First we define a new function, we used remove_admin_menu_items(). In this function we define an array $remove_menu_items that contains the menu items we wish to remove from the admin navigation. The function is designed to step through WordPress’ multidimensional array $menu, getting each $menu item name by use of the PHP function explode(). It then checks if that $menu item name is in our $remove_menu_items array using the PHP function in_array(). If the $menu item name does appear, then that item is removed from the multidimensional array $menu, by use the PHP function unset().

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function remove_admin_menu_items() {
  $remove_menu_items = array(__('Posts'),__('Links'), __('Comments'));
  global $menu;
  end ($menu);
  while (prev($menu)){
    $item = explode(' ',$menu[key($menu)][0]);
    if(in_array($item[0] != NULL?$item[0]:"" , $remove_menu_items)){
      unset($menu[key($menu)]);}
    }
  }

We then initiate the remove_admin_menu_items() function using the add_action() WordPress function as shown below.

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add_action('admin_menu', 'remove_admin_menu_items');

Putting it all together yields the following code to be placed in your theme’s functions.php file:

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/* Clean up the admin sidebar navigation *************************************************/
function remove_admin_menu_items() {
  $remove_menu_items = array(__('Posts'),__('Links'), __('Comments'));
  global $menu;
  end ($menu);
  while (prev($menu)){
    $item = explode(' ',$menu[key($menu)][0]);
    if(in_array($item[0] != NULL?$item[0]:"" , $remove_menu_items)){
      unset($menu[key($menu)]);}
    }
  }
add_action('admin_menu', 'remove_admin_menu_items');

All you’ll need to change is the array of items to remove in the $remove_menu_items array. In our example we removed: Posts, Links and Comments. Other root level WordPress admin sidebar navigation items available for removal are Media, Pages, Appearance, Plugins, Users, Tools and Settings.

The answer to this one is just so simple it needs nearly no explanation. Simply redefine two varaibles HEADER_IMAGE_WIDTH, and HEADER_IMAGE_HEIGHT. For our purposes we needed 800x182 to fit into the template. Below is the code to be placed in your theme’s functions.php file simply add the image size to suite your needs:

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/* Redefine the header image width and height ********************************************/
define( 'HEADER_IMAGE_WIDTH', apply_filters( 'twentyten_header_image_width', 800 ) );
define( 'HEADER_IMAGE_HEIGHT', apply_filters( 'twentyten_header_image_height', 182 ) );

UPDATE: This also works for the WordPress Twenty Eleven theme.

First define a new function, we used remove_twenty_ten_headers(). We use the unregister_default_headers() WordPress function to un-register as many as we want. In our example we removed them all.

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function remove_twenty_ten_headers(){
    unregister_default_headers( array(
        'berries',
        'cherryblossom',
        'concave',
        'fern',
        'forestfloor',
        'inkwell',
        'path' ,
        'sunset')
    );
}

We then initiate the new remove_twenty_ten_headers() function using the add_action() WordPress function as shown below. We make sure to call our function after the theme setup has run to be sure our function is called after register_default_headers() has already added the headers we want to remove.

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add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'remove_twenty_ten_headers', 11 );

Putting it all together yields the following code to be placed in your theme’s functions.php file:

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/* Remove default twenty ten images ***********************************************/
function remove_twenty_ten_headers(){
    unregister_default_headers( array(
        'berries',
        'cherryblossom',
        'concave',
        'fern',
        'forestfloor',
        'inkwell',
        'path' ,
        'sunset')
    );
}
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'remove_twenty_ten_headers', 11 );

How simple is that!

What do you need to create your Twenty Ten Child Theme (the basics):

1. Twenty Ten installed in the wp-content/themes/ folder.
2. A folder with your Child’s Theme name in the wp-content/themes/ folder.
3. A style.css CSS file in the folder of your Child’s Theme.

What could be additionally required:

1. A functions.php file in the folder of your Child’s Theme, to modify or add functions.
2. Any additional file(s) you wish to modify from the Parent Theme: header.php, footer.php, etc.

The magic happens in the CSS file of your Child Theme, namely the “Template” declaration line.

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/*
Template: twentyten
*/

Adding this “Template” declaration in the CSS file tells WordPress to look for and run the Twenty Ten theme as a parent to this theme. The Child Theme will then get all the functionality of the Parent, but you’ll be able to modify the files without worry of being overwritten when the Parent Theme updates. Putting the “Template” declaration together with some of the common WordPress Theme declarations yeilds the code below.

