Current Plugin Version:
2.0.7
For WordPress version 2.3-2.5.1
What? Another donation button? Yah, I'll admit...I'm a beggar - but hey, don't donate unless you really want to. You really want to don't you? ;)
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Organize Series WordPress Plugin
Only versions 2.0 and higher of Organize Series are officially supported. Organize Series 2.0 does not work on any version of WordPress earlier than 2.3. You can use Organize Series 1.6.3 for that.
Download earlier versions of Organize Series here.
The Organize Series plugin helps with the organization and presentation of articles/posts you write as part of a series. It helps make it easier for readers of your blog to discover all the series you’ve written and also to easily find post that are part of the same series.
Organize Series actually adds a new taxonomy to the WordPress taxonomy structure so your blog would have “categories”, “tags”, and “series” as the taxonomy types.
NOTE: For upgrading from earlier versions of Organize Series (1.6.3 and earlier) make sure you check out the upgrade section. These instructions are for fresh installs of Organize Series.
- MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR WORDPRESS DATABASE (that’s all in caps for a reason - nothing should go wrong but it’s a good precaution nevertheless!!)
- Download the File
- Extract to a folder in
../wp-content/plugins/. The orgSeries folder can be named whatever you want but the default is “organize-series”. The final structure would be something like this:../wp-content/plugins/organize-series/--and all the orgSeries plugin files/folders-- - Activate orgSeries on your WordPress plugins page.
- The Series-Icons feature uploads to the default upload directory you’ve set for your WordPress installation (in Options/Settings->Miscellaneous). If you want to use series-icons its important that you uncheck the “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders” box.
- Visit the “Options/Settings->Series Options” page to initialize all the default settings.
That’s it! You might want to read through the Series Options page (in the “settings” menu of WP 2.5 or “options” in earlier WP versions) and the Manage->Series Page. You’ll also notice that your “write/edit” posts page now has a handy dandy series box on it for adding your posts to a series (and creating new series on the fly).
For support please visit the support forums.
Upgrading
If you are visiting this tab then you are probably a user of one of the older versions of Organize Series and have been waiting for me to finally get something out the door that is compatible with WP 2.3+ First, thanks for being patient - I’ve been frustrated myself with the time it’s taken but I think it’s been worth it! The good news is that you can import all your series structures from your old setup into the new series taxonomy!! Just follow these instructions carefully.
- Backup your WordPress database (especially if you plan on importing old series data - everything has been tested but I simply have no way of testing for every environment. So be safe, and you won’t chafe)
- If it isn’t already, deactivate the older version of Organize Series.
- If you haven’t already, upgrade your blog to the latest WordPress version.
- Make sure your other plugins are up to date EXCEPT for the category-icons plugin if you are using it. If you plan on importing all your old series-icons then it is important that you leave the older version of category-icons (version 1.5) activated until the import is complete.
- Delete the old Organize Series Plugin from your server (in folder /orgSeries/). Copy over the new plugin files (as explained via the installation instructions).
- Activate Organize Series
- Go to the Options/Settings->Series Options page. If you are upgrading and have old series to import there should be a form at the top of the page with instructions for importing all that data. Follow the instructions
- The import routine will return a message outlining all the series and posts that were imported. After that’s done go and check out all the new stuff (and make sure all your series are correct (check out the new Manage->Series page!)
For support please visit the support forums.
Features
The following is a brief overview of all the features in Organize Series. For more indepth coverage of the features of Organize Series you can follow the Organize Series Usage Tips Series on my blog. Better yet, why not suscribe to the usage feed?
Integration with WordPress taxonomy system
Beginning with version 2.3, WordPress introduced a database and core change that resulted in a new taxomony system. The core WordPress has two taxonomies - “categories” and “tags”. Organize Series introduces a new taxomony “series”. Thanks to the rich api provided to plugin authors Organize Series takes advantage of (as much as possible) the built-in WP goodness! As an added bonus - plugin developers can expand on what Organize Series offers by interacting with the new series taxonomy and the built-in filters/hooks.
More “organize” for taking care of your series…
Check these additions to your WordPress administration:
 |
A “Manage Series” page. Add, delete, edit all your series on one handy dandy page. Functioning much like the “Manage Category” page, Organize Series makes it easy to keep track of all the series you are writing. |
 |
Integration with the Manage->Posts page. Now it’s easier than ever to keep track of what posts have been added to series in a familiar setting. Even better, you can also filter the post list by series (and in combination with other filters in WP 2.5) giving you a quick way to see all the posts you’ve already added to the series. |
Filtering the list of post by series…
In WP 2.5:
In WP 2.3.x:
Add “prettify” recognition to your series…
Easily associate images with your Series via the Manage->Series page.
Integration with Write/Edit posts page
Organize Series brings a new “box” to your write/edit posts page for series related tasks: (1st pic is in WP2.5, 2nd pic is WP 2.3.x)
- Add new series on the fly. Ajaxified and simple to use (works pretty much the same as adding new categories on the fly)
- Add posts to existing series.
- Choose what order you want that post to be in the series. If you leave the field blank, your post will automatically be appended to end of the series. But if you want you can number that post to be whatever part you want and every other post in the series will be automatically adjusted for their new parts Is that cool? Yeah, I thought so too!
Works out of the box.
Once you’ve activated the plugin (and are not importing from earlier versions) all you have to do is visit the Series Options page and then you’re ready to go (you don’t have to change/or add anything!). Out of the box, Organize Series defaults to automatically insert into your blog all the necessary “template tags” for displaying series related information.
Defaults from out of the box:
Series Meta with each post:
Series Table of Contents Page:
Series info box on single post pages:
Series Navigation Strip:
Use permalinks? No problem, Organize Series detects that and introduces a permalink structure for series archive pages (defaults to http://yourblogaddress.com/series/%theseriesslug%). Don’t like the default settings/look…well…
Complete options page for easy customization without having to edit any .php files
Nearly everything you might want to customize with Organize Series can be done on the Series->Options page:
- Control placement of series related info (Series Meta, Series Table of Contents, Series Postlist boxes, Series Navigation Strip, etc.)
- Customize the html output or series related info by using the %token% system with a token legend right on the page (check out the screenshots tab).
- Control what the path of your “series table of contents” link will be.
- Control how posts in a series will be displayed on series archive pages. The default is by date in descending order (newest to oldest) - but you can order it by part too.
- Set the icon width for images associated with series for different pages.
An example of one of the edit template boxes on the Series Options Page:
An pic of the Token Legend (lists all the %tokens% you can use in the template) (pic taken from 2.3.x):
Pretty cool eh? But maybe you’d like to be able to customize things even more?…
A whole bundle of template tags for theme authors and WP tweakers
Do you actually like going into the guts of your theme files? Then, you’ll love the “template tags” organize series makes available for you! Better yet, I’ve made it easy for you to find them: All the template tags you’ll ever need are found in the series-template-tags.php file in your Organize Series plugin directory. Each tag is also fully documented inline so you can have a better idea what it does!
You can also edit the default .css file for orgSeries OR point to your custom .css in styles.css for your theme.
Oh, if you implement Organize Series in a cool way let me know here
And one last thing I’ve just gotta mention…
Widgets!! Need I say more?
Usage
There’s just so much to say about how you can use Organize Series that I’ve decided to write a series of posts dealing with using Organize Series. You can follow along with the series here or feast on the feed.
Don’t forget, if you have questions related to usage, I’m usually pretty good at responding to requests for help here.
Have fun - and get writing those series!!
Drew Vogel said,
Wrote on January 20, 2007 @ 3:59 pm
Thank you for the plugin. It looks interesting, but how is it different from Skippy’s In-Series plugin (http://www.skippy.net/blog/category/wordpress/plugins/in-series/)?
I ask because I’ve been using In-Series for a long time, but if your plugin does something better, I’ll look at it too!
Also, the link to the plugin page in orgSeries.php points to a nonexistent page.
Darren said,
Wrote on January 20, 2007 @ 9:08 pm
@Drew - thanks for commenting! I hadn’t ever heard of Skippy’s In-Series plugin before but I went to the link you provided and gave it a once over. As far as I can tell the differences between my plugin and his are as follows:
With all that said - I recognize that Skippy is a heck of a lot better coder than me and could probably point out a lot of deficiencies in the way I’ve designed this plugin. I admire a lot of the stuff he’s done and by no means am suggesting that his In-series plugin is not as good as mine. I guess I just see orgSeries as a different way of approaching the display of series on a blog and in my eyes makes writing posts in series and organizing them fairly easy. I guess the only thing you could do Drew is give it a try - although after looking at one of your series (nearing 100posts in the series?) it would take a while for you to update all your series to this plugin! The cool thing though - is you could try it and if it doesn’t work for you - no harm done because this plugin doesn’t create any new tables nor would it intefere with the existing custom-fields you are using with Skippy’s plugin. From what I can see you could use both of them side by side.
By the way - thanks for the heads up regarding the link in the orgseries.php file - I’ve fixed it and updated the install.
Darren said,
Wrote on January 21, 2007 @ 12:18 am
Another update: I noticed that the link for the documents in the administration panel led to the wrong location as well. I’ve updated the orgSeries-options.php file. Sorry about that folks - if you redownload and overwrite the original files the problem will be fixed
Darren said,
Wrote on January 22, 2007 @ 10:25 am
Another update: Ivan Georgiev?s site has been down so I’ve made available the download of my copy of his plugin on this page - see the “Category Icons Update” heading on this page.
Travis Snoozy said,
Wrote on January 22, 2007 @ 11:06 pm
Hey there! I’m the new maintainer of In Series; a friendly user pointed me in the direction of your post. The new version (2.1.0) takes care of some of the problems you pointed out. In the same order as the original post:
In-Series is still not category based (and I intend to keep it that way). Undoubtedly, some folks will prefer one methodology over the other. In any case, you just have to pick a series name and save, now — no muss, no fuss. You can create a new series right from the writing page, without having to create a category or files first.
In Series does still allow you to set the order of your posts, but it’s much more limited than it used to be. Full re-ordering will (hopefully) be supported at a later date. In the meantime, the default is to automatically append new posts to the end of a series.
I’ve got a prototype (”In Series Linker”) that will automagically insert tags in appropriate places. I think that it’s great you decided to go for that feature off the bat; hopefully I’ll have that in version 2.2.
Yes, In Series doesn’t have pretty series graphics, and I don’t currently have plans to add that feature.
The admin interface will come when the “In Series Linker” is integrated into the In Series plugin proper, but the tags that In Series provides do offer a fair degree of presentation flexibility.
There’s a bug in 2.1.0 that makes listing all the series not work right. I’ll try and get that fixed.
I did a release for In Series two weeks ago, so it’s not quite dead yet.
All that said, I’d be happy to collaborate and compare notes.
Darren said,
Wrote on January 22, 2007 @ 11:49 pm
@ Travis
Thanks for giving a heads up about the continued development of In Series! It’s great that there are alternatives available for organizing series so people can use what works for them. There will always be cases where one of our plugins will be a better use than the other so having choice is great
Rirath said,
Wrote on January 26, 2007 @ 9:11 am
Since you haven’t written any series on this blog yet, are there any examples of this plugin we could see in action? Looks interesting. In Series looks pretty good too.
Darren said,
Wrote on January 26, 2007 @ 10:41 am
Actually Rirath - I have started a series here just recently (I still have to modify my template a little bit so when I write series it’ll be more visible - i.e. menu item)
Here’s some links to examples on this blog:
Of course, I have this plugin active on two of my other blogs as well.
As you can see the plugin is very versatile in how you format the way the display of the series items is presented. I’m looking forward to what people come up with in terms of the presentation of their series (it should be fairly easy to customize the look so it matches existing themes). In-Series looks okay but it just seems that there are too many steps involved in adding a post to a series. Yes there may be a bit more involved with mine in initially setting up a series but once its set up to add a post all you do is check a box in the categories list. One of In-Series strengths however is its better suited (at the moment) for series with a great number of posts (20+). Mine can handle it but eventually the “series-box” on the individual post page might get to long if all the individual post titles are displayed…of course that post-titles can be turned off via the admin panel ;).
astrocoz said,
Wrote on January 31, 2007 @ 8:55 pm
I like this plugin and the idea of it. However, I am having some trouble. I only have two series and they are each being repeated 5 times on my series category page. If you could give me some insight into what I am doing wrong, it would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been trying to fix the problem for a few hours already. Thanks.
Darren said,
Wrote on January 31, 2007 @ 9:37 pm
@astrocoz:
you’ve pointed out a bug with the paging - I just noticed it on my series page as well (bonk). I’m troubleshooting now and as soon as I fix it I’ll post to this site.
Darren said,
Wrote on January 31, 2007 @ 9:59 pm
@astrocoz:
Okay I found the problem. I messed up on the example template file (category-xx.php). I’ve fixed it and re-downloading the orgSeries.zip will contain the correct file. If you’re comfortable editing the file yourself you can just make the following changes in it.
Find and delete this (around line 32):
< ?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>And then find and delete this (around line 35):
endwhile;That should fix it. I forgot that the
wp_serieslist_display();can be in the wp_loopif(have_posts())section but notin the “while” section. That produces the duplicates. I hope that makes sense lol!Glenn said,
Wrote on February 14, 2007 @ 2:12 am
Is there a problem with activating this on WordPress 2.1?
I’ve tried uploading the orgSeries folder into wp-contents/plugins/ on two of my blogs (both WP2.1) and it is not showing up on the Plugins tab to be activated.
Darren said,
Wrote on February 14, 2007 @ 10:37 am
Glenn, there shouldn’t be any problem. I just tried installing it on another 2.1 blog and it activated just fine.
Make sure that the directory structure is as follows:
wp-contents/plugins/orgSeries/ and in the orgSeries folder you put all the files. Also make sure that you extract the .zip file that you downloaded. Copying over the .zip file won’t work (unless you extract it on your server - but I recommend extracting it on your own computer first).
Are you getting any error messages? Also, if you post your website address I can check to see that you’ve put the correct folder structure in place (although from the symptoms you’ve described that shouldn’t be the problem anyway).
Glenn said,
Wrote on February 15, 2007 @ 2:26 am
OK, it’s seeing it now… originally I downloaded the ZIP directly on the server (using wget) and extracted into the plugins folder; which worked five minutes earlier with another plugin, but not yours!
This time I downloaded the ZIP to my Windows desktop, extracted it there and then uploaded the files - WordPress saw the new plugin straight away.
Anyway, thanks for your reply. Everything is working now!
Darren said,
Wrote on February 15, 2007 @ 10:41 am
Glenn,
I’m glad it’s you were able to get it activated! Please let me know if you have any problems setting it up (customizing it etc.) The plugin is still very new and so there are bound to be difficulties show up. My hope is that people will post their problems here (or their dislikes) so that I can improve on the plugin to make it more usable
Apocryphal Marginalia said,
Wrote on February 22, 2007 @ 1:17 pm
Theming WordPress…
I’ve spent the last few hourse playing around with WordPress theming capabilities and I’m not particularly impressed. While some of it is very flexible (e.g. the “loop” — the mechanism by which a theme iterates over the po…
Thomas Sutton said,
Wrote on February 22, 2007 @ 4:35 pm
I’ve had the Organize Series plugin interact very strangely with WP’s core functions. Namely, if “Series Meta Auto Tag toggle” is not set, then the_content() breaks and post bodies are omitted (on is_single, is_archive, isset($GET[paged]) pages and every other page, including page pages). Other than that one, albeit quite worrying, problem, Organise Series looks pretty good (other than my inner design geek wanting series to be its own table
).
Thanks
Darren said,
Wrote on February 22, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
Thanks Thomas for posting here - that “series meta auto tag toggle” problem is definitely a bug that escaped my “quality control queue” ;). I just tried it and your right. I think I know exactly what the problem is though and I’ll try and get a fix pushed out tonight.
Thank you very much for posting the issue - otherwise I wouldn’t have known!
Regarding putting Organize Series on it’s own table. I thought of that when I was designing it but in the end I decided to go with the built-in categories feature of WordPress. I did this for two reasons. 1. It’s easier. The plugin development time is cut down tremendously because I’m able to use some of the built-in functions already in place in the core. 2. (the main reason) For degradability reasons. I wanted to make it as painless as possible for users who decide down the road to not use my plugin to be able to switch to another way of keeping track of series. Because their posts will already be organized somewhat via the built-in WordPress category system it will remain so even if my plugin is not being used.
What I am planning on doing for a future version of the plugin is adding a more intuitive way to add new series rather than having to go into the manage categories administration panel. Ideally I’d like to have the series chooser options (series category creation) right within the write post screen. That’s the plan anyway
Darren said,
Wrote on February 22, 2007 @ 8:18 pm
Fixed the series-meta bug. I’ve updated the file and you can find out more info about the fix here
Chris said,
Wrote on March 3, 2007 @ 1:30 pm
I have been trying to use the series-plugin. Everything seems to be working fine (it installs, the series option tab is there, it activates fine, etc), until I go to the options page to anter the category ID. It is blank, and I have tried all the usual clearing of the cache, etc… re-installing it, it’s just not working for me. I get no error messages or anything of the sort. What can I do?
Darren said,
Wrote on March 3, 2007 @ 3:05 pm
What version of WordPress are you using Chris? This is the first time I’ve heard of this particular error.
Chris said,
Wrote on March 5, 2007 @ 12:00 pm
Hey Darren, well, its all taken care of now… i just updated to the latest version of wordpress and voila’… i think i was running 2.0 through my hosting service. Have a great day buddy. CJ Conner
Darren said,
Wrote on March 5, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
Glad to hear it works for you now Chris
I suspected it was an issue with the WordPress version.
puzz1ed1 said,
Wrote on March 9, 2007 @ 9:09 am
Great plugin - thanks
However, the meta info that the plugin adds does not display properly on single post pages of my site
Is it possible to have the series post list display beneath the current post rather than above (or in my case amid) it?
Also, is there an easy way to change the series list output so that the post date of each entry is shown alongside the titles?
Darren said,
Wrote on March 9, 2007 @ 10:54 am
Hi puzzled1,
I checked out your site:
Thanks for the feedback
The meta info that the plugin adds can be tweaked using .css and html to display however you want via the options panel. Whether or not it “displays properly” is a function of how the default .css and html fits in with your site theme. I see what you mean on your site because it cuts across your date container. Feel free to experiment with the options panel and the enclosed .css file to try different ways of displaying your meta information - the “reset” button will reset to default if you ever get to the point where you can’t fix something catastrophic you’ve done hehe
Currently it isn’t possible to have the series post list display beneath the current post automatically (although that is in the works for a future version of the plugin). However, if you disable the auto tag, you can add the template tag for the “post-list” info directly into your template file. The tag and usage info is found on this page. By using the tag you can put the post list box wherever you want (even in the sidebar for that post - with some conditional calls!).
Regarding the series list output (I’m assuming that’s the box we’ve been talking about ;)) - that is something I can add for future versions if you wish - a good idea.
Just a further note: I am planning to start within the week a series of articles on using the Organize Series plugin as there is so much more that can be done which I haven’t even touched on this page. These questions you folks ask me help me to know what to write on in these articles. Also, the plugin is in ongoing development - there are plenty of things in the works for future versions.
Jim said,
Wrote on March 23, 2007 @ 3:09 pm
I just tried to start my first series and ended up with this error when I posted it up:
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/opendial/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/orgSeries/orgSeries.php:230) in /home/opendial/public_html/blog/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 275
I got two identical messages right about that about it being the first in a series, then the error. I went back and changed the category to one that’s not part of a series and it posted just fine.
I’m using WP 2.1.2, PHP 4.4.4, and MySQL 4.1.21
Darren said,
Wrote on March 23, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
Hi Jim,
Yup, that’s an error I haven’t encountered before. I can’t look at it right now, but I’ll try and get to it tonight (EST) for you.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 23, 2007 @ 3:47 pm
Jim to aid in troubleshooting,
What version of the plugin are you using? Also, have you done any customizations via the plugin options page? If so, what fields have you changed?
Jim said,
Wrote on March 23, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
I’m running version 1.6, and the only thing I changed on the options page was to tell it the category ID to look at. Additionally, all three checkboxes at the top are checked.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 23, 2007 @ 4:28 pm
Okay, one more question (can you tell, I hate when things don’t work…haha). Just to clarify. You get the error you posted about when you go to post an article that is assigned to the “series” category OR does the error appear when you go to view the posted article?
Okay, one more question:
For your Parent series category (i.e. the category in which all the subcategories are the various series you write), is it a top-level category or is it a sub-category of another top-level category?
Thanks, for taking the time to answer these questions - since there’s no way I can anticipate how users will use my plugin some bugs I’ll only know about when people let me know
Jim said,
Wrote on March 23, 2007 @ 4:33 pm
It occurs when I actually click ‘Publish.’ It goes to a white page, lists twice in a row some stuff about it being the first in a series, then generates the errors given above.
I have a parent category called ‘Series’ that has the ID of 60 (which I put into the appropriate field on the options page). I have two subcategories under Series - Essays and Geekware. I tried to post this particular entry under Essays and ended up with this error.
No problem. I’m a bit of an amateur coder myself (mostly website design), so I’m happy to do anything I can to help debug these little glitches.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 23, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
Appreciate your help Jim. Truthfully, I really can’t see what my plugin is doing as it doesn’t use any “hooks” into the edit post code. The code in the Organize Series Plugin affects more of the “display” end of things as it takes advantage of the already existing category system in WordPress. Yet, from all indications you are giving something is happening.
The line that is referenced in the orgSeries.php file is irrelevant and has nothing to do with the error code being given.
However, the line in the pluggables.php file may be relevant. Is your server windows based (IIS) or does it use .cgi-php? Not that I know if that matters or not but that seems to be what the particular code in pluggables is referencing.
Also, can you try editing the post that you were having problems with and assign it to a series category again. Does the error code repeat?
Also, I’m curious about the “being first in a series” message you are getting. Since I don’t have any such error message in the orgSeries code I’m really clueless as to what could be throwing that message up
The only thing I can think of that may be causing the error is that there may be actually a problem with the “series” category name and one of your crossposting plugins you have installed (which incidentally would have nothing to do with my plugin). Do you mind trying to disable various plugins and see if you still get the error? Let me know how that goes and if it is indeed another plugin then I’ll try and help you troubleshoot a fix.
I’ll be a bit quiet here for a few hours as I’ve got some meetings I’ve got to go to - but I’ll be back later tonight to try and help you resolve this. Thanks for your patience!
Jim said,
Wrote on March 23, 2007 @ 11:04 pm
Well, I noticed that with that error, the post gets marked as ‘Private’ and lists as part 0 of 0 in the series. My category selection of ‘Essay’ gets changed to the next parent category in the list. If I change it back to ‘Essay’, mark it public, and repost, it shows up fine as part 1 of 1. When I click on the category ‘Essay’, however, I end up with this error at the top:
WordPress database error: [Unknown column 'post_' in 'order clause']
SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT wp_posts.* FROM wp_posts LEFT JOIN wp_post2cat ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_post2cat.post_id) LEFT JOIN wp_categories ON (wp_post2cat.category_id = wp_categories.cat_ID) WHERE 1=1 AND category_id IN (62) AND (post_type = ‘post’ AND (post_status = ‘publish’ OR post_status = ‘private’)) GROUP BY wp_posts.ID ORDER BY post_ LIMIT 0, 15
and a 404 listing for the archive page. I tried turning off the crossposting plugins, with no change. I’m still playing with things, though.
Jim said,
Wrote on March 23, 2007 @ 11:23 pm
From what I can tell, the problem seems to lie with the way archives are handled with this plugin. I tried testing this on my test blog with all other plugins turned off. No MySQL errors, but neither do the archives show up for the series. What I end up with is a blank page that says page 1 of 0. No idea what’s up with that.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 24, 2007 @ 1:06 am
Jim, those were some very helpful clues to me and I at least have a tact to take on rooting out possible causes for your problems. I can’t get to it till’ tomorrow though - thanks for the troubleshooting
Darren said,
Wrote on March 24, 2007 @ 10:09 pm
Sorry for the delay in a response Jim. It’s been a busy weekend for me.
Anyway, here’s some observations I’ve made:
return false;}}. Right after that on a new line ADDreturn false;. Save the file and overwrite the one on your server. If you have problems with this let me know and I’ll give you a link to a fixed file (I’m not pushing it live yet).Hopefully, this helps make some progress towards a resolution for you
Jim said,
Wrote on March 25, 2007 @ 1:09 pm
I’m stumped, as well. I tried both those things - no change.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 25, 2007 @ 4:43 pm
on both your test blog and your live blog? Also, does your test blog use the same theme?
I really don’t know what to do. I have 4 different blogs among two different server environments and three different themes among those blogs with different plugin setups and I’m not getting any problems with the plugin.
Are there any other coders reading this who may have an idea what it may be? Or is there anybody else reading this with the same problems as Jim is having?
Darren said,
Wrote on March 25, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
One more thing Jim, I noticed you’ve got bbPress integrated with your main blog. Is it integrated with the test blog? I’m just wondering if that may be a possible avenue to look?
Jim said,
Wrote on March 25, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
Nope, different themes (I’d thought of that, too).
And they’re not actually integrated - I’m the only registered user on my WordPress site. bbPress is even set up on a completely different database, so there shouldn’t be any overlap happening there.
Very puzzling. Like you, I can’t see any reason why this shouldn’t be working smoothly.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 25, 2007 @ 5:01 pm
I think I asked this earlier but does your server environment run php via cgi? Is it windows based or linux based? Apache or IIS? Don’t know if it matters (or should matter) but I’m reaching for straws here.
One other thing. For the articles you post as part of a series. Are they added to other categories that are also series as well, or are the other categories they are added to outside of the series taxonomy?
Jim said,
Wrote on March 25, 2007 @ 5:06 pm
I’ve no idea on that first one, but it’s Linux-based and Apache.
Outside.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 25, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
Okay in referencing this comment that you made…
On your test blog was there an article written and a test series started (as a subcategory of the series category)? If not, that will account for the blank archives page if you have a category-xx.php file in the theme on your test blog (which reminds me that I should probably have a default message to something like, “you don’t have any series started on this blog yet”.)
If this is the case then we’ve learned that there is another plugin you have installed that is conflicting somehow with the “order_by” WP API hook. This is my hunch on the problem - more than likely it’s a plugin that doesn’t return the value correctly for the “order_by” hook (therefore my plugin will pick up an incorrect value and return an empty string leading to the sql errors.)
Darren said,
Wrote on March 25, 2007 @ 9:21 pm
I did a look-see of your plugins list and here’s some plugins you might want to try disabling to see if there’s a conflict (try one at a time).
- Footnotes
- Post Word counter
- SRG Clean Archives (**very suspect)
What we’re looking for is any plugin that has the “posts_orderby” action hook in it’s code (doing a search in the file for that string will reveal if that’s the case. Any plugin that uses that hook “may” be conflicting with mine if it doesn’t return the value correctly. (or it could be the other way around but my correction above should take care of that if implemented properly :))
Jim said,
Wrote on March 25, 2007 @ 11:13 pm
Ok, the good news is that I’m no longer receiving the error when I try to post something new to the series. The added return false; statement seems to have resolved that particular issue. And series show up fine on the front page. It’s when I try to click through to the series sub-category archive that I receive that WordPress database error mentioned up above. (This is what I get when I try to view the series archive.) So far, that particular error is persistent, no matter what I try or what plugins I turn off.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 26, 2007 @ 1:19 am
Look on the series options page in your admin. In the grouping called “Settings for the series post-list (table of contents) page display” select “by post date” and “ascending” then update the plugin settings. See if that fixes it. Just a hunch.
