I had a bit of a dilemma today as I needed to create a widget to house the BT.com widget (which you can now see on the sidebar) and for this I decided the easiest way would be to knock up a standalone plugin for this.

While looking into this I discovered a very handy little WordPress Widget Builder which does it all for you, nice and easy! - http://widgetifyr.com/startup

It’s a very easy interface, simple enter the code you want to be displayed in the widget, and click “Generate My Widget” now most people will want to tweak the code which is produced a little before using it, so let’s explain things a little.

The main things you will want/need to change is the plugin information, which is stored in a PHP comment at the top of the plugin file, by default the widget builder outputs the following:

/*
Plugin Name: Test Plugin
Plugin URI: http://www.widgetifyr.com
Description: Test Plugin
Author: widgetifyr.com
Version: 0.01
Author URI: http://www.widgetifyr.com

*/

It’s fairly self explanatory, simply change the text to suit your needs so a modified one could be:

/*
Plugin Name: Hello World Widget
Plugin URI: http://dansgalaxy.co.uk/hello_world_plugin
Description: Simple Plugin which creates Widget which says “Hello world”
Author: Dan.
Version: 1
Author URI: http://dansgalaxy.co.uk

*/

Hopefully someone can find this useful, particularly when you need a quick WordPress Widget, but can’t be bothered to write the code!

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By default the wp-cron.php is run every single time a page is loaded, this includes admin pages. This can lead if you have a busy blog to a lot of cron runs, which simply aren’t needed.

What does the wp-cron do? You might ask, and even if you don’t I will tell you anyway. The wp-cron will do things like scheduled posts and can also include things that plugins want running.

So how we go about this is simple, we will disable the wp-cron from running on every page load, and then add a proper cron job.

First lets disable it:

Simply open wp-config.php and add the follow line.

define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);

Note: You need to make sure you use an apostrophe instead of single quotes in the code here, otherwise it will not work!

Second, lets add the cron:

It is probably a good idea to run the cron job every couple of hours, for this we will add something like this.

0      */2      *      *      *

For the command you simply need to call the wp-cron either using wget OR php -q

php -q /home/cPanel_User/public_html/wp-cron.php

OR

wget http://YourDomain.com/wp-cron.php

Personally I’d prefer the php -q option as some hosts can have trouble resolving domains on the same server.

If anyone has any questions or comments please leave a comment below and I’ll try to help.

Just thought I would post this little jQuery snippet which simply updates the value of input field based on value of another. This can be particularly useful in some situations where information can be duplicated for example perhaps on a billing and shipping address form etc.

Example for standard text based input field:

$(“#src-field”).change(function () {

$(“#otherfield”).val($(“#src-field”).val());

})

.change();

I have began to write a server monitor script, keeping what I’m going to call it secret until its finished

I guess i will need to think of a code name like “Longhorn” (Vistas code name) for the moment I might go with SwinServe (I live in Swindon, and is a Server monitor script… ) works for me okay i have a code name.

Now i will explain what it will hopefully have.

The point of the script is obvious, it will monitor many aspects of your chosen server(s) and be able to display that information.

It will, collect and store information about the server, whats up whats down memory usage, CPU usage and hopefully also hdd usage.

This information can then be used to hopefully show and possibly even graph server status over a period of time through the Admin panel.

The script will obviously have a client page which shows the status of all the servers you have added, and shows the current usage(s) etc enabling clients to view whats going on.

I want this script to be fully flexible, and intend to allow admins to add any port they wish to monitor, and more. meaning it can be used for any purpose and wont be restricted to http/ftp/cpanel/whm/mysql/smtp/pop etc which would also mean, it can monitor things like shoutcast etc.

It would just be a simple form in the admin where you enter things like:

Server name

Server IP

Server URL

cPanel username/password

and then probably a selection of tick boxes of all the ports to monitor, so if for instance it was just a MySQL server you would untick them all accept the MySQL one, so on the monitor page, it shows the rest as “unmonitored” and only the required ports are used.

Also for the same u could set custom ports for that server.

Why cPanel username and password?

Nothing is firm at the moment, but it will most likely be used to access information privileged to the cPanel area.

Plugins/Mods:

I am planning to develop modifications for WHMCS, my client panel of choice, which will… if I’m clever enough, sync server info so you don’t have to add them to both softwares.

I am also planning to develop a new tpl file for server status which will incorporate SwinServe into the styles etc and make it fit in perfectly. and should (hopefully) function like it was part of WHMCS.

Once the initial built is complete and Version 1 is finalised, and fully working with WHMCS and cPanel i would be interested in developing it to work well with other server panels and client panels, however i wont be able to afford them to do the testing so as a note i may be trying to scrounge access to your client area! just to make it work.

I am still undecided if i will make this open source/closed source of closed source and selling it.

I will be posting the developments as they come.

Hello, i thought i might start posting about some of the scripts i have made

 Ok i coded this script for someone who strangely enough wanted a system where user enters a “coupon” and it redirects to a URL which is associated with that “coupon”.

 I knocked this system up with a admin bit to manage the coupons which (in my opinion) made it nice and easy to add/edit/manage the coupons.

 My client i sold the coupon redirect system to was very happy with the script and as far as i know is using it without problem!

Okay so i would like to offer this script to anyone who may be interested in this script or would like the system but modded to suit your needs please send me a email, add me on MSN or just post a reply and i can get in contact with you and we can sort something out.

I got a script to day which i am moding up (alot!) into a simple host script so users can sign up, login upload files to a dir and manage those files.

Got this script which has the idea, needs alot of work but i mean DIDNT PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO CODE?!

 its hidious! :p all capitals and amazingly bad code! guh.

 iky ew.

Wow thats it jsut a quick rant.

i should do it more,  i might have more blog content..