Harrison Blackwood » Wordpress

K2 WordPress theme

Harrison — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 06:05:21 +0000

I have used the K2 WordPress theme since around version 0.9 with WordPress 1.5.
I usually try to use the most current nightly version. Occasionally, I found the nightly versions did’t work well immediately with whatever WordPress version was current at the time of the K2 nightly release but with dedication from the K2 developers everything worked out eventually. All I had to do is use a previous version (revert) from the WordPress selection menu until issues were fixed. I kept 4 to 5 sequential K2 nightly releases in my WordPress themes folder. I even used ‘bleeding edge’ WordPress releases from time to time and K2 worked.

K2 nightly version is currently at 1.1 revision 1144 from 8/24/10. This is the version I am currently using.

Recently, I read on their support forum that it appears the K2 development has ended. That is too bad. K2 has always been ahead of the curve when it came to features and usability. WordPress 3.0 has some similar features for ease of use that K2 implemented awhile back.

Times have changed. User demands change as WordPress and more are developed. Thanks to the hard work all the K2 developers put in the past years.

pages vs post catergories

Harrison — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:40:46 +0000

I finally figured out what I can and can not do with the layout structure. I thought I had always understood the difference between pages and posts. After doing some searching on the structural difference, I read some answers to other’s questions to realize what I was trying to do with pages I need and can do with categories. Pages are static, best used for lists, tables, or unchanging data like some broad subject description. Archives, About, and Contact are examples of some of the most common.
Luckily, some themes easily allow menu bars for pages and categories.

WordPress 3.0 and K2 theme

Harrison — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:57:21 +0000

I am currently running WordPress 3.0 using the K2 theme nightly version 1.1 r1105. When I previewed the theme first the format was not showing up correctly. I had to re-select ‘Use K2 Styling’ in order for the site to be displayed correctly. I only mention this because on two other sites with a different hosts I did not have to do this. Strange – no matter everything is working.

Also, I had to re-select ‘Header Menu Home tab’ selection of Custom and re-enter ‘Custom Home tab’ name: Start under the K2 Options tab.

WordPress 3.0 stuck in maintenance mode

Harrison — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:32:35 +0000

I have never been able to use the automatic update feature for WordPress or plugins with the host of this site. I did some research on the host’s forum and on the wordpress.org forum but never found anything that could help. I just did the manual upgrade in the past. It only takes a few minutes.

I decided to finally figure out the issue. I found a few old files that were causing problems. After deleting them everything seemed to work as expected. I upgraded from WordPress 2.9.2 to version 3.0 with no problem automatically after de-activating all of my plugins.

Then I started to upgrade some plugins, 7. The first few upgraded automatically just fine, but by the 4th my blog got stuck in maintenance mode for over 15 minutes. That seemed a bit long to me. I checked my site and tried to return to my admin page and all I got was –

Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.

After a quick Google search of ‘wordpress stuck in maintenance mode’, I found the answer on the wordpress.org forum.
The answer – looked for a file called .maintentance (dot maintenance). Once deleted everything came back.

This issue was a bit scary at first. Before I freak out and sent emails/phone calls to my host I always search major problems in Google or appropriate forum for an answer.

Still using K2 theme with WordPress

Harrison — Sat, 30 May 2009 09:13:48 +0000

I am still using the K2 theme, now revision r791 with the current version of WordPress 2.7.1. I still need to adapt to widgets vs K2′s SBM (sidebar manager). I liked K2′s SBM much better than widgets due to the ease of use, flexibility, and customizability. I will need to hunt down more plugins or widgets to get back what I miss, mainly Pages display control.

For as often as I post, does this matter? A little. Time for some experimentation.

Current blog set-up

Harrison — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:22:15 +0000

My current blog set-up:
WordPress 2.7.1
theme K2 r764

Everything works great as expected. I stopped using the K2 Sidebar Manager (SBM), since it was being phased out. I prefer the SBM. The widgets manager does not give you enough options or settings for displaying individual widgets. Mainly, the lack of options with the Pages widget compared to the K2 SBM version.

There is supposed to be a K2 SBM to widget importer in the works. It will be interesting to see how they handle the reduced options.

From Flock

Harrison — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:44:34 +0000

Final test using Flock. Very basic, too basic. Category list shows up after you select publish.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

WordPress 2.5 and K2

Harrison — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:23:46 +0000

I recently updated to WordPress 2.5 using the most recent nightly version of the K2 theme. Everything went smooth as usual. I small glitch, when I select a theme version to use, I initially get a fatal error when reloading due to my last.fm plugin. I just refresh the page and everyrhing works great from then on.

The new look of WordPress 2.5 is very cool and has some welcomed refined touches/changes/advancements.

WordPress and K2

Harrison — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:03:23 +0000

I have been using WordPress for awhile with the K2 theme and I would say that these two together make a powerful combination that is easy to use. I have not had any real problems that I did not cause myself from experimenting. Of course everyone should BACK-UP their websites in case of problems.

The current version of WordPress is 2.3 and works great the K2 theme. I am currently using K2 revision 562. The most recent versions of K2 know give you that option to run WordPress widgets or K2 sidebar modules. Keeping up-to-date is easy with upgrade plugins. I use InstantUpgrade version 0.2 by Alex Günsche.

View a list of plugins I use to run this site or see it on an About page subpage.

Anyone interested in starting blog should definitely consider WordPress with K2.

Shockwave Flash issue

Harrison — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:46:08 +0000

I noticed a serious issue with the Jaiku badge that requires shockwave-flash. If the browser does not have the proper plugin the page rendering becomes extremely random. My sidebar was everywhere except on the right side. I removed the Jaiku badge from the previous post due to this problem. If the browser does not have the correct plugin there should just be a blank spot asking for or stating condition of plugin needed. This should not confuse the format to the point of making an unreadable page.

My main computer is a Mac. My main browser currently is Safari. I also use Firefox 2.0.0.7 and Flock 0.9.1.3. Occasionally, I use Camino 1.5.1 or Shiira 2.2.

I know a simple cure for me would be to make sure any and all browsers I use have up-to-date plugins. But what about the rest of the world? Not everyone is on top of updating.