Too often I hear developers talk about how they do not want to go through the hassle of building the applications they are looking for. For me it is because in the long run it takes more time then it is worth. This example demonstrates how you can avoid writing an entire application, by using someone else’s base. This method also shows how you can do that without having to write a lot of code. When I installed Wordpress I spent days going through changing code that just didn’t fit my needs. I have changed so much I don’t think I could upgrade without using a text comparison tool on every page. Back to the subject….

For those of you that would like to display a “To Do List” on your website I have an easy fix. This example uses TaDa List as the source for the TODO list.

The first thing you need is the link to a public RSS feed of the to do list you would like to show. In my case I would like to share my DIGITAL39 TODO list. To find the url for your RSS feed replace the ‘/public/’ portion of the url with ‘/feed_public/’ and you now have your RSS uri.

http://manis.tadalist.com/lists/public/341286

becomes

http://manis.tadalist.com/lists/feed_public/341286

The next thing you need to do is add a function to your website.

func.show_todo.php

Once you have added that function and decided where you would like to show your Tada list place the following function in your page.

show_todo('feed_url')

Replacing the ‘feed_url’ with the url of the Tada list you would like to display.

show_todo('http://manis.tadalist.com/lists/feed_public/341286')

Will look like:

	Upload music for online MP3 player
	Add links to my pages on other sites
	Add Photography Scripts from v1.0
	Fix Date Display on Status Page
	Add Live Search
	Add Trackback List
	Fix Live Plugin
	Add Subscription Plugin
	Create Image Script for Thumbnails Like ImageShacks
	Control Logo by Cookies
	Modify the 404 Page to Suggest Pages
	Fix Word Stat Plugin

Not a big deal, but we saved time by not having to write the code that adds and edits the items, the code that makes it public or private, and the code that gives a user the choice of seeing it via RSS. I don’t know about you but that makes me damn happy.

So, I made some changes to the site. I went with Wordpress 2.0.3 because I just really didn’t want to spend the time writing all of the pieces of code I would need. When I first installed it I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I have spent the last week building a theme from the ground up, editing plugins that people wrote to meet my needs, and then being destracted by all of the other information I came across when I was looking for a fix to my problem.

Anyway as you can see there isn’t much content up right now. I will be working on transferring over my photos and adding the content I’ve been talking about adding for years now. I am very happy with my decision to use wordpress. Some of the plugins available are amazing. I will be coving some of those along with the modifications I made to many. I also have plans for video tutorials on a number of great software applications and weekly reviews of some of the thousands of programs I have used. By the way, if you would like to see the old site you can see it at v1.digital39.com.

Incase you were wondering why the page loads slow initially it is because there are 12 different logo images. If you click the X in the top right you can flip through all your choices. I will add cookie support for saving the image of your choice.