Tip #9 : Use trackback auto-discovery
Posted by Leonid Mamchenkov on December 18, 2007
When building WordPress themes from scratch it is easy to forget about things that “just work”. One of such things, often forgotten by newcomers to WordPress theme development, is trackback auto-discovery - a really tiny bit of code, which is not visible to a naked eye (an eye without HTML source that is). Trackback auto-discovery provides a specially formatted HTML code for other content management systems to find a trackback URL in your post. Gladly, there is a Codex page that covers trackback_rdf() function.
December 18, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Hi
Maybe since wp 2.0 I can’t find this function in wordpress theme *default* or *classic*.
So I can’t understand why you told this theme developer and not the wp developer ;)
kindly regards
Monika
December 18, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Monika,
trackbacks are somewhat obsolete by pingbacks. Pingbacks works in both default and classic themes, because they provide the pingback link in the header part. Also, both default and classic themes provide trackback URIs for manual copy-paste - something that not all themes out there offer.
I should probably write a post explaining how both pingbacks and trackbacks work. :)
December 18, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I hope I can explain what I mean (english is not my friend;))
You mean this code
<!--
-->
At old wp versions this code was implemented in default (Kubrick) and classic theme - since version 2.0 or something else it isn’t.
So new wp theme author don’t know something about this trackback rdf ….
If it is necessary or a good thing, why it is never in the default themes ?
kindly regards
Monika
(
I’m sitting on another pc and can’t login to my wordpress.com account )
December 18, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Monika,
I have no idea why they substituted automatic trackback discovery with manual URLs. I’ll try to check in SVN logs to find a hint…
December 18, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Thanks Leonid
because I would like to know why or why not before I write something on my blog in german.
regards
Monika
December 19, 2007 at 2:58 am
[...] Tip #9 : Use trackback auto-discovery When building WordPress themes from scratch it is easy to forget about things that “just work”. One of […] [...]
December 19, 2007 at 3:35 am
Because no one uses trackback autodiscovery, and the RDF in a comment thing is a hack.
December 21, 2007 at 8:30 pm
[...] directed me to Tip #9: Use trackback auto-discovery, written by Leonid Mamchenkov. Leonid’s tip explained the important part in one sentence: [...]
December 21, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Matt,
thanks. I’ll need to do my homework better in the future. :)
March 4, 2008 at 7:53 am
I have quite a few of the ‘free’ WordPress templates that have neglected to add this feature. I will watch for it in any future themes!
March 6, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Hi, Leonid!
You didn’t update your WP bits blog for quite a long time?… Hope you’ll be back, soon:)
Cheers, M. :-)
March 12, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Michel,
the things I do have changed a lot recently. I’m not working with WordPress at all, and with the time constraints, I am falling behind the news and happenings. Unfortunately. :(
I am thinking on how to proceed with this blog, but I don’t have anything to share just yet.
March 17, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Mmmh, it’a a pity, always read the ‘bits’ here with great interest:)
Maybe you’ll have a bit more for WP and the blog after a while? :-)
Wishing you all the best! :)
March 17, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Thanks Michel! I am not moving too far away - I am still doing things on the web, and my blog is still on WordPress. So, chances are I will come back with more later. In the meantime maybe I will find someone who could take over WPBits. :)
March 17, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Thanks Michel! I am not moving too far away - I am still doing things on the web, and my blog is still on WordPress. So, chances are I will come back with more later. In the meantime maybe I will find someone who could take over WPBits. :)