Did my last blog update post about a couple months back and I’ve done some changes to the blog so I decided to do another blog update post. These blog update posts have become a “regular” habit of mine here on JaypeeOnline and I consider it as some kind of “checkpoint” to help me remember the plugins I installed/uninstalled on the period of time. Its also a way for me to inform my readers of the changes I’ve made to the blog especially the changes I’ve made front-end wise, changes in the blog theme, design, layout, etc.

The changes I’ve listed below are the changes I’ve made since my previous blog update.

Uninstalled Plugins

• LinkWithin – Displays recommended stories and associated thumbnails from your blog.
• Most Commented – Retrieves a list of the posts with the most comments.
• Popularity Contest – keeps a count of your post, category and archive views, comments, trackbacks, etc. and uses them to determine which of your posts are most popular.
• Global Translator – automatically translates your blog in the following 41 different languages.

I removed LinkWithin because based on my observation, visitors weren’t using it that much and it uses up too much space and makes the overall post page layout more cluttered. Uninstalled the Most Commented and Popularity Contest plugins because my theme has built-in functions that make both plugins redundant. Removed the Global Translator plugin because of security issues and I will discuss more about it in an upcoming post.

Installed Plugins

• Where did they go from here – Show “Readers Also Viewed” links on your page.
• Theme Authenticity Checker – scans theme files for potentially malicious or unwanted code.
• TweetMeme Button – Adds a button which easily lets you retweet your blog posts.
• WP Super Cache – Very fast caching plugin for WordPress.
• Yoast Breadcrumbs – Outputs a fully customizable breadcrumb path.

Installed the Where did they go from here plugin and placed it beside the Related Posts to display posts that readers visited after viewing/reading that current post. This is very useful because it lists some posts that aren’t displayed in the Related Posts and lists posts that may also be of interest to the new reader. I installed the Theme Authenticity Checker to help me verify the themes that I review in my WordPress Theme reviews. The TweetMeme button is the small graphic displayed on the upper left portion of each post and displays the number of times the post was RT’d (retweeted) and enables the reader to easily RT the post.

I installed WP Super Cache in the efforts of solving the problems I had with my previous web host. It didn’t work because the problem was not with my blog but with my web host its just that they didn’t want to admit it and they were trying to put the blame on my blog.

I’ve been planning on implementing breadcrumb navigation on my blog for a long time now but didn’t get to do it. I finally found time to install Yoast’s Breadcrumbs plugin. This plugin displays the path and location of the post/page that the reader is currently viewing. Helps users to easily navigate through the blog/website. The breadcrumb path is the text displayed at the top most part of each post and page (Home > Post).

Other Changes

I didn’t do much changes to the blog theme and layout except for some minor tweaks on the sidebar.

• Added the JaypeeOnline Facebook Fan Page at the sidebar.
• Removed the Entrecard widget. Still thinking about whether I should put it back or not.
• Moved the Trackbacks/Pingbacks section below the Comment form.

I think thats it, I mean that’s all the changes I’ve done since my last blog update. Sometimes my memory fails me so I might have missed one or two changes and if I did, I’ll update the post later.

If any of you guys have comments, ideas or suggestions to make JaypeeOnline better, please don’t hesitate to share it with me via the comments section or if you want to remain anonymous, you can send me a message via the contact page. Thanks and you all have a great weekend!

A couple years back, there were two instances where I warned Joomla users and WordPress users about their theme sources or where they downloaded their themes from. This was because some sites who redistribute free WordPress themes are hijacking and repackaging these themes and inserting malicious codes into the functions.php or footer.php files. If undetected, these codes can compromise your blog or make it link to unfriendly sites and can get your blog banned by Google.

Because of these incidents, the guys from builtBackwards saw a need for something to solve this issue and decided to create a plugin that can check and scan theme files for potentially malicious or unwanted code.

TAC stands for Theme Authenticity Checker. Currently, TAC searches the source files of every installed theme for signs of malicious code. If such code is found, TAC displays the path to the theme file, the line number, and a small snippet of the suspect code. As of v1.3 TAC also searches for and displays static links.

Installing the Theme Authenticity Checker plugin is easy as A-B-C. Just download the zip file, extract it, upload the tac folder into your wp-content/plugins folder on your web server and activate the plugin via the WP dashboard. Once its activated, you can access the Theme Authenticity Checker plugin via Appearance > TAC.

Screenshot:

How it works:
The Theme Authenticity Checker plugin is simple and straightforward. Once this plugin is installed, it automatically checks your theme files for potentially malicious or unwanted code. If it detects any types of those codes, it will display the path to the theme file, the line number and a short snippet of the suspicious code. Making it fast and easy for the user to trace and remove those pieces of code.

If you install the Theme Authenticity Checker plugin and it detects some suspicious or unwanted code on your theme files, first thing you need to do is contact the theme author about it and ask if that piece of code is supposed to be there. In most cases, that piece of code wasn’t put there by the author but in some cases like “sponsored” WordPress themes, the code is purposely placed by the theme authors themselves. Sometimes, removing the piece of “code” can cause your theme to crash or stop working so you’re better off changing your theme to a different one.

I’ve installed it here on my blog and it works great. Unfortunately, after I installed it I found out that one of the free WordPress themes that I’ve recently reviewed contains hidden code in its footer.php file. I’m talking about the Milano theme. I’ve disabled the download link from that review and posted an update, suggesting users who’ve downloaded and installed the theme to remove/uninstall it and replace their theme with a different one.

I love the Theme Authenticity Checker plugin and I wish I found out about it sooner. Its a very handy tool when I do my WordPress Theme reviews, because I can check the theme first before I do my review and make sure that the theme I’m sharing is safe for my readers and its users. This type of plugin is not only useful for blog authors who use WordPress but also for people who deal with a lot of WordPress themes and build WordPress blogs for their clients.

A word of warning, always make sure that you only download WordPress themes from reliable sources or only direct from the theme author’s site. If you really want to try out a new WordPress theme from a new or unreliable source, then you can use the Theme Authenticity Checker plugin to check the theme.

I strongly recommend the Theme Authenticity Checker plugin to anyone who runs a WordPress-powered blog. This is one of those must-have plugins for any WordPress blog.

Have you experienced downloading and installing a WordPress theme with suspicious code in it? Anyone else using or have tried the Theme Authenticity Checker plugin? What other features would like to see added to it? Please share your thoughts.