Automatically Set The Featured Image In WordPress

Almost every WordPress theme developer is using WordPress' featured post image option in their latest themes, and it's a very great option. You can pick any image for your article before publishing

But ofter we forget to pick a featured image for out posts. Also there's no way to pick a featured image in WordPress' smartphone application. So today we're going to automatically set the featured image.

This snippet will automatically set the first image of your post as the featured image of the post. Note, you can always go and set another image as the featured image if you want to.

Add following snippet to your functions.php file:

function wpforce_featured() {
          global $post;
          $already_has_thumb = has_post_thumbnail($post->ID);
              if (!$already_has_thumb)  {
              $attached_image = get_children( "post_parent=$post->ID&post_type=attachment&post_mime_type=image&numberposts=1" );
                          if ($attached_image) {
                                foreach ($attached_image as $attachment_id => $attachment) {
                                set_post_thumbnail($post->ID, $attachment_id);
                                }
                           } else {
                                set_post_thumbnail($post->ID, '414');
                           }
                        }
      }  //end function
add_action('the_post', 'wpforce_featured');
add_action('save_post', 'wpforce_featured');
add_action('draft_to_publish', 'wpforce_featured');
add_action('new_to_publish', 'wpforce_featured');
add_action('pending_to_publish', 'wpforce_featured');
add_action('future_to_publish', 'wpforce_featured');

There is one more cool option in this code. If you don't have an image in the post, the above code will let you set a default featured image as well. You must edit the attachment ID according to your WordPress site. The example above uses the attachment ID "414"

Credits: WPForce

Move WordPress Admin Bar To The Bottom

Ever wanted to move your WordPress blog's Admin Bar to bottom of the page? If yes, then this is the right place for you. It sounds like a telemall commercial, lol. With just a bit CSS you can change it. So instead of editing the core CSS files, we'll add some CSS to your functions.php file.

Put this little snippet to a Plugin or in the functions.php of your theme:

 function fb_move_admin_bar() {
    echo '
    <style type="text/css">
    body {
    margin-top: -28px;
    padding-bottom: 28px;
    }
    body.admin-bar #wphead {
       padding-top: 0;
    }
    body.admin-bar #footer {
       padding-bottom: 28px;
    }
    #wpadminbar {
        top: auto !important;
        bottom: 0;
    }
    #wpadminbar .quicklinks .menupop ul {
        bottom: 28px;
    }
    </style>';
}
// on backend area
add_action( 'admin_head', 'fb_move_admin_bar' );
// on frontend area
add_action( 'wp_head', 'fb_move_admin_bar' );

WordPress Style Admin Bar For Blogger

First of all, this is the most foolish Blogger widget on this entire blog. This widget is very useful but still a dumb idea from me.Still it's an awesome navigation bar for Blogger admins.

This widget is inspired from the WordPress Admin Bar menu and Blogger Admin Control Panel widget. This widget will be only visible to blog admins. It'll provide you some quick actions in the front end of your Blogger blog. Let's get started:

Locate Your Unique Blog ID Number:

To add this widget, it's important to find your unique blog ID number. It's really easy. Just open your Blog's dashboard (overview, posts, and backend other pages) and copy your unique blog ID from address bar.

For example, your ID will look something like this:

http://www,.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1415638240907948#posts

Red part of the above URL is my blog ID. Visit your blog and copy your unique blog ID.

Add Admin Bar To Blogger Template:

To add the control panel to your Blogger template, go to Template > Edit HTML. Search and add following code just above </body>:

<style>
#wpadminbar {
    direction: ltr;
    color: rgb(204, 204, 204);
    font: 400 13px/28px sans-serif;
    height: 28px;
    position: fixed;
    top: 0px;
    left: 0px;
    width: 100%;
    min-width: 600px;
    z-index: 99999;
    background: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(55, 55, 55) 0px, rgb(70, 70, 70) 5px) repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(70, 70, 70);
}

