And in one bloggershumble opinion this is rightfully so. But don’t take my word for it. The latest release, 3.2 (code name Gershwin), has already eclipsed 3 million downloads. And it was only released on July 4th.

The newest update includes a full revamping of the GUI all together. A slicker, more minimalist dashboard makes everything easily available to get to.

They have a included a new default theme entitled Twenty Eleven to replace last year’s Twenty Ten. This is a promise by WordPress to provide a new default theme each year.

There is also a new full screen editing mode that allows you to “just write.” WordPress is calling it distraction free writing as the text box, along with a few editing tool buttons, takes up the entire browser window and hiding all other aspects of WordPress in order to give you less distractions.

But probably one of the biggest changes to Gershwin is behind the scenes and not one that many people will notice. With version 3.2 WordPress has dropped support of outdated components. For instance this version no longer supports old versions of PHP 4 and MySQL 4. It has also dropped support of ancient browsers like Internet Explorer 6.

Again most people won’t notice this but there is a potential that a small number of people will encounter problems if still using one of these legacy softwares. Rest assured though that Applied Innovations fully supports and operates recent version of PHP 5 and MySQL 5 on all our shared systems. And if you are using an outdated browser type then don’t worry. Head over to Browse Happy and you can be directed to download the latest version of one of the major web browsers out there.

WordPress is continuing to take major steps forward in the online world and with version 3.2 they are certainly going to continue in the direction in future. And we here at Applied Innovations fully see this growth in WordPress. We have updated our one click Application Pack installer to version 3.2 so that all new installs of WordPress will be up to date. Upgrades of existing WordPress installs can be upgraded right from your WordPress Dashboard.

• Install WordPress with just one click via the control panel.
• How to configure the basic settings for wordpress, including Search Engine Friendly URLS.
• How to upgrade WordPress to the latest version manually
• How to automatically upgrade WordPress if you’re running 2.6 or later.
• Most Recently, How to change your theme in WordPress.

In this video we’re going to install some core plug-ins to extend our blog and make it a more powerful Search Engine Optimization and Marketing tool.

Plugins are a powerful way to add additional functionality and features to your blog. They include everything from protecting your blog from spammers, changing the way your headers and meta tags display, to even embedding videos or widgets into your blog.

The Plugins We’ll Cover

In this tutorial we’re going to cover the following plugins:

1. Akismet: to keep those pesky spammers at bay
2. Sociable: for making your blog social website friendly and making it easier for your visitors to tag your blog
3. All in One SEO Pack: to make your blog standout in the search engines and tweak your settings and features to make them more search engine spider friendly.

The Video

The video steps you through the process of installing Akismet, Sociable and the “All in One SEO Pack”. Once installed you’re able to extend your blog and these topics will be covered in depth in Rapid Domination.

[flv]http://www.appliedi.net/blog/uploads/wordpress-plugins.flv[/flv]

Getting Started

The first step in this process will be to access our site via the WordPress Dashboard. This is usually found by going to your site at http://www.domain.com/blog/wp-admin/ where domain.com your domain name and blog is the folder you’ve installed wordpress in. The WordPress Dashboard looks like the image below:

Once inside your dashboard, you’ll click on the Plugins option in the left column menu and this will bring up the Plugins Manager screen:

Finding plugins to install.

If you scroll down your screen you’ll see a link for the new “Plug-in Browser/Installer” using this tool we’ll be able review available plugins on the wordpress site and install the plugins we’d like to use. We’ll click that link and soon our blog will look similar to the below image:

Once we’re on this screen, we know the plugins we want to install so in the search box we’ll enter:  “Sociable” and when the listing comes up we’ll select the install link under Actions for the plug-in we want:

The screen will change like below and we’ll select the option “Install Update Now”

The program will start automatically installing your plug-in for you and after a few minutes you’ll see a screen like below:

You can now activate the plug-in or find another plug-in to install. Go ahead and repeat this process now to install “All in one SEO Pack” but putting in the search terms “SEO Pack” and following the above process for this plug-in.

The other plug-in we’re installing is Akismet and it’s installed by default.

Activating your plugins.

Once your plugins are installed, it’s really easy to activate them.  You’ll navigate back to the plugins page and click the activate link next to each plug-in you want to activate:

If you find things go wrong with one of these plugins you deactivate it by clicking the deactivate link:

If after activating a plug-in you find wordpress won’t load and you’re not able to deactivate the plug-in. Just FTP into your site and navigate to the folder wp-content/plugins under your blog folder and delete the folder for the plug-in in question.

Keeping your plugins up to date

From time to time you’ll log into your blog and find that you have a little number next to the plugins. in the left. This means there’s that many plugins that need to be updated:

Clicking on the plugins link will take you to the plugins manager and you’ll be able to see exactly which plugins need to be updated:

Just like installing plugins automatically we can also upgrade automatically. Simply click on the upgrade automatically link and the plug-in will be downloaded, upgraded and reactivated automatically:

and if all goes well you’ll see the plug-in was reactivated successfully as highlighted above.

