. Buddymatic Buddypress Theme Framework

Buddymatic is a buddypress theme framework based on Thematic Framework. There are a few child themes coded on this framework till date. Get more details below:

Details

15. Randy Candy Buddypress Theme

Details Download

16. Unplugged Buddypress Theme

Details Download

17. Early Morning Buddypress Theme

Demo Download

18. Sophia Buddypress Theme

Demo Download

19. Teatro Magico Buddypress Theme

Download

20. BP Columns Buddypress Theme

Details

21. Jukt Micronics Buddypress Theme

Details

22. Gradient Buddypress Theme

Details

23. Buddypress Widget Theme

Details

24. Saffron Buddypress Theme

Details

25. Fishbook Buddypress Theme

Details

26. Sense and Sensibility BP Buddypress Theme

Details

27. Avenue K9 Buddypress Theme

Details

28. Darwin Buddypress Theme

Details

Hope you enjoyed this compilation and it would have been useful. Please drop your views and comments in the comment section below.

Mother’s Day Special Discount over $110 on DreamHost Web Hosting

Tejaswini — Sun, 09 May 2010 00:37:00 +0000

DreamHost, leading web hosting service provider is running a special offer for new customer on the special occasion of Mother’s Day. If you are purchasing a new web hosting account on or before 9’th May 2010, then you can get full year hosting plan for just $9.24. This means 92% off to the normal pricing.

To get the discount, you just need to use the discount code “777” at the time of purchasing a new account. If you are planning to purchase hosting account on DreamHost then today is the right time to do. On regular days, you can use the discount code “P7Q7” to get $60 off.

Enroll yourself on DreamHost

Get Recent Posts From Various Blogs On WordPress MU Site

Tejaswini — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 04:38:17 +0000

If you wish to show recent posts in the sidebar or on the front page of your WordPress MU site, for example as I have put on Blogern, you can use the below custom function which accepts the blog_id and the number of posts links to display as input parameters:

Function to get recent posts from specific blog:

Put the below function in your active theme’s functions.php

function get_recent_blogposts_wpmu($blog_id,$show){
	wp_reset_query();
	switch_to_blog($blog_id);
	global $post;?>
	have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
	    $do_not_duplicate = $post->ID; ?>
	     
        
        
        
        
        
	
	
How to use this function/place a call this function
In your template file like page.php or index.php (wherever you need) you can use the below template tag now:
get_recent_blogposts_wpmu('4','8');

This will get 8 posts from blog_id ’4′. The above function will show the tweetmeme button, the permalinks and title  for each of the eight recent  posts on that particular blog on WPMU site.
You can extend this function
You can add any WordPress template tag that can be added in normal WordPress Loop in this custom loop created under this function. For example, along with the permalink with title, you want the excerpt for the pulled posts, you can use the_excerpt template tag. You can modify the looks by using CSS classes. This is just a basic function for WordPress MU, you can use it in your own innumerable ways.





		
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Related posts:
How To Add Post Thumbnail Or A Thumbnail Image To WordPress RSS Feeds
Optimize WordPress Blogs for iPhone, BlackBerry or Other Touchscreen Smartphones
Avoid No Thumbnail Or Unrelated Thumbnail Image While Sharing Post On Facebook
Solution for WordPress WP Super Cache Broken Or Not Working

Solution for WordPress WP Super Cache Broken Or Not Working

Tejaswini — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:34:00 +0000

WordPress is a bulky platform which executes lot many database and PHP queries. It increases rapidly when you are using lot many plugins on your system. These queries will increase the page load time and server load on your hosting account which will cause CPU throttling or excessive usage of resources. To minimize the load time and queries, we use WP Super Cache plugin which is an awesome solution for these problems. It reduces the load time as well as it reduces the server load by noticeable amount. But sometimes, you wil see that the plug-in WP Super Cache is not working properly on your blog and it is not doing its work properly. Here is a list of problems you may face on WP Super Cache and solution to achieve super cache of your site properly.

Problem: Getting error message “WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The path to wp-cache-phase1.php in wp-content/advanced-cache.php must be fixed!” at the bottom of the page source of the site.

Solution: Go to your FTP account and download the file advanced-cache.php from wp-content. If you mahe moved your site from one server to another then you will have to change the path of the file wp-cache-phase1.php in the advanced-cache.php file. Open the downloaded file and there you can see two paths provided in the PHP file. Change those paths to the correct one on your server and then upload the file. You are done. Now you can reload the page and check he page source. There at the bottom of the page source, you can see WP Super Cache ran successfully.

Problem: WP Super Cache admin panel not opening properly or throwing error that everything is read only.

