When WordPress 2.3 was released, there were many plugins that were affected like the Extended Live Archives and Ultimate Tag Warrior. The Tiger Style Admin was also affected but unlike other compatibility issues that some plugins had, it only has a couple issues with the formatting. If you have tried using Tiger Style Admin on WP 2.3+ I think you know what I’m talking about.

For the sake of those who don’t, what happened is that the WP dashboard footer which contains the WordPress version, Documentation and Feedback isn’t aligned properly and floats above it’s proper place.

Before:

After:

The other issue is the “View site »” link in the upper right corner of the dashboard which can be barely seen because of the small font size. I was able to fix these issues by editing some code in the Tiger Style Admin’s stylesheet.

Before:

After:

In order to fix these issues, here’s what you need to do:

• Open the wp-admin-tiger/wp-admin-tiger_files/tiger.css file with a text editor.
• Look for line 262 or the #footer section.

It would look like this:

#footer { position:fixed; bottom:0; left:0; background: #EFEFEF url (ol_admin_images/wordpress-logo.gif) no-repeat 0 50%; border-top:1px solid CCC; height:22px; padding:0; width:100%; text-align:right; line-height:21px; z-index:99; font-size:10px; color:#666; }

Add the value highlighted in bold:

#footer { position:fixed; bottom:0; left:0; background: #EFEFEF url (ol_admin_images/wordpress-logo.gif) no-repeat 0 50%; border-top:1px solid CCC; height:22px; padding:0; margin:0; width:100%; text-align:right; line-height:21px; z-index:99; font-size:10px; color:#666; }

• Look for line 305 or the #wphead h1 span a section.

Original code (edit value highlighted in bold):

#wphead h1 span a { position:fixed; top:0px; line-height: 23px; padding:0; margin:0; right: 10px; color: #CCC !important; display: block; font-size:86%; font-weight:normal; text-shadow: none; background: url (ol_admin_images/world_go.png) no-repeat 0 50%; padding:0 0 0 20px; z-index:101; }

Change value to 225%:

#wphead h1 span a { position:fixed; top:0px; line-height: 23px; padding:0; margin:0; right: 10px; color: #CCC !important; display: block; font-size:225%; font-weight:normal; text-shadow: none; background: url (ol_admin_images/world_go.png) no-repeat 0 50%; padding:0 0 0 20px; z-index:101; }

• Save the file and upload back to the plugin folder. (If necessary, overwrite the existing file)
• Refresh or hit F5.

That should do it. After you refresh the page, you’d be able to see the View site link in the right font size and footer should be in it’s proper place.

NOTES: The code I presented above is not in the exact format and have been edited for presentation purposes. So don’t copy and paste it into the original file. You’ll have to type in the values yourself. Another thing to take note, unfortunately for Internet Explorer users the Tiger Style Admin still doesn’t work with Internet Explorer. The Tiger Style Admin theme works in the latest versions of FireFox, Flock and Opera. However, if you’re using Opera, you don’t have to edit the font size value of the View site link.

Anyone else experienced this issues when using Tiger Style Admin in WP 2.3+? Please let me know if you tried this fix and if it fixed the issues or not. Thank you!

I have been using the Extended Live Archives plugin for my archives page up until my previous theme. The Extended Live Archives or ELA is one of the best archive plugins created for WordPress and unfortunately, it lost its popularity and functionality the moment WordPress 2.3 was released. Why? Because WP 2.3′s database structure was modified, and as most of us know it created issues and incompatibilities with a lot of WordPress plugins one of which was ELA.

Let’s take a quick review of the changes in the database schema. In WordPress 2.3, the tables wp_categories, wp_link2cat and wp_post2cat became obsolete and were replaced by the following: wp_terms, wp_term_relationships and wp_term_taxonomy. Thus causing the plugin incompatibilities.

It seemed like it was the end for ELA especially because the author didn’t update or had no plans of updating the plugin to work with WordPress 2.3. Fortunately, a blogger from Hong Kong named Tinyau took the time and effort to fix ELA so that it would work with WordPress 2.3.

To fix the problem, Tinyau modified the code of the ELA plugin to make it work with the new database schema. In the process, the following files have been modified:

• af-extended-live-archive.php
• af-extended-live-archive-include.php
• af-extended-live-archive-option.php
• includes/af-ela.php

So if you want to use or reinstall the Extended Live Archives plugin on your WP 2.3+ blog, you can do so by downloading the modified version of Extended Live Archives from Tinyau’s blog and replace the four specified files above, activate it and you’re good to go. A friendly reminder, make sure you create backups of your WP database and the files that needs to be overwritten just in case something goes wrong. Better safe than sorry!

