Page 1 tetap seperti biasa, kayanya sih ga banyak perubahan. Namanya orang ga ada kerjaan, iseng2 terus nelusurin page by page nya, sampe, eh… What the???

Agak kaget juga? Kemaren sih memang ada yang telepon bilang dari koran Tempo, terus nanya2 soal photo blogging, tapi dari jawaban gw yang (menurut gw) rada kurang memuaskan kirain bakal jadi angin lalu aja. Lagian, who am I ya?? Eh, ternyata jadi juga toh hoho.. Yah… meskipun hanya bagian Suplemen di Koran Tempo tanggal 14 Desember 2007, yang bisa diakses di link ini. Lumayan lah Oh iya, karena itu tertutup hanya untuk member, kalau mau liat coba aja pake firefox, terus siap2 teken Esc begitu beritanya keliatan, jadi ga sempet kebawa ke hal Login – Atau gampangnya klik di sini aja buat Full Screenshot-nya.

Ada-ada aja ya? Meski ada beberapa statement yang bikin mata rada ngernyit sih bacanya tp biarinlah… Peace…

1. notice my new header?

2. fix some of the template bug.

3. update content background to white round corner box with drow shadow effect (fix a template bug)

4. move pages link from sidebar to header

5. move search box from sidebar to header

6. add function to show/hide search button automatically

7. add function to set/reset search text automatically

8. add shoutbox to sidebar

9. reorder the sidebar items

10. add hide/show function for some items in sidebar

11. add frog (kocu) image at the bottom of post view

12. tambahin link ke main domain sahat-tambunan.com di header, sebelum pages link

13. hm… udah, kayanya sih itu aja

13 kan? rada maksa dikit gapapalah

I downloaded it, tested it locally and found it worked perfectly. So I installed it to my blog right away. Tada, came up with a small problem. It can’t locate 2 images, the loading and the close button. I checked the source a bit, and found the problem. It was because I’m using static URI, date and name base permalink. The javascript didn’t translate the image location correctly. The fix is simple, open litebox-1.0.js in js folder and seek for this line:

var fileLoadingImage = "wp-content/plugins/gblitebox/images/loading.gif";
var fileBottomNavCloseImage = "wp-content/plugins/gblitebox/images/closelabel.gif";

All I did was added a slash at the beginning of the string so it would look like this:

var fileLoadingImage = "/wp-content/plugins/gblitebox/images/loading.gif";
var fileBottomNavCloseImage = "/wp-content/plugins/gblitebox/images/closelabel.gif";

Very simple fix huh? but I didn’t work it out instantly. I edited the file a few times but uploaded a different file with the same filename from another location. It took me half an hour to realize it phew.

a picture is worth a thousand words

Yes, I’m fully agree to this proverb. And that’s why, starting from now on, I’ll use this blog for my photo blog as well. No, I’m not a photographer, and I’m not planning to be one, either. I don’t even have any digicam (yet). All I have is an old nokia mobile phone with a standard camera (I think it’s still VGA).

I’ve had this thought for some times, but I haven’t got the chance to try it out. It’s hard to decide how would I organize the photos. I was uncertain whether I should put it in a free public photo web as flickr, have my own gallery (like this), make a new photo blog, or just use this one. Well, I’ve finally made up my mind (as you can see), but I soon stumbled in new question. I need plugins to support this. Finding the one suit my needs wasn’t easy, I need to search for some recommended plugins, explore them, see the live demo and finally try them on my local server. There are lots of good plugins with great features! But sometimes, we just don’t need that great features. So, I finally decide the plugins to extend my blog to a photo blog, Lightbox and ImageManager.

Lightbox will serve as the front end image loader, it has great javascript to load your image in layers. ImageManager will serve as the back end image organizer. I can only show you the live demo for lightbox, please click my name: Sahat-Tambunan to see how it works.

