Well, wasn’t that a ridiculous effort to correct a typo? Yes, we were aware of the issue; yes, there was much debate on the correct form. First, before launch I mistakenly created the post using the word ‘Foreward’ .. which is a mix between the right, and wrong word — creating a completely incorrect word which I can only find one obscure reference to: here. Then, Adrian went through and corrected it with ‘Forward’ right before launch, which incidentally, you will find in used many places for this purpose. However, as many people pointed out, it wasn’t exactly up to par, so we went ahead and corrected it with the proper form - which led to this:

(you web types will appreciate this)

1. First, I had to create a rewrite in our .htaccess file that would forward the incorrect spelling to the now correct page. Since I’m not very good with mod_rewrite, I kept on messing up the syntax creating Server 500 errors… argh. Where’s Dan when you need him?

2. To change the correct spelling for the SEO redirect, I had to jump into the WordPress source database and manually rewrite the SEO name of the page.

3. Because the rewrites system for WordPress is different between static pages and actual posts, I ended up corrupting the entire internal rewrites array and had to go on a search online to find the correct solution (which took forever).

4. By the time I’m finally close to a solution, Adrian’s calling me up saying “uh dude, the Foreword page is down..” I know, dude.

5. Finally, I praise the lord for finding the WP Internal Rewrite Viewer which allows me to find out what the hell went wrong.

6. I realize the way to proceed is to manually change the slug (link) name of the page in the db, and regenerate the permalinks internal rewrite array by simple pressing ‘update’ in the Wordpress options panel. (How I figured this out, I don’t know — call it a leap of faith.)

About 70 minutes later and yay — the damn typo is fixed… ;x

10:57 pm

tags: crash, web design, wordpress