Websites

WordPress xml sitemap noindex errors – Google Search Console (aka Webmaster Tools)

If you notice Google Webmaster tools console flagging up the following…
Error – Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’ for http://site.com/sitemap.html

You can easily prevent these HTML files being created by the “XML Sitemap Generator for WordPress” plugin.

This is NOT in your site’s robots.txt file but instead it’s a meta tag in all html sitemap pages generated by the plugin.
The only page Google needs is the sitemap.xml file these extra html files aren’t needed.

  1. Login to wordpress (ofc)
  2. Go to settings > XML-sitemap
  3. Find and un-tick “Include sitemap in HTML format”
  4. Make sure to apply the change by scrolling to the bottom of page and click [Update options]

This article is specific to “XML Sitemap Generator for WordPress” https://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

If this helps you out please feel free to say thanks by clicking “Buy Me a Coffee” PayPal button in the sidebar (here) or via:https://www.paypal.me/AlanHart

Thank You

Hostgator GDPR Compliance

I couldn’t find anything on the hostgator website about GDPR, so emailed privacy(at)hostgator.com

Update: Hostgator have since added some gdpr compliance information:
https://support.hostgator.com/articles/pre-sales-policies/general-data-protection-regulation

Here is the email we sent to hostgator:

“We currently use Hostgator to host our websites.
Please can you let me know your status with becoming compliant with the new EU data privacy law (GDPR) which comes into effect on 25th May? https://gdpr-info.eu/
The law states that all our data processors (suppliers) must adhere to the law even if they are not based in the EU.”

Got a response and figured this might be useful for some people (UK & EU customers of hostgator) to know…

[27/04/2018] Currently, HostGator is not compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation. However, we are committed to achieving compliance with the GDPR by May 25, 2018. This will include work that will be “behind the scenes” such as the reviewing and revision of our agreements, internal processes, features, templates, and policies as necessary to assure our compliance.

With becoming GDPR complaint, both HostGator and our clients have obligations. Our Terms of Service requires that clients lawfully obtain and process all personal data appropriately which is something that must continue with becoming GDPR compliant. If you collect EU residents’ personal data, you are likely to be classified as a data controller under the General Data Protection Regulation. To clarify, this means you will have some additional obligations around such things as data subject rights.

We urge you to understand this and seek legal advice where you think necessary. HostGator is reviewing providing our customers with additional features, such as updated consent tools and the ability to respond to a customer data subject request. Moving forward, this email has now established a direct line of communication with our Management Team and will remain assigned to our Department. Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns that we have yet to address.

This is a well written and reassuring response :)
I hope this info is useful to you.

Google Hangouts Emoji Keyboard Shortcuts

Follow this link if you’re looking for the Windows Emoji Keyboard Shortcut.

I’ve been annoyed that i couldn’t find emoji keyboard shortcuts on Google Hangouts (on mobile or gmail in web browser), i was specifically looking for the thinking face emoji.

You can copy and paste from this list but keyboard shortcuts are so much easier

Naturally i did the geeky thing and tried to find it.

Here’s the geeky stuff…
The code for keyboard shortcuts is buried in a javascript variable “J7a”
To see the javascript yourself: make sure you have a hangouts chat open in gmail then…
right-click  > inspect > sources

Here’s a snippet of the javascript…
(more geeky stuff)
J7a={“!:)”:128579,”!:-)”:128579,”(=^..^=)”:128568,”(=^.^=)”:128568,”(N)”:128078,”(Y)”:128077, …
[REMOVED A CHUNK – THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM!]
…u_u:128532,x_x:128565,”}:)”:128520,”}:-)”:128520,”}=)”:128520,”~@~”:128169}

What you’re seeing there is each keyboard shortcut “:)” and the corresponding Unicode character in decimal.
e.g. 128053 is decimal for the hexidecimal value 0x1F435 (monkey face U+1F435) .

Here are the emoji shortcuts…
Without further delay, here’s the full list of all currently available Google Hangouts emoji keyboard shortcuts…