#wpadminbar .quicklinks {
    border-left: 1px solid transparent;
}

#wpadminbar div {
    outline: 0px none;
}

#wpadminbar * {
    height: auto;
    width: auto;
    margin: 0px;
    padding: 0px;
    position: static;
    text-transform: none;
    letter-spacing: normal;
    font: 400 13px/28px sans-serif;
    color: rgb(204, 204, 204);
    text-shadow: 0px -1px 0px rgb(68, 68, 68);
    -moz-box-sizing: content-box;
    transition: none 0s ease 0s;
}

#wpadminbar {
    direction: ltr;
    color: rgb(204, 204, 204);
    font: 400 13px/28px sans-serif;
}

#wpadminbar .quicklinks ul {
    text-align: left;
}

#wpadminbar .ab-sub-wrapper, #wpadminbar ul, #wpadminbar ul li {
    background: none repeat scroll 0px 0px transparent;
    clear: none;
    list-style: none outside none;
    margin: 0px;
    padding: 0px;
    position: relative;
    text-indent: 0px;
    z-index: 99999;
}

#wpadminbar .quicklinks > ul > li {
    border-right: 1px solid rgb(85, 85, 85);
}

#wpadminbar ul li {
    background: none repeat scroll 0px 0px transparent;
        background-color: transparent;
        background-image: none;
        background-repeat: repeat;
        background-attachment: scroll;
        background-position: 0px 0px;
        background-clip: border-box;
        background-origin: padding-box;
        background-size: auto auto;
    clear: none;
    list-style: none outside none;
    margin: 0px;
    padding: 0px;
    position: relative;
    text-indent: 0px;
    z-index: 99999;
}
#wpadminbar li {
    float: left;
}

#wpadminbar .quicklinks > ul > li > a, #wpadminbar .quicklinks > ul > li > .ab-empty-item {
    border-right: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);
}
#wpadminbar .quicklinks a, #wpadminbar .quicklinks .ab-empty-item, #wpadminbar .shortlink-input {
    height: 28px;
    display: block;
    padding: 0px 12px;
    margin: 0px;
}
#wpadminbar a, #wpadminbar a:hover, #wpadminbar a img, #wpadminbar a img:hover {
    outline: 0px none;
    border: 0px none;
    text-decoration: none;
    background: none repeat scroll 0px 0px transparent;
}

#wpadminbar .ab-top-secondary {
    float: right;
    background: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(55, 55, 55) 0px, rgb(70, 70, 70) 5px) repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(70, 70, 70);
}

#wpadminbar .quicklinks .ab-top-secondary > li {
    border-left: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);
    border-right: 0px none;
    float: right;
}
#wpadminbar ul li:last-child, #wpadminbar ul li:last-child .ab-item {
    border-right: 0px none;
    box-shadow: none;
}

#wpadminbar #wp-admin-bar-search .ab-item {
    background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;
}
#wpadminbar #wp-admin-bar-search .ab-item {
    padding: 0px;
}
#wpadminbar .quicklinks .ab-top-secondary > li > a, #wpadminbar .quicklinks .ab-top-secondary > li > .ab-empty-item {
    border-left: 1px solid rgb(85, 85, 85);
    border-right: 0px none;
}
#wpadminbar ul li:last-child, #wpadminbar ul li:last-child .ab-item {
    border-right: 0px none;
    box-shadow: none;
}

#wpadminbar #adminbarsearch {
    height: 28px;
    padding: 0px 2px;
}

#wpadminbar #adminbarsearch .adminbar-input {
    font: 13px/24px sans-serif;
    height: 24px;
    width: 24px;
    border: 0px none;
    padding: 0px 3px 0px 23px;
    margin: 0px;
    color: rgb(204, 204, 204);
    text-shadow: 0px -1px 0px rgb(68, 68, 68);
    background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);
    background-image: url("https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj28b9E4prJNAbLzgGAVLnghfUUI68B9WpuPYgIA5eRH17OOV6miL_c29kKSoG7Nfq6j0XkDoYgfwp_JQjPN4KixsnU_fc-5o2UORtJLhrOzBENCn8gFoie_HCBkSvbgmwaRSPmqeOMVM/s1600/admin-bar-sprite.png");
    background-position: 3px 2px;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    outline: 0px none;
    cursor: pointer;
    border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px;
    box-shadow: none;
    -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
    transition-duration: 400ms;
    transition-property: width, background;
    transition-timing-function: ease;
}

