Scott recently had a great idea to run the bleeding edge release of Edit Flow on our official site. I usually do this for most of my plugins before releasing, though, it’s a manual process: FTP up the latest code and give it a test run. That’s not fun.

Here’s a far better, automatized way to keep your repo up-to-date. You can either use cron or githooks. Pick your poison.

Step #1: Clone-ify

On the server, where Edit Flow would be installed, delete it (if it exists), and clone the github repo. (You have to install a git instance, if you don’t already have one.)

cd /home/username/webapps/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/
git clone git@github.com:danielbachhuber/Edit-Flow.git

Step #2: Cron-ify

Set up a cron job to run every so often so that you don’t have to manually run “git pull” to stay up-to-date.

1 1 * * * cd /home/username/webapps/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/edit-flow && /home/username/webapps/git/bin/git pull

This job runs daily at 1:01am and does a git pull on the repo. On my site, the cron job is set to run daily; the Edit Flow site is set to update every couple of hours. Go with what works for you. Check out other options for cron jobs.

(Alternate) Step #2: Hook-ify

github gets POSTy

If you’re really adventurous, an update once (or even several) times a day isn’t enough for you. You want to live on the bleeding edge and update as soon changs are made! Thanks to githooks, you can do this fairly easily. Github takes it a step further and makes it even easier with Post-Receive URLs:

We’ll hit these URLs with POST requests when you push to us, passing along information about the push.

Here’s a quick-and-dirty PHP script I cooked up that works with github’s Post-Recieve URLs.

 '/git-test'
);

if( isset( $_POST['payload'] ) ) {
	$payload = json_decode( stripslashes( $_POST['payload'] ) );

	if( isset( $repository_paths[ $payload->repository->name ] ) ) {
		$path = get_full_path( $repository_paths[ $payload->repository->name ] );

		$cmd = sprintf( 'cd %s; ', $path );
		$cmd .= sprintf( '%s pull', GIT_PATH );
		shell_exec( $cmd );

		die( "Executed: $cmd!" );
	}
}

die( 'Dont\'t think you\'re sposed to be here...' );

function get_full_path( $path ) {
	return BASE_PATH . $path;
}

Upload this to your server and change the BASE_PATH, GIT_PATH, and $repository_paths to match your environment. On github, go to your Repo > Admin > Service Hooks > Post-Receive URLs and add the URL to the script. You can click on “Test Hook” to have github send you a test payload.

And you’ll probably want to delete the cron job, as that’s now redundant.

Log-ify

If you want to keep a log of what these scripts are doing behind-the-scenes for troubleshooting, just append the following to the cron job or Post-Receive script after the “git pull” call. This appends all output (errors and all) to a git.log file. Keep in mind that this file will grow over time, so prune early, prune often.

>> /home/username/git.log 2>&1

Closing Caveat: I am, by no means, an expert on this topic. I’ve cooked up something that works for me, and it may or may not be The Right Way. Use at your own discretion.

Holy Smart Playlists, Batman!

One of the greatest things about iTunes is the Smart Playlists feature. One of the worst things about iTunes is figuring out how to do things.

One thing I always had difficulty with was figuring out how to create Smart Playlists for the music on my iPod. Sure, I could create Smart Playlists and sync them directly with my iPod, but sometimes that ends up throwing in music I don’t want. And when you’re dealing with limited storage capacity, you have to be ruthless about what gets on your iPod.

So, I looked everywhere, but didn’t really have much luck (not even through Apple’s Support site). After many hours of fussing, I finally hit jackpot and figured out how. Detailed instructions after the jump.

Note: for this trick to work, you need your iPod set up for automatic sync to a playlist.

Things you need:

• iPod (and data cable)
• iTunes

Things you need to do:

Part 1: Setting the stage

Note: if your iPod already syncs to a single playlist, you can skip this step. If you sync to multiple playlists, you need to unify all those playlists together. To do that, simply create a Smart Playlist that combines all the playlists (call it “iPod Music”)¬† and skip to Part 2. (Pictorial Help)

1. Connect your iPod.
2. Create a new playlist (File > New Playlist). Let’s call it “iPod Music”.
3. Add the music you want to sync to the iPod to this new playlist.
4. Set up the iPod to Automatically Sync with the “iPod Music” playlist.

Part 2: Getting on stage

1. Create a new smart playlist (File > New Smart Playlist).
2. Set the following rules (pictorial help below):
   • Enable “Match all of the following rules”
   • Set the following rule: Rating >> is greater than >> 3 stars
   • Add another rule by clicking on the little plus sign
   • Set the following rule: Playlist >> is >> iPod Music
   • Enable “Live Updating“
   

   Rules for the iPod Top Rated Smart Playlist

3. Click Ok and give your new playlist a name. Let’s call it “iPod Top Rated”.
4. Now, set your iPod to sync with the new “iPod Top Rated” Smart Playlist.
5. Apply and Sync, and now iTunes will do its thing.

Part 3: Rocking out!

1. Rinse and repeat Part 2 for any and all additional Smart Playlists.
2. Rock on!

Tips

Just a few handy tips that may help:

• I’d recommend creating a folder for all your iPod Smart Playlists — that way, you can group them all together.
• More to come as I think of them…