Another hunch. Did you happen to upgrade the Organize Series from a previous version?
Jim said,
Wrote on March 26, 2007 @ 8:42 am
Tried this, with no change. I’d already had those settings in, since they were the default.
Nope - this was a fresh installation.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 26, 2007 @ 9:56 am
Here’s my next suggestion in troubleshooting,
Comment out line 432 (or could be 433) of the orgSeries.php file by putting a “
//” in front of it.The code you are commenting out is:
add_filter('posts_orderby','sort_series_page_options');That code is the hook for the sql query that controls how the posts are displayed on a series sub-category page. If you still get problems after doing that then you’ve eliminated my plugin as a source for the problems as that is the only place where my plugin hooks into the MySQL query for archive pages. Of course, if it fixes it then I’ve got some work to do to try and restructure that hook
Jim said,
Wrote on March 26, 2007 @ 10:34 am
Hey, I’m not sure what happened, but everything seems to be working just fine now. I deactivated a couple of plugins I wasn’t using, then I commented out that line as you suggested, and tested it again. It worked! So, just to back-test, I commented that line back in - still worked. So activated those two plugins again, testing after each one - worked in both cases. So, now here I sit with the exact same setup as I had when I first had the trouble, but now your plugin seems to work. I’ve even added a test entry to my current series and it was added with no problems. Believe me when I say this is all very mysterious. I’m happy it’s working now - I just wish I knew why.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 26, 2007 @ 10:39 am
Jim said,
Wrote on March 26, 2007 @ 10:40 am
Actually, I’m suspicious that there was some sort of plugin conflict going on in MySQL that resolved itself during my fiddling. Massive strangeness…
Thanks for all your help and patience. I think I’m going to really enjoy using this one.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 26, 2007 @ 11:25 am
Please let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see in future versions as you play with it
Jim said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 10:27 am
Alright, Darren, I’m back. And so is my ‘cannot modify header’ error:
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/opendial/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/orgSeries/orgSeries.php:231) in /home/opendial/public_html/blog/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 275
From some of the research I’ve been doing, this error indicated that extra whitespace is getting tossed in somewhere from the OrgSeries.php file on line 231 that’s creating havoc with the pluggable.php file on line 275. Since line 231 in OrgSeries.php is referencing some options settings in a different file, is it possible that something is written in that file that’s inserting extra whitespace that doesn’t belong?
And while I’m getting the error, the post itself goes up just fine and the plugin seems to function. I just get this error when I publish it. Thoughts?
Darren said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 1:14 pm
Round 2
Okay, I’m still not sure what’s throwing up that error. I’ve checked and rechecked my code and so far there’s nothing obvious I can see. Yet, there obviously is something from the error you are getting. The thing that is baffling me the most is where this error is popping up for you in that there is nothing on the write post/edit post screen that my plugin hooks into (yet anyways).
So…here’s some grasping for straws suggestions that you can maybe try. They may seem silly, but try them anyway. All edits are to the orgSeries.php file (back it up before making the edits so that you can just overwrite if something goes wrong.
1. On line 230 which is
if (isset($catID)) : ?>Change the “:” to a “{”.2. On line 257 where it is
< ?php endif;- change the “endif;” to a “}”.3. Line 434 is a blank line between
add_filter('posts_orderby','sort_series_page_options');and the ending"?>"tag. Delete the blank line so that line 434 becomes the ending?>tag instead of being a blank line.Give that a try and see if it works.
Jim said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 1:44 pm
Weird.
I made your changes, and then replicated the error again. I then messed around a bit, editing the first entry in the series, and replicated the error again. So I created a second dummy entry for the series. No error. Deleted the dummy entry, went back and edited the first entry again. No error. (Huh?) Created a third series category and wrote a first dummy entry for that. No error. Edited the dummy entry. No error. Deleted the entry, went back and edited the first entry in my other series again, just to be sure. No error. Went back and created an initial entry in the dummy series category. Error. I even experimented with putting tags in Ultimate Tag Warrior and the meta plugin, both individually and together, just to see if orgSeries was interacting with them to create the errors. Sometimes I’d get the error, sometimes I wouldn’t. I’ll be darned if I can figure out what the heck is going on.
Ok, the fact of the matter is that I can’t even consistently replicate the error. Sometimes, I get the error, sometimes I don’t - even if I exactly duplicate the conditions under which the error occurs. This suggests to me that maybe the error is an issue of timing related to the post process. Could it be that some step of the publish process that orgSeries performs sometimes begins before a previous step concludes? Possibly as a consequence of something not happening in PHP or MySQL as fast as it should? I’m not all that familiar with this sort of thing or with the functions your plugin uses, so I’m just tossing thoughts and ideas out there.
I can’t think of any other plugin I use that orgSeries might interact with, either, to create this error as inconsistently as it does. It’s definitely baffling, and in the end it may just be something I have to accept, since at this point I’m not convinced it’s really your plugin that’s doing this so much as something on the backend not running as fast as it ought.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 2:17 pm
This is what baffles me the most because my plugin doesn’t change or interact in any way with the actual posting process (especially the line that is being referenced). The functions I use only change the query to the database when displaying a post that is part of a series. But the actual posting process is left alone as I merely utilize the existing category taxonomy that WordPress uses.
It sure is a conundrum alright. Well, hopefully someone will stumble across our conversation and know what it is. In the meantime, I’ll see if there’s anything I can dig up in some of my own research later on today. It’s an interesting challenge
Jim said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
No, that makes sense. Odd, then, that I only this error when I try posting an entry that falls under one of the series categories - and then only inconsistently. I suppose that maybe it could have something to do with the special category-xx.php file or the way your plugin kind of redirects the category that might cause the problem. Does orgSeries talk to MySQL at any point during publishing to tell it to look for a different file for displaying the series category?
(Can you tell that I hate leaving bugs unresolved?
)
Jim said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 2:35 pm
(BTW - you really ought to install the Subscribe-to-Comments plugin. ;))
Jim said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 3:16 pm
Ah, geez, Darren - here’s another for ya’. When someone comments on an entry in a series (admin included), this error appears -
Something went wrong - 302 : Client error: Can’t edit post from requested journal
I’m using AJAX comments, but this error doesn’t appear on non-series entries. I’m guessing all these errors I keep finding have something to do with the archives (we’re back to that again). Any ideas? Am I annoying you yet?
Darren said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 6:32 pm
Jim,
Nope, that’s the funny thing about this. OrgSeries only queries the database when there’s a request for the page to display, not in the process of publishing the post. But here’s something you can do to test that theory. Uncheck, all the “auto-tag” boxes on the series options page. That prevents the plugin from doing the hooks that insert the template tags for the posts with series. If the error stops then I’ll be shocked
Yup, but that’s okay - I’m the same way, which is why I appreciate your communication because I’ve never experienced this bug (and still haven’t hehe). I’m really strongly suspecting it has something to do with server environment but that’s way out of my league so that’s just a leap in the dark.
whoah, that’s a freaky error. Again, puzzling because orgSeries doesn’t even touch the commenting engine. Further, category-xx.php only applies to category archive pages and isn’t even requested for single.php pages. You can verify this by deleting the category-xx.php file from your themes directory (which will revert the series table of contents page back to normal) and see if you still get the error.
Further, since orgSeries doesn’t do any redirects (it only queries what’s in the default wp-db) and doesn’t have any of it’s own tables I don’t really understand how it could cause your site to return a 302. I’m not saying it’s not the culprit but it’s just puzzling to me.
Not yet
Darren said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 6:42 pm
One thing that I just thought of for the 302 error. It could be that the plugin isn’t closing out a <div> container or something of that nature (which will affect the container ajax-comments will be looking for when executing). I’m looking through source now to see if that’s a possibility.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 6:58 pm
I think I found it:
Line 353 has:
< ?php get_cat_icon('cat=' . $cat_ID . '&fit_width=' . $settings['cat_icon_width_cat_page'] . '&height=-1&expand=true'); } ?>remove the “}” and then,
Line 355 has:
< ?php } ?>Add an extra “}” there.
I “think” that will take care of your “302″ error.
Jim said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 7:21 pm
Well, I dunno. I think I’m about ready to call it quits on that one because now I can’t duplicate the header error. The 302 is still occurring, even with the change you recommended, but the comments are getting posted. The reader just doesn’t know it unless they refresh the page.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 9:01 pm
Does your host use php Fast-CGI?
Jim said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 9:14 pm
Yeah, looks like it.
Darren said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 10:02 pm
Another question Jim. I’ve looked at your site and it appears that only Series articles are in a sub-category. Just for further troubleshooting…do you have any other sub-categories outside of the series category? If not, can you try making a sub-category and posting to it. If you get the same errors then that will at least demonstrate that orgSeries isn’t at fault.
I think I’ve pretty much exhausted anything I can think of at this point. Sometime this week I’m going to be trying out the ajax-comments plugin so we’ll see if I get any problems on my blog
Darren said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 10:04 pm
There have been some bugs with php Fast-CGI - my understanding of it is limited but it could be a clue as to what is happening and if you try what I suggested above it will indicate whether it’s limited to just with my plugin or some other plugin conflict (shrug).
Jim said,
Wrote on March 27, 2007 @ 10:32 pm
I don’t, but I will test that option out tomorrow.
Jim said,
Wrote on March 28, 2007 @ 10:14 am
Made a test entry in a sub-category outside of the series category and even made a test comment - no pro