IndexU Hosting Blog

WPDirectory Pro has released version 1.6.1, not long after releasing 1.6.0. This update builds ontop of version 1.6.0, addressing the XSS vulnerability again. Updates were also made to the plugins. Here’s the offical post on version 1.6.1:

I’m proud to announce that WPDirectory Pro 1.6.1 has been released.

Version 1.6.1 contains a small change to further improve upon the security put in place in version 1.6.0. There are no other changes or fixes.
This release is not required by users, but is recommended.

For further information on the XSS vulnerability please see this post

Additionally, all the plugins for WPDirectory Pro have been updated for the correct URL and directory naming structure. Thanks to a customer who noticed an issue with naming that I thought was corrected I have uploaded these as well. There are no changes to the plugins, only the directory naming. If these are already working on your site there is no need to replace them.

Head on over to the WPDirectory Pro website to update your version!

WPDirectory Pro version 1.6.0 was release on November 6th. This release is a MUST for all current users of WPDirectory Pro. Here is whats new in version 1.6.0
WPDirectory Pro 1.6.0 has been released:

This is a stable release and all users should upgrade immediately.

What was fixed in 1.6.0?
Version 1.6.0 has a number of fixes including a security fix. Details on the security fix can be found at the bottom of this post.

1. Different background color for Basic, Sponsored and Premium listings
2. Upgrade page titles for every page
3. Meta tags (keywords and description) for each category
4. Show random links from sub categories (If nothing link show in parent category)
5. Recaptcha
6. Security fix for XSS vulnerability

Previous version of WPDirectory Pro have a security vulnerability. To read about the vulnerability, please head over to the WPDirectory Pro Forums. You’ll also be able to find there everything included with this release, including the addition of reCAPTCHA.

Other updates were scheduled to be release for version 1.6.0 but were pushed back due to the XSS vulnerability found. We can expect those updates to be in the next release, but no offical time has been given on when that will be.

I must say that, in my opinion, WPDirectory Pro is quickly becoming the best Link Directory plugin for Wordpress. It started out as a plugin with limited features, and due to the hard work of Bruce ( WPDirectory Pro Owner ) and his programmer, its morphing into a full fledge Link Directory at an outstanding price.

If you haven’t heard by now, IndexU Deluxe version 1.4.2 was released on October 29th. Its an update release but not in the traditional sense. Here’s what you can expect to find in version 1.4.2

Nicecoder is proud to announce that IndexU Deluxe 1.4.2 has been released.

There is no bug fixed in this release. But we do some improvements:

- update payment gateway, move to database
- update api service.php
- update plugin library
- added remote approve and reject listing, it will enable you to do one click approve or reject from email notification message you received

As I wrote in a previous post, the payment gateway configuration is now centrally stored in the database versus being stored in the php files. This way, each time an upgrade is performed, you wont have to worry about going back and redoing all the settings. I’m extremely happy that NiceCoder made this a priority.

Also, if you haven’t been paying attention to the Forums or NiceCoder’s site, a few of their products have gone from licensed products to open source. Those products that now fall under Open Source are as follows

1. iDesk – Help Desk Software
2. NiceTalk – Professional Live Help Desk
3. NiceMember – Membership Accounting Software similar to Amember

The pro about this is that no longer do you have to pay for the software and then pay a yearly support fee. The con, unless we see a big influx of community members for these products, dont expect much support or updates.

Lastly, the long awaited update to DMOZ Extractor has been released. The big difference is now its no longer a desktop software but a plugin for IndexU Deluxe. It does have some nice new features to it too. Two of the biggest ones is that its UTF-8 ready and when importing categories, you no longer have to start with a blank database. There are other new features to it, but you’ll need to read them on NiceCoder’s Blog. DMOZ Extractor plugin is free for those that have a membership to IndexUTemplates.com. If your not a member, you should become one. For the price, you can beat all the templates and plugins that come with it!

October was a fruitful month for NiceCoder’s flagship product, IndexU Deluxe. It started with the release of version 1.4.1. Here’s whats new in version 1.4.1:

Version 1.4.1 is a bugfix update and contains the following

Features
- Added who’s online listing in admin panel (it was removed before)
- Added captcha input form

Bugfixes
- Fix cronjobs time status
- Fix admin change password
- Fix tell a friend captcha
- Fix loading admin issue when adding a sub category
- Fix extreme dmoz extractor db import and remove tab delimiter import
- Fix Paypal Subscription

The update is available for all current license holders in the Client Area on NiceCoder’s website.

