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This plugin adds IDN support to Wordpress. IDN (Internationalized domain name) is a domain name that contains non-ascii characters.
Contributors: dwright
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This plugin adds IDN support to Wordpress, making it an IDNA application. An IDN is a domain name that contains non-ascii chars
Examples of an IDN:
"An IDNA-enabled application is able to convert between the internationalised and ASCII representations of a domain name. It uses the ASCII form for DNS lookups but can present the internationalised form to users who presumably prefer to read and write domain names in non-ASCII scripts such as Arabic or Hiragana. Applications that do not support IDNA will not be able to handle domain names with non-ASCII characters, but will still be able to access such domains if given the (usually rather cryptic) ASCII equivalent." - IDN entry at Wikipedia
In simple terms, this plugin allows one to set their blog url to an IDN.
As an example:
Frau Müller has a blog and wants to use the IDN, http://www.müller.de Currently, she would have to set the WP blog url, (General Settings menu) to the Punycode version: xn--mller-kva.de, (which is the ascii representation of müller.de) this would allow users using a IDN aware web browser to access the site using the desired url: http://www.müller.de (and also of course, xn--mller-kva.de).
It is more convenient for Frau Müller to use the actual IDN http://www.müller.de as the WP blog url setting (General Settings menu), this plugin enables that functionality.
there is no additional functionality or features other than the convenience of specifying an IDN as your WP blog url.
See The Notes in: 'Arbitrary section' below before installing
Point a web browser to WP plugins
Search for idna, download and upload to your web host.
Copy the whole idna directory to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory of your WP blog
Access the administrative section of your WP blog. (In a typical default installation, WP determines your hostname and sets the WP blog url field to the Punycode verion of your url, so you should be able to access the administrative section of your WP blog using the Punycode version of the IDN) if that is not the case, you will first have to set the blog Url to use the Punycode version of your IDN, so you can access the administrative section to activate the plugin.
To get the PUNYCODE version of your IDN, here is an online conversion tool
Activate the plugin IDNA through the Plugins menu in WordPress
Change your WP Url to now use your IDN
If something does go wrong and you get locked out of the admin section, see the notes in '== Arbitrary section ==', to regain access.
Q: What is an IDN? Do I need this plugin?
A: If you don't know, you don't need it.
In a nutshell: IDN is an abbrevation for "Internationalized domain name"
Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) is a mechanism defined in 2003 for handling internationalised domain names containing non-ASCII characters.
These names are typically written in languages or scripts which do not use the Latin alphabet: Arabic, Hangul, Hiragana and Kanji for instance.
Read more, IDN info at Wikipedia
Q: Do you use a IDN library in this plugin?
A: Yes, this one, Php_Net_idna. Many thanks to the author for their fine work on this great library!
WP plugins have a 'stable tag' requirement for distribution, however, at this time,I consider this plugin to be Alpha quality at best.
It is possible to lock your self out of the administrative section of your blog
NOTE make sure you are using an IDN capable web browser when enabling this plugin. Firefox >= 3, Opera >= 7.11 are two examples. More
Because this plugin effects how you access your site, installation is slightly more involved than most plugins.
If you installing this plugin, I would recommend, if possible, that it is the first thing you do on your blog, before you add any content, just in case something goes wrong, this will minimize downtime.
NOTE If something goes wrong and you cant access the WP admin area after changing your url, here are some instructions for resetting your url
Please report any bugs you find to the author of this plugin
david_v_wright [AT] yahoo.com