WordPress + Thickbox Requires Markup

I’ve been fighting with getting the contents of a WordPress page to display within Thickbox.

The great thing about WordPress, is that wiring this up is super straight forward.

  1. Tell WordPress you want to use thickbox in your theme by adding it to the functions.php file
    function init_theme_method() {
    add_thickbox();
    }
    add_action('init', 'init_theme_method');
  2. Update the paths to the thickbox images (cause WordPress can still get confused about something sometimes)
    <script type="text/javascript">
    if ( typeof tb_pathToImage != 'string' )
    {
    var tb_pathToImage = "< ?php echo get_bloginfo('url').'/wp-includes/js/thickbox'; ?>/loadingAnimation.gif";
    }
    if ( typeof tb_closeImage != 'string' )
    {
    var tb_closeImage = "< ?php echo get_bloginfo('url').'/wp-includes/js/thickbox'; ?>/tb-close.png";
    }
    </script>

The I spun up a get_post_content function:
function get_post_content($post_id) {
global $wpdb;
$data = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE ID=$post_id");
return $data[0]->post_content;
}

and added it as a hidden div in my footer.php
<div id="about" style="display:none;">
<?php echo get_post_content($id); } ?>
</div>

and created a link to launch the thickbox <a href="#TB_Inline?inlineId=about" class="thickbox"</a>

But it was blank.

Empty.

Nothing in the box.

Turns out thickbox requires some markup – any markup – within the requested inlineId.

<div id="about" style="display:none;">
<p><?php echo get_post_content($id); } ?></p>
</div>

In Praise of Hopville’s Beer Calculus

Tonight, I loaded my beer recipes into Hopville’s Beer Calculus (thanks to Mr. Hadden for the tip).

Yes, they’re all off style. Some by a little, and some so off – they’re on (the Maibock passed BJCP guidelines for American Barleywine).

In all honesty – this round of brewing wasn’t about hitting a style, it was about the confidence of building a recipe. And, turns out, becoming fixated on making the recipe better.

There’s a lesson in here about being ready for new tools & insights. The first time I read Hitchhikers – it was complete jibberish. Three months ago, Beer Calculus would have been as well.

Where I really see Hopville’s Beer Calculus excelling is in setting up the bounds for a style and helping me find my target within there.

Easily, the best homebrew resource yet.

With Basic Brewing Radio & The Mad Fermentationist coming in a close second.

I just had a long, difficult conversation with the Out Like a Lion. We both agree that things have to change, no one’s at fault, and we’ll both try harder next time.

Tracking Flash Movie Plays with Google Analytics

If you’re looking for a quick way to track when Flash movies (or anything else in <object> <embed> tags) are played – this works for me:

Quick overview: create a new div with an onClick action and put the Flash movie inside it.

Then in the movie’s <object> tag – add <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> and in the <embed> tag add this attribute wmode="transparent"

The wmode declarations allow the click in the Flash movie to pass through to the enclosing div and trigger the onClick.

Like this:
<div onClick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Videos', 'MovieName', 'PageName']);">
<object...>
<param name="movie" value="http://path.to.swf" />
...
<param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
<embed wmode="transparent" ..." />
</object>
</div>

EFF: Why We Need An Open Wireless Movement

As you know – I’ve got a long bet on WiFi being the default transport for all our information exchange; voice, video, audio, email, web, everything. Everything.

Unfortunately – there’s an insidious group with a counter bet and planting FUD everywhere.

Thankfully, the EFF has declared the need and benefit for more open WiFi networks:

“…we’d all be better off if we all left our WiFi open, but we each benefit slightly if we close our WiFi. Our failure to work together prevents us from enjoying better, more widespread Internet access.”

“The best solution to this problem is to have WiFi routers which make it very easy to share a certain amount of bandwidth via an open network, but simultaneously provide an encrypted WPA2 network that gets priority over the open network. Some modern routers already support multiple networks like this, but we need a very simple, single-click or default setting to get the prioritization right.”

“If we want a future where anyone can watch high definition movies or make video calls from anywhere without wires, what we need is short-range networks with routers everywhere — like the one we’d have if everyone opened their WiFi.”

BTW – here’s my rule of thumb on protecting WiFi networks:
Don’t – it will inconvenience and irritate those you want to have access far more than those you don’t.