I’ve been reading xkcd and Explosm for ages and I’ve always dreamed of having a comic blog. Well, more specifically, being able to draw well enough to have a comic blog!

Now, I’m not gonna let a little thing like not being able to do something to stop from doing something. I mean, how hard can it be?

Any stick will do

I have seen some literally LaughOutLoud good comics that are nothing more than a few straight lines on my stumbleupon sessions and I can’t help but think that it should be a breeze to do the same. oo-er, famous last words eh?

Check out this strip, it’s simply drawn and it made larf for ages. I sent it to 3 people!

I tried to make one in this style and it was hard! I did manage to make a simple comic once before on this blog, I used an online stickman comic maker which made things easier..

I wonder if it’ll be easier this time?

Comicpress wooot!

Enter in Comicpress which is a fantastic bit of WordPress shennanigans that enables anyone to create and update a comic based blog without worrying about ftp and specific filenames.

It’s currently powering a huge number of comic blogs and has helped a lot of regular folks create gorgeous comics like Starship Moonhawk or Dakota McFadzeans’ Blog and I want in!

It wont be able to help your drawing skills or your humour bone tuning but it will leave you to only worry about the drawing, all the rest will be handled by the system. It can handle graphic novels, simple strip comics, multi columns, custom colours, fancy pagination and a whole lot more!

It’s mildly overwhelming how many options there are to choose from so I think my best approach will be to start with a simple default layout and get creating and publishing. As I get used to the system, I’ll know what I need to change or update.

Learn me and you some learns

I’m all set up to start doing some more screencasts on my super fast PC and the weather is getting nice enough for me to be able to stay at the main pc without my fingers becoming frozen so I think it’s time to make some tutorial videos!

What better way to generate blog fodder than to start a tutorial series! and.. what better platform to do it on than ComLuv? (and it means I can use it as a legitimate ‘work’ activity)

ComicLuv

I have done some testing and I am fairly confident that it will work just as well on the live server. So, over the next few days I will be installing it to the ComLuv site as a supporter only feature. Anyone with a fiver a month can have a comic blog too!

I will be creating the comic blog and using the blogging side of it for tutorials and tales of my progress as I figure out what I use to draw the comics and other important stuff like how to draw or what is funny?

Freebies!

I’d really like to hear from you if you’ve ever considered making a comic blog, It’d be awesome to be able to have someone to compare notes with and share the journey.

What do you think? fancy making a comic on the ComLuv site? In exchange for taking the plunge with me and being someone who can chat with me about comic making, I’ll give you a full supporter account with access to all the themes and comicpress addons and a bunch of credits to get things like extra URLs on your comluv account.

It goes without saying that your new comic blog will get plenty of promotion and be mentioned along with mine in as many places as I can fit it

Twice. In 1 week.

I lost my code and my awesome plugin edits when my hard drive crashed, I started writing it again and I formatted the wrong partition. Seriously gutted! I tried to recover the data with undelete apps but it was gone forever.

No worry no more!

Now, I don’t need to worry because I use Dropbox and have configured my local server to use it as the document_root of my dev site. That way, all the developing work I’m doing gets saved automatically online and is accessible on any of my pc’s.

I don’t even need to worry about being able to access the SAMBA share if I want to edit a file, I just open it from my dropbox on the pc I’m using and save it back there, it’ll get automatically updated on my dev server.

Oops no more!

Another advantage is the revisions feature. You can go online and see the updates that you made to a file and revert it back to an earlier save. This has already saved me from crying, I always forget to rename a file before I start trying to add updates and before I know it, the whole thing is causing an error and I can’t remember how to put it back the way it was! just luvin the revision feature!!

Get 2GB for FREE! (and help me out)

You can apply for a Dropbox for FREE and get a full 2GB to use to store anything from simple documents to executable files to database backups or like me, use it as your code repository and never go through the pain of a lost bit of awesome code again!

You can even install it on Linux which is super helpful when it comes to transferring files between a windows->linux network.

If you click this link and install your dropbox for free, we both get extra bonus space which would help me out a lot

If you’re lucky enough to have a subscription to Premium WPMU Dev account then you’ll have access to great monetization plugins like the Upgrades or Supporter which take all the pain out of providing a ‘pay for’ service that can handle payments through Paypal, Google or even Amazon gateways.

I downloaded and installed the upgrades plugin a while ago and I’ve used it to monetize certain parts of my ComLuv site. There’s the usual way of adding plugins to the Upgrades directory and configuring them to be used which I’ll go into in a future post but I wanted to use the system slightly differently, and that was to charge users for adding new URLs to an account or to add default links to their returned list of posts.

The advantage of premium

Some of the advantages to using wpmupremium plugins is the support you receive, knowledge that the plugin will be updated to keep it compatible with new changes and my favourite is, the quality of the code.

When you’re getting premium, you’re getting premium code which for me personally, has taught me a LOT about how wordpress works. Particularly custom hooks and actions and filters. That was always a mystery to me until I dissected the plugins I downloaded from their site so it was a breeze to modify the upgrades plugin to work for users who don’t have blogs and start using the internal functions in a daughter template to do what I wanted.

Modifying the upgrades plugin

I needed to allow the upgrades menu to show for regular users because not everyone who joins the Comluv site starts a blog. This was just a simple case of changing the user level so that everyone, not just blog owners can see the menu and buy credits.

There are two places to modify:

/mu-plugins/upgrades-framework.php
line ~ 197-200 (upgrades plug pages framework function)
change add menu and submenu calls to

add_menu_page($upgrades_branding_plural, $upgrades_branding_plural, 0, 'upgrades.php');
add_submenu_page('upgrades.php', __('Credits'), __('Credits'), 0, 'credits', 'upgrades_credits_output' );
add_submenu_page('upgrades.php', __('History'), __('History'), 0, 'history', 'upgrades_log_output' );

line ~ 1919 (upgrades_credits_output function)
change user check to

if(!current_user_can('level_0')) {

Creating the daughter template

Adding another page you can use as a template is pretty easy, you just need to create a new php file in your theme directory and make sure it has the correct remarks at the top to identify it as a template page.


/*
Template Name: ComLuv purchase url
*/


Next just copy and paste the main calls from another template, you’ll be deleting most of it like the loop to display posts and replacing it with your own hard coded form and text. Be sure to keep the divs that surround the content intact.

I wrote a description of the item being sold and added a form.
(DON’T copy and paste from this page, I had to remove the beginning < characters from the code so it displays properly)

form action='/member/additional-urls/' method="POST">
input name="addurl" type="text" size="30"/>
input type="submit" name="submit1" value="Submit"/>

/form>


I also added a finish_page() function which just closes the /div tags so I could easily break out of what I was displaying without rendering the rest of the custom code below it.

You set the action to the page slug you’re publishing the page as and put a nonce field in there so you can check it with the next bit of code to prevent a naughty user from trying to call the purchase directly.

Handling the purchase

Next, you need to handle the data that gets submitted by your form and do the magic with the users credits.

if(isset($_POST['submit1'])){
$nonce=$_REQUEST['_wpnonce'];
if(!wp_verify_nonce($nonce,'addurl1')){
echo 'Page request deformed, please go back and try again. (b1s1)';
finish_page();
}
if(!$_POST['addurl']){
echo 'Please go back and enter a value';
finish_page();
}
// check if user has enough credits
global $user_ID;
$credits = upgrades_user_credits_available($user_ID);
if($credits < 3){
echo 'h2>Error - Insufficient Credits/h2>';
echo 'p>You will need to purchase some credits to register another URL, you currently have strong>'.$credits.'/strong>';
echo 'p>a href="/wp-admin/upgrades.php?page=credits">Click here to visit the purchase page/a>';
finish_page();
}
// if we're here then everything is ok to provide service and deduct credits
$credits = upgrades_user_credits_available($user_ID);
$credits -= 3;
upgrades_user_credits_update($credits);
upgrades_log_add_msg($user_ID,'You paid 3 credits for an additional URl - '.$url);
do_add_url($url,$user_ID);
echo 'h2>Site added, 3 credits used on your account/h2>';
echo 'p>You have '.$credits.' credits remaining';
echo 'p>a href="/member/additional-urls/">Click here to refresh the page/a>';


The first bit gets the nonce you created and checks it and displays an error message if it doesn’t match
Next, check the field you’re expecting and spit out an error if it is empty.
Next, check the user has enough credits and spit out an error if they don’t.
If everything is fine, continue.

use $credits = upgrades_user_credits_available($user_ID); to get the users current credits total
use upgrades_user_credits_update($credits); to set the users credits total to $credits (after you deduct what your item/upgrade costs)
use upgrades_log_add_msg($user_ID,’You paid 3 credits for an additional URl – ‘.$url); to add a message to the users Credits history page so they know they used some.

That’s it, easy peasy! Here’s an idea, use credits to sell digital downloads on another page, just check and deduct the users credits before allowing a dowload.

I’ll post a follow up to this soon on how to use the upgrades plugin to add a new package that enables the RSS widget for a blog (I’ll show you how to disable the rss widget too)

You can get over 100 plugins and themes of premium quality at http://premium.wpmudev.org and they all help to make your wpmu site better than the jones’s

Some of you may know that I run a Chinese takeaway and delivery shop in Lancaster, UK with my partner and her brother. My role is strictly ‘front-of-house’, customer service, chief geekster and go-and-get-stuff-from-Preston’er (among other things like doing the weekly books and tracking the cost of goods sold etc)

I can’t for the life of me go in the kitchen where it’s all fire and wok but, I can do all the other great things like come up with great marketing ideas, develop online solutions for advertising, answer the phone and understand the myriad of different accents you get when you run a delivery orientated business in a two University town.

Pretty Vs Useful

One of the things that was inevitable for me to do was, The Website.

Now, I class myself as a developer not a designer. The difference? (continue reading…)

Version 1.0 (updated 11 Feb 09)
Requires: WordPress 2.6 (could work with lesser)
Tested up to : WordPress 2.7b3

This plugin is no longer supported, please download TwitterLink-Comments which will do a much better job and will still be able to use the existing database table and labels.

Download TwitterLink Comments

I am supposed to have a new website up for my Chinese takeaway ready for when all the university students start/return to school. I made a great start and nearly published it when I had an idea (oh dear).

My idea was to use an existing template available on the ComLuv network and add widgets and custom code to turn it into the takeaway website so I can put the relevant details about the business up and later add an interactive menu so customers can browse the whole menu online and add their own reviews and comments about the items.

This seems to be a pretty elemental project, not too much needs changing on a template and adding the extra bits of code that do the fancy bits wont take too much head scratching. Unless…. I decide to do it in a way so that I can write an email course about it with links to videos I make showing anyone with a takeaway how they can take a normal ComLuv blog and turn the template into an online menu and advertising board for their business.

Couple that with some regular tips and tricks I have used to get my takeaway to the top of Google for free when anyone searches for “chinese takeaway Lancaster” and I think I have a decent system and email course to help promote ComLuv.

Here’s where I’ve got to so far with one of ComLuv’s premium themes using a couple of fancy widgets and a bit of imagination..

I know it’s simple, but, it’s supposed to be! My whole idea is to have everything that is needed on one page. The location, the phone number, downloadable menu and a newsletter subscription for keeping in touch with customers.

I can use the rest of the wordpress goodies to keep a blog so the content stays fresh and I can surely find a way to add a shopping cart so people can make orders online and even perhaps integrate that with twitter so I can notify the kitchen an order has been made and also the customer can get a tweet (if they have a twitter account) when the order is on the way.

Awesome project!

Now, where did I put that bag of spare time ? lol

Hurray! I have been able to do some stuff that wasn’t directly related to the API or backend code for the ComLuv database! This Monday has been an awesome day for productivity.

I have fixed the errant phpmyadmin on my plesk server so I can view my massive innoDB database. (and make backups)

I added a plugin to make adding youtube videos much easier to a ComLuv blog post.

I implemented a site wide footer text links box on the network.

I added a new widget to allow Comluv blog owners to become an affiliate to sell those ads.

