WordPress adds all images uploaded during post creation to a Gallery. Once all the images have been uploaded, you can select the Gallery tab, and insert the gallery right into the post. However, I wanted to exclude one of the images. But there wasn’t anything in the image manager that allowed me to exclude an image. (WordPress guys, please add this feature.)

No worries though, the WordPress Gallery is really short code, and the short code allows for parameters. In this case, I was able to add the exclude parameter with the ID of the image I didn’t want in the Gallery, and whala, I was able to display what I wanted. You can get the ID of the image in the Library and hover over the image, you should see a value for attachment_id, make note of it. The short code lookes like this:

[ gallery exclude="123" ]

One of the templates offered out of the box is for a complete WordPress install. After following the wizard like instructions, I had a basic WordPress installation up and running in a matter of minutes.

I played with several WordPress settings, saved changes, added posts and pages, and even modified the theme.

Overall it was a painless experience. I downloaded the template XML so I could modify for future needs, and tuned the server off after about 4 hours. Total charges were around $3. Of course that’s with little data transfer.

One feature I haven’t been able to get working yet is WordPress MultiSite. I kept getting an error pointing to a location on the server that was throwing a 404 error. This could be a problem with a plugin. Further investigation is needed.

What I really liked was I could turn on a dev box for a demo or to work on a new site without having to setup a new web hosting. Not sure yet how feasible it would be to run the site 24/7, but for dev and test it would be great.

I have hesitated to upload photos to my blog from third party clients because I feared what happened tonight, would happen. I took several photos of my Family attending a play, created a new post in my iPhone WordPress application, inserted media from my phone, and posted. Of course, the posting had issues, mainly, the HTML used to show the photos was hosed. Here is what was sent to WordPress:

And here is what it should have looked like:

So, the post that was sent out to my RSS feed now has 6 photos with incorrect formatting and links. Frustrating to say the least.

Before trying to post to my WordPress blog, I sent the same photo set to my Tumblr site, via email, with zero problems.

The final thing I thought would take place is the creation of a Gallery. If I had included say 20 or 30 images, it would have been nice to see a slide show or at least thumbnails for each image. Instead, the images were inserted, full size, and with a large amount of images,  the post would have been several hundred feet off the screen. Just doesn’t seem like the whole posting media from the iPhone app is working right.

Two things I’m excited about, and really hope are implemented, is a new multi site Admin, and a configurable Dashboard. This is kind of interesting, because at WordCamp Utah 2010, Matt Mullenweg asked Adam Dunford, “if you had a magic wand, what would you change in WordPress?” His response was a cleaner, configurable dashboard. Spot on Adam.

Looks like the WP team is shooting for a mid December release, with a feature freeze in mid October. That’s not too far off.

If you haven’t already upgraded to WordPress 3, you should do it soon. This is a fantastic release, seems to be very stable, and the further you fall behind the more problems you will encounter.

It was a great event, the audience was great, the other presenters (Dan Garfield @todaywasawesome) and panelists (Jake Spurlock @whyisjake) were awesome. It was a good WordPress night.

Thanks to Darin ‘Doc’ Berntson (@igobydoc) for putting the event together to coincide with the Eye Care for Kids charity concert after the club meeting. Doc really spends a lot of time promoting and supporting the charity. Take a few minutes to check it out.

Once I installed the theme and started working on it, I noticed that there was white space at the top of all my pages, enough room for the BuddyPress admin bar. So I knew it had something to be missing code that wasn’t displaying the admin bar. A quick search on the BuddyPress forum site and I found the solution: Make sure the wp_footer() reference is in your template file.

My theme needed a reference to wp_footer(). There was a reference to get_footer(), but that doesn’t help the admin bar. Once I added the reference, the bar shows up as desired. I call this code snippet in the custom theme where the footer should appear.

