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that plugin is needed for the search tracking in the new version — there’s a new file that logs searches on your site and tracks where they came from, and what keywords are being used, which searches started on your asite and which were referrals from other sym network sites
initial logs show about 1000 – 2000 hits per day – mostly from bots, so it’s a lot of data to massage
I plan to filter out the bots so we can track just human searches and look at most used keywords, underused keywords, etc
I’m rather new here but I built my site with the new beta version. What this means is that I only briefly used the current stable version.
Now what does all this mean? What should you do? I have some suggestions…
If you have a new site to set up, use the new beta version. Other than a few bugs, this is going to be the “Stable” new version soon. There is no point in wasting time using the old version (as you will see why in a few sentences time!)
If you have a functioning site with the older non beta version of Symbiostock then I HIGHLY recommend that you set up a test site! The new Symbiostock is a move forward and it has many great changes. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of plugins need to be update to keep pace with the new version.
Some plugins will get updated and some won’t. That is just the nature of things. So basically I see it this way, we can’t keep Symbiostock from getting better just so some plugins continue to work. The choice to not upgrade is there of course but you are really just buying time. At some point there will be need to upgrade but it’s not pressing currently. If WordPress makes some changes then at that time you may have no choice but to upgrade along with it.
So set up a test site and begin customising the test site until you can get everything set up in a way you are happy. Then just simply transfer the settings of your test site to your functioning site once you are ready. Some people are already doing this.
The SYXtra plugin is largely broken. I have it installed but I am really only making very minimal use of it. I tweak some of the fonts not yet fully implemented with the Symbiostock beta, SLAM (although I don’t know much about it) and page view counter. The rest just seems rather problematic and some things are NOT useable AT ALL! Some things like galleries and such have broken links now and do not link back to your image pages properly.
Good news is that some of the things you can do with the SYXtra plugin you can already do within the theme itself.
@jorodrigues wrote:
Good news is that some of the things you can do with the SYXtra plugin you can already do within the theme itself.
Jo, can you tell us if an image-enlargement feature (or whatever it’s properly called) is now included in 2.7.7?
How about the ability to place widgets in a wider variety of places on the site?
You mentioned the page view counter, but I didn’t understand if it’s in 2.7.7 now or not.
Those are the main features in SYXtra that I’m currently using with 2.6.5 and would like to keep. I’d love to know if they’re in 2.7.7 or not.
Thanks for the intel!
Martha
No (unless Leo has included it while I was not watching) the dynamic previews (enlargments) are not included in Symbiostock, just in syxtra where they still work.
Placing widgets in a wider area – some work, some don’t, or they do but not where and how you might expect them, such as the four footers – instead of being 1 2 3 4 they are
1
2
3
4
.. not so pretty.Page view counter, think this is still syxtra
I would strongly suggest you create a testing site then if/when something happens so we have to upgrade at least we will know what we need to do to change over fast (I created a sub-domain and set it up on that, most hosting allow for subdomains I think.)
http://kerioakimaging.com - trying to reopen
http://nail-art-at.kerioak.com - Art and Nail Art@marthamarks wrote:
@jorodrigues wrote:
Good news is that some of the things you can do with the SYXtra plugin you can already do within the theme itself.
Jo, can you tell us if an image-enlargement feature (or whatever it’s properly called) is now included in 2.7.7?
How about the ability to place widgets in a wider variety of places on the site?
You mentioned the page view counter, but I didn’t understand if it’s in 2.7.7 now or not.
Those are the main features in SYXtra that I’m currently using with 2.6.5 and would like to keep. I’d love to know if they’re in 2.7.7 or not.
Thanks for the intel!
Ok… been testing a little for you. It’s still on my page but moving stuff around now that it appears to be fixed.
“Big Dynamic HOVER Image Previews” works but only over SYXtra widgets. I assume that has always been that way. I never switched it on to encourage faster page loads but it is working with version 2.7.7
The links I reported not working (on galleries and a guest also emailed me to tell me) because they were missing the last “/” now seem to be populating properly. I’m going to put it back onto my page hehe.
What else? Let me see…
Since I never got the Plugin to work properly with the lastest version I didn’t really see it much in action. With the new version you can place 3 columns just above your footer where the copyright and Symbiostock credits.
You can have a side bar with stuff on it like on my site. I think that is the current extent of layout. I speak under correction as I am very new to all this and I’d rather not get spanked 😀
I think the page views like on the images comes from the plugins. At least there is this under the SYXtra section… Small Features >Show image View Counters.
Hope this helps a little! I will be switching off the hover previews as it irritates me LOL! For now they are still switched on
Jo
As a possible extra note, I did switch off the section “Replace Front Page template” under the SYXtra plugin today to see what was what and I prefer this current layout as the previous on was not working properly and I felt left too much wasted white space. So this may be the reason why the links work. Just a thought.
Jo
You can create this sort of layout on the latest version.
_________
|________| < Top menu with search
|________| < Header with logo
| |
| Body |
| |
|________|
|________| 1
|________| 2
|________| 3
|________| 4
|__|__ |__| <Just above footer, sort of part of it unless you add something to all 3 sections.
|________| <Footer with coypyrightEDIT: Ok on testing… the rows 1,2,3,4 do not show up widgets placed in them unless you have “Replace Front Page template” enabled and like Christine said… looks ugly. So it looks like this…
_________
|________| < Top menu with search
|________| < Header with logo
| | |
| Body | | < Sidebar
| | |
|______|_|
|__|__ |__| <Just above footer, sort of part of it unless you add something to all 3 sections.
|________| <Footer with coypyrightI’d say too — its attitude — and I know technology can be daunting. But its best just to disregard risk and jump in on this phase of developments. Literally, have fun. Its like diving. 40 feet beneath the ocean is not necessarily one’s natural environment. And things can go deadly wrong. But if you put aside fear theres a whole world to be discovered.
Yeah, its a lame little pep-talk 😀 but there’s something to it.
One more thing regarding that Category Meta plugin – its 2 years old because it uses very simple code that doesn’t need updating. It simply gives keywords the ability to store information, which I’m using for analytics.
The latest version of Symbiostock is going to track network-wide traffic, keyword info, etc. Just like on the main sites you can see most used keywords, this will give that ability too.
Your keyword log, which the Symbiostock main search engines use (cascoly, ajt) now includes how many times a given keyword has been searched.
When the Beta is done I’m going to *try* to give an explanation on every suggested plugin. But you get the idea.
@leo wrote:
….
The latest version of Symbiostock is going to track network-wide traffic, keyword info, etc. Just like on the main sites you can see most used keywords, this will give that ability too.Your keyword log, which the Symbiostock main search engines use (cascoly, ajt) now includes how many times a given keyword has been searched.
…..
the big difference being the agencies don’t share the overall information…
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