Tag Archives: code

Displaying Snippets of Code Correctly in WordPress Posts

Anyone who has ever tried to insert a line or block of code into their WordPress posts knows firsthand how frustrating it can be to get the code to display correctly – without funny characters, or lines running off the page, etc. Here is the method I use to get blocks of code to display correctly in a post.

Copy and paste this code into your stylesheet:

pre  {
font-family: courier,"courier new",monospace;
font-size: 12px;
overflow-x: auto; /* Use horizontal scroller if needed; for Firefox 2, not needed in Firefox 3 */
white-space: pre-wrap; /* css-3 */
white-space: -moz-pre-wrap !important; /* Mozilla, since 1999 */
white-space: -pre-wrap; /* Opera 4-6 */
white-space: -o-pre-wrap; /* Opera 7 */
/* width: 99%; */
word-wrap: break-word; /* Internet Explorer 5.5+ */
  }

Now, the next time you add a line of code to your posts, simply highlight the code, and select “Preformatted” rather than “Paragraph” in the drop down menu at the top of your post box.

Or – if you prefer to work with the HTML directly, add the tags <pre> and </pre> around the line or block of code that you are trying to style.

And of course, you can further customize the way codes display in your WordPress posts by adding background color, borders, etc. to the <pre> element in your stylesheet.

Let me know if you have problems or questions.

How to create a coupon discount for PayPal buttons

Here are the codes I use to create a coupon discount for PayPal buttons.

First, create your PayPal button:

  1. Log in to your PayPal account.
  2. Click on the Merchant Services Tab and select “Buy Now Button”
  3. Click create a “Buy Now” button.
  4. Enter your information to customize the button to your needs.
  5. Click Step 2 and uncheck the “Save button at PayPal”
  6. Click “Create Button.”
  7. Click “Remove code protection”
  8. Click “Select Code” to select the button code.

Next, paste the code for your PayPal button into your webpage.

To add the check discount code box, paste this line of code before the <input type=”image”… part of the button code:

Enter Coupon code
<input type     = "text" size     = "10"  name     = "coupcode"; />
<input type="button" value="Check code" onclick="coupval =this.form.coupcode.value;  ChkCoup();" /><br/><br/>

You can also use this block of code for your button and edit as needed rather than generating your own button from PayPal:

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" onsubmit="this.target = 'paypal'; return ReadForm (this);">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick" />
<input type="hidden" name="add" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="" />
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="10 sessions" />
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="773.00" />
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD" />
<input type="hidden" name="baseamt" value="773.00" />
<input type="hidden" name="basedes" value="10 sessions" />
Enter Coupon code
<input type     = "text" size     = "10"  name     = "coupcode"; />
<input type="button" value="Check code" onclick="coupval =this.form.coupcode.value;  ChkCoup();" /><br/><br/>
<input type="image" id="xx" disabled="disabled" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/WEBSCR-640-20110306-1/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" onclick="CalculateOrder(this.form)" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/WEBSCR-640-20110306-1/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>

Make sure you add the correct value (either your PayPal email address or your Merchant account ID number) to this line:

<input type="hidden" name="business" value="" />

If you are using the button code that was generated from PayPal, make sure you add this line of code to the <input type=”image”… section of the button code:

disabled="disabled"

This disables the button until the correct coupon code is entered. This is only necessary if you are using the button ONLY for people who have discount codes. If you want people to be able to make purchases whether they have a discount code or not, you don’t need to add that line.

 

Next, you will want to create the Javascript file which contains the passwords and discounts for your button. Copy and paste this code into a new text file:

<!--
var discnt = 0;   // no default percent discount

var coupons = new Array (  // place to put coupon codes
  "coup1",                 // 1st coupon value - comma seperated
  "coup2",                 // 2nd coupon value - add all you want
  "coup3"                  // 3rd coupon value
);
var coupdc  = new Array (  // place to put discounts for coupon vals
  5,
  10,
  15
);
var coupval = "(blanket)"; // what user entered as coupon code

function ChkCoup () {      // check user coupon entry
var i;
  discnt = 0;              // assume the worst
  for (i=0; i<coupons.length; i++) {
    if (coupval == coupons[i]) {
      discnt = coupdc[i];  // remember the discount amt
      alert ("This is a valid promo code! \n\n" + "$" + discnt +
             " discount now in effect.");
      return;
    }
  }
  alert ("'" + coupval + "'  is not a valid promo code!");
}

function Dollar (val) {      // force to valid dollar amount
var str,pos,rnd=0;
  if (val < .995) rnd = 1;  // for old Netscape browsers
  str = escape (val*1.0 + 0.005001 + rnd);  // float, round, escape
  pos = str.indexOf (".");
  if (pos > 0) str = str.substring (rnd, pos + 3);
  return str;
}

function ReadForm (obj1) {  // apply the discount
var amt,des;
  amt = obj1.baseamt.value*1.0;       // base amount
  des = obj1.basedes.value;           // base description

  if (discnt > 0) {                   // only if discount is active
    amt = Dollar (amt - (amt * discnt/100.0));
    des = des + ", " + "$" + discnt + "dis, COUP = " + coupval;
  }

  obj1.amount.value = Dollar (amt);
  obj1.item_name.value = des;
}
//-->

Here is a link to the Javascript file that you will need - http://thelibzter.com/discount.js. Feel free to right-click and save the file to your desktop so that you can edit it and upload it to your own site.

