Backup WordPress with BackWPup

Hello again friends,

Currently I have shared with you one way to make backup of your WordPress website by using All-in-Оne-WP Migration. And like I have mentioned in this article – there is always a good idea to have another backup option just in case. Better safe, than sorry – right?

So with that being said I’d like to introduce to you one plugin that will allow you to generate the needed backups extremely easy. It is called BackWPup.

Like most of the WordPress plugins this one also has a free and premium (PRO) version. If you are going to use BackWPup as a secondary backup solution or for a small to medium website, then the free version will be functional enough for you. For bigger and more complex websites it might be better to purchase the PRO version as it provides additional functions and more importantly it is much better supported.

Why is BackWPup so great?

Because when you activate and install the plugin you can immediately go to its dashboard and click on the blue “Download database backup” and it will immediately allow you to save a complete backup file of your database. It is the most important thing as WordPress uses it to store everything in it – your posts, pages, website structure, etc.

Then there are the WordPress files. They are also important but most of them can be restored immediately if you download a fresh copy of the CMS and replace the folders. The same applies to all plugins and themes and in the end the only files and folders that may be lost in case of a big website failure are the ones in the Uploads folder and .htaccess. In some cases you may also lose precious translation files in the Languages directory.

Why am I sharing all this information?

For two reasons – the first one is to know an alternative method of restoring the majority of the lost files (for the rest you can download them by using FTP and restore them later by uploading them back to the server) and the second one is to highlight the ability of BackWPup to actually create backups of selected folders thus reducing the final backup file size and saving the files and folders that are really irreplaceable.

How to achieve this?

Simply go to the BackWPup subsection in the Dashboard and then click on Add new job. Make the necessary settings and pay special attention to the backup job type that you are creating, the archive format, the destination of the backup (multiple choices are available but some of them like exporting to Amazon Glacier and Google Drive are available for the PRO version only) and when you are ready with this proceed to the “Files” tab. There you can select the folders that you want to be included in the backup.

You can also make adjustments to the other tabs as well. For example the “DB Backup” tab allows you to select which tables to include in the database backup and whether it should be compressed as GZip or not. The “Schedule” tab is also very important because you can actually run the backup job in the most suitable time for you. In order this to happen you can use WordPress Cron or save a link and when clicked upon it will start the job. You can also start the backup job with WP-CLI in order to run it from the commandline or you can get the start script via the link that is provided in the “Schedule” tab of the BackWPup plugin. The “Plugins tab” will allow you to determine the name of the plugin list name and the compression for this backup.

BackWPup will provide you with detailed logs for each backup and a list of backups. All of these are in the respective subsections in the BackWPup menu in the WordPress dashboard.

So let’s have a detailed look at the free version of the plugin for a conclusion to this post. BackWPup’ s free version is a powerful backup tool that will allow you to:

• make a complete backup of the database and files of your website
• push each backup to an external Backup Service, like Dropbox, S3, FTP and other services
• check, repair and most importantly – optimize the WP Database
• provide WordPress XML Export
• generate backups in zip, tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2 formats
• send logs and backups by email and many more

The PRO version is much more supported and provides additional functionalities.

BackWPup is also available in different languages:

• English
• French
• German
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese

So there you have it friends! One powerful backup option to keep your database and files safe. Please share your thoughts in the comments below and spread the word about BackWPup in the social media.

See you soon!

Widgets and content on mobile devices only

Hello friends!

We are back on the topic of widget visibility in WordPress. Let’s make a quick summary what we know so far:

• Each widget in WordPress can have a unique visibility setting
• You can achieve this by using three popular plugins

That’s great but what about widget visibility regarding mobile devices? Is it possible to achieve this? Well, this is WordPress so yes – it is possible! Let’s find out how:

First of all I need to clarify something about mobile devices. They are everything else that is different than desktop and laptop. This includes mobile phones, tablets, PDA’s, E-book readers, etc.

Now to the most important question regarding mobile devices – why should any website be compatible with them?

This is a very major topic and a lot has been written and spoken about it. Therefore I will only say that the number of mobile devices in use is increasing each day. More and more users want to browse the web using mainly their mobile phones. And this is a trend that each marketer, web designer, SEO specialist and copywriter has to understand and adapt to. If your website is not compatible with these small displays then it would be extremely hard and inconvenient for the users to browse it. This means huge bounce rate, less visit duration, less traffic, less visits, less popularity and eventually – less customers. On the other hand a well optimized website for mobile devices will lead to improvement of the above.

