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Cimy Header Image Rotator and the Twenty Ten Theme

Update Note: This piece referred to older versions of WordPress and Cimy Header plugin. With the arrival of WordPress 3.1 and version 4 of the Cimy Header plugin some of the details have changed but the basic idea will still work 😉 You are looking for:

// Houston, we have a new header image!
            echo get_the_post_thumbnail( $post->ID );
          elseif ( get_header_image() ) : ?>

Insert your amendments here

        <?php endif; ?>
      </div><!-- #branding -->

This was the original post:

With the recent arrival of the very wonderful WordPress 3 comes a neat new default theme called Twenty Ten which you are now looking at. Within the theme’s clean and simple layout there are plenty of options for tweaking for that individual touch. I had added an image to the header (and other featured images to head individual pages) but after snapping some passing clouds (get it?) and the occasional [wikipop]paraglider[/wikipop] while sunbathing, I wanted the header image to cycle through several images (as above)…

[Note: If you only want to rotate through the images supplied with the theme try the Twenty Ten Header Rotator plug in]

Enter the Cimy Header Image Rotator plug in which looked like it was up to the job but needed some simple tweaking to fit in with the Twenty Ten theme. This is what I did…

Once the plugin is installed and activated you need to create a folder as detailed in the documentation. In the WordPress Settings section you can adjust the speed of image change and the duration of the fade etc. Set the width and height to the theme’s default 940 x 198.

In the Appearance section select the Editor and then click Header from the list on the right. It may be a good idea to select all the contents of header.php, copy it and save it in a text document somewhere safe. Then when it all gets screwed up you can put the original code back 😉

The given code to insert is:

<div id="cimy_div_id">Loading images...</div>
<style type="text/css">
  #cimy_div_id {
    margin: 1em auto;
    border: 1px solid #000000;
    width: 400px;
    height: 200px;
  }
</style>
<noscript>
  <div id="cimy_div_id_nojs">
    <img id="cimy_img_id" src="" alt="" />
  </div>
</noscript>

which we want to insert into the header code to replace:

<img src="<?php header_image(); ?>" width="<?php echo HEADER_IMAGE_WIDTH; ?>" height="<?php echo HEADER_IMAGE_HEIGHT; ?>" alt="" />

which can be found between an

else : ?>

and a

<?php endif; ?>

towards the bottom.

My code ended up looking like:

<div id="cimy_div_id">

<noscript>
  
  <img id="cimy_img_id" src="http://yourDomain.com/somePicture.jpg" alt="" />
  
</noscript>

</div>
<style type="text/css">
  #cimy_div_id {
    clear: both;
    border-top: 4px solid #000;
    border-bottom: 1px solid #000;
    width: 940px;
    height: 198px;
  }
</style>

Which amounted to removing the Loading images text, moving the NoScript bit up to the top – this kicks in if the visitor does not have JavaScript enabled so provide a link to some image that will load for them, and editing the Style section thus…

The rotating images will probably align with the right hand column in the theme and hang off the page to the right – the clear: both; will bring them back onto the page. The border top and bottom keeps the look the same as the standard Twenty Ten theme image and ties in with the menu under the image. The width and height are corrected to the theme’s default values.

And that was that.

Update: This will all be broken when you update to the new versions of WordPress / Twenty Ten Theme – like what I just did :-/

I have moved the whole thing into a child theme so as to avoid further breakages.

Worst Website of the Weekend (or perhaps ever)

Even allowing for the expected degree of incompetence and stupidity that masquerades as an education system…

Welcome to the functionality that has been provided by Student Finance England!

Functionality Drivel
Functionality Drivel

As if having one of the most convoluted log in procedures ever devised involving multiple emails, a customer reference number (I am not a customer), a password and a secret answer (which was SXMLAR38 so what was the secret question?) is not disturbing enough one is then dropped into the most ridiculous illogical exercise which actually amounted to nothing more than answering half a dozen questions.

Are we done already?

Who knows?

Tick what?

HInt: The question is “Do you have other sources of income?” The answer will be either “Yes” or “No”.
Note: Even if the answer is “No” you are not allowed to ignore boxes that do not apply you have to type £0.00.

And so it went on, too tedious to dwell upon, but apparently my experience was somewhat different to Martine‘s but not in a good way.

Perhaps they should shake out a few more slackers further down the ladder. They do provide a guide to error messages which includes:

This message is caused by a system error, and Student Finance England is working to fix it. Please ignore the message

Ho-hum.

No keyboard connected. Press any key to continue.

Me (not) Mobile?

Have just enjoyed the 60 day trial of Mobile Me. Having a house full of Macs which will be joined, I do not doubt, at some time by an iPad all that syncing and sharing stuff is just the job. Mostly I was using the picture gallery which, combined with a dinky WordPress plugin, provided a quick link from here to there.

The trial expired but no payment was charged. Instead an email complaining that something was wrong with my card details…

…which was strange. I checked the details and all seemed, as far as I could see, to be correct but still it was rejected…

…which was strange because the details of the same card are stored at the Apple Store where it is used (far too) frequently…

One of their suggestions was to purchase a box from the Apple Store, have that delivered by snail mail, discard the disc and packaging into the recycle bin, and type in the included activation key. [W:Cloud computing] eh! It’s the future!

In the past I have purchased QuickTime Pro and Aperture activation keys from the Apple Store but alas a Mobile Me activation key is not availabe.

So, for now, I have given up and rolled my own using the Gallery software.. Perhaps not as pretty as Apple’s but it does the job. A bit of PHP in the widgets over there (->) adds an image and a link. A bit of FTP adds a straight through connection.

The email said they would keep the account active until the 12th June which is just after WWDC and some rumours say… that Mobile Me will be free anyway. Hmmm!

Governmental visitors

Whilst all are welcome to come and browse here, should tax payers be subsidising government browsing?
govvisist

More worrying is the Windows/Internet Explorer 6 thing. Do these people know nothing about security?

Of course the [W:IP address] 195.92.40.49 is generic and could be from anywhere within gov.uk. Let’s hope they enjoyed, and were educated by, the silliness.

See also:
FreeBorn John

Spy Blog (Watching Them, Watching Us)

Itching to programme?

Someone asked yesterday how to make sprites move up and down when using Scratch. I have not done anything with Scratch for a while so I was inspired to download the latest version and give it a whirl.

Scratch logo
Scratch logo

Scratch was developed at the [W:MIT Media Lab] Lifelong Kindergarten (doesn’t that sound like a great place to work?) and it provides a simple drag & drop means of building a [W:Java applet]. These can uploaded to the Scratch website and shared with others.

If Scratch is too basic for your needs then I can commend Greenfoot which is a step closer to proper Java programming. Another option is the RunRev’s RevMedia which uses an English like language. All of these options are free.

Although there are a lot of examples with Scratch there still seems to be a need for an introduction to creating a simple game. So here it comes 🙂

My infallible guide to Scratch page will answer some if not all of your questions.