To add the passwords you want to use, change the names coup1, coup2, and coup3 to the passwords that you want to use.

 

To add the discount amounts, change the 5, 10, and 15 to the percentage that you want the discounts to be for.

 

You will want to make sure that the button amount is higher than any of the discounted prices. For instance, if you want to offer three different discounts – one which reduces the price to $750, one which reduces is to $725, and one which reduces it to $700 – you will want to make sure that the amount of the original button is at least $750, and then add the discounts for the correct percentages to bring the price down to the amount you want.

 

The final step, which I use to make the discount button more secure, is to pack part of the Javascript code. I copy the line of the code that contains my discount passwords:

var coupons = new Array (  // place to put coupon codes   "coup1",                 // 1st coupon value - comma seperated   "coup2",                 // 2nd coupon value - add all you want   "coup3"                  // 3rd coupon value );

And paste it into Dean Edward’s packer - http://dean.edwards.name/packer/. Click “pack” and then copy the packed code and paste it into your Javascript file in place of the line above, which declared our passwords. This makes it more difficult for people to see your passwords.

 

Save the Javascript file as discount.js or whatever you want it to be called. Upload it to your server. Add this line of code to your website’s <head> section:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://yourwebsite.com/discount.js"></script>

Make sure you change the name of the Javascript file in the code above to the name of your own file.

This way of adding a discount coupon to PayPal buttons works for me, but let me know if you run into any issues or have any questions.

 

WordPress: Create and use a second header.php file

Good afternoon friends! Today I want to share a very easy way to incorporate a second header.php file into your WordPress theme.

First, let’s create the second header.php file. Typically, I will just copy and paste the codes of the original header.php file, edit them as I see fit, and then save the new file as my second header.php file.

For this example, I will use just a very simple header. Paste this code into a text editor:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title><?php if ( is_home() ) { ?><? bloginfo('name'); ?>&nbsp;<?php bloginfo('description'); } else { wp_title('&nbsp;'); ?>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<? bloginfo('name'); } ?></title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<link rel="shorcut icon" type="image/x-ico" href="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/favicon.ico" />
<link href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/javascript/imghover.js"> </script>
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="<?php bloginfo('rss2_url'); ?>" />
<link rel="alternate" type="text/xml" title="RSS .92" href="<?php bloginfo('rss_url'); ?>" />
<?php wp_head(); ?>
</head>
<body>
<!-- header START -->
<div class="Header">
<h1><a href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a></h1>
<div class="Desc"><?php bloginfo('description'); ?></div>
<!-- header END --><!-- container START --><div class="Container">

Now, save  the file as header-secondheader.php (or whatever you want the second header to be called). Just make sure it is in the format of header-yournewheader.php.

Upload the file to the correct folder on your server – ” …/wp-content/themes/yourthemename“.

Next, open the template page that you want to use the second header for. For this example, let’s say it is index.php.  Find this line of code:

<?php get_header(); ?>

And replace it with this:

<?php get_header('secondheader'); ?>

Of course, make sure that the name in the parentheses is the name of your second header.

That should work for you, but as always, let me know if you run into any issues at all.

WP E-Commerce plug in: fixing output from USPS rate calculator

I have used the WP E-commerce plug in for several WordPress online stores that I have developed for clients, and one thing that I have run into more than once is this: the names of the carriers when you calculate USPS shipping rates often have an unsightly line of code in them:

Priority Mail&lt;sup&gt;&amp;reg;&lt;/sup&gt; Flat Rate Envelope
Express Mail&lt;sup&gt;&amp;reg;&lt;/sup&gt; Flat Rate Envelope
Parcel Post&lt;sup&gt;&amp;reg;&lt;/sup&gt;

Here is the way to fix it. Open  wp-e-commerce/wpsc-includes/cart.class.php and find this line of code:

function wpsc_shipping_quote_name() {
 global $wpsc_cart;
 return $wpsc_cart->shipping_quote['name'];
}

Replace that block of code with this:

function wpsc_shipping_quote_name() {
	global $wpsc_cart;
	//return $wpsc_cart->shipping_quote['name'];

   $output .= $wpsc_cart->shipping_quote['name'];
+  $output = str_replace('&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;&amp;amp;reg;&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;', '<sup>&reg;</sup>', $output);
+  $output = str_replace('&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;&amp;amp;trade;&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;', '<sup>&trade;</sup>', $output);

   return $output;
 }

Now simply save the file and your problem should be fixed! That has worked every time for me, but let me know if you have any trouble.

WordPress: Changing the default home page title in the navigation menu (Twenty-Ten theme)

Today, while working on a WordPress website, I noticed that when I selected a static page of the site to be the home page, it automatically re-named the page “Home” in the navigation menu rather than keeping the original title of the page.

To solve this, I opened the functions.php file in the admin panel. Then I found this block of code:

function twentyten_page_menu_args( $args ) {
 $args['show_home'] = true;
 return $args;
}
add_filter( 'wp_page_menu_args', 'twentyten_page_menu_args' );

I erased that block of code and saved the file. Now the page shows the title I gave it in the navigation menu – problem solved!

Let me know if you are running into the same issue I was and this tip doesn’t help you, and I’ll try to help you.