My personal perspective, Everyone has the rights to do whatever they like, and some people are so lucky they can earn money at the same time. I believe this goes for blogging as well. But sometimes…, no, perhaps many times, people like to hear other’s success story, and just starting to walk the same path. They aim to earn what they’ve heard. Is this wrong? I think it’s natural, as long you keep it that way. But most people often forget the most important things, the Fun! They failed to notice one of the success key, one of the main factor of success, is to enjoy what they do. Don’t concentrate on making money and miss all the fun.

As for me right now, this ads I’ve added to my blog are just for personal fun. I’m not too interested in making money from it, though I won’t say no if I finally do :p

Other might have found their way to the top and succeed. It’s a good thing to learn from their story, but it’s not always a good decision to walk their path. Learn from others, and Walk our own path of success! (by sahat nih, hehe)

I’ve had this thought in my head for a while, is it bad to do bilingual blogging? Well, actually the word doesn’t really seem to fit itself, since bilingual should means speaking in 2 languages, which describe bilingual blogging as blogging in 2 languages (all the post should be available in 2 languages). And here’s my own bilingual blogging style, having some posts in bahasa, and some others in english :p

Yang jadi pertimbangan utama pastinya ialah target pembaca (ciee… kaya banyak aja yg baca – gubrak). Kalau kita mau blog kita bisa dibaca oleh banyak orang dari negara manapun, ya jelas bahasa inggris yg harus dipake. Tapi kalau kita mau blog kita lebih dimengerti oleh lingkungan lokal kita, bahasa indonesia solusinya. Kalau gw? Normalnya sih gw lebih suka bahasa inggris, tapi bukan karena lebih mudah buat gw, justru karena lebih menantang plus untuk pengembangan dan pembelajaran gw sendiri khususnya dalam bahasa inggris tertulis. Hampir selalu saat blogging dalam bahasa inggris pasti gw akan banyak akses ke dictionary.com atau kamus.net untuk bantuan darurat, bahkan Microsoft Word pun beralih fungsi jadi tukang cek ejaan dan tata bahasa (^_^) Jadi kapan gw pake bahasa indonesia? Seperti yg gw bilang sebelumnya, kunci utama ialah target pembaca. Saat gw pengen share sesuatu yang teknis, tentang pemrograman misalnya, karena sepertinya sudah sangat banyak referensi yang bisa ditemukan di internet dalam bahasa inggris, maka gw memilih untuk berbagi informasi tersebut dalam bahasa indonesia. Alasan lainnya, terkadang lagi males aja pake bahasa inggris, kadang udah mentok ga bisa nerusin pake bahasa inggris, kadang juga karena buru-buru ga sempet kalo harus cari kata-kata sulit dalam bahasa inggris.

The main concern would be the targeted audience. If we want our blog readable by most people all around the world, well english is for sure. But if we prefer to have our blog understandable by our local friends, then please use bahasa. As for me, I prefer having it in english. Not because it’s easier, but I consider it as a challenge for me, to develop my english, especially written. I’ve often accessed dictionary.com or kamus.net for emergency help when posting in english. Even Microsoft Word becomes a spell and grammar checker tool for me (“,) But still there are times I’ld rather have the post in bahasa, it depends on the targeted audience as I’ve mentioned. When posting something technical, like programming, I believe the internet already has so much of it in english, so I prefer to share it in bahasa. Other reasons are – sometimes I’m just not in the mood for english, sometimes I get stuck in difficult words and sometimes I’m in a hurry I didn’t have the time for those difficult words.

Jadi! dengan post ini gw memutuskan, tidak perduli apakah bilingual blogging yang gw anut ini salah atau benar, gw akan tetap meneruskannya!

So, by this post I hereby announce… It wouldn’t matter to me wheter my bilingual blogging style is a good thing or not, I’ll stick with it!

1. BACKUP

   Langkah pertama yg pasti ialah simpan/selamatkan (backup) dulu semua yang ada. Secara langkah mungkin bisa dibagi lagi jadi 2, yaitu Backup Database dan Backup Files.