Conclusion

In a later installment on this blog we’ll cover how to get the most benefit out of these plugins. In the meantime I’d encourage you to check out some of the other plugins available for your wordpress installation. Some of my favorites are:

• headspace
• odiogo
• Wassup
• fickrRSS
• StatPress
• NextGEN Gallery (great for creating family photo galleries).

One of the great features wordpress has is that you can enable a feature called permalinks.  According to Wikipedia:

A permalink is a URL that points to a specific blogging entry even after the entry has passed from the front page into the blog archives. Because a permalink remains unchanged indefinitely, it is less susceptible to link rot.

A permalink is useful as it provides an easy to remember URL to a blog article and is also pretty search engine friendly.

How permalinks used to be done on Windows

Previously if you wanted to enable permalinks in your Windows based blog you had only a couple options:

1. using a custom 404 redirect as explained on the Keyboard face blog.
2. using an ISAPI filter, such as Dean Lee’s isapi filter.

These worked well and I’ve used both in blog. But today, thanks to isapi-rewrite 3.0 from helicontech.com we have a new way to do it. Helicontech’s latest version of isapi-rewrite is mod_rewrite compatible. Mod-rewrite is a URL rewriting engine used in apache web servers and since almost all PHP apps are initially written for apache based servers they make use of mod_rewrite rules. Helicontech saw this and rewrote their own isapi-rewrite tool to be mod_rewrite compatible.

This means if you have an application like wordpress that makes use of mod_rewrite you’ll be able to use the same rules and just upload a .htaccess file to your Windows hosted account and you’re done!  It couldn’t be an easier. Fortunately for you, AppliedI.net includes isapi-rewrite 3.0 for free with all shared hosting accounts so you have this functionality immediately.

How to do permalinks in wordpress in IIS6 with your blog in the root folder

Many users put their blog in their web root folder so when you go to http://www.example.com/ the blog comes up immediately. This tutorial portion assumes this is where your blog is. If this isn’t where you’re blog is please read the next section.

Once you’ve installed your wordpress blog on your site you’ll want to log into the admin section and select options and then select permalinks. You’re going to make the following changes:

1. Under Common Options:

Select Custom, specify below. Enter the custom structure as: /archives/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

2. Under Optional:

We’re going to enter a category base and tag base. This is important because you’re going to categorize your articles (to make them easier for the visitors to browse) and tag your articles to help with searches and also allow your related articles to be grouped. For Category base: /category/ For Tag base: /tags/

3. Update Permalink Structure

Once these are set you’re going to click the button, update permalink structure. This is going to update these settings your database. We’re not done though. We still have to upload the .htaccess file. 

4. Create .htaccess file

You’ll create a new text file and name it .htaccess. In this text file you’re going to include the text:

# Helicon ISAPI_Rewrite configuration file
# Version 3.0.0.21

# BEGIN WordPress
# <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
# </IfModule>
# END WordPress

You’re going to want to enter the text just like that and then upload this file to your website’s root folder. That’s it! Permalinks should now work.

How to setup wordpress permalinks for /blog/ on IIS6 (or windows hosting)

The steps in this section of the tutorial are just like the steps above except this assumes your blog is in a subfolder called /blog/ so your blog is accessed as: http://www.example.com/blog/. If your blog is in a subfolder other than blog you’d change the instructions below substituting your folder name for /blog/. The only step that changes is step #4.

Once you’ve installed your wordpress blog on your site you’ll want to log into the admin section and select options and then select permalinks. You’re going to make the following changes:

1. Under Common Options:

Select Custom, specify below. Enter the custom structure as: /archives/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

2. Under Optional:

We’re going to enter a category base and tag base. This is important because you’re going to categorize your articles (to make them easier for the visitors to browse) and tag your articles to help with searches and also allow your related articles to be grouped. For Category base: /category/ For Tag base: /tags/

3. Update Permalink Structure

Once these are set you’re going to click the button, update permalink structure. This is going to update these settings your database. We’re not done though. We still have to upload the .htaccess file. 

4. Create .htaccess file

You’ll create a new text file and name it .htaccess. In this text file you’re going to include the text:

# Helicon ISAPI_Rewrite configuration file
# Version 3.0.0.21

# BEGIN WordPress
# <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blog/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]
# </IfModule>
# END WordPress

You’ll notice RewriteBase has now changed to reflect the /blog/ folder instead of /.  That’s because we’re assuming your blog is in a subfolder named /blog/. Once you’ve modified this file, save it and then upload it into the subfolder /blog/ where your blog is stored. It’s import that the .htaccess file go in the actual folder you’re doing the rewrites on and not the parent folder.

That’s it! Permalinks should now work.

Additional Information

Permalinks are very important as you can imagine and the .htaccess rules above actually came initially from Perishable Press’s article The htaccess Rules for all WordPress Permalinks and have been updated for isapi-rewrite 3.0 compatibility.