Btw, you might be wondering why I no longer use ELA on my blog. The reason is, I already use a lot of plugins and IMO the ELA archives doesn’t match or work well with the new theme layout. Hehe

Anyone else ditched Extended Live Archives because of WP 2.3? If you’re not using it or haven’t used ELA before, what archive plugin are you using on your blog?

Hat tip to iLemoned and Tinyau.

• Good news for my kababayans (countrymen), PayPal Philippines now has full features. This means that aside from sending money capabilities and the new withdrawal features, registered members in the Philippines and Indonesia can now receive funds from 90 markets and 17 currencies.
• Miguel Paraz and the Philippine Interconnectivity story.
• Dexter shares the lessons he’s learned on how to earn from linking to other sites.
• Learn how to block specific sites using a firewall with Eli.
• McBilly on why some make money online blogs don’t make money.
• Wanna increase traffic to your blog? Write about current events.
• Google Earth adds YouTube videos. via Brown Baron’s blog
• AJ shows us a preview of the deliciously new del.icio.us.
• Manuel Viloria on the Viral Cash Cow.
• Haven’t upgraded to WordPress 2.3 yet? Here’s several incompatible plugins and additional tips for upgrading to WP 2.3 from my friend Joni.

Last week’s roundup didn’t get any comments or feedback. It could be because that it was on the same weekend of the Pacquiao vs Barrera 2 fight. But it made me think whether this feature is still worth doing and if someone is actually reading it.

Anyways, I’d like to get your opinions or any type of feedback especially from my regular readers regarding this weekly feature. Should I continue doing this weekend roundup? Please help me out here. Thank you and have a good weekend!

Brand New and/or Improved Features:

• Native tagging support
• Update notification
• Canonical URLs
• Pending Review
• Advanced WYSIWYG
• Full Atom 1.0 support
• New jQuery
• Taxonomy system
• New method of doing SQL queries

Because of the plugin compatibility issue, I’ll be waiting a while before I jump in and upgrade my WordPress installation. Also, there are a few plugins I heavily use that will be updated soon by the author and I want to make sure all my plugins work when I do the upgrade. I know I’ll be spending a lot of my time doing research on the plugins and other issues involving tags. I wish I did it earlier like my friend Jhay who installed WP 2.3 RC 1 on one of his blogs.

For those who are intimidated or afraid of doing the upgrade, you don’t have to be. Just make sure you backup all your files especially your database. Then check if the plugins you’re currently using are compatible to WP 2.3 and update them to the latest version if you need to. You can check the plugin compatibility list for the plugins that work or don’t work.

If you’re using a plugin that doesn’t work with 2.3, you can look for an alternative plugin. I’ve already downloaded several plugins that will replace some of the plugins that I use which don’t work with 2.3 (in case the author won’t update them) and downloaded some plugins that are designed just for WP 2.3. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask help from your friends, other bloggers who have done the upgrade, plugin authors or from bloggers who you think can help you.

One more thing. Make sure you download all your plugins and WordPress 2.3 only from reliable sources.

Have you upgraded to WordPress 2.3? Did you experience any issues or problems? What plugins did you have to uninstall or install for this new version? If not, what’s keeping you from doing the upgrade? Share your thoughts!

• 10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.3 by Aaron Brazell. A must read for any WordPress user!
• Karlo of PinoyBlogero asks “Where are the Pinoy bloggers from The Top 50 Bloggers List?“
• Andrew Dela Serna discusses the health hazards of playing games in the Internet.
• Jayvee Fernandez’s hands on impressions and comments on the new Apple iPod Touch.
• Benito Vergara talks about his latest project – Mad Crowd Media.
• The guys over at PinoyMoneyTalk receives another phishing email pretending to be from Gmail Team.
• Techno Pinoy shows us how to securely share albums in Flickr.
• Karla of Rockersworld gets featured in the Autodesk Manufacturing Community Newsletter. Way to go Karla!

Btw, I’d like to get everyone’s opinion or feedback regarding this feature. Do you guys like it? Do you think I should continue to make this into a weekly feature? Why or why not? I’d appreciate any feedback or suggestions. Stay safe and have a great weekend!