We also saw a number of plugin releases.

• eBanner 2.0 – An update to the original eBanner plugin. It now allows for a default banner placeholder so others will know when you have an empty ad space to sell. Click on it will redirect the user to the order page.
• Sociable – This is one of my favorite new plugins. Its a complete port from the popular WordPress plugin. It allows the admin to select which social bookmarkings to display.
• Quick Category Adder – This plugin allows for the Admin to easily add new Categories and Sub-Categories on the fly. You can now add hundreds of new Categories within minutes.
• Twitter Auto Tweet – This plugin will automatically tweet any new link that has been approved. Right now it works with the default IndexU Deluxe Link Validation but I’m having some problems getting it to work correctly with the Improved_Link_Validation plugin.

These 4 new plugins can be found on IndexUTemplates.com. If your a member of the site, you’ll have access to these plugins, and all previous plugins and templates, for free. If your not a member of the site, I suggest you become one. For $69.00 a year, you get unlimited access to all templates and plugins created by NiceCoder. Well worth it in my opinion

I posted this over at NiceCoder’s Community Forum yesterday after I discovered I lost a bunch of paid listings on my directories….

So, due to work and a couple of people in my family having illnesses, its been hard for me to login to my directories lately. There are a bunch of validations I need to do and other maintenance.

So I decided to login to my largest directory first. Low and behold I found 22 links in the ’suspended’ column. Now I’m puzzled. I’ve never had 22 people submit a Premium or Sponsored listing and NOT pay. I login to Paypal and 2CO to make sure that I’m not losing my mind and just as I thought, none of those were ever paid for.

I’m now thinking something must be wrong with the ‘add’ process… And there sure is!!! WHEN I UPGRADED IT RESET ALL OF THE PAYMENT MODs BACK TO THE DEFAULTS!!! Now I’m banging my head against the wall!!! I pretty much just lost 22 paid links because I didn’t go back in and configure the payment mods again correctly.

Wait… It gets worse….

I log into the other 4 only to find the EXACT same thing! In total I probably lost roughly 40 paid listings in the last month to month and a half. 

There’s two lessons here to be learned. If you upgrade your NOT done the upgrade until you reconfigure the payment mods!!! The other lesson is that the payment mods should be housed in the DB, not in individual files. This would eliminate the need to having to reconfigure them every time a backup is done.

Dody, I believe this should be on the HIGH priority list. I’m adding it as a suggestion in the Project Tools area, but I beg of you… Please find a way where our payment settings wont get overwritten with each and every upgrade.

John Milton responded to my post by saying that he forwarded it to Dody and it should become a high priority for the next IndexU update. Hopefully by posting this, in the mean time, others wont run into the same issue I have

If your anything like me, your constantly looking for quality .com domain names. Problem is, they are extremely hard to find. Mainly because they’ve all been registered. You can try using mispellings in order to get the .com your looking for ( e.g. AutoCarz.com instead of AutoCars.com ) but more times than not, the people looking for your site will end up at your competitors.

What about domain auctions?? Sure, you can use places like Sedo and the like, but unless you have a big budget ( unlike me ) your going to pay some serious coin. Then it occured to me, hundreds of domain names are being dropped daily. Maybe I can get a domain name with the keyword in it I want that was just dropped??!! With that in mind, I went searching for a way that I could get domain names I was interested in that were going to be dropped. I came across SnapNames.com, but again, your finding yourself in a bidding war for some premium names and spending some serious money. I was about ready to give up when I came across JustDropped.com.

JustDropped.com is the PERFECT solution for anyone looking for premium domain names at ridiculously low prices. I signed up for their mailing list, and every morning I get an e-mail with all the new domain names that were just dropped and available for purchase. Domain names like UnconfirmedRumors.com, PromotionalKit.com, CiscoCertification.net, and so many more. The best part about it is the pricing. Most domains are priced UNDER $99.00!!!

JustDropped.com also has some great tools on their website to help you find that perfect domain name your looking for! You can search for just dropped domains by the following criteria:

• Starts with
• Ends with
• Domains should include
• Include Numbers
• Domain with only numbers
• Contains ONLY words
• etc

I cant say enough about JustDropped.com. I’ve been using them for almost a year now and have been extremely happy with them. Dan Rubin, owner of JustDropped.com, is extremely helpful, extremely fast with any requests, and once purchased, you recieve your domains within minutes!

