Widgets Can Kill Your Blog!

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Honey

Did you know that widgets can completely and utterly destroy your blog?

I am guessing that your answer was no. Well, neither did I. I had no idea that typing something into a widget and hitting save could render my site completely useless.

I spent some time yesterday updating the graphics for my site. I did a little bit of tweaking and rearranging. If you are not reading at the blog, come over and have a look at my new weekly line-up. So there I was, adding some simple html code to my sidebar widgets and I get an error. A big white screen popped up (where my site should have been) and said that I had a "500 internal server error". My husband restarted the server and everything was fine (or so we thought), so I went along my merry way. A few minutes later, it happens again. And I had a twinge of panic...

My husband logged in to the server to check things out. All our other sites were fine, except mine. He was able to access the server logs (like any good web administrator should be able to do) and discovered that I had some serious widget issues. Apparently, I had been entering some of my html code incorrectly into my widgets and WordPress does not like that. It freaked out and panicked.

WordPress widgets is very complicated and poorly organized. If you mess with one part of the widget code, you stand a good chance of loosing all of your widgets. That is what happened when I placed HTML code into the text widget for WordPress. One tag was written wrong. Well, if you look at my sidebars, you can see that is what happened.

I have good news though.

Before this whole "500 internal server error" thing started happening, I had a few WordPress tabs open. After my husband had fixed the mess by removing the bad code (and thus all of my widgets) I was able to still see the original code through one of the dashboard tabs that had been open (thank you Opera for caching. I was able to go in there and copy and paste and save all of the codes to an Open Office document. This will help greatly in rebuilding. Update: We actually recommend Libre Office now.

The cause of the "500 internal server error" was the simple failure to close some of my html tags. W3 Schools html reference list is an excellent resource that my husband has pointed me to before and I will be visiting on an ongoing basis from now on.

Let me just say thank you to my husband for being able to fix anything.

Let me leave you with a few suggestions:

Might I suggest that you keep a list of your widgets with the code that should go with them (including the links) in an Open Office document (and print it).

Might I also suggest a folder (on your computer) for the graphics that go with your sidebar widgets (properly labeled so you can find it).

So, what have you broken lately?

Redesign – Another Note

Posted on May 16, 2010 by Honey

I just wanted to let you all know that Homeschool4free is down. I installed a plugin and it crashed and hubby is sleeping and I don't know how to fix it. The site is still there, but he needs to go in and fix some code for me. Just in case you were trying to poke around there before I get up tomorrow morning.

Redesign – Just a note

Posted on May 14, 2010 by Honey

Important News!

Things are a bit of a mess! We have recently (aka last night) recovered posts and pages from my previous blog (not the crash of 2009 but the most recent redo) and I was able to import posts from my blogspot before that. I have also imported posts from a couple of other blogs that I want to close out because I no longer use them (in the interest of simplifying my life). It is going to take some work to get everything organizing and functioning in a fluid way. Please be patient as I try to merge everything and make it all make sense (to me and you). I am excited to be able to bring you all of this new content (and refer to it in blog posts).

I also wanted to share that Homeschool4free is back! I was able to import all of my content from a previous blogspot and very soon all of the information from my previous site (before the most recent redesign) will be up there as well. Keep in mind that the format may change a bit as I recreate things to make them more functional. I hope you enjoy.

Redesign Update

Posted on May 14, 2010 by Honey

I just wanted to give everyone the heads up that we are importing some old posts and pages and things may be a bit wonky until the site map is all sorted out again. Please be patient with us as we are working to sort everything out. I will keep you updated as things progress.

Getting Organized!

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Honey

The more I work on the redesign, the more work I realize there is to do!

Who would have thought that there was this much work involved in creating (or recreating) a blog! You just put up your blog and post, right? All the experienced bloggers out there can let out a hearty, knowing laugh now!

My first priority was to come up with a new look so the blog wasn't half dressed. Nobody wants to visit a naked blog! I've got the blog all dressed up and even snazzy enough for the Ultimate Blog Party!

Color, And Lots Of It

I knew that I wanted strawberry and chocolate this time around. I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted though, so it took a bit of playing and tons of custom coding on my husband's part (he is such a sweetie) to get the look just the way I wanted it. I love the new theme and the girlie new digs. I kept the header simple because there is always so much going on around here and the buttons in the sidebar are so colorful already.

Link Buttons

I have been busy putting all the buttons in the sidebars as placeholders (all the good stuff will be linked there eventually!). With the new design, I realized that I have a bunch of new buttons to make. Speaking of buttons, Sunflower Graphic Design Studio will be opening soon. I can't wait! I have a really fun and colorful design almost finished. When it opens, I will be having some fabulous grand opening giveaways! Did I say that I couldn't wait? There are just not enough hours in the day.

Plugins

Now that all the placeholders (aka pretend buttons that don't go anywhere) are in place, I can start working on adding in all the plugins. I can't remember all the plugins that I had on the site - note to self, write down what plugins you install this time! Thanks to 5 Kids and a Dog for sharing her plugins list with me. I had so much fun making all the graphics for her blog (Have you been over there to visit yet?). I can't wait to design your graphics (contact me).

Content

Over the next few days, I will be working on getting the content back up. It could take a bit getting things organized because everything needs to be copied and pasted and reformatted (this was the only way we could do it given our specific circumstances with the server) into its new home. All the graphics will need to be resized for the new them (and thumbnails added). All the PDF downloads will need to be uploaded again and organized. And so on...

There is much work ahead and many sleepless nights (oh wait, I already have those - I nurse twins!). I hope to keep you fully informed and I would love it if you would follow along as we rebuild. I sure could use the company!

Blessings Honey