So I wrote some code which allowed me to do exactly that. In the single.php page, replace the following code:

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<?php the_content(); ?>

With…

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<?php
$show_after_p = 1;
$content = apply_filters('the_content', $post->post_content);
if(substr_count($content, '<p>') > $show_after_p)
{
	$contents = explode("</p>", $content);
	$p_count = 0;
	foreach($contents as $content)
	{
		echo $content;
 
		if($p_count == $show_after_p)
		{
		?>
                INSERT ADSENSE CODE
		<?
		}
		echo "</p>";
		$p_count++;
	}
}
?>

That code will automatically display your Adsense unit after the first paragraph. You can modify $show_after_p = 1, which will control which paragraph you want the unit to display after.

If the $show_after_p value exceeds the amount of paragraphs there are in a post, the ad unit won’t display.

If anyone knows a better solution, please let me know. And if anyone decides to use the code, let me know if it works for you.

From what i’m aware, currently, WordPress doesn’t allow enough flexibility when it comes to manipulating categories, especially when it comes to identifying the difference between a “Parent” and “Child” category. Let me explain…

The “Depth” Parameter

WordPress only recently added a “depth” parameter, which allows you to pull out ONLY parent or child categories. However, it still isn’t flexible enough because you can only use it with limited functions.

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<ul>
<?php
wp_list_categories('depth=1'); ?>
</ul>

The above code will list all parent categories in a list format. The downside of this approach? It’s not flexible enough because it lists the parent categories as links. But if that’s all you’re after, that’s cool. But If you want more flexibility with categories, that won’t help.

Putting Categories Into a Foreach Loop And manipulating

The solution to the problem above is as follows:

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$categories = get_categories();
foreach ($categories as $cat)
{
  if($cat->parent < 1)
  {
    echo $cat->category_nicename
    echo $cat->cat_name ;
   }
}

The above code will put the categories into an array, meaning you can now pass the values through a foreach loop (as shown in the code), consequently, you can completely control how you want the categories to display. In the example, I’m only printing the category name and category nice name (category url). But you can print out a lot more, which I explain a bit further down

The $cat->parent variable prints the parent of each category. If the category doesn’t have a parent, it has a value of 0. So by adding the if($cat->parent < 1) condition, we prevent all child categories from displaying.

To view all the values in the array or further possible manipulation, print the following array:

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print_r($categories);

I hope that’s been useful

Example

All you really need is one simple function. So for example, in your header you may have an image which you want to appear on the homepage:

The Code

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<?
if (is_home()) {
?>
<img src="http://www.brightcherry.co.uk/images/logo.png" title="brightCherry Logo" alt="BrightCherry Logo" />
<?
}
?>

Now the image will only appear on the homepage!

Next time i’ll show you how to link specific elements to particular posts

In my opinion, WordPress is by far the best blogging platform available because it’s easy to use, works great, and has a wide range of support and plugins available. There is probably a plugin for pretty much anything you may ever want to do- the hardest part is tracking it down.

This blog post is an open forum for anyone that has any technical questions about WordPress. Is there something that you’re trying to do, but can’t? I’m not talking about visual questions e.g. how do I move my navigation bar? I’m talking about “technical” questions, e.g. how do I allow people to leave comments on my “about me” page?

If I or anyone else in the team can answer the question, we’ll do so. If not, we’ll gracefully pass.

OK, fire away…

Disclaimer: in some cases, we may not offer the best solutions, but we’ll offer solutions in the way we would tackle the problem.

The Problem

As a result, you’re left with something like this:

It sounds like an unbelievably simple problem, but I think it’s it’s actually quite a common hurdle for many people who are just starting to develop WordPress themes. So for example, let’s say you’re creating a theme, and you want to display a logo. First you’d upload the image into the image folder, and then you’d type something like this:

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<img src="blog/wp-contents/themes/mytheme/images/mainimage.jpg" title="" alt=""

Of course, if you try that path, it won’t work, no matter how many directories you escape. The problem is that the WordPress htaccess file is redirecting the directory and making it impossible for you to get the file.

The solution is simple

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<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/mainimage.jpg" title="" alt="" />

Yup, it’s as easy as that.

All you need is

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<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>