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/*
Theme Name: Your New Child Theme Name
Theme URI: http://your_web_site.com/
Description: Custom theme for your_web_site.com.
Author: You
Author URI: http://your_web_site.com/
Version: 0.1.0
Tags: all, the, tags, describing, your, new, theme
Template: twentyten
*/

So what should you do if you have modified a theme and updates to the theme are available? Turn your current theme into a Child Theme. For the sake of clarity, let’s assume you’ve modified the Twenty Ten theme. Follow these steps below (replacing your current theme’s name where we’ve used Twenty Ten):

1. Rename your current “Twenty Ten” theme in the style.css CSS file by modifying the “Theme Name” line.
2. Rename the “twentyten” folder your current theme is in.
3. Download a clean up-to-date copy of the Twenty Ten theme into your wp-content/themes/ folder, don’t activate it.
4. Modify your newly renamed theme’s style.css CSS file by adding the “Template: twentyten” declaration.
5. Remove all the files you did not modify from your new Child Theme’s folder (you can usually tell by file-date-time if your using an ftp client). Leave the original Twenty Ten ones alone from now on!
6. Re-activate your newly created Child Theme.

Now you can happily let the Twenty Ten theme update eternally without loosing your modifications.

First define a new function, we used remove_widget_area(). Inside this function we un-register the desired “stock” Widget Areas we don’t want or need. Twenty Ten comes with the following “stock” Widget Areas: primary-widget-area, secondary-widget-area, first-footer-widget-area, second-footer-widget-area, third-footer-widget-area and fourth-footer-widget-area.

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function remove_widget_area() {
	unregister_sidebar( 'secondary-widget-area' );
	unregister_sidebar( 'first-footer-widget-area' );
	unregister_sidebar( 'second-footer-widget-area' );
	unregister_sidebar( 'third-footer-widget-area' );
	unregister_sidebar( 'fourth-footer-widget-area' );
}

We then initiate the new remove_widget_area() function using the add_action() WordPress function as shown below.

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add_action( 'admin_init', 'remove_widget_area');

Putting it all together yields the following code to be placed in your theme’s functions.php file:

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/* Remove "extra" Twenty Ten Widget Areas *******************************************************/
function remove_widget_area() {
	unregister_sidebar( 'secondary-widget-area' );
	unregister_sidebar( 'first-footer-widget-area' );
	unregister_sidebar( 'second-footer-widget-area' );
	unregister_sidebar( 'third-footer-widget-area' );
	unregister_sidebar( 'fourth-footer-widget-area' );
}
add_action( 'admin_init', 'remove_widget_area');

It’s just that simple, now it’s your turn!

As we have installed a couple of these on our HostGator reseller account, we can safely say that the process is relatively painless. But it helps to know in advance which steps are relevant to the HostGator environment.

The WordPress multisite installation instructions are as thorough as possible, given the different environments they must account for.

The only step that needs clarification in that procedure is step 2:

Step 2: Setting Wildcard Subdomains

(If this is a Sub-directories Install, skip this step.)
Sub-domain sites work with the use of wildcard subdomains. This is a two-step process:
Apache must be configured to accept wildcards.
Open up the httpd.conf file or the include file containing the VHOST entry for your web account.
Add this line:
ServerAlias *.example.com
In the DNS records on your server, add a wildcard subdomain that points to the main installation. It should look like:
A *.example.com
[...snip...]

For the first step in the “two-step process” described above, HostGator (reseller) seems to be set up to allow wildcard subdomains already (Good thing, too, since we don’t have access to httpd.conf or the VHOST file.)
So on the “step two”…

For this step, you will need to access cPanel.
In the “Domains” section, select “Subdomains”. Here you will want to create a wildcard subdomain (by creating the ‘*’ subdomain.) A properly set up subdomain will look (something) like:

Good luck!

First define a new function, we used thmfooter_admin_link(). We return the wp_register() WordPress function, to yield the Admin link. Be sure to set the wp_register() $echo parameter to false, otherwise the Admin link will automatically print. We’ll also set the $before and $after parameters as needed.

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function thmfooter_admin_link() {
    return wp_register('| ', '', false);
}

Lastly we register the shortcode, naming it ‘admin-link’, using the add_shortcode() WordPress function as shown below.