Solution: To let the WP Super Cache work properly, you will have to change the file permission of certain folders and files to 777. Here is the list of files and folders for which you need to change the file permission:

wp-content ==> 777
wp-content/cache ==> 777
wp-content/wp-cache-config.php ==> 777

Problem: Super Cache compression not working

Solution: Enable Super Cache compression from the admin panel of your account. If it is enabled and still not working then It may be the case that your hosting account doesn’t support super cache

==> Read more on WordPress

Optimize WordPress Blogs for iPhone, BlackBerry or Other Touchscreen Smartphones

Tejaswini — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:44:00 +0000

Now a days Smartphones has captured the mobile market and they are boosting the wireless internet capabilities as well. Which means bloggers and site owners should be prepared for showing their site’s content on these devices. It is obvious that the site for desktop PC will take too much time on these devices to load because of heavy scripts, data etc. That’s why you will have to have an optimized version of your site which can easily be shown on these devices with a quick load time.WPtouch is such a way to create an optimized version of your wordpress blog within 2 minutes.

WPtouch is a plugin for wordpress which can easily installed on your wordpress setup and show an optimized version of your site on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android phones with touch facility. Site will appear properly optimized on BlackBerry Curve as well using Opera Mini. Here is the screenshot of a site using WPtouch.

There are other plugins available for the same purpose, for example WPtab, WP-Mobile etc.

Benefits Of Having Own Domain

Editor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:00:00 +0000

As we know, Domain name is very important for branding on Internet and always give lots of time to decide the domain name for your company. Domain name is the name which appears in the URL of your website thru which one can access your website.

There are lot many benefits of having your own domain name instead of having a sub domain with IndiaMart or Any Directory or Promotional Company’s Domain. Some of the really important benefits are as below:

Market your website for branding
Online promotions without ant dependency
Get an email ID with domain name ex. john@mycompany.com Share this ID for branding
Go for Search Engine Optimization
No need to appear along with your competitors on directory
Long term appearance on Search Engine Results
Low investment and high return
Manage your hosting data as per your requirement
Choose from lot many available domain names like .in, .net, .com, .org etc
Get the domain name for your company before any one else claim that

Now domain name registration doesn’t cost more than $10 for a year and in that way your investment for the same is not too high. Your own domain name will let you market your exclusively designed website and content much more than your competitors. Since domain names are always exclusive, in that way it will help you to create a brand in your sector with exclusive presence in the mind of your buyers.

Kindly contact us for domain name registration and cost effective and reliable web hosting.

Mother’s Day Special Discount over $110 on DreamHost Web Hosting

Hotel And Restaurant Duo

Editor — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:00:00 +0000

We are delighted to announce that the first release of Hotel And Restaurant Duo software for hotel lodging and food management is available. This application is for computerizing the whole system of hotel and restaurant management.

Hotel and Restaurant Duo is a very simple and easy to use product from Staenz which can be used by Hotel staffs without any initial training. Some of the highlights of the product are,

Single screen for Current Status of lodging reservation and occupancy
Reserve room with a single click
Maintain customer data thru a unique ID
Synchronies Restaurant and Hotel operation
Different reports for analysis and marketing

Complete feature list is available here.

Presentation of Hotel And Restaurant Duo

Promo Video Of Hotel and Restaurant Duo:

Features Of Hotel And Restaurant Duo

Editor — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:52:00 +0000

Hotel and Restaurant Duo is a server based software developed by Staenz Web Solutions. It enables you to manage the lodging and restaurant data thru computerized system and provide you lot many reports for analysis. Here is the complete list of features included in Hotel and Restaurant software named Hotel and Restaurant Duo.

Most Exclusive Features

1. A very simple but highly efficient product navigation, with quick help on each page

2. Option to set Check-out Type : Fixed Time Check-out or 24 Hrs Check-out

3. A perfect synchronization of Hotel and Restaurant modules so that the pending bills of staying guests in Hotel will never be missed out

4. Backup facility for the complete database

5. Option to select paper size for printing restaurant bills, hotel bills and receipts and reports

6. No limit on number of rooms to be created and number of restaurant tables

The product can be operated in client-server environment where separate computers can be used for restaurant and hotel connected thru LAN (License should be taken from Staenz for the same)

Front Page/Home Screen

1. A very user friendly front screen with all the rooms displayed with their respective status

2. Display of Vacant Rooms with their room type, future booking on those rooms if any, Customer ID of the future booking if any; Display of Occupied Rooms with check-in date/time and expected check-out date/time along with Customer ID; Display of todayâ€™s bookings and tomorrowâ€™s bookings along with date/time of expected check-in and check-out and the customer ID.

A chart showing the charges for all the room types along with extra adult and extra child charges

Reservation and Decision Making

1. Future reservation allowed on any of the future dates (no limitation)

2. Group reservation facility

3. Receipt can be printed for the booking advance paid

4. â€˜Decision Boxâ€™ feature that will show the room status on a particular date. You can use this decision box if you find no room of a particular room type available on the reserve Room screen on that date/time.