So there you have it! If your website is not 100% compatible for mobile devices you will lose a lot and since your competition is not sleeping (you can believe in this) they will be attracting your visitors. Not a pleasant situation, right?

Having a fully optimized website for mobile devices include not only the technical aspects of fitting the content perfectly to the small screen but also improving the usability of the website and its navigation.

When you are using WordPress there are two ways that you can achieve mobile compatibility:

• By using a unique mobile theme
• By using a responsive theme

In the first situation you will have the ability to modify the mobile theme according to the needs of your target group. There are plenty solutions for WordPress mobile themes (some free, others paid) so that you can make the proper choice. Bear in mind that if you have more options this means that you can modify the theme better. So go for mobile themes that will allow you to do this. In this situation you can easily choose what widgets to display on the mobile theme and the same goes for the content.

But when we are speaking of responsive themes there are some adjustments that need to be made in order to achieve this.

First of all the sidebar widget areas can cause problems. Why? Because when the theme fits on the mobile display the sidebar will go under all content and only the footer area will be left at the bottom of each page. This is may not be user friendly. Therefore you need either to look for responsive themes that tend to hide the sidebar or you need to modify the CSS of the theme by yourself.

First of all – make sure that your sidebar area contains widgets that are fitting perfectly on mobile devices and are not disturbing its usability. If this is present then you can leave the sidebar as it is. But if something is not fitting correctly or is not looking user friendly you may decide to hide the sidebar.

Inspect the theme and add custom CSS that will automatically hide the sidebar when the width of the display is below 800 px. You can use this sample code but with the agreement that it has to be modified for your theme:

@media (max-width: 800px) {

#sidebar {

display:none !important;

}

}

This code will most likely be different for your theme so (once again) make sure that you are adding it to the correct element.

If you do this then the sidebar will not be shown on mobile devices and you can focus on widgets in the header and footer widget areas.

In order to show widgets only on mobile devices you need to install the plugin WP Mobile Detect.

After you activate it you can either add PHP codes (for advanced users) or shortcodes (suitable for beginners) to your content so that it can be visible on selected devices. This means that you can make something on your website visible only on desktop computers and other things – visible only on mobile devices.

This is great and if you have Widget Logic installed (presented in the widget visibility article – find the link to it in the beginning of this post) you can combine its functionality with WP Mobile Detect and thus your widgets can be shown on the display of your choice. All you have to do is add the respective code listed in the FAQ page of WP Mobile Detect to the field for the PHP code that Widget Logic adds to each widget.

For example if you want a widget to be displayed on iOS devices only add the following code:

wpmd_is_ios()

Click “Save” and you are done! Simple, right?

In case the method described above fails for a Text widget you can use the good old shortcodes. For example if you want to hide a widget only on mobile devices you need to use the [notdevice] shortcode.

Place the content of the text widgets between the opening and closing shortcode like this:

[notdevice]

TEXT WIDGET CONTENT
[/notdevice]

Click “Save” and this widget will be only visible on laptops and desktops. You will never see it on a mobile device anymore.

In conclusion I want to say that any other mobile detector plugins that use PHP codes could be combined with Widget Logic. But to be on the safe side always check for compatibility on both forums on wordpress.org – the forum for the detector plugin of your choice and the forum for Widget Logic.

Share your thoughts in the comments below. Also if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

See you again friends!

How to display WordPress widgets on selected pages only

Having the most suitable widgets will make your WordPress website extremely user friendly and will improve its functionality. That is why most themes have many sidebars and header and footer widget areas. And this is actually the charm of WordPress since you can easily create the most appropriate website for your target audience. Adding widgets is simple – drag and drop from the list of all available ones to the respective widget area and then brief settings, a click on the “Save” button and that’s it! Simple, fast and most importantly – extremely efficient.

This is great but what if some widgets have to be visible on a number of selected pages only? How can you manage this? Let’s find out!

In this post I will show you three ways of achieving this. You may use either of them or you may also combine them for further efficiency in some cases. The most important thing is to have a clear plan which widget should be displayed and where. I’ll get back on this topic later in the post.

