Since, it took me over an hour to diagnose and fix this issue in one of my own WordPress installations, I thought I would write up a quick how-to on the solution to this issue to hopefully save others in wasting their own time.

Symptom:

Accessing the Edit screen via WordPress Admin showed a blank screen in several versions of WordPress 2.8. The rest of the Admin was working fine.

Cause:

I use Subversion to automate the update/upgrade to new versions of WordPress. This has worked great for me for awhile without incident. In the most recent update, the post.php file was updated and the Subversion update command changed the ownership of the file to the user root, which my script was running as.

This permission changed caused a subtle PHP error, and since the recent version of PHP 5 on my server has the default behavior of not displaying errors – a blank white screen was being shown in WordPress.

Fix:

Reset the permissions recursively on your entire WordPress install.

For example, if your user and group were joesmith and users, run the following command at the root of your WordPress install folder:

chown -R joesmith:users *

You should then be back in business!

So the moral of this story is, if you update your WordPress blog via Subversion – fix your file permissions afterwards.

One of the best presents a web developer can receive thru-out the year has arrived in December each of the last four years. 

If you have been a web developer during that span, you most likely are already aware, but just in case, I will share with you:

2008 24 Ways

Each year, a new web themed tip is posted each of the 24 days leading up to Christmas, in a fun holiday themed format. These tips are individual gems, all coming from internet industry super-stars and difference makers.

So do yourself a favor this holiday season and grab your laptop, another glass of eggnog, and head over to 24 Ways and bask in the generously shared ideas and knowledge.

Happy Holidays to All from AmpedWebStandards.com!

Thanks to my awesome employer – ProBuild, I’ll be attending the web standards and best practices conference – An Event Apart, in San Francisco next week.

Many of the speakers are pillars in the web standards and development community – Dan Cederholm, Eric Meyer, Tantek Celik, and Jeffrey Zeldman, and I look forward to meeting them and hearing them speak in person.

I will follow up with a post on a few of the things I learn there when I return.

Thanks to the public discussion of the next major release of Firefox, currently planned for 3rd or 4th quarter of 2007, it looks like Microformats will take a major leap forward.

An article at the Microformatique blog has a nice summary of the planned features.

Microformats are an attempt to allow applications to talk to each other with minimal human intervention. One could envision that Firefox might support automatic transfer of microformatted data into your requested application. Currently, imbedded links on websites and custom plugins are the main ways to use microformats – technical hurdles that prevent all but the most techincally savvy from using them.

Amped about Web Standards?

Me too!

However, it is more likely that you are reading this blog because you have heard about or just formed a relatively new interest in web standards and would like to learn more. My mission will be to share with you why I’m so amped about web standards and share with you news, tips, and information about web standards and related technologies.

Maybe you are a web developer and would like to be more up to date with your design and coding practices. Maybe you are simply an avid interent user, and would like to understand how web standards impact you, and how they can enrich your browsing experience. Whatever role fits you, this blog will speak to you.

So… what are web standards then?

Web standards are a collection of technologies that help web developers create future-minded web content that are accessible as possible to all web users.

When a web page is said to conform to web standards, it means that the web page:

• consists of validated HTML or XHTML
• uses CSS instead of tables for layout (separating presentation and structure)
• is properly structured and semantically marked up
• works in any web browser

The last point is important to understand – as it does not mean that the webpage looks exactly the same in every web browser, as this is next to impossible to achieve. Instead, it means that it is functional and convey the intended content and functionality across all browsing devices from traditional computer based web browsers, to smart phones, and lots of different devices in between.

Why are web standards important for web developers?

• Easier to develop and maintain your web pages
• Compatibility with future browsers and new versions
• Faster downloading of web pages
• Better search engine rankings
• Better accessibility
• Better extensibility

Why are web standards important for web users?

• Faster downloading of web pages
• Better accessiblity
• Useful and time saving new features

As you can see some of the points overlap, between web designers and web users. If they didn’t overlap, then that would mean that web designers weren’t focused on important, useful issues, when it comes to web standards.

New Features?

You’d be amazed at some of the incredibly useful features that standards minded web developers are creating these days. A few examples, which I will be diving into with more detail, and examples in this very blog:

• advanced usability features – flexible fonts, dynamic layout customization, printer-friendly and mobile friendly pages
• rss feeds – helps you keep up with the blogs and websites you want to read
• microformats – embedded information in a web page that is easy to share with other applications

So, welcome to my new tech blog. I promise to make your visits here fun and informative!

– Alan