Recently, I needed to migrate some WordPress blogs to another system. WordPress provides a handy way to export content in its WXR format. However, it'll export all comments, whether approved or not. This is good from a data backup standpoint, but I didn't need to import these. They were also bloating the XML file and affecting how long it took my import to process.  I needed a way to remove unapproved comments, the following code will do that using PHP's DOMDocument extension to walk an input file. The cleaned up content is sent to STDOUT so you can pipe it to another file to save.

recover = TRUE;
$doc->load($infile);

$comments = $doc->getElementsByTagName('comment');
$to_remove = array();

foreach ($comments as $comment) {
    if ($approved = $comment->getElementsByTagName('comment_approved')) {
        if ($approved->length > 0) {
            $app = $approved->item(0);

            // can't remove nodes while looping
            if (0 == $app->nodeValue) {
                $to_remove[] = $comment;
            }
        }
    }
}

if (count($to_remove)) {
    foreach ($to_remove as $elt) {
        $elt->parentNode->removeChild($elt);
    }
}

$doc->formatOutput = true;
$doc->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
echo $doc->saveXML();

I've never been a fan of carousels. They've become a crutch for designers and clients who want to spice up a homepage presentation with something that moves. ShoulIUseACarousel was shared by a lot of folks I follow, NetMagazine did an interview with the accessibility expert who created the site.

JS: Carousels are seemingly an easy fix to two universal design problems: how do I fit so much content into so little space, and how do I decide what content is the most important? It's easy to justify away the usability issues of a carousel when you consider the benefits of presenting multiple content pieces in such little real estate

From: Accessibility expert warns: stop using carousels | News | .net magazine From an information architecture perspective, Travis Lafleur provides a better alternative. In spirit, it's very similar to the approach we used on DCUnited.com back when I was there.

Consider this simple, straightforward alternative. First, determine essential content to be featured on the page. Keep in mind the desired outcomes of the project as a whole, the mindset and goals of your users, and what actions you want them to take on the particular page. Next, prioritize. This can be as simple as assigning numbers to each item. If users notice only one thing on the page, what should that be? If they notice two, what should the second be? -- and so on. If you're having trouble prioritizing -- or have too many items to promote -- consider breaking the content into logical groups and spreading it over multiple pages.

From: Biggs|Gilmore - A Critique of Carousels It turns out they also don't lead users to take meaningful actions.

I'm sure you've come across dozens, if not hundreds of image sliders or carousels (also called 'rotating offers'). You might even like them. But the truth is that they're conversion killers.

From: Don't Use Automatic Image Sliders or Carousels, Ignore the Fad Eric Runyon has the stats to back this up, click through to see how many people click beyond the first slide.

Carousels. That gem of a web feature that clients love, and many developers hate. One thing is certain, they are the darling of HigherEd. In fact, they're loved so much, I've been assigned many times to retroactively add them to sites that have already been live for years. This led me ask how much are users really interacting with the carousels.

From: Carousel Interaction Stats | WeedyGarden Finally, Jack Shepard lists better alternatives to using a carousel slide.

Let me preface this by saying this discovery is not anything new, however unless you're really geeking out you won't be in the know on this stuff.

From: The cure for the common image slider carousel

This started as a reply to a reddit poster claiming a USA-Turkey match in 2010 was "the highest attended soccer match ever"

According to this the attendance was 55,407. Nice, but not the highest ever for soccer.\ http://www.ussoccer.com/news/mens-national-team/2010/05/turkey-game-report.aspx

But not the larget for soccer that I can find. Portugal played the USA at RFK during the 1996 olympics, attendance was 58,012. http://www.dcconvention.com/Venues/RFKStadium/UniqueSpaces.aspx

Also MLS Cup 1997 at RFK featuring home side D.C. United was attended by 57,431 people.\ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLS_Cup_'97

Also, the LA Coliseum would sell out for soccer matches, albeit ones not featuring the USA. Capacity is 92k\ http://articles.latimes.com/1999/apr/29/news/mn-32450

Turns out the USSF has a page with attendance records, and the USA-Turkey game, or the others mentioned by me above, would not make it, as the minimum cutoff is around 78,000. Maybe the US turkey game was the best attended USMNT during the previous world cup cycle?\ http://www.ussoccer.com/teams/us-men/records/attendance-records/largest-crowds-in-us.aspx