Reservation cancellation for Expired Bookings and cancellation on a particular (current/ future ) date

Users and Access Control

1. A master administrator can create any number of users and grant them different privileges

2. Infrastructure items such as room types, room charges, hotel rooms, hotel floors, payment options, tax categories, restaurant tables, restaurant menu items can be created and the database backup can be taken only by the user having administrative privileges

3. In fact, administrator can view all the important analysis reports and update the Hotel Information Parameters which are very important from the hotel perspective.

Other type of users, such as receptionist, can perform all other front desk activities which handle the customers.

Guest In Activities

1. Facility to print the receipt for the advance paid at check-in time

2. Checkout date/time can be specified if other than specified at the time of booking

3. Other charges like Parking, Laundry etc. can be added to the guest staying in the hotel

If due to any reason (like AC shutdown etc) the amount to be charged needs to be adjusted, feature to give discount (prior to billing) is given

Restaurant Screen

1. Feature to Pay now for the outside customers and add to room bill (Pay Later) for the Hotel Guests

2. Fast operation, with items added to the table using Item Number/ID. Keyboard shortcuts for all the operations.

3. Facility to give discount (like seasonal discount, corporate discount) to certain customers with discount appearing in billing

Billing and Receipts

1. Bill with taxes and discounts, pending from restaurant and other charges

2. Group billing option for a customer

3. Receipt after payment, search receipt facility for getting duplicate bill and receipt

4. Receipts can be generated without the Restaurant and other charges bill if requested by the customer

5. Pending bills view and print option for collection

Bills and receipts can be printed with or without hotel header

Reports

1. Cashier report showing all cash in and out

2. Rent-Tax report showing the amount received and tax received on the particular dates

3. Future revenue report (forecast)

4. Room Occupancy Report

5. Most Visited Customers report

6. The most important feature is you can view and print the reports for any date range, putting no limitation on your analysis period

Reports can be printed with or without hotel header

Request the price quote for hotel and restaurant duo software at the earliest. We provide online installation and support for the software.

Staenz Web Solutions

Avoid No Thumbnail Or Unrelated Thumbnail Image While Sharing Post On Facebook

For WordPress Users

What this code will do:-

WordPress Plugin

For Non-WordPress Users

Related posts:

How To Add Post Thumbnail Or A Thumbnail Image To WordPress RSS Feeds

Two steps to get it working

Related posts:

28 Free Buddypress Themes Compatible With Buddypress 1.2 and Above

Free Buddypress Themes

1. Detox Buddypress Theme

2. Speed Buddypress Theme

3. Soltitude Buddypress Theme

4. Bruce Buddypress Theme

5. Ines Buddypress Theme

6. New Yorker Buddypress Theme

7. Spyker Buddypress Theme

8. Blogcaster Buddypress Theme

9. Malleable Buddypress Theme

10. Bleeding Buddypress Theme (Lightly buddy)

11. Jet Green Buddypress Theme

12. BP Nicey Buddypress Theme

13. Cosmic Buddy Buddypress Theme

14. Buddymatic Buddypress Theme Framework

15. Randy Candy Buddypress Theme

16. Unplugged Buddypress Theme

17. Early Morning Buddypress Theme

18. Sophia Buddypress Theme

19. Teatro Magico Buddypress Theme

20. BP Columns Buddypress Theme

21. Jukt Micronics Buddypress Theme

22. Gradient Buddypress Theme

23. Buddypress Widget Theme

24. Saffron Buddypress Theme

25. Fishbook Buddypress Theme

26. Sense and Sensibility BP Buddypress Theme

27. Avenue K9 Buddypress Theme

28. Darwin Buddypress Theme

Related posts:

Mother’s Day Special Discount over $110 on DreamHost Web Hosting

Related posts:

Get Recent Posts From Various Blogs On WordPress MU Site

Function to get recent posts from specific blog:

How to use this function/place a call this function

You can extend this function

Related posts:

Solution for WordPress WP Super Cache Broken Or Not Working

Related posts:

Optimize WordPress Blogs for iPhone, BlackBerry or Other Touchscreen Smartphones

Related posts:

Benefits Of Having Own Domain

Market your website for branding

Online promotions without ant dependency

Get an email ID with domain name ex. john@mycompany.com Share this ID for branding

Go for Search Engine Optimization

No need to appear along with your competitors on directory

Long term appearance on Search Engine Results

Low investment and high return

Manage your hosting data as per your requirement

Choose from lot many available domain names like .in, .net, .com, .org etc

Get the domain name for your company before any one else claim that

Related posts:

Hotel And Restaurant Duo

Presentation of Hotel And Restaurant Duo

Promo Video Of Hotel and Restaurant Duo:

Related posts:

Features Of Hotel And Restaurant Duo

Related posts: