” Sorry, login failed. Error message from Twitter: Rate limit exceeded. Clients may not make more than 150 requests per hour.” .

So I upgraded WP to 2.9.1 , reinstalled the plugin and tried again …. with no luck . I Googled the message and found out that I wasn’t the only one with this problem. Those solutions didn’t work so I uninstalled the plugin (again) and tried an earlier version . This didn’t work either . I started looking for other solutions . This one didn’t work because of my server’s settings , but I found CSS Trick’s “Build your own Social Home” post. They’ve used Twitter’s API and a bit of JSON to load and display tweets on the page.

This is the code I use to display tweets on my home page . It’s basically the same , with some small changes.

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
		$.getJSON('http://twitter.com/status/user_timeline/iacobionut.json?count=2&callback=?', function(data){
		$.each(data, function(index, item){
			$('#twitter-home').append('<div class="tweet"><p>' + item.text.linkify() + '</p><p><em>' + relative_time(item.created_at) + '</em></p></div>');
		});

	});
function relative_time(time_value) {
	  var values = time_value.split(" ");
	  time_value = values[1] + " " + values[2] + ", " + values[5] + " " + values[3];
	  var parsed_date = Date.parse(time_value);
	  var relative_to = (arguments.length > 1) ? arguments[1] : new Date();
	  var delta = parseInt((relative_to.getTime() - parsed_date) / 1000);
	  delta = delta + (relative_to.getTimezoneOffset() * 60);

	  var r = '';
	  if (delta < 60) {
		r = 'a minute ago';
	  } else if(delta < 120) {
		r = 'couple of minutes ago';
	  } else if(delta < (45*60)) {
		r = (parseInt(delta / 60)).toString() + ' minutes ago';
	  } else if(delta < (90*60)) {
		r = 'an hour ago';
	  } else if(delta < (24*60*60)) {
		r = '' + (parseInt(delta / 3600)).toString() + ' hours ago';
	  } else if(delta < (48*60*60)) {
		r = '1 day ago';
	  } else {
		r = (parseInt(delta / 86400)).toString() + ' days ago';
	  }

	  return r;
	}

	String.prototype.linkify = function() {
		return this.replace(/[A-Za-z]+:\/\/[A-Za-z0-9-_]+\.[A-Za-z0-9-_:%&\?\/.=]+/, function(m) {
			return m.link(m);
		});
	};

});
</script>

I still have no idea why Twitter Tools doesn’t work , but this solution is really easy to use if you have the same problem.

1. Exporting the database – Phpmyadmin

Enter Phpmyadmin and select your database.

Select the Export tab

Tick Add DROP TABLE/VIEW/PROCEDURE/FUNCTION . Make sure all the tables and SQL are selected . Tick “Save as file” . Click “GO” and you’re done with the first part.

Open the file (*.sql) with Notepad (or any other text editor) . Replace all local URLs ( http://localhost ) with you new domain name (e.g. http://www.mysite.com ). After you’re done , save the file.

2. Upload the Wordpress folder to your server

3. Importing the database

Log in to Phpmyadmin on your server and select the Import Tab. Click Browse , select the database file (*.sql) from your HDD and click GO.

4. Changing WP Settings

Edit wp-config.php and change these following lines.

Done.

Problems you may encounter .

One problem I found after I imported the database was that I couldn’t upload images from the Dashboard to the “Upload” folder. To solve this , log in to phpmyadmin on your server. Select the newly imported database .
Select the wp_options table and click Browse.

Search for the option_name called upload_path (I found it on the second page)

Select it and click Change (the little Pencil icon)

Enter the Full path to your “Uploads” folder and click GO.

And you’re done.

Features :
• Tabbed sidebar area (Mootools) containing : Latest Posts , Latest Comments and Tags
• Widget Ready Sidebar
• Integrated Theme Options : You can enter your Twitter and Flickr ID’s and customize the copyright area
• Lifestream Support
• Custom page template for Archives page
• Gravatar support for comments

Changelog :
Ver 1.1
• Minor CSS bugs fixed
• Dropdown menus added
• Minor design changes

Remember that this is the first version , so I’m waiting for feedback on the theme .

Live Demo

Download Proudblack Wordpress Theme

V 1.0 Features :

• Tabbed sidebar area (Mootools) containing : Latest Posts , Latest Comments and Tags.
• Widget Ready Sidebar
• Integrated Theme Options : You can enter your Twitter and Flickr ID’s and customize the copyright area
• Lifestream Support
• Custom page template for Archives page
• Gravatar support for comments

I need a couple of “testers” to test it and give me their feedback(bugs , what can be improved etc) before I’ll launch it.So if you’re interested drop a comment below and I’ll send you the theme.
The theme will be available for download next week .

The winners are…

I’ve randomly picked the following numbers : 19 , 2 , 13 , 7 , 5 and 12. So the winners are:

• Allahverdi – CSS Gallery Theme
• Marko – CSS Gallery Theme
• twoaz1 – WoodWorld Theme
• John Holt – Did not specify
• Steve Robillard – CSS Gallery Theme
• darkitten – Did not specify

Congratulations to all the winners ! For those who didn’t win , I’m planning more contests in these following months so stay tuned .

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post about what does Christmas mean to you . Also please include what theme you’d like to win. Winners will be randomly picked by me and the results will be announced on Friday – January 2nd, 2009 .

Wordpress Themes

1. CSS Gallery Theme

Features :

• 2 PSD Files for easy customization ( Logo and Main Page)
• jQuery hover effects
• Gravatar Support
• Featured (“Smoking Hot” ) Category

2. Keep it Simple

Features :

• Clean and simple design
• 1 PSD file for easy customization
• 2 Column design
• 1 Widgetized Sidebar

3. Pretty in Pink

Features :

• Grunge White Pink Design
• 3 PSD files (Background texture , Header and Main Page)
• One Widgetized Sidebar

4. OldTheme Project

Features :

• 2 PSD files for customization (Header and Main Page)
• Gravatar support with custom admin styling
• 1 Widgetized Sidebar

5. ZedMag Theme

Features :

• 4 Styles (Blue , Green , Red and Concrete) with easy switching between them
• 3 Column Magazine Theme
• Featured Articles Section ( jQuery Gallery )
• Custom Admin Menu
• Scrolling News Ticker (jQuery)
• 6 Boxes to display the latest post in 6 different categories
• 8 PSD Files (4 Headers + 4 Main Pages)

6. WoodWorld Theme

Features :

• 2 PSD files for easy customization ( Main File + Header)
• Built-in Gravatar Comments with different styling for admins
• One Widgetized sidebar

Week 1 : Wordpress Excerpt – how to limit the number of words displayed

The excerpt displays the first 55 words of a post…a “teaser” if you like.It’s usually used on front pages of blogs and online newspapers . Unlike the_content() , the_excerpt() does not show a “Read More” link after the text …this is replaced by [..] .

Today we’ll learn how to change the number of words displayed by the excerpt.Let’s say that you don’t have the space to show the first 55 words of a post/article and you would like to show only the first 25.This is how you do it :

First of all you’ll need to open the functions.php file of your theme and add these following lines:

<?php
function string_limit_words($string, $word_limit)
{
  $words = explode(' ', $string, ($word_limit + 1));
  if(count($words) > $word_limit)
  array_pop($words);
  return implode(' ', $words);
}
?>

Then add this where you want the excerpt to be displayed :

<?php $excerpt = get_the_excerpt();
 echo string_limit_words($excerpt,25);
?>

I have some spare time these days and I’m planning to do some changes around here:

• Minor tweaks to the site (contact form , paragraphs etc )
• Some free wordpress themes for my “Freebies” section
• A couple of posts/tutorials about Wordpress

Until then…take care.