Currently with Gravity Forms, there is no (easy) way to change the input fields to only accept 5 digits (or any other number) and/or change the submitted state selection to their USPS equivalents. If you’re trying to use your data to generate mailing labels or anything similar, the way it is setup can be messy and/or problematic.

Hence, the solution Mr. Connerton, and now myself, have developed. It is written as a plugin so all you have to do is download the file below, unzip it and put it in your WordPress plugins folder. It will then modify the submitted entry prior to it being saved to your database, and BAM! You’re a happy camper.

So what does this plugin do in short? –

• Trim submitted zip codes to 5 digits
• Convert full state names to their USPS state abbreviations

Enjoy! > State and Zip Code Modifier for Gravity Forms (407)

Note: the link to Gravity Forms only works if you’re logged in to their support forums.

It’s a well done, awesome plugin that allows you to use short codes to display the weather forecast in a widget or blog post.

For one of my clients however, we wanted the weather to be a part of the theme outside of a widget.

A small bit of code later, it’s done. You can see the weather forecast for Roanoke, VA by clicking that link.

We installed the WP Wunderground Plugin and then added this bit of code to our theme file:

<?php
if(class_exists(wp_wunderground)) :
	echo '<div id="rkr_weather">';
	$our_weather = new wp_wunderground;
	print $our_weather->build_forecast('24012');
	echo '</div>';
endif;
?>

Now, an explanation of what you see.

Line 2 is a conditional statement checking to see if the plugin is currently active by checking to see if the plugin’s class exists. It wouldn’t exist if the plugin was active. You could also use the WordPress function is_plugin_active() but I’ve run into a couple of instances where it returns an unknown function error.

Lines 3 & 6 are simply creating a container «div» for styling purposes.

Lines 4 creates a new instance of the plugin class and Line 5 prints the result of the internal method build_forecast(). The ’24012′ is the zip code I want the weather returned for and is also defined in the plugin settings.

Enjoy!

The question at hand is whether the analyzing of deep packet Internet traffic violates federal wiretap laws by not gaining consent from the consumer to the gathering and use of their web communications.

The latest news is AT&T and Verizon have both pledged to refrain from collecting and tracking the browsing behavior of their customers unless they receive explicit permission from the affected consumers.  It’s also rather interesting to note that they are in support of self-regulating themselves, if and when they do begin using this technology, because hey they can be trusted to tell us about it, right?

It was also a great opportunity to connect and network with other search engine professionals from around the world.  There were in-house SEO experts from companies like Microsoft and Best Buy and from as far away as Germany, England and New Zealand.  The broad array of experience and knowledge at the seminar became exceptionally apparent during the excellent question and answer session (see image on right).

Day 1 topics

• Elite website architecture
• Thinking like a search engineer
• Spam detection and false positives
• Global search trends
• Sitemaps and webmaster tools
• Crawlability
• Legal issues

Day 2 topics

• Reputation management
• Social networks for SEO
• Opportunities/pitfalls of link buying
• Enterprise link building
• Vertical search inclusion
• Future of search engines

This fantastic conference featured expert SEO speakers from around the world including Danny Sullivan, Rand Fishkin, Stephan Spencer, Rebecca Kelley, Nick Gerner, Will Critchlow, Duncan Morris, Sarah Bird, Jeff Pollard, Jane Copland, and Seth Besmertnik.

SEOserpent believes strongly in the value of continuing education and keeping abreast of the latest trends in the search field.  New techniques evolve every week, new ideas, every day and of course the search engine algorithms change fairly frequently.  Keeping atop of all the latest requires continuous discipline and effort but the dividends our clients gain far outweights the time needed to stay afloat.