#wpadminbar .ab-icon {
    position: relative;
    float: left;
    width: 16px;
    height: 16px;
    margin-top: 6px;
}

#wp-admin-bar-comments > .ab-item .ab-icon {
    background-image: url("https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj28b9E4prJNAbLzgGAVLnghfUUI68B9WpuPYgIA5eRH17OOV6miL_c29kKSoG7Nfq6j0XkDoYgfwp_JQjPN4KixsnU_fc-5o2UORtJLhrOzBENCn8gFoie_HCBkSvbgmwaRSPmqeOMVM/s1600/admin-bar-sprite.png");
    background-position: -1px -134px;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

#wpadminbar #wp-admin-bar-new-content > .ab-item .ab-icon {
    background-image: url("https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj28b9E4prJNAbLzgGAVLnghfUUI68B9WpuPYgIA5eRH17OOV6miL_c29kKSoG7Nfq6j0XkDoYgfwp_JQjPN4KixsnU_fc-5o2UORtJLhrOzBENCn8gFoie_HCBkSvbgmwaRSPmqeOMVM/s1600/admin-bar-sprite.png");
    background-position: -2px -182px;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

#wpadminbar a:focus, #wpadminbar a:active, #wpadminbar input[type="text"], #wpadminbar input[type="password"], #wpadminbar input[type="number"], #wpadminbar input[type="search"], #wpadminbar input[type="email"], #wpadminbar input[type="url"], #wpadminbar select, #wpadminbar textarea, #wpadminbar div {
    outline: 0px none;
}

#wpadminbar #adminbarsearch .adminbar-button {
    display: none;
}

#wpadminbar .ab-top-menu > li:hover > .ab-item, #wpadminbar .ab-top-menu > li.hover > .ab-item, #wpadminbar .ab-top-menu > li > .ab-item:focus, #wpadminbar.nojq .quicklinks .ab-top-menu > li > .ab-item:focus {
    color: rgb(250, 250, 250);
    background: linear-gradient(to top, rgb(58, 58, 58), rgb(34, 34, 34)) repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(34, 34, 34);
}
#wpadminbar .quicklinks > ul > li > a, #wpadminbar .quicklinks > ul > li > .ab-empty-item {
    border-right: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);
}

#wpadminbar #adminbarsearch .adminbar-input:focus {
    color: rgb(85, 85, 85);
    text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255);
    width: 200px;
    background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.9);
    cursor: text;
}
</style>

<span class='item-control blog-admin'>
<div id="wpadminbar" class="no-grav" role="navigation">   
            <div class="quicklinks" id="wp-toolbar" role="navigation" aria-label="Top navigation toolbar." tabindex="0">
                <ul id="wp-admin-bar-root-default" class="ab-top-menu">
        <li id="wp-admin-bar-site-name" class="menupop"><a class="ab-item" aria-haspopup="true" href="http://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#overview">BWidgets.com</a>        </li>
        <li id="wp-admin-bar-comments"><a class="ab-item" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#comments" title="Moderate Comments"><span class="ab-icon"></span></a>        </li>
        <li id="wp-admin-bar-new-content" class="menupop"><a class="ab-item" aria-haspopup="true" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#editor" title="Add New"><span class="ab-icon"></span><span class="ab-label">New</span></a>        </li>
        <li class="menupop"><a class="ab-item" aria-haspopup="true" href="http://www.blogger.com/logout" title="Logout"><span></span><span class="ab-label">Logout</span></a>        </li>
       
       
        </ul><ul id="wp-admin-bar-top-secondary" class="ab-top-secondary ab-top-menu">
        <li id="wp-admin-bar-search" class="admin-bar-search"><div class="ab-item ab-empty-item" tabindex="-1"><form action="/search" method="get" id="adminbarsearch"><input class="adminbar-input" id="adminbar-search" name="q" value="" maxlength="150" type="text"><input class="adminbar-button" value="Search" type="submit"></form></div>        </li>
       
       
        </ul>            </div>
</div>
</span>

Replace all instances of BlogIdNumber with your unique BlogID. Save your template & that's it!