I edited every single themes footer to make sure it all worked hunky dorey.

I wrote a “spoonfed” tutorial to show people how to make money with their comluv blog.

I answered ALL support tickets and resolved them.

I got fiddyp back up and running!! Some DNS issues were making it a bit invisible but a quick change of my DNS A records means I’ve got a place to ramble again.

Yey for me. I feel awesome enough to take the rest of the day off

Like running and other endurance activities, programming and website creation can cause you to come up against an invisible wall now and then. Especially if you consume 3 weeks of spare time with coding and creating and supporting and marketing.

I hit a wall just the other day, I’d been at the keyboard day and night and every single spare moment available coding the recode of the API and making the new theme do what I wanted (like work on the 3 big browsers).

When I wasn’t at the pc, I was thinking, sketching and pondering about what I was due to do the next time I got near a mouse. It was just about to calm down and I got called for a filmed interview about The ComLuv Network by UKFast (my awesome hosting company) which then meant I was bound to sit at the pc for many a long hour making sure the site looked sweet and tasty in time for any screenshots or flyins for the video.

I had just managed to get it done in time and, right after the interview (which went really well!) I jumped face first into the virtual coding wall, bazoompf!

I really wanted to get on and put the new support ticket system in and add a few widgets but the wall wouldn’t let me, no matter how hard I thought about it, I just couldn’t make myself sit down and get started.

stage left: misery and mental self flagellation enters

stage right: TV saunters in

That’s right, TV. I cured my wall-ness by watching some crap TV. That’s all it took. After not watching TV for 4 months, seeing just a few hours of it left me feeling like I was completely wasting valuable time with this utter drivel.

An early night and one of those weird promise yourself mantras that I sometimes do before bed and the very next morning I was refreshed and eager to code the code again.

Now I have replaced the not-so-great support system on ComLuv with a nice shiny new one that can build up a knowledge base from the tickets supported.

sorted.

enough with the twitter updates please mr. twittertools! sorry about that, who really needs to see twitter updates? (although i did notice google indexing more tweets and sending me alerts about them)

anyhoo, I am fiddling with some code right now for the Blogger / JS-kit version of new CommentLuv and will hopefully have that up ready for the weekend quiet time. I’ll put up some easy install instructions too so it should be case of click a button and the code gets installed to your blogger dashboard.

I’m hosting the script files myself on my ukfast server, the last server (when it stayed up) managed to serve those files ok so I think it should be fine for the switch on with this new super dedicated and supported server. If it gets too much, then I can look at using Amazons’ S3 service to serve everything. I researched on their service before and it seems to be fairly inexpensive to do. Although now, I’m paying for the server so I might as well use its resources. If things get so big that it needs a massive upgrade then that can be dealt with at the time. (Dragons Den? lol)

Please let me know about any errors you’re experiencing or glitches with the CommentLuv API, site or plugin by submitting a support ticket at The ComLuv Network

I still can’t believe how many hits and links come through to my sites from this plugin, last night there were over 1300 downloads of the plugin from the wordpress repository! and more than 1500 comments processed by the API.

Talking of the API, it is being updated before the weekend so I hope you can be patient, I am but one man and have only 2 coder peeps to pester/hassle/question/demand/poke/tweet about the server and API. And to top it off, I work full time in a takeaway (Fired Wok Chinese Takeaway and Delivery in Lancaster, Lancashire – tasty food chop chop!) which I luv. (seriously, I luv that job)

It’s a beautiful sunny day, it has been like this for a few days now. I haven’t seen any of it. bohoo.

but, I have been cooped up in front of two shiny monitors beavering away to bring about the launch of the new ComLuv network yey!!

I seriously need to go out and have some food and a drink, I also need to write the announcement email so I think I’ll prolly just go on up to the pub beer garden and order some fish and chips with a pint of fosters and take my laptop with me to scribe a note to all the existing members to let them know they can start using the site.

oh and I activated the new version of CommentLuv on every sub domain site too so if you want to be the first to use commentluv, get yourself a blog at ComLuv!

ETA : GMT 16:00 for all the switches to be switched on!