:C frowning/sad face 
(U+2639)
:) or :-) smiley 
(U+263A)
<3 heart 
(U+2764)
-<@% honeybee 
(U+1F41D)
:(|) monkey face 
(U+1F435)
:(:) pig face 
(U+1F437)
(Y) or (y) thumb up 
(U+1F44D)
(N) or (n) thumb down 
(U+1F44E)
(]:{ man with turban 
(U+1F473)
</3 or <\\3 broken heart 
(U+1F494)
~@~ pile of poo 
(U+1F4A9)
:D or :-D grinning face 
(U+1F600)
^_^ grinning face with closed eyes 
(U+1F601)
:”D laughing face with tears 
(U+1F602)
=D laughing face open mouth with happy eyes 
(U+1F604)
^_^;; laughing face open mouth with tear 
(U+1F605)
O:) or O=) O:-) angel face (smiley with halo) 
(U+1F607)
}:) or }=) or }:-) devil face 
(U+1F608)
;) or ;-) winking face 
(U+1F609)
=) blushing smile 
(U+1F60A)
B-) smiley with sunglasses 
(U+1F60E)
:, or :-, smirking face 
(U+1F60F)
:| or =| or :-| neutral face 
(U+1F610)
-_- expressionless face 
(U+1F611)
o_o; downcast with sweat 
(U+1F613)
u_u pensive face 
(U+1F614)
:/ or :\\ or =/
or =\\ or :-/ or :-\\
confused face 
(U+1F615)
:s or :S
or :-s or :-S
confounded face 
(U+1F616)
:* or :-* kissing face 
(U+1F617)
;* or ;-* face blowing a kiss 
(U+1F618)
=* blushing kissing face 
(U+1F61A)
:p or :P
or :-p or :-P
or =p or =P
face with tongue 
(U+1F61B)
;p or ;P
or ;-p or ;-P
winking face with tongue 
(U+1F61C)
:( or :-( or =( dissappointed face 
(U+1F61E)
>:( or >=( or >:-( pouting / angry face 
(U+1F621)
:'( or ='(
or T_T or ;_;
crying face 
(U+1F622)
>.< or >_< persevering face 
(U+1F623)
D: frowning with open mouth / worried 
(U+1F626)
:”( loudly crying face 
(U+1F62D)
:o or :O
or =o or =O or :-o or :-O
or o.o
face with open mouth / shocked 
(U+1F62E)
O.O astonished face / gasping with shock 
(U+1F632)
X( or X-( or
X-o or X-O
or x_x
dizzy face 
(U+1F635)
:3 or :X)
or =^_^=
or (=^..^=)
or (=^.^=)
grinning cat with smiling eyes 
(U+1F638)
!:) or !:-) upside-down face 
(U+1F643)
>:(X person gesturing no / crossed arms 
(U+1F645)
\o or o/ person raising hand 
(U+1F64B)
:)X or :-)X
or >:D<
hugging face / open hands 
(U+1F917)
\m/ hand horn sign / ‘rock-on’ 
(U+1F918)
V.v.V crab 
(U+1F980)

Annoyingly, as you can see in the list, my original search for a keyboard shortcut for the thinking face emoji proved fruitless…
There isn’t one  … yet

For reference here’s the current Unicode full emoji list.

I hope this helps you and saves you from diving into the javascript source!

If this helps you out please feel free to say thanks by clicking “Buy Me a Coffee” PayPal button in the sidebar (here) or via:https://www.paypal.me/AlanHart

Thank You

YouTube – Associated website “pending”

After jumping through all the hoops to try and get a website verified on a company YouTube channel (in order to link to the company website via annotations) the associated website was still showing as “Pending”

(here: https://www.youtube.com/advanced_settings)

To fix this, after much frustration and googling I discovered this page in webmaster tools…

https://www.google.com/webmasters/verification/

I added the YouTube user account email to associated users at the bottom and the site was instantly associated in YouTube!

Hope this helps you and saves you a bit of time.

If this helps you out please feel free to say thanks by clicking “Buy Me a Coffee” PayPal button in the sidebar (here) or via:https://www.paypal.me/AlanHart

Thank You

Stop multiple posts for shared YouTube videos and links appearing on Google Plus posts page

If you share lots of stuff via YouTube or Google Plus you may have noticed that your posts page on your google plus profile shows everything you share, everytime you share it.
This is fine if you only share something once but, if you share the same thing multiple times (on multiple sites/pages for example), then it will appear multiple times in your Google+ posts page, making it look a bit spammy.

Here’s how you can quickly and easily prevent this from happening….

  1. Go to your Google plus page
  2. Click “Home” in the top left
  3. Click “Settings”
  4. Scroll to the “Profile” section near the (bottom)
  5. Untick “Show your Google+ communities posts on the Posts tab of your Google+ profile”


Simple huh?

Hope this helped you. If it did please share on twitter, google plus, facebook etc or give me a little something towards my next caffeine fix by clicking the [Buy me a coffee] PayPal button in the sidebar!)

Dreamweaver CS3 won’t start in Windows 7

I’m still using Dreamweaver CS3 for some web stuff. It does all I need it to do, or at least it did until it suddenly just decided to not load anymore!

I tried rebooting, tried running as admin, tried running in compatibility mode etc.
Finally I found that there now appears to be a some kind of issue with Windows Aero, on my laptop at least.
So, after much frustration I finally got it to work.

If your Dreamweaver CS3 has stopped loading in Windows 7 you can get it to work by just changing these settings …

1. Right click the Dreamweaver shortcut and then click “Properties”.
2. Click the “Compatability” tab.
3. Under the “Settings” section:
Tick “Disable visual themes” and “Disable desktop composition”
(It does seem to work without ticking “Disable visual themes”, but a couple of times it didn’t start so I left mine ticked just in case.)

You’ll notice that you lose your nice aero transparency / colours etc but at least you can now use Dreamweaver CS3 on Windows 7 again!

