To disable all scripts and stylesheets, add this code to the functions.php file in your theme folder:


// Remove Styles
function childtheme_deregister_styles() {
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-theme-css' );
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-theme-css-compatibility' );
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-product-rater' );
wp_deregister_style( 'wp-e-commerce-dynamic');
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-thickbox' );
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-gold-cart' );
}
add_action( 'wp_print_styles', 'childtheme_deregister_styles', 100 );

// Remove Product List RSS
remove_action('wp_head', 'wpsc_product_list_rss_feed');


Then expect things to get weird! This will disable a lot of built-in functionality which you prolly want. Fortunately you can easily pick and choose by leaving out the scripts and stylesheets you still need. I found that the most disruptive thing for my customisations was the Gold Cart stylesheet, which I disabled with this:


// Remove gold cart css
function childtheme_deregister_styles() {
wp_deregister_style( 'wpsc-gold-cart' );
}
add_action( 'wp_print_styles', 'childtheme_deregister_styles', 100 );


Background info

The freshest software

First of all, I’m using a child theme of Thematic (version 0.9.7.7) and the latest versions of WP E-Commerce (3.8.6) and WordPress (3.2.1). I just downloaded everything today so its all freshy fresh.

The issue

I have widgets in my primary, secondary, and three subsidiary sidebars. They show up on every page on my site except for the products page and single products pages.

I tried everything!

Before this fix I tried disabling all my plugins, which did nothing. Then I tried some other themes: the default WordPress theme Twenty Eleven also had no sidebars on the products page, but Twenty Ten worked fine. This was a clue.

It prolly has something to do with…

This function: dynamic_sidebar() is being overridden or whatever. That’s all I got.

The fix

WP E-Commerce uses the page.php template for the products page and single products pages. To get your sidebars back, copy the page.php file from themes/thematic/page.php folder to themes/yourtheme/page.php. Comment out thematic_sidebar(); on line 10, like this:

// thematic_sidebar();

Then add these lines directly under the code you just commented out:

thematic_primary_aside();
thematic_secondary_aside();

Save the file and view the products page, your primary and secondary sidebars should be there. Now to get your footer widgets back, copy themes/thematic/footer.php to themes/yourtheme/footer.php. Comment out thematic_footer(); on line 16, like this:

// thematic_footer();

Then add the following three lines right under that:

thematic_1st_subsidiary_aside();
thematic_2nd_subsidiary_aside();
thematic_3rd_subsidiary_aside();

Save the file, reload the page in your browser, and all your sidebar widgets should be there!

The following directories are not writable:

    * /var/www/mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/downloadables/
    * /var/www/mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/previews/
    * /var/www/mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/
    * /var/www/mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/thumbnails/
    * /var/www/mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/category_images/
    * /var/www/mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/upgrades/

You won't be able to upload any images or files here.
You will need to change the permissions on these directories
 to make them writable.

When you click on “Products” in WP e-Commerce, then I am about to make your day.

The fix

For whatever reason, the plugin isn’t able to create those directories itself. So first create the following files:

• mysite/wp-content/uploads/
• mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/
• mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/category_images/
• mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/downloadables/
• mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/previews/
• mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/
• mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/upgrades/

Then set those files to the correct permissions:

$ chmod -R 777 mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/

Now click on “Products” and the error should be gone!.

One more thing

Edited 3/14/2011

The final step is to secure your installation:

$ chmod -R 775 mysite/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/

Just ignore it

One thing that sames me time is the way I handle .png files in IE6: I don’t. IE6 can’t handle transparency in .png files, but instead of using a script to fix it (which has never really worked for me) I just copy all the pertinent css to a file called IE6.css, which I load via conditional comments. I change all the image filenames to .gif like this:

style.css

#content {
background: transparent url('images/background.png') repeat-y top left;
}

ie6.css

#content {
background: transparent url('images/background.gif') repeat-y top left;
}

The Magick

Then I batch convert all my .png files with Image Magick and place them in a special folder, like this:

$ mkdir gifs
$ mogrify -path gifs/ -format gif *.png

The resulting gif files are much lower quality than the png’s, but at least IE6 users can see the site. Besides, they’re used to the Internet looking like crap.

Q and A

Q: What does the ampersand (‘&’) do when it precedes a variable? Like when you see $foo = &$bar?

A: According to Byron Bennett on Whypad, the ‘&’ sets up a reference to the original variable instead of copying it’s value. So if I start with:

$bar = 'bass';

And then pull one of these:

$foo = &$bar;

But then decide:

$bar = 'boo';

$foo will now also be assigned ‘boo’. If I had left off the ‘&’, $foo would still equal the original value of $bar, ‘bass’.

Q: What does the ‘@’ symbol do?

A: ‘@’ is the error suppression operator in PHP. You can use it on operators and functions like (this answer came from the comments in that very same Whypad post)

Q: $log = &new MockLog(); // Wha?!

Found this in the SimpleTest tutorial and it confused the heck out of me. Apparently its a typo! According to Steve on JustSkins, it should be:

$log =& new MockLog();

So =& is an “assignment operator that creates a reference”. Which also doesn’t make much sense. But then Hilarion breaks it down:

The difference is:

$MyObject = new Object();

does:
1. creates Object
2. makes a copy of it (not using the class standard constructor)
3. assigns the copy to $MyObject variable

$MyObject = & new Object();

does:
1. creates Object
2. assigns the object to $MyObject variable

Nice.

Q: Help! I have two colons in my function!

A: If you see one of these ‘::‘ or maybe parent::mymethod();, you have found yourself the Scope Resolution Operator™. This operator can call a method of a class, even if the class hasn’t been instantiated yet. I haven’t run across this in other languages and I find it totally fascinating. The PHP manual actually has a pretty good example of what’s going on here:

<?php
class A {
    function example() {
        echo "I am the original function A::example().\n";
    }
}

class B extends A {
    function example() {
        echo "I am the redefined function B::example().\n";
        A::example(); // could be written: parent::example();
    }
}

// there is no object of class A.
// this will print
//   I am the original function A::example().
A::example();

// create an object of class B.
$b = new B;

// this will print
//   I am the redefined function B::example().
//   I am the original function A::example().
$b->example();
?>

See?! See how A::example() yanked that method right out of the A class and used it before A was even assigned to to an object? Crazy.

Q: What’s the best way to remove a value from an array?

A: You could use array_slice() or array_splice(), but as this pithy and informative post points out, they’re not great. Fortunately, using unset($array[i]) to remove the value and $array = array_values($array) to re-index the array is fast and works great!

$ montage *.png -geometry 150x150\>+2+2 montage.png

mogrify -path resized -resize 500x500\> -background 'rgb(217,215,202)' -extent 500x500 -gravity center *.jpg

mogrify -path resized -resize 500>x500\> *.jpg

Yes, you have to use mogrify and not convert because only mogrify excepts the -path command. And I’m pretty sure it’s important to escape the greater than symbols in the -path argument like I did.

1. Upload the .sql file to your server somewhere, preferably with lftp
2. ssh to your server: $ ssh username@username.hostname.com
3. Start mysql: $ mysql -u username -p , then enter your password
4. Find the correct table: $ show databases;
5. Access the database you want to import to: $ use databasename;
6. And finally the source command: $ source path/to/filename.sql

I used several sources for this, but John Andrews was the angriest.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP

In the teminal:

• $ sudo tasksel install lamp-server
• $ sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
• $ sudo gedit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
  • Add the following to the end of this file:  “Include /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf”
• Edit the /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini file and increase the memory_limit value. I used 64M, but that may be overkill.