The first and most easy way is by using Jetpack.

Yup, this powerful plugin comes to the rescue once again and it provides all the necessary features needed to manage widget visibility out-of-the-box.

How to use it? Just add a widget of your choice to the desired area on your theme. Now if Jetpack is installed and activated you should be able to see this button next to the “Save” button of the widget:

Click on it and more options will appear allowing you to set under what circumstances should the following widget be visible. You have two primary possibilities – to show the widget or to hide it.

Now let’s assume that you want to show a widget. Now you have to set the criteria for this choice. You may for example select a specific page or specific category and you may continue to do so until you are satisfied. When you are done you should save the widget and it will be shown only if the criteria is met. Easy, right?

However there is something to be aware of. If multiple tags or categories are applied for a post and you want the widget to be visible under a specific category/tag you should consider whether you should remove these tags/categories if the widget is not to be shown on this specific post. There is no way to set both “Show” and “Hide” logic using Jetpack.

But you can achieve this with the other solution that is suitable for the task at hand – the WordPress plugin Widget Logic.

Install and activate the plugin and you will receive an additional field under each widget in which you have to enter the criteria to show/hide it. This is a very powerful plugin but unfortunately it is hard to use by beginners. It requires PHP code that has to be entered in the field. For example if you want to show a widget for a specific category and then for a specific post inside this category you have to type in the following code:

is_category(X) || (is_single() && in_category(X))

*Code copied from the Widget Logic’s FAQ page.

One unique feature of Widget Logic is its ability to show/hide widgets when using WPML. This is very important as some of the widgets will not be suitable for all languages. Therefore if you (for example) have a multilingual website with WPML enabled and you want to display a specific widget on all German pages you have to place the following code:

ICL_LANGUAGE_CODE == ‘de’

Too user unfriendly for you? Don’t worry! You can use another plugin that is quite suitable for beginners and has additional features. It is called Widget Context.

After its installation and activation you once again will have the possibility to choose whether to Show or Hide a widget but this time you can select to do this everywhere on the website. But that is not why I am writing about this plugin. Its unique feature is to target the visibility of the widget based on a specific URL or URLS. There is a clear instruction for this – you have to enter one fragment per line and if you want to target all posts within a category you have to type as you are instructed by the plugin:

You can also write notes if your website has many users so that others can see why you have made this setting.

OK! Now since you have three great solutions that will allow you to display specific widgets on specific pages on your WordPress website, you have to come up with a plan (as mentioned above).

Create a simple mind map and match all widgets with their suitable pages. Always think of usability! Each visitor has to be offered nothing but the best website structure and content! You might want to keep all widgets to an optimal amount. Why? Because having too many widgets might confuse the visitors and also this might result in a speed reduction which is negative regarding SEO. On the other hand “optimal” doesn’t mean too few. Optimal means having the needed amount of widgets that will be of use to your visitors.

Happy planning friends and don’t forget to share which method of displaying widgets on specific pages is your favorite. You can do this in the comments below.
See you again!

How to Integrate Google+ Comments in WordPress

Hello again, friends!

In this post I will show you how to integrate Google+ comments in your WordPress website.

You might want this since the default comment system is not so good (however we already know that Jetpack can improve it). So far I have also shown you how to add Facebook comments and also how to integrate Disqus as your main comment system and you are familiar with the benefits of having an external comment system for WordPress. Now let’s see how you can achieve this with G+’s comments.

Before I tell you how to do this I will present you the current state of Google+ and the possible changes that might occur in the near future.

Google+ is the social media of Google. During its existence it has competed with all the major players in the market, especially with Facebook. G+ offered unique features and thus it attracted users mostly from the professional circles – developers, marketing experts, web designers, etc.

It is quite well known that Google+ has major benefits for SEO since the posts that are shared publicly are indexed and also each “+1” sends an important social signal that improves the ranking of your content. The social media allows you to create a business page and to make it your official publisher via a meta tag. This also improves the authority of your content. Not so long ago Google+ offered authorship which (in my opinion) was an awesome way to attract visitors because it showed them the author (name and G+ profile picture) of the content in the search results. This screamed “authority and quality” all around and it is a pity that Google removed this feature. However the authorship still works if you continue to create high quality content and share it publicly in your profile. A recent update allows the creation of collections and this allows better categorization of your shared posts.

The social media has many other features as well. However the situation with Google+ might change quite soon. The social media will either be shut down (the most unlikely option but still a possibility) or it will be transformed. However the Google+ as we know it will not be available in the near future and there are clear signs of this. For example the requirement for a mandatory G+ profile in order to use other Google products is gone. The same goes with authorship and so on.

Why would I want Google+ comments on my WordPress website if the fate of the social media is uncertain?

Mostly because Google won’t let go of the already attracted G+ users and their content. Many digital marketing experts think that the social media will most likely be improved and it will continue to exist. So having G+ comments on WordPress will be of value for you and your visitors in each case. And since the solutions that I am going to present to you allow the integration of Facebook and Disqus comments as well, you are in no danger of losing all your comments in case G+ shuts down because your visitors might comment using the other options that you are providing them.

In conclusion to this let me say that integrating Google+ comments as an additional (not the main) comment system will be a positive feature.

Now let’s focus on the pros and cons of G+ comments for WordPress.

Pros:

• SEO ranking signals
• Attracting a large amount of visitors from Google+
• Increase of social traffic
• Usability for commenting since most of the users are constantly signed in their G+ accounts

Cons:

• The fate of Google+ is uncertain (as stated above)
• There is still no official G+ plugin for WordPress

OK – now to the main point of the article – the integration of G+ comments for WordPress

There are two solutions in the form of WordPress plugins that will do the trick. One is free and the other is premium and therefore paid.

I will start with the free solution.

You need the plugin Comments Evolved for WordPress (formerly known as Google+ Comments for WordPress). Install and activate it and then head to the settings menu (it should be under the Comments section) and configure the plugin. You may choose the tab order of the different comment options (as I have already pointed in the post this plugin integrates other comment options as well).

You can choose to display icons in the tabs as well. Comments Evolved for WordPress supports:

• Google+
• Facebook
• Disqus
• WordPress comments
• Trackbacks

For Disqus you need to type in your Disqus Shortname if you intend to integrate this comment system via the plugin.

Save the settings and voila – Google+ comments as well as the other options are integrated. Simple, right?

Another way to integrate Google+ comments is the premium plugin Comments + which also allows your visitors to comment via Facebook, WordPress and even Twitter. You may find out more about it here.

So this is all for now friends. Currently you have enough information for the most popular comment solutions for WordPress and you can choose the most suitable one for your website. Please share your decision in the comments below.

See you again!

Disqus and Jetpack comments for WordPress

Let’s return on the topic for the WordPress comment system. We already know the benefits of having Facebook comments on your website as well as the solution to add this functionality. Now I will talk about two other options.

One of them is called Disqus which is an externally added comment system and the other one is Jetpack Comments which improves the functionality of the core WordPress comment system.

Let’s begin with Disqus. First of all I’d like to explain why you might want to have this solution as your main WordPress comment system.

Disqus is a great platform. It combines discussions from all over the world wide web and you can easily find a conversation about a topic that you find interesting and of course join it. This service is used by many websites (hundreds of thousands, according to the Disqus help pages). Adding Disqus to your website will allow you to integrate a modern comment system with many features. Additional bonus is the full social network integration of Disqus. Worry about SPAM? Well… don’t be! Disqus comes with a powerful administration and moderation features so that you can fight the spammy comments with style.

But the main reason why you’d want to have it as your main WordPress comment system is that this will create a community around your content. And you want this to happen! Integrating Disqus will add your website in its platform and therefore you may attract more traffic from visitors that use Disqus. We are speaking of a community from over 60 million profiles and a vast number of global conversations. So you can imagine why you might want to attract users from this platform to comment on your website and possibly start a conversation regarding your content.

Disqus is also aiding the performance of your WordPress site. Having too many comments in your own database might slow down your page loading speed. But if you are using external comments systems like Disqus you can remove this burden since the comments simply won’t load from your database and thus your speed will be improved. Also if someone tries to hack your comments you can be sure that you can be safe as any hack attack has to pass through Disqus first and the platform is well protected. Also you can import/export comments which is very important but we’ll go back on this functionality later.

If you are interested in more information about Disqus (and I know that you are) you can find out more about the network and the comment system in the official help pages.

OK so now you know the important benefits of using Disqus as your main WordPress comment system. But how to integrate it?

First of all you need to install and activate the official Disqus WordPress plugin. It is called Disqus Comment System. Bear in mind that it is important to make a complete backup of your database (I’d make a backup of the files as well – better safe than sorry) before you continue with the integration of Disqus.

Now if everything was correct you should have the plugin installed and activated and a new subsection in your WordPress admin panel should be added. It is under Comments and is called Disqus. A note about WordPress 2.0 users: You should look for Options -> Disqus.

Then you need a Disqus account. Create one and in the plugin’s options add your username and password. After this choose the website that you are adding comments to from the list of your websites. If you haven’t added your website you may do this from a link in the options menu. And that’s it. Now you can moderate your comments by going to Comments -> Disqus. You can also import old WordPress comments to Disqus and what is more important – you can export comments as well. This is a major advantage since you do not need to depend on any external comment system for your comments in case you are considering a switch to another one.

The Disqus plugin is well supported and if you have any troubleshooting with your theme or a conflict between plugins then you can be aided on time.

Now – let’s return to the core WordPress comment system and see how to make it better by using Jetpack.

Jetpack will help you by reducing SPAM and adding additional functionality to the core WordPress comment system such as the ability to comment using:

• WordPress.com account
• Twitter account
• Facebook account
• Google+ account

This saves time and effort to fill in additional details. This is one of the options, the other is to allow the user to enter their email, name and Website to comment so it is a good idea to mark some of these fields as required.

As for the social media integration – the users will be asked to allow access to the WP.com apps for the respective social media. This might be considered for a con.

To use the Jetpack Comment system you need to install, activate Jetpack itself and then from the plugin’s settings you need to activate the comment functionality. This will add additional options to the main settings for the core WordPress comment system under Settings -> Discussion.

So this is it, friends. It’s up to you to decide!

Social sharing solutions for WordPress

Sharing your content in your social media profiles and pages is important. It increases traffic and brand awareness and also helps you gain more social followers for your brand. That is why you are obliged to use social media and use it wisely. However you (as a website and brand owner) are not the only one who would like to share your content. If it is great enough your visitors will do this too. So you need to make it easy for them to post your content in the social media of their choice.

In this article I am going to present you some high quality social sharing solutions for WordPress that will allow your visitors to spread the word about your content in social media.

1. Jetpack and its sharing functionality

Jetpack is an advanced WordPress plugin that makes it extremely easy for WordPress beginners to set up their websites so that they may provide all the necessary features. One of the functionalities of this awesome plugin is the sharing buttons. All you need to do is install and activate Jetpack, connect it to your WP.com account and then activate the sharing functionality. Then you may choose which buttons you want to be available for your users and how they will look like. The latter means that you can choose between the Jetpack social sharing button design or the integration of the official buttons for each social media.

The result is great and provides your blog posts the necessary social sharing capabilities. Not to mention that this is done within a couple of minutes. The arranging of the buttons is done via Settings – Sharing in the WordPress admin panel and you can do this by just using drag&drop. Also you may choose the text above the social sharing buttons. This is a call to action section so choose a suitable message. By default the sharing buttons will be at the end of the post but there is a way to show them at the beginning as well.

2. Shareaholic | share buttons & related posts

Shareaholic is a great WordPress plugin that will do exactly what you need – add all the necessary social sharing buttons. But that is not all. Remember when we talked about related or similar posts in WordPress? Well this plugin also provides such a functionality and thus it will not only aid you in getting more social traffic but will also help you reduce your website’s bounce rate.

Shareaholic | share buttons & related posts  is:

• Completely customizable
• Optimized for mobile devices
• Scalable to any size
• Extremely fast and secure

And if this is not enough for you – well this plugin provides Social analytics i.e. all the necessary metrics so that you can monitor the activity on your most popular pages, referral channels and of course social sharing activities for your WordPress website.

Final verdict – a must have plugin!

3. Social Media Feather

Well since we started talking about speed I must say that this is an extremely important SEO ranking factor. So you have to choose plugins that will not slow down your WordPress website. And here is one of them. Social Media Feather adds lightweight social media sharing and follow buttons so that your visitors can share your content with ease and also without any additional load on your hosting. This plugin focuses on simplicity and better website performance as well as unobtrusive impact. Social Media Feather also provides full support for the Retina and high resolution displays. As for customization – there are skins for the social sharing buttons to choose from and you can also make other changes so that the buttons will fit perfectly for your website.

