Hacking away…
I have to say that the temptation to just tear into the raw PHP code that powers WordPress is, well, palpable. But I know it’s a bad idea, especially considering how simplistic the initial change I want to make is: Produce two entry feeds on the main page instead of one, WHERE author_id = me or Tony. And split them into separate columns.
Let’s look briefly at the code that spits out the entries:
<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<div class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"
rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php
the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<small><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> <!-- by
<?php the_author() ?> --></small>
<div class="entry">
<?php the_content('Read the rest of this
entry »'); ?>
</div>
<p class="postmetadata">Posted in
<?php the_category(', ') ?> <strong>|</strong>
<?php edit_post_link('Edit','','<strong>|</strong>'); ?>
<?php comments_popup_link('No Comments »', '1
Comment »', '% Comments »'); ?></p>
</div>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<div class="navigation">
<div class="alignleft"><?php next_posts_link('«
Previous Entries') ?></div>
<div class="alignright"><?php previous_posts_link('Next
Entries »') ?></div>
</div>
<?php else : ?>
Way simple. What I’ve done just as a precaution, is copy the default theme into a new theme that I can edit without worrying about the repercussions. I’m smart like that. Word.
The structure of WordPress is wrought with includes and provides a brilliant path to beat through, considering how nested and layered everything is. A lot of backtracking, to be sure.
I’ll figure out the best approach to this yet, but I’m not the brightest crayon here. I might throw this blog at the WP devgroup and see what anyone there has to say. It’s also an internal battle of my tenacity versus my laziness. An awkward fight, to be sure, but if someone could easily accomplish this in a few minutes what will take me a few days to do… Well, it’s that battle again. OIO came about because I wanted to learn it for myself, but to be honest, WordPress plugin development isn’t a skill I’m terribly ready to dive into.
Already, I’m impressed with the response a simple technorati (& others) ping has provided. Haven’t leveraged any connections at all, and I’m not sure how much that will help anyway. We’ll wait til we’re ready for a more formal launch.
Also, a new design will be forthcoming. Because blue is so last Tuesday.
Tags: code, development, laziness, plugin, tenacity, wordpress