<?php
function custom_footer() { ?>
    <div id="custom_footer" class="accentBorders">Copyright &#169; 2010 All Rights Reserved.</div>
<?php
    wp_footer();
}
?>

Find more BuddyPress goodness at http://buddypress.org/support/topics/.

By the way, BuddyPress is a set of plug-ins that give your WordPress site the ability to create a community.

• 59% of respondents preferred native commenting to a third party system.
• 25% of respondents preferred Disqus.
• 16% of respondents preferred IntenseDebate.

These are completely un-scientific results. I’ll continue to run the poll to see if I can get more results, and I’ll update this post, or if the overall results change, I’ll write up something new.

What I find interesting is those who answered picked the native commenting system. Some of the things I would like to know is why? With the third party commenting systems providing log-ins for Facebook, Twitter, OpenID and others, the appeal to use these Social Network links doesn’t seem to be a draw.

I don’t particularly care one way or the other what commenting systems people use. I have Disqus installed on this blog, if for no other reason than I like being able to track and manage my comments on this and other sites who use Disqus.

Here’s a thought though. It would be cool to use a Gravatar type system, where your comments are tied to your email address, pinged back to a service, and then you can manage and track your comments on a wider range of sites.

My friend Scott Lemon (@humancell) also suggested another commenting system called Echo, you get more information on it here http://js-kit.com/.

If you would like to participate in my poll, please check it out here http://ow.ly/Hxj1.

You do have the ability to manage comments, but if you use a comment plugin system like Disqus, you can’t moderate those comments.

I do like that you can create pages with this tool. I also like that I can manage multiple blogs.

I don’t like that I can’t insert a place holder god a photo, so I have no idea how the format will look. And how do create a linked word? Doesn’t seem exist.

This is a great tool for creating quick, non-complicated posts.

WP e-Commerce Plug-in For WordPress

WP e-Commerce is a free plug-in and can be installed right from the plug-in section of your hosted WordPress admin tool. There are several modules for this product including drop shipping, digital downloads, members only, and an affiliate option. These modules are reasonably priced, but can add up if your trying to be cost conscious.

Support for this plug-in comes from a forum on their site. Understand that a majority of questions about product issues are answered by community members. The website also encourages you to buy a documentation file for $35. I’ve never seen this before, but I suppose it’s their way of reducing the need to answer support questions. I should also mention the documentation isn’t written by the plug-in developer, but rather a user of the product.

If e-commerce isn’t your WordPress sites sole function, I would use WP e-Commerce. It’s simplicity and feature rich free version should be enough for the casual seller. A list of features can be found here.

Shopp Ecommerce Plug-in For WordPress

The next application I want to share is Shopp plug-in for ecommerce. This plug-in is not free, and you will pay for enhanced features. But the thing I really like about this product is it’s breadth of features. From the WordPress Dashboard integration to the drag and drop functionality of putting products in the shopping cart.

You’ll find advanced features like inventory management, multiple shipping types, data export for Excel and Quickbooks, and various language translations. One of the major features I think sets this product apart is the cross selling option. Like Amazon, you can give your buyers the ability to buy other products that may be related, or up sell them to something of more value. Other products in this space are rushing to implement this feature, it’s that important.

Support comes from a forum on the companies website, which seems to be pretty active. Take a look at the features here. While having to pay for modules may seem costly, these modules make the product a commercial grade ecommerce system that integrates into WordPress.

I’m finding Ecommerce is becoming a natural extension of the WordPress platform. I’ve installed both products, and find them to be the best available at this time. I would like to see these companies extend their products to work with mobile themes. As an example, if you are running the WPtouch plug-in, which gives iPhone users an elegant theme, you can’t use the shopping cart to buy products. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a mobile compliant site.

What ecommerce products have you used the integrate with WordPress? What has been your experience?

Thank you to all who attended, you had some great questions, and several of you shared your experience. If you were in my class last night connect with me on Twitter or Facebook, or any number of other social network sites. Or a good old email/phone call works too.