Category: Technology

A Webpage Builder customer uses the password protect feature on their site to hide content intended for members only.

Recently the customer reported a lot of their members were unable to access this content; the password prompt was not appearing and access to the page was denied almost immediately.

Webpage Builder uses javascript to protect pages and the problem was tracked to the latest version of Internet Explorer blocking javascript pop-ups by default.

To correct this problem the security settings in Internet Explorer need to be altered as follows:

1. Open Internet Explorer window
2. Click TOOLS then INTERNET OPTIONS from menu at top
3. Click SECURITY from tabs along top of small window that appears
4. Highlight TRUSTED SITES zone and click “Sites” button
5. Where it says “Add this web site to the zone” type [the site url] and click “Add” (may need to remove tick from “Require server authentication (https:) for all sites in this zone”)
6. Click “Close”, then OK

A call from Melissa today, she told me she has decided to outsource technical support for the business to a company in Melbourne called Quicknowledge. Not sure yet when it will be happening, she said she has yet to finalise the deal – has to sort out precise figures and costings yet but it sounds a goer. Melissa still wants to keep me on the books for web hosting support work.

I’ve just discovered a useful WordPress tool from David Coppit – it is his Category Access plugin, which allows you to limit public access to post categories on your blog.

Since transferring my uni material here I’ve been looking for some way to hide it from public view – not that it is particularly sensitive stuff, it is just very boring to the casual observer, and there is quite a lot of it! At first I created a second blog which could only be accessed via htaccess login, but it was a pain to maintain two blog sites. David Coppit’s plugin is a much simpler and more elegant solution. Thanks David!

The default admin dashboard when you log into WordPress contains multiple feeds which tend to slow down the loading of the page. In addition, on a site where there are several users the feeds tend to add to the confusion a new user feels when they first login.

The solution, was to replace the wp-admin/index.php file with Angsuman Chakraborty’s hack.

One little bug has the incorrect link to “new post”, but this is very easily rectified. A very simple solution to a small annoyance.

I’m feeling a little bit lost at the moment, workwise. The company I work for is selling up and I am about to lose my job (sniff).

It’s only a part-time job, and it’s not been work I’ve wholly enjoyed, but the work-from-home aspect of it has been very convenient for me. It allowed me to supplement my income with bits and pieces of web development work – which hasn’t been lucrative, and isn’t something I can see myself growing into a full-time business. Spoils a perfectly good hobby, if you know what I mean.

The company owner is a good friend, and she has good reasons for selling. In the past she always went into spasms if I talked about leaving – it has been just the two of us, and apparently I stopped her from going insane! It was convenient to stay, so for the past 12 months I’ve been in this rut.

It’s been over five years since I held a regular job, so I’m way out of the loop. I ran my own full-time business for a number of years before selling up and going to work for my friend. It’s not a business I want to get back into.

So I’m at a stage where I’m having to re-evaluate what I can do and what I want to do, and find something that will give me an income. It’s all a bit scary!

I’ve just setup a community recipe blog site with WordPress and we’re gradually fencing off some little annoyances to help the site run more smoothly.

One of these was the default link text given to the admin section after a user logs in. By default it is “Site Admin” – which I thought was a pretty scary description for some of our users who are only going on there to rate or submit recipes.

WP does not separate language used throughout the system, so it took a little bit of digging to find out how to change this bit of default text. I finally found reference to it here.

This bit of text is found in the wp-includes/template-functions-general.php around line 50. I changed “Site Admin” to “Dashboard”, which I think makes more sense!