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add_shortcode('admin-link', 'thmfooter_admin_link');

Usage of our new shortcode is accomplished by simply adding [admin-link] in the footer text of the Thematic Options.

Thematic Options

Putting it all together, we have the following code:

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//Add Admin shortcode to the siteinfo footer***************************************************************************
function thmfooter_admin_link() {
    return wp_register('| ', '', false);
}
add_shortcode('admin-link', 'thmfooter_admin_link');

Yep, it’s just that simple.

As it turns out, the switch for most WordPress themes will be trivial:

1. Change the doctype declaration to: <!DOCTYPE html>
2. Remove the (now defunct) profile="..." attribute from the opening <head> tag.
3. Remove the unnecessary <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> tag.
4. Add the <meta charset="utf-8"> tag.

Normally, this would be easily found in the header.php file of your theme. In fact, the default WordPress theme (‘TwentyTen‘ as of WP3) automatically uses the HTML5 doctype declaration.

Thematic, however, uses the traditional “XHTML 1.0 Transitional” doctype that WordPress has used for years. In order to use the HTML5 doctype, you will need to override four standard Thematic functions: thematic_create_doctype, language_attributes, thematic_head_profile and thematic_create_contenttype within your child theme’s functions.php file (you are using a child theme, aren’t you?), thusly:

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//replace the standard doctype declaration and html tag opening...
function html5_create_doctype($content) {
 $content = "<!DOCTYPE html>";
 $content .= "\n";
 $content .= "<html";
 return $content;
}
add_filter('thematic_create_doctype', 'html5_create_doctype');
 
//replace the lang attribute in the opening <html> tag...
function html5_language_attributes($content) {
	$content = "lang=\"en\"";
	return $content;
}
add_filter('language_attributes', 'html5_language_attributes');
 
//replace the <head> tag opening to remove the now defunct profile attribute and add the <meta charset="utf-8"> tag...
function html5_head($content) {
 $content = "<head>";
 $content .= "\n";
 $content .= "<meta charset=\"utf-8\">";
 $content .= "\n";
 return $content;
}
add_filter('thematic_head_profile', 'html5_head');
 
//remove the now defunct <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> tag...
function html5_create_charset($content) {
 $content = "";
 return $content;
}
add_filter('thematic_create_contenttype', 'html5_create_charset');

First we register the ability for your theme to use custom menus using the add_theme_support() WordPress function.

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add_theme_support('menus');

Next we define the custom menus. For this example we’ll create two menus: menu-1 and menu-2, and name them “Main Navigation’ and ‘Footer Navigation’ respectively. We accomplish this in a new function ‘register_site_menus’, using the register_nav_menus() WordPress function.

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function register_site_menus() {
	register_nav_menus(
		array(
			'menu-1' => __( 'Main Navigation' ),
			'menu-2' => __( 'Footer Navigation' )
		)
	);
}

We then initiate the new register_site_menus() function using the add_actions() WordPress function as shown below.

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add_action( 'init', 'register_site_menus' );

Putting it all together yields the following code to be placed in your theme’s functions.php file:

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add_theme_support('menus');
 
function register_site_menus() {
	register_nav_menus(
		array(
			'menu-1' => __( 'Main Navigation' ),
			'menu-2' => __( 'Footer Navigation' )
		)
	);
}
 
add_action( 'init', 'register_site_menus' );

Next we add ‘menu-1′ our ‘Main Navigation’ menu, using the wp_nav_menu() WordPress function where we want that menu to appear in your theme (header, sidebar, etc.). We also chose to not have a container automatically added to our menu for this example below.

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wp_nav_menu( array( 
	'theme_location' => 'menu-1',
	'container' => ''
) );

We’ll add ‘menu-2′ our ‘Footer Navigation’ menu, using the same function but, we also give the menu a custom CSS id of ‘footer-nav’. You can read all about the parameters of the wp_nav_menu() function yourself rather than bore you with the details here.

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wp_nav_menu( array(
	'theme_location' => 'menu-2',
	'container' => '',
	'menu_id' => 'footer-nav'
) );

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add_role( $role_name, $display_name, $capabilities );

The example below adds a role of Video Manager with a custom cabability of ‘manage videos’.

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add_role( 'video_manager, 'Video Manager', array( 'manage_videos' ) );

NOTE: Once you add this code to your functions.php file and view any page on your site to make the role addition, you can and should comment it out so that it doesn’t run on every page view.