4. Share Button Mashshare

This plugin is created by Mashable and it is a great social sharing solution. Its free version only supports Facebook and Twitter and this is more than enough for most websites. This is the negative side of the plugin. But regardless of this Share Button Mashshare is able to provide caching so that you can control the update frequency of the social shares counters. This is extremely important because if used correctly can increase the social sharing rate of your content by stimulating the visitors to share. This is actually the main and most important functionality of this plugin that makes it unique and perfect for your WordPress website. Of course it provides many more functionalities as well.

5. Floating Social Bar

WP Beginner’s baby! It is awesome since it constantly shows the social sharing buttons when the visitors are reading your posts. This floating bar acts as a call-to-action and makes it extremely easy for them to share. Using this plugin may drastically increase the virality of your posts and believe me – you want this to happen! 🙂 Again this plugin is lightweight and it fits perfectly to most of the WordPress themes. So go ahead and try it.

6. Simple Share Buttons Adder

This plugin does exactly what its name says – adding social sharing buttons to your posts in the simplest way possible. It can be configured very quickly and works correctly without unnecessary burden to your site.

So with this the list ends. However there are more awesome plugins out there so you just need to find the most suitable one for your WordPress website.

Last but not least – let me remind you when your visitors might want to share your content. In order this to happen your posts have to be:

• Unique and providing a specific solution to a specific problem
• To add extra value
• To be without grammar and punctual errors
• To be in the suitable language for your target group
• To contain multimedia content – images, infographics, videos and so on
• To be shareable – i.e. to have the needed social sharing solution
• So which one is your favourite, friends?

See you again!

Facebook Comments for WordPress

Having a fully functional commenting system for your WordPress site is imperative!

There are many reasons why this is a must but for now let’s focus mainly on building relationships with your audience by speaking to them via the comments. This will definitely help your reputation and will lead to more traffic and followers. Knowing how to handle positive and negative comments and how to respond to each of them is vital but this is a topic that will be discussed later on.

Let’s get back on the need for a fully functional commenting system.

WordPress has one which could be useful by tweaking it a little bit. But this solution could be complex and if you want your visitors to be able to share their opinion on your content as fast and as easy as possible then you will need another option. Starting from this post I will present to you several ways of integrating different comment solutions for WordPress as well as improving the default commenting system.

In this article I am going to explain to you how you can integrate Facebook comments for your WordPress website and why you would want to do this in the first place.

Actually let’s start with the latter. The main reason why you will want this is because you want your visitors to feel great when they are browsing your website. This means that if they want to comment something they should be able to do this instantly without any additional actions. And while most of them are logged in Facebook as they are searching for useful information on the web they will benefit of having the ability to comment directly using their own personal profile. Also the Comment box is similar in terms of design and functionality to the Facebook comments on the social media itself. Thus the visitors will be familiar with the functionality of the commenting system on your WordPress website and will feel comfortable using it. And what is more important – no additional registrations, no extra passwords to remember, no extra personal data to be submitted, etc. But wait there’s more – they will be notified of new comments in Facebook and they will be able to return to your website to re-join the conversation which will result in extra traffic for your website.

The next reason why you would integrate Facebook Comments in WordPress is because this commenting system will lead to virality for your content. Each visitor may choose to share their comment in Facebook as well and this will end up sharing your post/page as well.

We’re not done yet, friends! There’s more! Having Facebook Comments on WordPress will help your content also by increasing its credibility. Why? Because this reduces the fake comments to a minimum since most of the Facebook users will have their own profile picture and name set for their accounts and therefore everyone can see that the comment came from a real person.

OK, so currently we have the following reasons to choose Facebook Comments as a commenting system for WordPress: improved usability, extra social traffic, virality and credibility. What is missing? Ah, yes! SPAM! You don’t want spammy comments for your website, right? Then you have to take care of it somehow. The Facebook Comment system will do this for you since the administration of the social media is fighting with SPAM and fake accounts on a daily basis. So you will have one of the most SPAM-free commenting systems there is.

So with this I am more than sure that you are wondering how to integrate Facebook Comments in WordPress. So let’s focus on this.

