PixoPoint

Aside from the known issues with flash, there is a major problem with the default setup of most flash objects which many people are unaware of.

A quick search through our support forum, will show up dozens of questions relating to Adobe Flash objects and dropdown menus appearing beneath them. The usual solution people look to as a solution, is to modify the z-index of either their menu, the flash object, or both. Unfortunately this only leads to dead-ends and confusion on the part of the site owner.

The solution thankfully, is relatively simple. All you need to do is to set the Flash object to “transparent”, and your dropdown menu will appear on top of the object instead of below it. I suspect Adobe added this behaviour intentionally as a way of hacking people’s sites into work as expected but has infuriated many web developers as this is not what would typically be expected for browser behaviour.

The solution

Add the following between your <object> tags:

<param name="wmode" value="transparent">

Add this in an <embed> tag:

wmode="transparent"

Your code should now look something like this:

<object>
  <param value="blabla.swf" / >
  <param name="wmode" value="transparent" / >
  <embed src="transparency.swf" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
  </embed>
</object>

Our JavaScript guru Ronald Huereca has launched a terrific new e-book explaining the technical side of using AJAX with WordPress. If you have ever wanted to learn how to add AJAX features into your WordPress powered site, then we highly recommend checking out Ronald’s new book.

The book is easy to read, easy to understand and ideal for those wanting to branch out from being the user of an AJAX’ified WordPress plugin or theme into adding their own customised functionality to their site.

The book is 249 pages long and covers the following:

• The basics of AJAX
• How to load scripts correctly in WordPress
• How to set up PHP classes
• Loads of code examples

The book is for sale for US$24 from the WordPress and AJAX site.

The PixoPoint Theme Integrator plugin for WordPress is now available in the official WordPress plugin repository.

PixoPoint Theme Integrator plugin page on WordPress.org

If you find the plugin useful, please rate is up by logging into the repository and clicking the stars in the right hand sidebar If you are using the plugin, please let us know as we’d love to see some more examples of the plugin in action.

For those of you looking for another way to find out about the latest news, tips and information about WordPress but are sick and tired of reading through blog after blog of posts, an excellent alternative is to listen or even participate in a WordPress related podcast.

The leading podcast on WordPress is the WordPress Weekly podcast hosted by Jeff Chandler. Jeff does an excellent job of presenting the latest news and has a slew of top level WordPress  plugin authors, themers and general WordPress experts on his show, both as interviewees and during round table discussions with other WordPress experts.

Live broadcast

One of the key ingredients to the success of WordPress weekly is not only the boundless enthusiasm of Jeff as host of the show, but also the live setup. You can listen to the podcast live as it happens, and even call in if you would like to ask a question. There is also a chat box for the live listeners to discuss the podcast as it happens and to ask questions which may be answered on the show.

The live service is provided by the TalkShoe podcasting service. Visit the WordPress Weekly Talkshoe page to see the upcoming live schedule and to join in on the conversation.

Other WordPress podcasts

Press This by Joast de Valk
WordCast by Bitwire Media

 

Thanks to Ronald Huereca for the photo of Jeff. Ronald is our JavaScript guru so if you have a use for any JavaScript/AJAX related WordPress work, please get in touch!

We often receive requests for new menu designs from our Premium Support members. Here is a case study demonstrating the fastest way to get your dream menu implemented onto your site.

Dropline menu

Dre Armeda from CubicTwo contacted us regarding the construction of a custom menu design for one of his clients. He requested a “simple solution for the sub-nav (with horizontal slider) to be extended like the image attached”. The image was of a dropline menu as follows:

Active Sub-menu and integration

Dre requested for the active dropline menu to be loaded by default and for us to install our menu plugin and integrate it seamlessly into his test site.

Construction

We sent back the following page as an exact demonstration of what the menu would look like and asked if there were any corrections to be made.

Demonstration Page

After some email discussion regarding how the menu would work and a modification to the hover graphics we sent back a new link which Dre confirmed was exactly what was required. We were given administrator access to their WordPress admin panel and we installed our menu plugin, configured it, integrated it into their WordPress theme and updated the CSS to load the new design. And here is the final result:

By providing an exact image of what was required and full specifications as to how the menu was to function (dropline shown by default) and by showing us the exact page the menu was to appear on we were able to provide a demo page of what the menu would look like. This allowed the client to see exactly how the menu would look on their site so that any corrections necessary could be made before adding them to their live site.

The live site

The live site can be seen at IndustrialIncome.com, however there are a couple of splash pages you need to click through before you can reach the menu.

