Tag: WordPress

Specifying a starting point in YouTube’s Flash 5 Player

In my previous post, I set an embedded video to start from a determined point partway through. The video was embedded with the new iframe tags (specifying HTML 5 instead of a Flash player, which is usable by a broader range of devices, but hasn’t been fully accepted by big developers like WordPress and ebay due to inherent security concerns).

This is the new parameter, which is to be appended to the end of the video link in the embed code:
#t=5m55s

(above, m equals minutes and s equals seconds)

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So in my previous post, the embed video code looks like this:
<iframe title=”YouTube video player” width=”560″ height=”349″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/VLuHMB438gc#t=6m17s” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen ></iframe>

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Google states that the actual starting point may vary by up to a couple seconds, so you should take this into account.

WPMU: Final thoughts for the time being

WordPress Multi-user is not ready for the big time. This is evident from the fact that it’s not an option accessible from the WordPress GUI (it must be hard-coded by the user into a configuration file on the server).

My problem with it is that it relies on flaky rewrite rules you must, again, hard code into your .htaccess file on the server. Also, as I mentioned in my previous post, it makes you use specific directories for file uploading and changes your URL structure as well (credit where credit’s due: One of MT’s greatest strengths is the ability to publish any kind of static file anywhere you want it).

Judging by the size and passion of the WP development base, I have no doubt that multi-user will eventually be sorted out, but I cannot use it or recommend it now. Fortunately, my plan B is very simple: Dedicated WordPress installations for each blog I need to set up. This is the best solution for me now, and each new installation and setup should take about 10 minutes.

It was fun learning a new platform today (although less so by this last install), but I’m so tired I think I’ll forgo proper testing until later. Hope the comments work!

Further thoughts on WPMU (WordPress Multi-user)

I’m disliking the fact that I can’t specify a single upload directory (as opposed to a regular WordPress install). The uploads go into dated folders, which I dislike intensely. I dislike it so much, I may just go back to single-user WP again.

One plugin that’s been indispensable was one I needed to delete all entries and comments: WordPress Suicide. It saved me from having to do a third reinstall today!

WordPress Multi-blog and Notepad++ FAIL

One thing MT was a lot better at was support for multiple blogs, because it was designed with this in mind from early on. To enable multiple blog administration and creation from a single installation of WP takes a bit more work (multi-blog was only integrated[and rather half-assedly at that] in the most recent version of WordPress, v3.0). In fact, it had me tearing my hair out when I found out the only way to enable new blog creation in subdirectories (instead of subdomains) was to uninstall WordPress entirely and start all over…

So I did that, and started getting funky php errors when I modified the wp-config file per the codex instructions. It took me two cycles of re-installation and 90 minutes of pure frustration until I got suspicious of my text editor. Until now, Notepad++ has been my lightweight editor of choice. Unfortunately, it seems a recent upgrade (v5.7) somehow affected quality and it was somehow corrupting the php file I was working on, which was returning an error in my browser.

Everything is all better now. From now, I’ll be setting up Adam’s blog, plus anybody else who wants one here. That’s another nice thing – I used to have Adam and I set up on Movable Type, and everyone else on Blogger FTP accounts, but now it’s just a single platform for all.

Note: I liked Zemanta so much, I’ve installed the plug-in network-wide.