There are many plugins that will do the trick for the task at hand. The problem is that many of them are not working correctly or might not fit into your theme design. Either way this is something that is not desired so I am not going to lie to you that the best way to integrate Facebook comments is by visiting the Facebook Developers page and generate the code for the social plugin by yourself. Then place this comment in the respective theme file so that i will show exactly where you want this to happen and voila – you are done!

However this may be hard for beginners that is why I am going to present a solution that I have tested on some of my websites and I know that it functions correctly. It is called Facebook Comments and it is a simple to use plugin. All you need is a Facebook app ID that you can easily create on the Facebook Apps page. Actually you will need this for all the solutions regarding Facebook comments that is why it is important. Now go through the app creation process fill in the necessary details and link the app to your website by choosing Website as the desired platform for the app and finally you will be presented with your app ID which you have to paste in the Facebook Comment plugin settings. Then choose the moderators for your comments. You may assign some of your friends as well.

Each comment on your WordPress website will result in a Facebook notification and this will allow you to easily moderate the comments. You may allow them as public, delete or hide them with ease. In the plugin’s setting you will find a link to the Facebook moderation tool for your app. Also this plugin provides a great set of options so that you can end up having a perfectly fit and functioning Facebook Commenting system for your website.

Finally I’d like to inform you that if you have entered your app ID in any other plugins and it is present in the Open Graph Protocol code you should not enter it once again for this plugin as it will lead to duplicate lines. So ignore the plugin’s error messages that you have not entered your app ID and proceed using it. It will work.

If you have any questions – feel free to ask in the comments below. Which is your favorite commenting system for WordPress?

See you again friends!

Product Catalogue for WordPress

Do you want to showcase your products in a digital catalogue on your WordPress website?

The great news is that everything is possible when it comes to WordPress. There are many awesome solutions that will allow you to do this – starting from a simple gallery plugin, passing through some catalogue WordPress themes and finally – the dozens of plugins. And speaking of plugins I would like to present to you one of them that might just be the solution for your digital catalogue needs.

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado I’d like you to meet WP Catalogue.

The name of this plugin speaks for its purposes. However there is much to benefit from by using WP Catalogue. This is an excellent way to display each of your products by creating stylish and professional looking catalogues. But despite of its great functionality this plugin (like many others) is extremely easy to setup and use. And if you don’t like its default view, then you can easily customize it as well. This plugin is available in multiple languages and can be easily translated if needed which makes it perfect for all markets.

WP Catalogue can be integrated at a page of your choice by simply placing the shortcode in the WordPress editor. This means that you need to create a new page, and then add WP Catalogue to it.

But before any of your products are displayed, you need to adjust some settings. So let’s focus on this, shall we?

After installing WP Catalogue a new section appears in your WordPress dashboard with the same name. It has several sub-sections: WP Catalogue, Categories, Order and Settings. In the latter you need to make the basic configuration of the plugin by choosing:

• The number of products that need to be displayed per row;
• The theme colour – this is extremely useful as it allows you to choose the same colour as your theme so that the plugin will match your overall design. This is done by using a picker to select the desired colour;
• The number of products that you will display on each page of the catalogue;
• Turning the breadcrumb URL structure for the catalogue on and off;
• The settings for the catalogue images – here you can set the desired height and width of both the thumbnail images and the main gallery images. You can also select how they should be displayed – for example you can scale & crop the images;
• The availability of ‘next’ and ‘previous’ links on each of the product pages in your catalogue;

At the end of the Settings page you are going to find two text boxes that will allow you to insert and close your theme divs if there is a problem regarding the integration of WP Catalogue and the theme’s design. A special HOWTO is available within the plugin’s documentation on achieving this and the creators of the plugin are providing excellent support if you are having problems with these settings. However there might not be a need to add anything there as WP Catalogue should work flawlessly with most of the themes.

So after you are done with the Settings you need to save them (please do not forget to do this) and enter the Categories sub-section. There you need to define your product’s categories – it is the same as if you are adding a default WordPress category so you shouldn’t have any problems there.

Then enter the WP Catalogue sub-section and start adding your products. Again this will be as if you are writing your next blog post i.e. this is extremely easy. Assign each product to its respective category and add images and description. If your theme provides customization to your posts by utilizing some sort of page builder, then you can use it on your product pages as well. Also you can add the price of the product here, but bear in mind that WP Catalogue is not meant to be used for eCommerce purposes. It is created just to display your products but you can add links to your eCommerce solution if needed. What I’d recommend you to do is to place a link for a inquiry about each product. Then the customer can contact you personally for more information and you can make the sell directly (and much easier).

