I think WordPress is excellent… as a blogging platform. It could serve as a CMS too, if your CMS requirements are simple. Indeed, many people actually use WordPress as a CMS. Even people at my work place. But my idea of a CMS is so much more, and trying to make WordPress that sort of CMS I have in mind will require too many plugins, hacks, and various other kludges… if at all possible, to make the entire setup so complicated that one might as well have considered other software that had set out to be a CMS in the first place.

It’s just so strange that people continue to see WordPress as a CMS.

WordPress is really superb. I have to say that again. I use Drupal too, and I can tell you, the administration and maintenance of WordPress is so much more fun than it is on Drupal. (I still use Drupal because it’s a better CMS.) I always think software, like any good tool, should help you get your work done. Not get in your way.

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Lifeblog has apparently been replaced by Share Online. The problem with the latest Share Online 3.0 is that it does not permit you to configure additional web services apart from its built-in Ovi, Flickr and Vox services. What if you want to post to some other web service, what about your own blog site?

It turns out that you can configure Share Online after all. This has been quite well documented by PhoneBoy. If you already have the Lifeblog-WordPress integration script already working in your WordPress installation, then you basically just need two more things:

1. The shareonline.php file.
2. A favicon.svg file.

When you’ve put everything into your WordPress site, just point the phone’s web browser to the shareonline.php file, save/open it, then go into Share Online app. You’ll now find a new service available for posting to your WordPress site.

That’s how I got my first blog posting from my N97.

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Blogging has brought about some interesting new experiences. Actually it is not much different from having a personal homepage, which I have had one since “forever”, except that it’s more dynamic and updated much more regularly. One of the things is how people I know are updated about “things” without me having to specifically tell them about it. Yes, so once a while, a colleague or friend will ask me about something, and I would like wonder “how did you know?”… since I hadn’t remember telling them. Then I find out it’s because they read about it from my blog.

Then, there are “strangers” who drop by to leave a comment or to ask questions. It’s a new way to get to know new people. Not that there’s really that many new people to get to know about. But what’s interesting is finding back friends from long ago whom I’ve lost contact, or haven’t been keeping in touch. One day, when everyone has a blog and is on Facebook, the way we keep in touch with people will be radically changed. That day will come. Already, I’m amazed by what we are able to do on Facebook. Like my reservist flight (what we call a “company” in the RSAF) having its Facebook group. For that matter, even my squadron has a Facebook group.

One thing I’m quite impressed about is how highly Google ranks my content. (Keep it that way, Google!) For example, at this time, try googling for the following:

• m1 fixed broadband: First hit is here. Not M1. How interesting eh?
• hotel ibis singapore review: First hit is here again. Even above TripAdvisor and AsiaRooms. If you search for “hotel ibis singapore”, this site is at number 5. Still not bad eh.
• lee wee brothers: Yeah, third on the list leads here. It’s my complaint about their late-show.

Of course, the ranking on Google search results will change over time. But as it is right now… awesome. Heh I hope to translate that into advertising dollars!

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The biggest improvement in version 2.7 for me will be the paginated comments. Some of my posts/pages have too many comments. I started to install and try out using a forum software so that the discussion threads can be more manageable. Now with paginated commenting, I’m not sure if I want to keep the forum running anymore.

We should be expecting a 2.7 release candidate very soon now, and I’m looking forward to installing it. (I already have the 2.7 beta installed on a test site, and hence have already previewed some of the new features.)

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Another weekend. WordPress is updated, now to version 2.6.3 to fix a vulnerability in the Snoopy library that WordPress uses to fetch RSS feeds.

The last week or so I’ve been also readying a Drupal deployment at work. I’ll talk more about Drupal some other time. But one thing I’d like to share is how WordPress led me to wanting to revamp the documentation platform we have been using at work. For many many years, I’ve been an avid HTML coder. I write everything in HTML. After a while, it gets tiring. When I need to write code, I am still comfortable churning out HTML. But when I just want to write stories, thinking about HTML is distracting. Wiki markups aren’t fun either. In fact for someone fluent with HTML, Wiki markups are even more frustrating.

So WordPress has been quite fun to use, because I can write stories without thinking about HTML. Then, why not the same for documentation?

Then why haven’t I been using various HTML authoring tools like, heaven forbid, Frontpage?

Well times change, and I guess my views of HTML authoring tools have changed slightly. Perhaps my objection with complicated authoring tools is that they often generate non-compliant HTML output, and their output tend to be overly complicated, inconsistent and at times unpredictable.

It’s quite a whole lot different with Javascript editors like TinyMCE and FCKeditor. They both generate excellent neatly formatted XHTML compliant output. It’s surprising that a web-based application should work better than a fat application.

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WordPress 2.5 has just been released. While there are a number of nice improvements (see my previous blog entry), there are still a number of notable issues with plugin compatibility that are not resolved. In particular, the WPG2 plugin (for integration of Gallery2 photo gallery with WordPress) is quite broken with WordPress 2.5. Do check out the Plugin Compatibility page at Codex. If you are planning to give WordPress 2.5 a try, do remember to backup your files and database!

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Many WordPress bloggers have been anticipating the next major release of the blogging software. There are significant improvements that the WordPress development team skipped the version 2.4 release, and headed straight for version 2.5. WordPress 2.5 RC1 has been released. Is it ready for a spin?

Well, I decided to take the plunge. Backed up the blog files and database, and upgraded to 2.5 RC1. There are no visible differences to the blog front itself. The administration interface, however, has gotten face lift. Although the interface is not fundamentally earth-shattering (maybe my expectations are too high), it is no doubt the most talked-about improvement. (See review on geek ramblings.) In terms of functionality, I think the online plugin upgrade is a much needed feature.

There are problems for me. For some strange reason, the TinyMCE editor bunches up all my paragraphs. I get to see the paragraphing as I type, but after saving, everything is bunched up in a big paragraph. I first noticed this problem on WordPress 2.3.3 too, but that was only when I browsed using Apple’s Safari 3.1 browser. There was a tweak to the JavaScript to fix it. But this paragraph bunching problem on 2.5 RC1 is now happening to Firefox, Safari, regardless of Mac OS X or Windows XP platforms. I didn’t have any problem with a fresh installation of WordPress 2.5 RC1. So, some cruft left behind from 2.3.3 is mucking things up. (WordPress 2.5 comes with TinyMCE 3, which has fixed compatibility problems with Safari 3.1.)

The next thing that didn’t go well for me is WPG2, the WordPress Gallery 2 plugin. It is a known problem, and the WPG2 developers are making this a priority item.

In the end, I decided to rollback to 2.3.3 and wait. Hopefully these issues get fixed. The new administration interface is nice, and the couple of feature improvements here and there are neat. But they are outweighed by the hiccups I encountered. For the blog readers, there are also no significant improvements (unless your readers care significantly about Gravatars).

Just a friendly reminder if you want to take 2.5 RC1 out for a spin: Backup your files (the directory tree containing your WordPress installation), and your database. Upgrading to 2.5 RC1 will cause schema changes to your database.

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