Recently we were approached here at PixoPoint by the goal tender for the Canterbury Red devils ice hockey team, Vince Mitalas, about building a custom website for his team. They are a low-budget community organisation which competes in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League and needed to improve their online presence for very little cost. Their original site consisted of hard coded .html files as a simple static site. Our initial suggestion of a full-custom designed and coded, hosted WordPress installation was beyond their budget, so we suggested an alternative which has slashed their costs considerably yet allowed them to create their own WordPress powered site with a design which matches their branding and includes all of the functionality they requested, including a contact form, email subscriptions for news posts, no commenting functionality (they didn’t want a traditional blog) and the ability to add photo galleries and videos. The final result can be seen at http://reddevils.co.nz/.

What we suggested was for them to use the hosted WordPress.com service. This is not the regular self-hosted solution that you can download from WordPress.org, but the hosted system which allows you to create your own blog/site within minutes. We have suggested this previously to those who can’t afford a more traditional solution, but have found it an uphill battle convincing people that WordPress.com can indeed meet their needs in exactly the same way a self-hosted solution would.

Misconceptions about WordPress.com powered sites

Traditionally WordPress.com has only been suggested as a low-budget option for those who can’t afford to upgrade to “proper” hosted setup, however for the Red Devils, we were able to meet all of their requirements without losing anything that they required in their site. We were also able to integrate their teams branding into an existing theme very quickly through some simple CSS upgrades.

The following is a common comment we receive from potential clients when suggesting using WordPress.com for their site.

But you can’t upload themes to WordPress.com and we need our own design

However, despite this, we had no trouble at all in redesigning a WordPress.com site for the Red Devils which suited their needs perfectly by using the “CSS upgrade” option. This costs a mere US$15 and allows you to totally modify the sites CSS. This gives huge power over how the site looks and behaves. We were able to use this to add a new background image, totally change the text colours, remove all remnants of the commenting feature of WordPress (even when comments are disabled their are still occasional bits of text mentioning the comments feature).

The following is another common comment we receive on suggesting clients use WordPress.com to power their site.

No, I must have my own domain for branding purposes!

This is also a fallacy as there is a “domain upgrade” option available for another US$10. All you need to do is to point your domain at the WordPress.com name servers, purchase the upgrade, add the new domain to your list of domains and it will automatically start working and all your own URLs will redirect to the new one automagically. Apart from the small unobtrusive link back to WordPress.com in your footer, no one will have a clue that you are using the WordPress.com service.

And last, but not least, the following is another common comment we receive on suggesting clients use WordPress.com over a self-hosted solution.

But I don’t want a blog, I want a website!

Ignoring the obvious fact that a blog is actually a website, it is entirely possible to make a WordPress.com “blog” look and behave in a very “non-bloggy” way. You can either ditch the blog functionality entirely and go for an entirely static site, or you can use the method we used for the Red Devils site by removing all mentions of “blog”, turning off commenting and stripping out any errant text which may appear in the site related to the commenting functionality, blog categories etc. This gives a simple list of news items on the front page to ensure that their site visitors see the most important/current content first up. They even use the sticky post feature of WordPress to ensure that news items they want to ensure readers see first are always at the top of the home page.

What other upgrades are available

There are a suite of different upgrades available for those who need them. The Red Devils did not require any of the other available extras, but depending on your requirements you may find some of the other options useful, in particular the ability to remove the occasional advertising which WordPress.com serves to your sites visitors.

Maintenance

The beauty of using WordPress.com, is that not only does it cost almost nothing to setup (US$25 for the CSS and domain name upgrades), but you don’t need to bother maintaining a WordPress installation since they handle everything for you. You also don’t need to worry about DOS attacks, security or any of that stuff as the WordPress.com team have a terrific track record of handling such things spectacularly well.

The clients opinion

The Canterbury Red Devils have been very happy so far with the end-product. For negligible up-front cost they have all of the features they wanted for their site, a slick design, their own domain and to the casual observer it looks like the Red Devils have a regular self-hosted WordPress installation.

They have gone from an awkward to use static site which they couldn’t update, there were no RSS feeds, no email subscriptions, no photo galleries and they couldn’t give non-technical users the ability to edit their site. They can now have multiple members of their organisation editing the site with no fear of the site breaking or something going catastrophically wrong. They effectively have infinite bandwidth to handle any potential traffic spikes, their sites security is handled by the best experts in the business and their site loads lightning quick since it is hosted on the massive 1000+ server stack of WordPress.com.

Special thanks to Vince Mitalas from the Red Devils who worked with us on this project and who has been adding all the content ready for the sites launch today.

Getting your own WordPress.com powered site

If you don’t have the CSS coding skills or simply want someone else to handle everything for you, please get in touch with us as we are very keen to build more of these hosted setups. If it matches your requirements, they are an inexpensive way to enter the online world without losing any of the professionalism of the regular self-hosted WordPress installation.