If your hosted with a host that doesn’t support isapi-rewrite 3.0 for you blog you can learn more about our WordPress Hosting by following that link.

With it you can even create your own community of bloggers, each person with his/her own blog, or you can have multiple authors on a single blog as well. Everything was thought of.

WordPress isn’t only this though. In essence yes. But it can be more, much more.

Many people, including myself use WordPress for more then just blogging. On my particular case, it’s the only CMS and it’s actually the platform that delivers all my website’s content to visitors. Everything dynamically!

In fact, I predict WordPress will turn into a full Content Management System such as Joomla, phpNuke or Post-Nuke. It really has the power for it. Actually it’s way more powerful and it can be much more secure then the ones I just mentioned. It’s all about patience and time to secure it.

Don’t worry, it isn’t insecure. But just like every other popular application, vulnerabilities are found more easily, and unfortunately they also become public from night to day. Again, a few tweaks here and there will kept your site secure from all the threats.

One of the things I’ve done on mine was to promptly restrict admin access to my IP only. Even if you have a dynamic IP and cannot do this, you can always restrict the IP range to your ISP. This is done by using rewrite rules.

More information on this can be found at:
http://blogsecurity.net/wordpress/article-210607/

Having this covered, WordPress can be your best pal on content management. Especially with the new tool from Microsoft: Windows Live Writer.

So with WordPress you’ll be able to submit new articles and update existing ones without even having to open a browser window.

What else could we ask for?

Plus with so many themes and plugins being developed for it, you can even sell cars through it. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? WordPress can do everything, really. Like I said it’s just a matter of putting time and effort into it, and it will become the perfect CMS for you, guaranteed.

Some interesting links:
Installation guide by Jess Coburn (Appliedi.net)
WordPress’ official plugin directory
WordPress’ official theme directory
WordPress compatible Hosting

Why WordPress, and Why WordPress on Windows?

WordPress is a freely distributed, standards-compliant, fast, light and free personal publishing platform. Based on PHP and MySQL wordpress is very powerful and extensible. WordPress is also one of the most widely adopted and used blogging engines today and powers the very blog you’re reading.

As a Windows hosting provider we support PHP and MySQL on all of our hosting servers and WordPress is just one of the many applications we host that is built around PHP and MySQL and we’ve extended our hosting platform to make your PHP/MySQL hosting as easy and powerful as it is on any hosting platform. One of the additions you’ll find on our hosting platform is helicon-tech.com‘s Isapi-Rewrite. Isapi-Rewrite 3.0 is a mod-rewrite compatible isapi filter that brings full mod-rewrite compatibility to your Windows hosting account. For wordpress this means you’ll be able to make full use of permalinks and search engine friendly URLs without any extra work! In addition we support the latest builds of PHP with Windows optimized binaries for maximum performance and compatibility.

Installing WordPress at AppliedI.net

1. Selecting the WordPress application pack

Within your domain settings of our control panel you’ll find an option for Application Packs.

The Application Packs are a series of common web applications that we support as one-click installable apps. By using the application packs you’ll be able to install some of the most requested and commonly hosted applications without having to upload anything, without having to edit any files and with minimum effort on your part. This makes installing applications like wordpress even easier than they already.

2. Entering basic configuration settings

Once you select the wordpress application pack you’ll need to enter a few settings. You’ll want to decide what folder you’ll install it in and enter that folder, if it’s not the root folder. You’ll want to either select an existing MySQL database or create a new database and if creating a new database you’ll want to enter the database and login credentials you’ll use. By default wordpress prepends wp_ to all of it’s tables so if you already have a MySQL database for another web application you can share that information here.

3. You’re done, almost!

Once you click the install button on the configuration page the control panel copies over the wordpress files and edits the configuration files for you, next step is to execute the web based installer within wordpress. Easiest way to do that is to open the url:

http://YOURDOMAIN/wp-admin/index.php (where YOURDOMAIN is your domain name)

or you can just go directly to http://YOURDOMAIN/ but you may notice the CSS isn’t quite right and some of the images may not display correctly but don’t be alarmed it will still install fine.

Once you open the install page you just need to make a few basic settings and we’re done.

4. Setting WordPress Email & Title

As with any WordPress install, you’ll want to enter your blog’s title, your email address (make sure you use your real email address because it will email you your username and password to this address) and click the install button.

5. Now you just need to log in.

Once you click the install button, you’ll wait a few minutes for a screen like:

That’s it your blog is now installed and you’ll be able to login and finish configuring the blog.

What’s next after it’s installed?

After you’ve installed your blog you’re all set and can begin blogging immediately. You’ll log into the admin interface at:

http://YOURDOMAIN/wp-admin (where YOURDOMAIN is your actual domain)

and begin configuring it. You’ll be able to enable new plug-ins and themes. We’ve taken the liberty to enable a couple extra themes for you (about 6 actually) so you’ll have a few more choices and we’ve installed some of the most common plug-ins for you that you can enable if you like.

Look for a future blog posting on advanced wordpress on windows tips and tricks that will help you extend wordpress even further.