How To Add An Admin Control Panel To Blogger

Most of Blogger user hide the Blogger navigation bar in their blog. It's not a bad thing but takes a lot of quick links away from you. Those quick links are  “New post”, “Customize” and “Log Out.”

In this article, you'll know how to add an Admin Control Panel widget to your blog, which will be only visible to the blog admin. Thanks to BloggingTips for this awesome trick.

I added some extra options to the admin panel but you can add or remove them if you want to.

Locate Your Unique Blog ID Number:

To add this widget, it's important to find your unique blog ID number. It's really easy. Just open your Blog's dashboard (overview, posts, and backend other pages) and copy your unique blog ID from address bar.

For example, your ID will look something like this:

http://www,.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1415638240907948#posts

Red part of the above URL is my blog ID. Visit your blog and copy your unique blog ID.

Add Admin Control Panel To Blogger Template:

To add the control panel to your Blogger template, go to Template > Edit HTML. Then search for the following line of code (or similar):

<b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>

Immediately before this line, paste the following section of code:

<span class='item-control blog-admin'>
<h2>Admin Control Panel</h2>
<a href='http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#editor'>New Post</a>
|
<a href='http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#posts'>Posts</a>
|
<a href='http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#stats'>Stats</a>
|
<a href='http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#settings'>Settings</a>
|
<a href='http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#pageelements'>Change Layout</a>
|
<a href='http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#template'>Edit HTML</a>
|
<a href='http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=BlogIdNumber#comments'>Moderate Comments</a>
|
<a href='http://www.blogger.com/logout.g'>Sign Out</a>
</span>

Replace all instances of BlogIdNumber with your unique BlogID. Save your template & that's it!

Stop WordPress From Compressing JPEG Images

According to some blogs, WordPress automatically compress your JPEG images to 90% quality, but this information is false.

This only happens on the resized images WordPress creates. The original uploaded image is saved unaltered, as the "full" size.

Anyways, you can stop compressing of JPEG images by putting following code into your functions.php file:

add_filter('jpeg_quality', function($arg){return 100;});
add_filter( 'wp_editor_set_quality', function($arg){return 100;} );

Google: How Fast Is Our Hummingbird

15 years have past since Google Search first appeared on the stage. Back in 1998 the searching process was far from perfection:  the huge machine called computer is on, the user type in keywords into the search system and the system manages to find several websites with the required information. Now it sounds funny, but at that time it was a miracle!

The whole process and the devices have changed since 1998. It is so easy to find billions of websites with one click on a tiny device in your pocket. Search systems are powerful, quick and very convenient. You can even ask the question in a loud voice and your inquiry will be satisfied. What else can be done here? Are there possible improvements? Google proves that there is always space for making changes and striving for better result.

New search algorithm from Google has got a beautiful name of a small but smart bird – the Hummingbird. It was presented on the press-conference dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Google.   The name for the new offspring was chosen in order to emphasize the accuracy and high speed of its work. The company said that changes in the search engine had been made a month ago and covered 90% of search queries, but the notification on the transition to the new search algorithm Hummingbird was decided to give on the 15th anniversary of Google. The press conference took place in the garage, where 15 years ago Sergey Brin and Larry Page had started a glorious history of  the search giant.

Amit Singhal, the head of Google's core ranking team, says that the current updated search algorithm is perhaps the most radical since 2001, the year he began to work in the company. Last major update search engine Caffeine was aimed primarily at increasing the speed of information indexing rather than the processing of the collected information. Hummingbird handles requests not only for keywords, but also according to their meaning. Thanks to this function, the inquiries made by users can be longer and more complex.

As the nature of inquiries has changed recently, the need to improve search algorithm appears. Earlier search inquiries were made in the form of short phrases with a large number of keywords. Today a user can make up search inquiries with the help of colloquial phrases, sometimes quite long and complex. The second reason, which made ​​it necessary to use a new search algorithm is the development of voice search. The time offers new standards, gadgets and approaches for search systems, that is why now is the right time for changes.

