Using a Static Front Page With WordPress
It seems that the WordPress guys are getting the static front page functionality sorted out. I know it’s been available for a while, but the truth is it’s never worked very well until now.
When you go into your admin pages and choose Settings, Reading, you can specify whether you want to display your latest posts on the front page, or one of your existing pages, i.e. a static front page. You can also specify a page to display your posts.
The good thing about the latest version, is that all the “behind the scenes” stuff works. For example, the front page responds to the is_front_page() function whether you’re displaying a static page or your latest posts. Read more about Using a Static Front Page With WordPress →
I’m Ditching Post IDs In WordPress Permalinks
You probably know that you can change the URL of your WordPress posts by using a custom permalink structure. I’ve always done that, primarily for search engine benefit, and until just recently I’ve been using a custom permalink structure of;
/%category%/%postname%-%post_id%/
This was all well and good, until I needed to move one of my blogs. I couldn’t do a database move and had to export and then import the blog content. That’s when it all started to get messy. When I imported the posts into the new blog, all the post IDs changed.
You’d sort of expect that really, but what I never thought about was that it also meant all the post permalinks changed too, because the post ID formed part of the URL. Ummm.. bad. Permalinks are supposed to be permanent. Read more about I’m Ditching Post IDs In WordPress Permalinks →
Niche WordPress Theme - Beachbum
Here’s one of the themes I use - beachbum - which is what I want to be when I grow up…
This theme is designed to be used for a review or single affiliate product type site. To that end, it’s got an extra sidebar on the left which is ideally suited to your recommended product. The theme supports widgets so the easiest way to include a review or recommendation is to add a text widget to sidebar2. Read more about Niche WordPress Theme - Beachbum →
Post and Page IDs In WordPress Admin
There have been a lot changes to WordPress recently - but one that I don’t like is the loss of page and post IDs in the admin section.
Remember when you used to see the list of post and pages and there was a column with the page ID of each one? I found that really useful. Ok, it was probably because many of my plugins use the page IDs, but nevertheless, I miss being able to see them at a glance. Read more about Post and Page IDs In WordPress Admin →
My name is Peter Coughlin. I am a freelance developer living in the UK and at the moment I am specialising in WordPress customisation.