   Untuk backup database gw pake phpmyadmin yg disediakan oleh hosting gw, tinggal export semua tables, trus simpen filenya di lokal. Sedikit tips tambahan lagi, biasakan kalau mem-backup selalu sertakan tanggal backup pada nama file, bagusnya sih dengan format tanggal-bulan-tahun-jam, supaya otomatis juga tersort di explorer.

   Backup files gw lakukan dengan menggunakan tools Web Based File Manager dari hosting gw, yg syukurnya support melakukan archiving, jadi gw ga perlu download semua file, cukup hasil archivenya saja. Dan jangan lupa, backup SEMUANYA ya, ga usah pake pilih2.

2. Deactivate ALL Plugins

   Menurut wordpress sih, gak semua plugin akan langsung compatible dengan Wordpress versi terbaru, jadi supaya gak malah keak keok (baca: bermasalah) setelah upgrade, jangan lupa dimatikan dulu semua plugin yang ada.

3. Upload the New Version

   Yang ini stepnya agak panjang, pertama pastikan udah punya versi Wordpress terbaru (plis deh kalo sampe lupa). Kalo udah di ekstrak aja dulu isinya, setelah itu, ini langkah yg agak mengerikan, HAPUS semua file wordpress yg lama KECUALI:

   • folder wp-content
   • folder wp-images (di gw sih folder ini emang ga ada)
   • file wp-config.php
   • file .htaccess
   • folder wp-includes/language (buat yg make, gw sih tetep gw apus)

   Jangan tanya kenapa ya :p panjang jawabannya (^_^) pokonya semua file selain yang disebutkan di atas dihapus aja, plus tambahan untuk pengguna versi 2.0, (katanya) harus juga menghapus folder cache di dalem wp-content. Untuk menghapus gw masih pake tools yg sama dari web hosting gw (web based file manager). Nah! kalo udah bersih, sekarang saatnya upload versi baru yg udah di ekstrak tadi.

   Untuk upload gw pake program Core FTP LE Version. Gw sangat menyarankan untuk upload ini pake program FTP. Silahkan cari kalo mau program FTP laen, yg versi free juga cukup banyak ko pilihannya. Langkah upload sebenernya ga ada step2 khusus, tapi gw sendiri memilih untuk melakukannya per folder, mulai dari wp-admin, lalu wp-includes, lalu file-file di folder inti (root) dan terakhir dari isi folder wp-content yang ada 2, themes dan plugins, yg gw upload itu cuma plugins/akismet dan themes/default.

4. Run Upgrade Script

   OK! kalo udah upload, sekarang tinggal jalanin Upgrade Scriptnya! fungsinya sih untuk ngupdate Database supaya sesuai dengan kebutuhan versi baru ini. Caranya, tinggal akses ke http://alamatblog/wp-admin/upgrade.php – Jangan lupa ganti alamatblog-nya ya :p Dari situ tinggal ikutin step yg dia kasih (next-next aja deh).

5. Reactivate your Plugins

   Kalau sampet tahap ini dan ga ada masalah berarti upgrade Wordpressnya seharusnya udah beres. Sekarang tinggal mengaktifkan lagi semua plugin yang udah dinon-aktifkan sebelumnya. Kalau mau aman sih, mending cek dulu apa plugin yg di pake itu ada update barunya untuk wordpress versi terbaru ini. Tapi kalo lu males (seperti gw juga), langsung aja aktifin satu-satu dan lihat apakah ada yg bermasalah

WAH? Ada yg error!? bermasalah? mudah2an gak, kalo iya brarti udah nasib deh :p Gw sih setelah upgrade sampe sekarang masih aman2 aja. Jadi… jangan lupa pastiin backup yg lu bikin di langkah pertama itu ga ada yg korup filenya sebelum lu lanjut, kalo gak nanti ga bisa di rollback dah. Eh, agak telat kali ya gw ngingetin-nya :p hoho… wish u luck with the upgrade, guys!

…and btw, I’ve just update my about page (changed it to about me) and also added the Indonesian Version of it (named it tentang gw), please have a visit or even add comments to it (^_^) thanx