Array Function in WordPress 2.5

During a recent site redesign, the client required the site dynamically generate a unique promotional banner (in the sidebar) on certain high profile writers “about the author” page.

wordpress 2.5Before WordPress version 2.5.x, we had to rely on conditional tags such as is_page() or is_category() and numerous lines of code to accomplish it. For most parts it worked well, especially when you had only one or two conditions to satisfy, but when the number of such exceptions increased, the code became bulky and was prone to err.

With WordPress version 2.5.x, you can simplify the task by applying the conditions over an array of pages (categories, tags…), here’s an example:

Our conditional tag was required to automatically generate a banner when the author page of specific authors was queried.

SEO Tip Open Comment Author URL in new Window

For good SEO, it is preferential to open your comment authors URI in a new page. Why you might ask? Google and other search engines track sites you visit, they can tell what that site contains (obviously), how long you stayed there and where you went next. The intended use of this information is to find if the sites you visited were relevant to your search keyword and/or if all the sites you visit are related. That could also work against you if your site get a lot of spammers commenting on it. Here’s how.

comment author url pupupLet’s say you get a comment on your site that look legit, so you want …

Anatomy of a Magazine Style Premium WordPress Theme – Part 3.2 “Conditional Navigation Menus”

As the tutorials run longer than we prefer, we have broken section 3 into 3 sub-sections, you can find sub-section 1 regarding second level menu here.
The navigational aspect of a site, especially one that is database driven, should have menus that are dynamically generated just like the rest of its content, but is seldom the case. The reason is not the lack of information or techniques, but rather the developer underestimating the role of effective navigation to the success of a site. A site with poor navigation is just as or bad or worse than a site with poor content.

conditional menu
Magazine style themes have overcome …