I really screwed up yesterday. I updated the Dooodl plugin and commited it to SVN. After having done that I wanted to wait until the changes reflected on the Wordpress site (which sometimes takes a few minutes). However I had to go over to Ward for dinner, so I took my laptop…

When arrived there I checked the site back and saw the changes. I updated the plugin on my site immediately using the WP-plugin auto-update functionality. That’s when all hell broke loose…
I saw that all the doodle-images on my site were gone, but the userdata (in the database) remained. When checking the FTP I realized what happened… The images are saved inside the plugin folder in a folder called ‘doodls’. Once you let Wordpress update the plugin automatically it tells you it ‘removed the old version of the plugin‘, before it ‘upgraded the plugin succesfully‘. It actually removes everything in that directory. I did NOT know that! I expected the plugin to replace all the existing files with new files and add the missing files/folders. And that’s why everything saved by the plugin was was lost once updated…

In my case I immediately lost about 120 doodles you guys submitted. Lucky for me I took a backup only half an hour before running the upgrade . In the end I only lost 11 images. I hope I’m the only one who ran into this misery.

But now…
There’s a new version online (1.0.5) (1.0.6  featuring smaller brushes ) which will not have that issue anymore. But before running off and installing this version please take a look at this and please be absolutely sure to have a backup of your doodles before installing ANY other version of the plugin…

1. Before updating, download the /wp-content/plugins/dooodl/doodls/ folder. This folder contains all doodles your users saved. If you don’t, you will lose all images your users saved.
2. Create a folder in /wp-content/uploads/ and name it ‘doodls‘.
3. Upload the images to this(/wp-content/uploads/doodls/) folder.
4. Now you can upgrade the new version of the plugin.

Again: I’m terribly sorry about all this and I really hope you didn’t lose (too much) of your doodles. I already tested 1.0.6 and it’s working perfectly. If you safely copy/backup the folder with doodles (using the steps above) then you should be safe

Having said all this…

If you got any feedback or information on how Wordpress updates itself and plugins, do let me know. I really wouldn’t like running into this kind of trouble again…

But it’s still an independent application hacked into Wordpress using basic widget.  That means I can’t just share the code so you can use it too on your website (since you’ll have to set up a database, fill in config files, etc… Boring stuff). So yesterday I decided to compact this into a handy Wordpress plugin.
And this is what I did: I give you Dooodl!

[UPDATE] Mark asked me to share the source of the Dooodl Creator App, so I did Feel free to send me links to your own creator. I might add different creators to the plugin, and let you choose in the WP-admin which one you’d like your visitors to use

Plugin page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/dooodl
Direct download: http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/dooodl.zip
Dooodl Creator source (Flash Builder Beta): Click

If you install it, feel free to drop me a line. Feel free to post the url to your blog as well. I’d be happy to see who’s using it and what people are drawing

(And yes: If you find any bugs, do post them as comment underneath )

Have fun!

I have been thinking about this for some time. A few weeks ago I was browsing Kris‘ site and found the answer to this guestbook-problem in the sidebar: A Doodle-wall. He allows his visitors to draw a little doodle and save it to the sidebar. Better yet: He built a history-browser too which allows you to browse all doodles through time.

I loved the idea and the philosophy behind this and went to build my own. I just finished the first part of Dooodl (this is the name of the official Wordpress plugin coming out sometime soon ) and it’s already running in the sidebar! Feel free to test it and save some doodles! If you run into any kind of bugs or unpleasant problems, let me know!
Feel free to drop me a line, whatever the reason might be: Bugreport, suggestions or the good old ‘I iz serious cat! I can haz hamburger, not guestb00k!‘

Links:
Draw your own: Click!
View all of them using the (temporary) History Viewer: Click!

Hackerlab.de

Pervart.net

RosaleeNortiz.net

Kurisue.es

Alexis-Design.info

Ferrypin.net

Bubblecrush.org

Lima-Limon.com

Wil-Vincent.net

Supermini for Wordpress

Download: Here

You can check it out at ikDicht.

Oh and while I’m at it: Removing the footer links to Patrick and me is totally uncool… Because some people still do that in 2009.

If you’re reading this, then you have undoubtedly noticed some changes on my blog (to all my fellow RSS readers: feel free to check out the site. It’s worth it ). I created this theme myself, and to be honest: it’s my first real attempt at a Wordpress theme. I had to build a blog design for a school assignment, so I figured: “What the hell, let’s just create something cool!” and this is what I came up with.

I’ve tested it on the following browsers, and fixed most bugs and differences.

• IE6 (Win XP)
• IE7 (Win XP)
• IE8 (Windows Seven beta)
• Firefox 3 (OSX & Win XP)
• Safari 3 (OSX)

If I overlooked something anyway, feel free to tell me so.
And please: do tell me what you think of the theme. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

[ Link ]

Vanaf nu draait deze blog ook weer op de nieuwste versie van Wordpress (2.5.1) (Voor hoeveel wedden we dat er binnen de eerste 2 weken een nieuwe Wordpress update is?). Ik had problemen om mijn vorige thema volledig werkend hier te krijgen, dus ik moest afstappen van dat thema. Het leek me een goed idee om dan eens na te denken over iets volwassener. Ik besloot om een erg clean, en simpel thema te kiezen. Ik heb dus gekozen voor K2, waar ik heel wat minieme details in de CSS heb aangepast.

De header is niet zelf ontworpen, maar geplukt van Interfacelift.com. Daar zal ik later wel eens verandering in brengen.

Ik heb ondertussen ook eens mijn categorieën opgeruimd en de tags ingevuld.
Wordpress 2.5 bevalt me wel, net zoals het huidige thema. Ik hoop dat jullie het ook ook wat leuk vinden zoals het nu is. Laat vooral weten wat jij ervan vindt

De plugin kun je vanaf nu hier vinden.
Ik ben benieuwd of mensen met een site op wordpress.com zelf deze plugin in gebruik kunnen nemen.

Daar heb ik een tijdje over zitten denken. Vooral omdat ik momenteel nog altijd op Wordpress 2.3.1 draai, en ondertussen 2.5.1 al uit is. Normaal zou ik gewoon updaten, maar K2/True Blue (mijn huidige Theme & style) zijn wat kapot in 2.5.1. Zelf de errors wegwerken zie ik niet zitten, dus ik zal wel een nieuw theme moeten kiezen als ik wil updaten. En dat brengt dan het ‘probleem’ mee. Ik zou dat nieuwe theme meteen moeten aanpassen om die Flash movie in te bouwen.

Daarenboven heeft Imke Dielen enkele weken geblogged over de de bunny balk. Toen besloot ik om er een Wordpress Widget voor te maken. En zo geschiedde het.

Download
Klik hier

Installatie

1. Pak de zip uit.
2. Upload de ‘MakeTheBunnyTalk’ map naar ‘wp-contents/plugins/’ map in je Wordpress installatie.
3. Ga naar je WP-admin, en activeer de plugin
4. Ga naar de Widgets-panel en voeg de ‘Make the bunny talk’ widget toe aan een sidebar.
5. Open de opties van de widget en vul de naam, serienummer en token van je Nabaztag bunny in.
6. Klaar!

Meer info

• Het serienummer van je Nabaztag vindt op de onderkant van je Nabaztag.
• De token vind je op deze pagina ( bij Nabazphere)(Vergeet niet ‘externe services van Nabazphere’ aan te vinken).
• De ‘Use SWFObject.js’ optie is er voor mensen die al andere Flash bestanden op hun blog weergeven, en dat aan de hand van SWFObject.js doen. Als je niet weet wat dit is, kun je deze optie beter op ‘ja’ laten staan.