LDS Linker is a WordPress plugin I created that changes any Latter-day Saint scripture reference into a hyperlink pointing to the Internet Edition of the LDS Scriptures. It recognizes references whether the book name is written out or shortened using the standard abbreviations.

Here are some examples:

Moro. 10:3-5 is a scripture mastery verse. Other scripture mastery verses include Mosiah 4:30, D&C 130:22-23, and JS-H 1:15-20. I have Articles of Faith 1:1-13 memorized—how ’bout you?

Version 2.0 is a nearly complete rewrite of the plugin. The generated links now point directly to the referenced passage rather than performing a passage search. I also found and squashed a bunch of bugs.

You can download the plugin here:

• lds-linker.2.0.zip

A big thanks goes out to those who’ve helped me improve the code. Are you using LDS Linker? Please let me know what you think.

I downloaded the Firebug 1.0 beta the other day and I gotta say it’s fantastic. This is the coolest HTML and CSS debugging tool to come along since the Firefox Web Developer toolbar. In fact, my Web Developer toolbar hasn’t seen much use this past week since I’ve started using Firebug.

Basically, Firebug lets you inspect any element on a web page. Once you’ve selected an element to inspect, Firebug shows you where the element is in the source code and gives you a breakdown of all the style rules that apply to the element, including inherited rules. At any time you can make changes to the markup and the style and see those changes reflected immediately in the browser, just like the “Edit CSS” tool in the Web Developer toolbar.

Perhaps my favorite feature of Firebug is the layout tool. This lets you see at a glance the box model for the element you’re inspecting — width, height, padding, border, margin, and offset. As you hover over each part of the object model in the layout diagram, rulers and guide lines are rendered over the browser page so you can see if an element lines up with other elements above, below, or to the sides of it.

To round out the feature list, Firebug also lets you explore the Document Object Model, captures JavaScript events including XMLHttpRequests, and lets you add break points so you can get a better idea of what’s happening with those pesky scripts. You can also execute JavaScript on the fly from a command line interface.

To get a better look at Firebug in action, check out this Firebug 1.0 beta screencast put together by Jesse Newland over at Soylentfoo.

Notice: A newer version of LDS Linker has been released.

LDS Linker is a WordPress plugin I created that changes any Latter-day Saint scripture reference into a hyperlink pointing to the Internet Edition of the LDS Scriptures. It recognizes references whether the book name is written out or shortened using the standard abbreviations.

Here are some examples:

Moro. 10:3-5 is a scripture mastery verse. Other scripture mastery verses include Mosiah 4:30, D&C 130:22-23, and JS-H 1:15-20. I have Articles of Faith 1:1-13 memorized—how ’bout you?

Version 1.2.1 stopped working a few months ago when the LDS church made significant changes to the way search queries are performed against their scripture system. Version 1.3 attempts to address that issue but probably doesn’t go far enough. I’m aware that D&C references are broken in this version (because the & symbol isn’t being encoded properly before being passed to scriptures.lds.org). I’m sure there are other issues I’m not aware of, so please let me know if you find anything fishy. I plan to rework the whole system soon so it links directly to passages instead of to search queries (i.e. Moro. 10:3-5 instead of Moro. 10:3-5).

Version 1.4 comes hot on the heels of 1.3 and fixes the Doctrine and Covenants links issue. I found that using the urlencode() function around the book name tamed that pesky ampersand into submission and thus restored the Doctrine and Covenants to the list of books LDS Linker can handle.

• Download the plugin: lds-linker.1.4.zip

A big thanks to those who’ve helped me improve the code. Are you using LDS Linker? Please let me know what you think.

This week’s edition of the SitePoint Tech Times newsletter answers a question I’ve had for a long time. According to the article, PNG Colors in Internet Explorer, IE is one of the only browsers that renders embedded gamma correction for PNG images, which is what causes them to appear slightly discolored. Most other browsers ignore any embedded gamma correction. The article even gives a nice solution for stripping the gamma correction values out of your PNG images. Score!

I know I’m a little behind the times here. I was aware of this about five minutes after it happened, but I haven’t had time to blog about it until tonight. Firefox 2 was officially released over a week ago.

To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed with this release. Sure, it has a slick new look and some new bells and whistles (e.g., in-line spell check, session restore, and anti-phishing), but it’s lacking in one area that makes all the difference for me: XML feed support. To be fair, it’s got better support for feeds than Firefox 1.5, but this is one area where I’m sad to say Internet Explorer 7 is winning.

Lifehacker already voiced a few of my complaints about Firefox 2’s feed support (or lack thereof), but one thing they failed to mention is that Firefox 2 has poor support for third-party feed readers. I use Mozilla Thunderbird to manage my feeds, and, paradoxically, Firefox can’t add feed subscriptions to Thunderbird. This bug really should’ve been a version 2 release blocker, but somehow it sailed right through without being noticed. Hopefully they’ll fix this bug in a 2.0.1 release or something soon.

Other than that (and a minor unsettledness about the new look), I do love the browser and recommend that everyone download it as soon as possible. Happy browsing!