But let’s return to the plugin’s functionality. So by now you should have made the necessary settings, integrated WP Catalogue in your theme’s design. added product categories and respectively your products with images and detailed descriptions. Now you need to change the order in which the categories will be displayed. This is done by clicking on the Order sub-section and using drag&drop.

With this your digital catalogue is fully operational and you can start showcasing your products. WP Catalogue also has a pro version that provides additional functionalities such as fully responsive design so that your clients can browse your products by using their mobile devices.

You can check some demo catalogues on the WP Catalogue page at wordpress.org. You can also see some reviews and get further information about the plugin.

What is your favorite solution for catalogues in WordPress? Share this in the comments below.

See you again friends!

Different language for WordPress public & admin pages

Do you want to use WordPress in your native language?

Most of the users would answer positively to this question. And it is quite understandable. Also this is not a problem as WordPress is getting its translations constantly improved and the number of locales that are being translated is growing. So there is a large chance that your native language is available and you can easily use it.

Setting this is extremely easy, especially since the release of WordPress version 4.0 and above. When installing WordPress you can choose your language and if necessary you can change it anytime by just going to your WP Dashboard and choosing Settings – General – Site Language (if WordPress is installed in English otherwise this will be translated in the language chosen during the installation).Speaking of this the major issue is that changing the language of WordPress will cause the translation of both the frontend (all public pages) and the backend (the Dashboard or the admin panel).

But what if (for example) you want to use English for the admin panel and Russian for the frontend? Then achieving this with the default WordPress installation could not happen.

The good news is that there is a plugin that will take care of this. It is called WordPress Language and it is completely free. Installing it will allow you to define the locale of the Dashboard and the Frontend.

What is great about WordPress Language is that it will do this without making you to install translations manually or changing PHP code. The needed translations will be downloaded automatically and the correct .mo files will be activated and utilized.

In the admin panel there will be a language switcher that will allow you to change the language of the admin panel instantly. This is a shortcut that saves you time and effort. But speaking of effort do not think that the settings of WordPress Language are made for advanced users. They are simple and even beginners can figure out what to do.

Let’s see what is in there. First of all you can choose whether you want the language selector to be in your admin panel or not. Then you have to choose whether you want the same language for both the admin panel and the frontend (a.k.a. the public pages) or different ones. The first option was useful back in the days when WordPress did not provide the ability to choose its language instantly via the Settings menu so you can benefit from this option if you are using a WP version older than 4.0. So with that being said, the needed option here is the second radio button that will allow you to have two different languages for the frontend and the backend.

Clicking on it you will be presented with the current locale of both of them and the next simple thing to do is to select one of them and then click on Change language. A list of languages will appear and you have to select the needed one. Then a popup window will appear asking you to confirm the locale for the current language. This may happen if WordPress can use several locales for a single translation. For example the English language is available in 3 variants: en_CA for Canada, en_GB – for the United Kingdom and en_US for US English.  So make your selection and click on Switch language. Enjoy!

Simple isn’t it? However no matter how great this plugin works it is released in its final version 1.2.1. The development process of WordPress Language will end here because the developers think that it is stable enough and “covers the to a good degree the functionality in this plugin”. So you can still use it for the conditions stated above.

However this solution is useful for a single language website. If you intend to run a WordPress installation with multiple languages for different countries and markets then using WordPress Language will not be the best option.

Actually you will need a plugin like WPML (as the developers of WordPress Language suggest) that will allow you to have a multilingual website. WPML is the leader in this field and it is known to work correctly. Unfortunately it is a paid product.

However there is a free alternative as usual and it is called qTranslate X. This plugin has received various positive reviews and its rating is extremely high. So it should work correctly as well and its functionality can be enhanced by additional plugins.

So the decision is entirely up to you. If you want a single language website with a different language for your admin panel and public pages then install WordPress Language. If you need a multilingual website consider WPML or qTranslate X.

Know a different way to achieve the above? Please share it in the comments. And if you think that this post was useful, please spread the word for it in the social media that you use.

See you again friends!