PixoPoint

The PixoPoint SMF widget in action

We have received a few requests for information about how we have added our latest forum topics to our sidebar here on PixoPoint.com. The answer, is that it is a custom coded WordPress widget.

We weren’t intending this for public release, so it is not as easy to use as it could be. The plugin works by periodically utilizing the SSI.php file in SMF to load the list of topics, then it stores them in your WordPress database. The system currently reloads the list of topics every time it loads a specific page on your site; this was a simple fix for our own purposes but for your own site you may wish to use a cron job to load the script periodically (you will need to know some PHP to do this). You could reload the list of topics on every page load, but this would require totally reloading the SSI.php file on every page load which will likely cause performance problems on your site.

The widget doesn’t include an easy to use admin panel and instead has a file called config_smf.php which allows you to control how many posts to display, the ID for the page and how many posts/topics are displayed. It currently only works with SMF 2.0, but could easily be adapted to work with SMF1.1.x. It could also be adapted to display other pieces of information from your SMF forum.

<php
/*
This file sets the configuration of the SMF settings for the widget
PixoPoint SMF forum posts widget
Copyright (c) 2009 PixoPoint Web Development
...........
*/
$pixopoint_smfvar['ssi_path'] = '/home/random/public_html/live/forum/SSI.php'; // Path to your SMF installations SSI.php file
$pixopoint_smfvar['wp_pageid'] = 436;  // Page ID of an infrequently accessed page on your site
$pixopoint_smfvar['numberposts'] = 10; // The number of posts you wish to display

?>

Download PixoPoint SMF Widget zip file

Installation

1. Upload the complete pixopoint-code-comments folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory OR install it via the WordPress plugin repository browser
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Modify the smf-config.php file to suit your own sites specifications

Support

This software was not originally intended for public release so we will not be providing support for free sorry. For support (including help with customisations), you will need to try our Premium Support service.

We use the PixoPoint SMF Widget to extract our latest forum topics from our SMF forum into our WordPress sidebar.

Continuing on from our Aqua Vaccinium WordPress theme, is the release of PixoPoint lead developer Ryan Hellyer’s own personal blog theme. This theme was developed for use on ryanhellyer.net but by request has been made available to the public as a free download.

Download

Download Hellish Simplicity Version 1.3.1
If you are using WordPress 2.3.3 or older, you will need to download Download Hellish Simplicity Version 1.2.1 of the Hellish Simplicity WordPress Theme.

Features

Hellish Simplicity is widget ready and comes supplied with a PSD file to allow you to change the text in the header logo.

There is an options menu in the WordPress administration panel which gives allows you to toggle between blue and red versions of the theme. If you would like another colour combination then please leave let us know via our themes forum.

The options menu also allows you to choose to use a logo or plain text in your header.

Live Demo

The theme is available for viewing on Ryan Hellyer’s blog or you can see it in action on our WordPress theme demo site.

Support

If you have any difficulties, need help with modifying the theme or find any errrors then please leave a comment in our our themes forum.

Copyright

Note that although we are providing this theme for free, PixoPoint still retain the copyright to the design. You may modify it for your own needs, but you may not provide it to others. This theme is only available from ryanhellyer.net or pixopoint.com and must not be downloaded from elsewhere.