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WordPress 2.5 - Plugin Compatibility

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Yesterday, I upgraded WordPress to the latest version 2.5, which I liked much! For the upgrade I used a WordPress updater script I had written some months ago, which, by the way, still remains unreleased due to lack of time to prepare a stable release… Anyway, the script has worked quite well and the transition to the new WP version has been exceptionally smooth. I won’t go into much detail about the improvements of the new WordPress release. For such details please read the official announcement on the WordPress development blog. Despite the numerous improvements, the database schema hasn’t changed that much, so most existent plugins should work just fine. As far as the plugins that have been created and published by G-Loaded/CodeTRAX are concerned, all of them seem to work flawlessly in version 2.5. In case you run into trouble, please report the issue ASAP. Thanks.

How to fix the WordPress database’s character-set issue

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WordPress version 2.2 or newer allows the user to define the MySQL database character set and the collation (get familiar with these terms) inside wp-config.php. Today, after upgrading to the newest version of WordPress, I decided to also update this file and append the statement that sets the database encoding to ‘utf8‘. But, as soon as I started validating the RSS feed as part of a general test of the new WordPress version, I noticed some weird characters which were the cause of several warnings and errors in the feed validator’s output. This seemed a bit strange as I was certain that my data was being stored using the UTF-8 encoding! Having spent over two hours trying to dump the WordPress database, perform all the required conversions and re-import the fixed dump back to MySQL using all the possible combinations of character sets, I started thinking that I had made some very serious mistake while configuring MySQL itself or WordPress! Fortunately, this was not true…

Beginning with version 2.2, fresh installations of WordPress use UTF-8 as the default encoding for the database, tables and text/string fields, while older versions used latin1-encoded tables (with latin1_swedish_ci collation) by default. This means that the user data, regardless of its own encoding, was being stored in latin1 tables etc, which, eventually, has added extra trouble to all old (pre-v2.2) WordPress users, especially those who write in their national language. The inevitable changes in version 2.2 give old WP users two choices:

1. Either continue storing their data to latin1 MySQL tables, regardless of the actual encoding of that data, which obviously means to continue making the same mistake forever,
2. or follow the painful procedure outlined in the Codex in order to efficiently convert the character set of the database, tables and fields to the appropriate one, but without affecting the already encoded user data.

Of course, I chose solution No.2 so to get rid of this idiotic way of storing my data once and for all! The real problem is that the second solution is only provided in a “theoritical” form - no official database converters. Fortunately, a heroic WP user has coded a small UTF-8 database converter which can be used as a usual plugin and do the dirty job with a few clicks. Although this plugin has not been tested with the newest WordPress 2.5, after checking the part of the code that performs the actual conversion, I tried it and I think it works just fine. Afterwards, I checked the encodings of the WP tables (through a phpMyAdmin installation) and it seems that the plugin has done a good job. Also, the text is displayed correctly throughout G-Loaded.eu and its feeds, so, I recommend it…

I should state that this issue is totally irrelevant to the WordPress 2.5 release, which is probably one of the best releases I’ve seen so far. I just happened to try to resolve the database character-set issue today. Somehow, this post reminds me of the issue with the backslashes inside pre HTML tags I had written about in the past.

As always, if you notice any peculiar behaviour throughout the website, especially weird characters, feel free to contact me by email or use the forums.

How to Setup Transparent Squid Proxy Server in Ubuntu

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Create a SSH Tunnel for Firefox to surf securely

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A ssh tunnel for Firefox to a remote computer is good security measure. Especially when connecting via an untrusted network like a wifi hotspot or other public networks. The tunnel encrypts and sends the data to your remote machine then it is sent over the web to your destination. This tutorial assumes you have an account on a remote machine you can ssh into. This is a pretty easy set up.

Now all you need to do is login your remote computer that you have access to with SSH then issue this 1 command

ssh -D 9999 -C me@ipaddress.com

The -D switch - Specifies a local “dynamic” application-level port forwarding. We are also adding the -C switch for compression.

Next we need to put the settings into Firefox.

Firefox> Edit> Preferences> Advanced tab> Network tab> Settings button.

Select Manual proxy configuration

SOCKS Host: localhost Port: 9999

SOCKS v5

No Proxy for: localhost, 127.0.0.1

Note: Sometimes localhost can cause a problem. If your settings are right and it still is not working replace localhost with 127.0.0.1.

How to get a Canon all-in-one printer working with Ubuntu

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Encrypted swap partition on Debian

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Encrypting a swap partition however is slightly tricky if one wants to also support suspend-to-disk (also called hibernation).

How to fix the Debian Lenny bug in which Epiphany always starts in "working offl

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I’m just a user and wordy blogger, and I find it fascinating to learn how bugs are dealt with in software projects like Debian.

Looking Back on Debian 1.3

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Back at the tender age of 12 I picked up a magazine at the Base Exchange. This magazine contained a CD. This CD contained Debian 1.3.

First Call for votes for the Debian Project Leader Elections 2008

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Now it starts. This is the first call for votes for the Debian Project Leader election 2008.

How To Install The Openbravo ERP On Debian Etch

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How To Install The Openbravo ERP On Debian Etch

This document describes how to set up Openbravo ERP (enterprise
management system) on Debian Etch. Taken from the Openbravo page:
“Openbravo is an open source ERP solution designed specifically for the
SME (small to midsize firm). Developed in a web based environment, it
includes many robust functionalities which are considered part of the
extended ERP: procurement and warehouse management, project and service
management, production management, and financial management.”

Read more…