You could disable Windows Aero completely, or just the Aero Peek feature, but seems overkill to change the entire OS appearance just for the sake of one misbehaving application.

If this helped you please tweet me (@alanhart) or comment below to let me know!

URL Redirect Check Tool – 301 Redirect Checker

I have made simple Redirect Check Tool.This tool can quickly and easily tell you if an URL redirects to another, the URL where it redirects to and the response headers returned by the server.

This is useful for SEO purposes and also if you have asked your web hosting company to make 301 redirect changes on your behlaf and you wish to check everything redirects OK

Enter an URL in the form below and you’ll be taken to the results page where you will see the URL header response code (type of redirect) and where the URL redirects to.

Enter URL to check

See more of my handy tools here: Tools

[tweet][/tweet]

Compare CSS Stylesheet Tool – Update

In December 2010 i made my compare stylesheet tool available on my site for everyone.

It had a few shortcomings (pointed out to me by a few of you) so I’ve made some nice additions! Hurrah!

What does it do?
For those who don’t already know, CSS is a standard used to define Web site presentation styles.
When a Web designer creates a CSS stylesheet for a site, he will evolve it through multiple versions with incremental changes.

This tool allows a web designer to clearly see the differences between two css stylesheet files (classes only, not values)

Compare CSS Stylesheets

Description
A webpage that takes two CSS files and compares the classes contained in both. Resulting differences are highlighted in red.

Updates:

  • Optional flag “(!)” can be added next to every difference for quick & easy text search.
  • Text boxes at bottom of page for easy copy and paste of CSS code (also with optional “(!)” flag for easy text search)
  • Usage:
    Click the “Compare CSS Tool” link below and simply upload the css files you want to compare and click the compare button.

    Compare CSS Tool

[tweet][/tweet]

EKM Powershop – Adwords Conversion Value – Add Order Value to Your Adwords Code

When logged into your account on the successful checkout page (Settings > Checkout > Order Complete Page)
QuickLink if you’re already logged in is: http://youraccount.ekmpowershop2.com/ekmps/shops/settings_shop_checkoutfields_6.asp

Paste the google adwords javascript with the ekm tag [ekm:totalcost_number_only] where conversion value needs to go (in both the javascript and noscript bits of the code.)

Here’s  code example (with made up conversion id and label data):
this data goes at the bottom of the successful checkout page source

 <!– Google Code for Sale Conversion Page –>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

/* <![CDATA[ */

var google_conversion_id = 1234567890;

var google_conversion_language = “en”;

var google_conversion_format = “3”;

var google_conversion_color = “ffffff”;

var google_conversion_label = “ab-CDEfghIJKlMn1_AB”;

var google_conversion_value = [ekm:totalcost_number_only];

/* ]]> */

</script>

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js”>

</script>

<noscript>

<div style=”display:inline;”>

<img height=”1″ width=”1″ style=”border-style:none;” alt=”” src=”http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/1234567890/?value= [ekm:totalcost_number_only] &label= ab-CDEfghIJKlMn1_AB &guid=ON&script=0″/>

</div>

</noscript>

Important:

  1. If you have more than one payment method e.g. telephone, paypal etc you will need to add this code to the source of each payment method’s “checkout complete” page.
  2. The ekm powershop database/server code escapes any (“) with a slash e.g. (\”)
    it double escapes this if the user changes something then updates the page source again
    replacing every double quote (“) in the google code with single (‘) will prevent this happening.
  3. Make sure you do a dummy run throught the checkout process and view page source on the order complete page to verify the code looks as it should.

 

If you have more than one payment method e.g. telephone, paypal etc you will need to add this code to the source of each payment method’s “checkout complete” page.

XML Twitter Feed Not Working? The Twitter Feed XML has been removed/changed

Looks like twitter have turned off XML feeds…

Here’s where you can find XML feed for your tweets:

https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=AlanHart

You can also use (Thanks to @steveclarkcouk for this one) …

https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.xml?include_entities=true&include_rts=true&screen_name=alanhart&count=2

(This includes all the original xml fields. Change “count=2” to retrieve more than 2 tweets)

*Obviously replace “AlanHart” with your username ;)

Hope this helps someone!

There are a few changes:

As an example: I am loading the xml into a cache file and updating this every 5 minutes (keeps it up to date but stops each webpage request hammering twitter)

I then load the XML from the cache file into a VAR:

$xml = simplexml_load_file($cache_file);

var_dump($xml); // will show the array data for debugging

And output for each tweet:

foreach($xml->channel->item as $entry) {echo ($entry->title);}

Differences i have noticed:

1. The xml is nested differently:

Used to be: $xml -> status

Now: $xml ->channel->item

2. User Profile Picture

used to be: $entry->user->profile_image_url (This no longer exists)

3. Tweet text

used to be: $entry->text (this is now: $entry->title)

4. Tweet Date

used to be: $entry->created_at (this now: $entry->pubDate)