New Archives Page
Since 2007 arrived I’ve been looking at ways to improve my blog and one section that I would like to ‘organize’ was the archives list on the sidebar. It was getting longer and longer since it displayed monthly links that went all the way back to June 2005! It was giving unnecessary delay in opening up this page since it has to query the database everytime.
So what I found was a nice looking plugin that uses Ajax and PHP. See the screenshot above or you can visit my new archives page here. Mind you, I haven’t done any tweaking to the styles yet. Anyway, if you like it too then read on, I will explain how to get this plugin working easily on your page.
First, a word to the newbies or non-techie, this plugin is only for those having Wordpress installed on their own server. And no, I’m not talking about wordpress.com. If you are using a free and remotely hosted blog service such as blogger.com then you will not be able to use this plugin.
Ok let’s move on.
The plugin that I’m using is Extended Live Archive. It uses AJAX to display your posts. If you don’t know what AJAX is then let me put it this way, it’s a cool programmy-type thing and makes browsing faster 
So first, download the zip file and extract the folders as they are, into your plugins folder. CHMOD the cache folder to make it writable by the server.
Then activate the plugin on the plugin page. After that, find the page for this plugin under the Options tab inside your admin panel. You have to do this to initialize the plugin.
Okay now let’s setup our archives page.
I have PhpExec plugin installed, so if you don’t have it, get it here. This plugin lets you run PHP codes right from within WP admin panel. If you don’t want to use this tool and want to go the extra mile, then follow the instructions as found on this page.
Okay once you have the PhpExec plugin installed, then just do the following.
- Write a new page
- Paste the following codes <phpcode><?php if (function_exists(’af_ela_super_archive’)) {af_ela_super_archive();} ?></phpcode>
- Give your page a name
- Save your page
Now head over to your blog and check out the new page. You can further tweak the style of the list to your heart’s content by changing the options on the admin page.
That’s it! You’re done!
Links
Extended Live Archive
PhpExec