Tamar Yehoshua, vice president of the research department, demonstrated the abilities of new search algorithm to understand the associated inquiries. She offers Google to open photos of the Eiffel Tower, and immediately afterwards, without specifying what exactly she is talking about, asks questions: "What is its height?", "When was it built?", "Show me the photos of the building process". Next she presented the way voice search Google works offering to find information about the Impressionist painters.

Unfortunately, there is no way to compare the results of search system efficiency "before" and "after" the introduction of the new search algorithm. However, Google gives a few examples. For instance, request «acid reflux prescription» (acid reflux recipe) used to offer a list of medications that may be useless for users who sought for general information on the treatment and general information about the necessity to take medicine. The new algorithm offers the article containing this exact information.

Is it possible that the new search algorithm from Google made the search system worse? Hummingbird creators are sure that is unlikely, saying that they can’t approve that search system is better now, still, there are no evidences of dissatisfaction on the part of users. As everybody knows, people complain when they notice errors but they rarely see improvements.

Time will show how fast and smart Hummingbird is. A month after its start new algorithm justifies our hopes.

Author - Melisa Marzett is an experienced writer, she mainly works on such topics as internet innovations, web press and social media. Her articles are also available on best college paper writing service. It is easy to contact with Melisa on Google+
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Remove Author Prefix From Slug In WordPress

Earlier this month I shared an article about changing WordPress Author URL Slug. That code will change the default yoursite.com/author/name to yoursite.com/profile/name.

Now this trick will remove the author prefix from the author slug. To clarify, this snippet will help you turn: yoursite.com/author/name/ into: yoursite.com/name/.

Just add following snippet to your functions.php file:

// The first part //
add_filter('author_rewrite_rules', 'no_author_base_rewrite_rules');
function no_author_base_rewrite_rules($author_rewrite) {
    global $wpdb;
    $author_rewrite = array();
    $authors = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT user_nicename AS nicename from $wpdb->users");   
    foreach($authors as $author) {
        $author_rewrite["({$author->nicename})/page/?([0-9]+)/?$"] = 'index.php?author_name=$matches[1]&paged=$matches[2]';
        $author_rewrite["({$author->nicename})/?$"] = 'index.php?author_name=$matches[1]';
    }  
    return $author_rewrite;
}

// The second part //
add_filter('author_link', 'no_author_base', 1000, 2);
function no_author_base($link, $author_id) {
    $link_base = trailingslashit(get_option('home'));
    $link = preg_replace("|^{$link_base}author/|", '', $link);
    return $link_base . $link;
}

Props to WP-Snippet for this amazing tricks.

Detect And Redirect Android Users With .htaccess

Last night I shared a trick to redirect Android users to your Android/mobile website with a simple PHP snippet. It's time to do the same with .htaccess file. Android is the most used smart phone platform right now, and is a hot topic for developers.

Add this following code to your .htaccess file to redirect users with Android User Agent to a specific address:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*Android.*$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://android.yourwebsite.com [R=301]

Detect And Redirect Android Users With PHP

Here is a simple trick to redirect Android users with some simple PHP script. It's a useful snippet if you have an Android version of your website.

Add following PHP to your document to search and redirect Android user agents:

$ua = strtolower($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']);
if(stripos($ua,'android') !== false) { // && stripos($ua,'mobile') !== false) {
    header('Location: http://android.yourwebsite.com');
    exit();
}

More tricks like this are on their way...

Allow Contributors To Upload Images In WordPress

Are you running a WordPress website with bunch of contributors who are willing to post on your website? If yes then this article contains a great tip for you.

As I mention on previous articles, every post on your blog must contain at least one image related to the article. It's really great for SEO and other things.

This code will help us to allow users with contributor role to upload images on your WordPress site.

Add this code to your functions.php file:

if ( current_user_can('contributor') && !current_user_can('upload_files') )
     add_action('admin_init', 'allow_contributor_uploads');
    
     function allow_contributor_uploads() {
          $contributor = get_role('contributor');
          $contributor->add_cap('upload_files');
     }