Many users have been using the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin in their WordPress installation to have tag management in WordPress versions before the latest release 2.3. The problem is that version 2.3 does not support the UTW tags. There is an option though to import UTW tags in the built in tag system. Remember to import tags in parts of 1500 tags (if you have more than 5000 tags). After importing the tags you can add the tag cloud widget in your sidebar.

If you want to embed the tags in your theme, you need to modify index.php and single.php. Just copy the following code

<?php the_tags(‘title’, ‘separator’, ‘end’); ?>

and paste it under the <?php the_content(); ?>. Index.php is the main page of your blog. Modify single.php if you want tags to appear also when viewing single post pages. Where title, write what you want to appear before tags (in my blog that is Tags:), where separator write what you want between tags (here it is “,”) and where end write what you want to appear after tags (I’ve left it blank as I do not want a word after my tags).

In a previous post, I wrote a review about the social browser: Flock 0.9. Recently Flock reached version 1.0. The update to the final version is recommended for everyone who uses Flock. Many bugs are fixed, and many features are added:

• Flock 1.0 has added a “People” sidebar to support new service integration with Facebook and Twitter.
• Flickr and Youtube have been promoted to “People” services.
• Several performance and stability enhancements have been implemented and several memory leaks have been fixed.

Flock 1.0 has all Mozilla enhancements and security patches up to 2.0.0.8 (not 2.0.0.9 up to now, but a patch will be out soon I guess). You can read Shawn Hardin’s official announcement post here.

The interface is almost the same with version 0.9, except the splash screen which is changed as you see in the image and some addons on the navigation bar. Bug report button (which was placed on the upper right corner) is absent. Default search engine is again Yahoo, but that could be changed with a single click. The default “My World” page is also rebuilt and seems much more easy-to-read-and-manage now. If you would like to update your Flock installation or try Flock for the first time visit the official download page.

WordPress 2.3 is out for a while. For the past 4 months I have been using WordPress 2.1.3 for Typpz Blog. After extended back-ups (database export, contenet files etc) and plug-in deactivation, I updated the blog to WordPress 2.3.1! All plug-ins worked after reactivation, except the post listing plugin which is listed in the WordPress site as non-compatible with the latest version of the blogging platform and the ultimate tag warrior which in not needed as the new WordPress comes with built-in tag support. Tags were not imported as they should from Ultimate tag warrior, so I have to tag my posts again.

I have to say that the blog now corresponds much faster. I also liked the update notifications for new versions of the installed plugins. I recommend to everyone to upgrade to WordPress 2.3. Remember before upgrading: Backup, Backup, Backup (few clicks can save your blog in case something goes the wrong ).

On this guide you will learn how to create a Web Photo gallery (Flash or pure HTML) in 5 minutes using Adobe Bridge and Adobe Photoshop. No Flash knowledge is needed!

1. Create a folder on your computer and name it as you like (here you will store your final files that need to be uploaded to your web site).
2. Open Adobe Bridge and navigate to the folder that contains the pics you are going to use. Using control (for PCs) or command (for Macs) select the images you want.

   

3. Click on tools -> Create Metadata Template. Fill in the fields you want and click save.
4. After the Metadata info is saved, click on tools -> Photoshop -> Web Photo Gallery.
5. When Photoshop loads, an option window opens. Choose in the first field any style you like (in the demo I used Flash-Gallery 2), but there are many. Previews are shown on the right.
6. On the “use” field in source images select “Selected Images From Bridge”. Select “include all subfolders” if your photos are placed in many folders.
7. Fill the”destination” field with the folder you created in step 1.
8. In options tab, modify banner, colors and image sizes as you like.

   

9. In the security option tab you can write something that will appear over your pics, to inform visitors that they are copyrighted and to ensure that they will not be usable in case of copy.
10. After filling the option tabs click OK to create your Photo Gallery. If you want a soundtrack to play on the background, choose a .mp3 file, rename it as “useraudio”.mp3 and place it in the folder you created in step 1.
11. Upload the folder (yes the one you created in step 1 ) to your server, navigate there and enjoy!
12. If you want to check your gallery locally, open the index.html file.

Note that if you use audio soundtrack, it is preferable that the audio file will be small to ensure fast loading times. Click here to see the demo galley in action.

Tracking the feedback from our users we decided to add some features on Typpz blog. From now on, under each post (in single post page), there will be a list with related posts to help you navigate through the blog. That helps also SEO optimization. Tags are also added to help you searching and finding the post you look for. Tags are displayed above the related posts section and the links to digg and del.icio.us. As you may have experienced when surfing around a blog, some times you make a mistake when posting a comment. We have the same problem some times, so we added AJAX comment editing which gives you 15 minutes to edit your comment after you post it. Just click the text you posted and edit it! Hope that the changes will help you and will improve your experience!

During the previous week, the new version of WordPress (2.3) was released to public. The new version provides some great features to bloggers, like tag support and update notifications. Tag support is a great add-on (which was already used with the appropriate plug-in) that helps users and web spiders-crawlers to navigate through your blog more smoothly and easily. Update notifications is the other most expected feature. One-click updates are the dream of anyone using WordPress. That means probably end of database back-up and ftp deletes and uploads any time a new version of WordPress is released. Taking back-ups though should be in your timetable regularly .