Now, how do we use this new role with the new capability you ask? Simply use the WordPress current_user_can() function to check the user’s capability.

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if ( current_user_can( 'manage_videos' ) ) {
    // let them manage those videos!
}

This technique can be combined with our WordPress Role Capability Restriction technique to add even more capabilities to your new custom role. Simply create your new role then use it in the get_role() function call detailed in our technique.

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$role = get_role('author');
$role->remove_cap('edit_others_pages');
$role->remove_cap('edit_others_posts');
$role->remove_cap('delete_others_pages');
$role->remove_cap('delete_others_posts');

Pretty simple huh? That’s what I thought when I learned how easily this can be accomplished.

So what’s actually going on with the code? First, we create a variable $role populated with the author’s capabilities. Then we remove the ability of the authors to ‘edit_others_pages’, and other capabilities as desired. This code performs a database change to the role.

NOTE: Once you add this code to your functions.php file and view any page on your site to make the capability changes, you can and should comment it out so that it doesn’t run on every page view.

How do you reverse this you may ask? Simple, use WordPress’ add_cap() function, as if WordPress would let us down.

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$role = get_role('author');
$role->add_cap('edit_others_pages');
$role->add_cap('edit_others_posts');
$role->add_cap('delete_others_pages');
$role->add_cap('delete_others_posts');

This works great when you’ve Created Custom Roles and need to assign capabilities to those new roles.

Below is real-world code we’ve used on a site, and how we left it commented for future reference.

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/* Begin Editor Restriction  ****************/
 
/* Enable Restriction Below */
//$role = get_role('editor');
//$role->remove_cap('edit_others_pages');
//$role->remove_cap('edit_others_posts');
//$role->remove_cap('delete_others_pages');
//$role->remove_cap('delete_others_posts');
//$role->remove_cap('manage_links');
//$role->remove_cap('moderate_comments');
 
/* Disable Restriction Below */
//$role = get_role('editor');
//$role->add_cap('edit_others_pages');
//$role->add_cap('edit_others_posts');
//$role->add_cap('delete_others_pages');
//$role->add_cap('delete_others_posts');
//$role->add_cap('manage_links');
//$role->add_cap('moderate_comments');
 
/* End Editor Restriction  ***************/

1. Akismet – SPAM control, this plugin is the ultimate in controlling unwanted spam in your posts and pages.
   

   Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put in your template.

   • By Matt Mullenweg | Visit plugin site
2. All in One SEO Pack – Provides full SEO customization for your posts and pages, including title tags, descriptions, meta tags, etc.
   

   Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog.

   • By Michael Torbert | Visit plugin site
3. Contact Form 7 – The author reports that this is just another contact form plugin, understatement if ever there was one. This provides the easiest form creation and management we’ve ever used on any platform.
   

   Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible.

   • By Takayuki Miyoshi | Visit plugin site
4. Custom Field Template – This extends the functionality of the already easy to use WordPress Custom Fields for pages and posts.
   

   This plugin adds the default custom fields on the Write Post/Page.

   • By Hiroaki Miyashita | Visit plugin site
5. Google Analyticator – Allows for easy installation of Google’s Analytics code into your blog, including smart control so you don’t track admin activity etc.
   

   Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics. After enabling this plugin visit the settings page and enter your Google Analytics’ UID and enable logging.

   • By Ronald Heft | Visit plugin site
6. Google XML Sitemaps – Provides easy to maintain and control XML sitemaps for your blog / website, a must have for SEO and search engine ranking.
   

   This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.

   • By Arne Brachhold | Visit plugin site
7. Most Popular Posts – This is great for boosting interest in your content, especially what’s popular.
   

   Display a link to the most popular posts on your blog according to the number of comments.

   • By Wes Goodhoofd | Visit plugin site
8. Similar Posts – Provides a configurable list of smartly chosen posts and/or pages to the bottom of your post to generate more interest in your content.
   

   Displays a highly configurable list of related posts. Similarity can be based on any combination of word usage in the content, title, or tags. Don’t be disturbed if it takes a few moments to complete the installation — the plugin is indexing your posts. Instructions and help online. Requires the latest version of the Post-Plugin Library to be installed.

   • By Rob Marsh, SJ | Visit plugin site
9. WordPress Database Backup – Creates backups of your WordPress blog or website, what would you do if your server crashed!?
   

   On-demand backup of your WordPress database.

   • By Austin Matzko | Visit plugin site