NOTE – This post is NOT a paid advertisement! Dan Rubin did NOT ask me to write this post! I am in NO WAY affiliated with JustDropped.com and I stand to make NOTHING by writing this post. My only intention for writing this post is to share with you, what I’ve found to work very well for me. There are times when I come across a service that I’m so happy with, that I encourage others to give it a try too! I hope in some small way, you also, will be able to gain from the service JustDropped.com provides.

WPDirectory Pro, a plugin for Wordpress allowing you to add a link directory to your blog, releases its latest version 1.4. The upgrade consist of the following:

What was fixed in 1.4.0?
- Users receive invalid turing number when upgrading links
- Two new payment gateways (Alertpay & Moneybookers)
- Currency options
- Hook to display WPDirectory Pro on the front page of Wordpress
- No “add” button in admin
- Some incorrect text in areas were found
- When validating links the URL is not clickable
- When admin edits a listing, the listing owner receives an email (Disabled now, the ability to enable/disable will be added in the future)
- Post comments are now resolved

It was also announced that you can expect to see the following in the next release:

What should be in the next version?
- Titles are only working properly on some servers, will be fully fixed in next version
- Translation file
- More payment modules

If your new to WPDirectory Pro, and want to get an idea on how it works / is used, you can find it here on our blog. We are still in the mist of completely rolling it out, but you’ll get the idea.

The updated version can be downloaded from WPDirectory Pro’s Client Area

Earlier this week, NiceCoder released v. 1.4 of its flag ship product, IndexU Deluxe. I must say that this is probably the first version that NiceCoder has released that seems to be completely bug free! Since they implamented the beta testing program ( originally created by Bruceper ) updated versions are starting to come cleaner and better.

Here are some of the changes in IndexU Deluxe v. 1.4:

Version 1.4 is a bugfix update and contains the following

Features
- Improve power search
- Add greek alphabet in for permalink (seo url)
- Improve sitemap
- Improve login block
- Add captcha for send password

Bugfixes
- MD5 user password
- Pagination in paid invoice listing
- Find and replace query in admin panel
- Custom field problem with multi select

You can download v1.4 from NiceCoder’s Client Area

I’ve noticed a few users on the NiceCoder Community Forum asking what is the proper way to upgrade to this version. Remember, in our Tutorial section, we have video tutorials that will help guide you through the upgrade process.

If you remember a couple of months ago, Dody, lead programmer and partial owner of NiceCoder decided to leave NiceCoder to explore other areas. As of a few days ago, Dody has rejoined NiceCoder again. He will resume his old position as Lead Programmer.

In other news, Bruceper, or Bruce as most people know him, has decided to leave NiceCoder in order to start his own venture. Bruce is the current owner of two scripts, that NiceCoder use to sell under their umbrella of products, WPDirectory Pro and NiceBackup. WPDirectory Pro has been taking off in sales as the first real directory plugin for the popular blogging software Wordpress. It has alot of the same features as IndexU, although it is considered the ‘lite’ version of IndexU. Take a moment to check it out. It even is a great subsitute for the built in links that Wordpress offers.

Those that have bought WPDirectory Pro in the past and went to the NiceCoder Forums for support, should now head over to WPDirectory Pro Forums to recieve help.

IndexU Hosting is happy for Bruce and hopes to forge a strong relationship with him and his new company. WPDirectory Pro and Wordpress are part of the Guaranteed to Run Out of the Box scripts our servers host.

You may have noticed by now that I’ve changed the look and feel of IndexU Hosting’s website. I like the coloring better and feel it gives the site a better flow. Hopefully you agree.

There are two areas that still need my attention. ‘Sign Up’ and ‘Support’ areas are still in need of work. I should have them done within the next few days. ‘Sign Up’ and ‘Support’ work, but the templates are just a little distorted.

Please note that we are now on twitter. You can follow us at @iuhost. We’ll be sure to post specials we are running, updates concerning NiceCoder, and other issues that will be important to you. We are currently in the process of creating our FaceBook presence. When its complete, I’ll post it here.

As alwyas, we welcome your comments and feedbacks. Please feel free to do so