The new version supports sidebar widgets by default. The problem is that many users used themes that need some plugins installed to operate properly, which means that if these plugins are not working with version 2.3 they will not be able to upgrade until a new version of the confusing plugin is released. For example, the theme I use, needs the sidebar listing plugin which does not support version 2.3 of WordPress, so I still use the previous version of the platform.

For sure WordPress 2.3 is a recommended update for everyone that is able to upgrade, but remember to check your stuff before you do (themes, plugins etc) and also pay attention to the official extended instructions for backing up your database and upgrading. No one wants to lose data because of luck of attention to the instructions! If you are using WordPress 2.3 or have tested it, feel free to post a comment and tell your opinion about it.

Here is a video edition of our Web 2.0 logo creation tutorial that you loved. Video is streamed via youtube as it is 8 mins long and would be hard for our bandwitch to have it stored in our host. The quality is not the best, but it will help you alongside with the original detailed post. Remeber to use XHTML validated code when embedding youtube videos in your site

OPML is an XML-based format that allows exchange of outline-structured information between applications running on different operating systems and environments. With an OPML file you are able to add multiple feeds to your favorite feed reader, without having to add each feed url seperately. Most feed readers (like RSS owl, Google Reader) allow users to export their feeds in an OPML file and share them or import them in another reader. You can download our OPML file and see what we are reading (we read Greek blogs too, but the file contains only the those that are written in English), including Java blogs, tech blogs and news-based blogs.

You can get the official OPML icon or read about how it was created here.

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a meta-language built on SGML. XML can be used to describe data (for example database data) and can be also used for creating other markup languages. HTML was rewritten in XML and the result was XHTML.

With HTML tags, users can format or style pages. With XML users can only describe data. To make it easy for XML parsers to read XML data, users must be aware of uppercase and lowercase syntax. XML provided the background for technologies like RSS, OPML and SAML. XML applications contain typically the following:

• The .xml file containing the XML data
• The DTD (.dtd) or XML schema (.xsd) file that defines the structure of the main file.
• A stylesheet file (optional).

Here is a very simple example to understand how XML works. Let’s say that we have to describe user account data. Our main file (.xml) will have the following code in it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<store>
<account>
<username>Typpz</username>
<city>Athens</city>
<realname>Nikos</realname>
</account>
<account>
<username>Johnny</username>
<city>Thessaloniki</city>
<realname>John</realname>
</account>
</store>

For this code above the DTD (.dtd) file should contain the following elements to define the tags used.

<!ELEMENT store (account)*>
<!ELEMENT account (username, city, realname)>
<!ELEMENT username (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT city (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT realname (#PCDATA)>

After building your DTD file, save it as example.dtd (name the file as you want). Then you have to call the .dtd file from your .xml file. To do that, just place the followng line after <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE store SYSTEM "example.dtd">

The main code will look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE store SYSTEM "example.dtd">
<store>
<account>
<username>Typpz</username>
<city>Athens</city>
<realname>Nikos</realname>
</account>
<account>
<username>Johnny</username>
<city>Thessaloniki</city>
<realname>John</realname>
</account>
</store>

That was a very simple example for understanding XML structure. DTD files have many disadvantages, that can be solved using XML Schemas. These disadvantages and basic schema structure will be part of a following post.

As you probably know, we live in the web 2.0 time. Social websites are everywhere and users are now part of the Internet world and not just readers that read information. Now they express themselves (through blogs), they are part of social sites like digg, slashdot and so on. Broadband connections gave the ability for video calls, VOIP, IPTV and fast video streaming. What about the next version of web called Web 3.0?

Up to now we do not know much for Web 3.0, but it will for sure feature better and smarter search engines. Now search engines search using the keywords we provide. In web 3.0 they will have smart feature and they will be able to “understand” what the user looks for (according to his habits and his previous searches). In addition to this, users will be able to search using files and not only keywords. For example: today, if a user looks for Paris Hilton’s photos, he opens the search engine, types “Paris Hilton” and gets in the results every image that contains the words Paris Hilton in its file name or in the page where the image is stored. In web 3.0 users will be able to upload files and search using them (some sites like like.com and Pandora are already following that trend). Automatic tagging will be another feature in the future. Social sites will be able to understand information like human do (or almost like) and add tags automatically. All these has to do with semantic web abilities but web does not stop there: technologies like 3d web will change the way we surf in the Internet. Users will be able to virtually travel to places they haven’t visited before (something like Google Earth but not from above and with the ability to move inside the cities like in real-time). Mobile phones will become also smarter, they will be probably able to inform your friends if something happens and you cannot meet them, or send an email to your co-worker to remind him of your meeting.

Web 3.0 is not so far as we think. Large companies like Yahoo and HP have spent lot of money on researches and accepted the Semantic Web stanrdards, while others like Google and Microsoft work on the 3D web area. Nobody can tell for sure how the Web will look like in a few years but the evolution has already become with web 2.0. Maybe web will become a second world much more than second life is today.