As many of you may already know, WordCamp 2020 has been postponed and MidCamp has decided to be a digital only event
Our April speaker has also tentatively cancelled, and while I am inclined to put together a presentation of my own I am going to hold off on making any announcements for a while until there is better information about just how cautious we need to be with holding public events
In the meantime I will be creating and expanding a knowledge base section for this website to keep the flow of information coming!
If you would like to help in this project, please submit content via the “Contribute to the knowledge base” form on the “contribute” page, or contact me directly via email
-Jeff McNear
KNOWLEDGE BASE ARTICLES
Using a custom post type post as the home page
Answering the question of how to set a custom post type post as the main landing page in wordpress
Alternate post templates
One of the fundamental elements of WordPress theming is the ability to create alternative page templates – posts and custom post types can have multiple templates as well!
Making Reusable Blocks more obvious in the editor
One of the better Gutenberg features is the Reusable Block, but for the moment they are too easy to edit directly in the post interface rather than in the “manage reusable block” section found at (site root URL)/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=wp_block.
Forcing Yoast to the bottom
lmost everything about Yoast SEO except the fact that its’ meta-box forces all other meta-boxes (particularly those created via ACF) to drop below it. However this article has a solution!
PHP calculation using ACF fields
Recently I was faced with a situation where I needed to add a value to an arithmetic equation using two values from ACF fields here is how I did it:
A wealth of tools from Smashing Magazine
All of us should be periodically checking on Smashing Magazine … a recent article describes 8 terrific CSS generating & analysis tools that I am glad to know about:
Using Gravity Forms with Constant Contact
Gravity Forms can be used to create a Constant Contact signup form where the user can be signed up to a specific list based on radio button selection.
Making the excerpt field visible on the page editor
Just as in the case with page order and posts, the excerpt field is “valid” for pages but not visible in the editor by default.
Using the Yoast Meta Description rather than the excerpt
I recently was asked to configure an archive array to show the Yoast meta-descriptions (if populated) rather than the excerpt for an array of posts – here is how I did it:
Menu Order & posts
For some reason when you are in the editor for posts you will not see the menu order controls you see when in the page editor – indeed you may not even see a panel for post attributes at all
Adding an image uploader to the customizer
Yes, underscores makes it easy to add a custom logo, here is a way to add a second uploader
Associating a CPT with default taxonomies
There are arguments against having multiple post types share a common taxonomy – mainly since the back-end sorting interface will not work as completely as you may want it to. If more than one post type use a taxonomy you can really only sort the array of posts a single time before having to start over (since a second sort will give the user an “invalid post type” prompt). But there are cases when the front-end wants to see mixed results…
The :empty pseudo class
The :empty CSS pseudo-class represents any element that has no children. Children can be either element nodes or text (including whitespace). Comments, processing instructions, and CSS content do not affect whether an element is considered empty.
Major innovations in WordPress 5.5
By my count there are seven major innovations that are contained within the release of WordPress 5.5:
Getting Gutenberg to see custom post types & taxonomies
Without overtly declaring it your custom post types and taxonomies will be invisible to the Gutenberg editor … but there is a simple solution
Custom Gutenberg blocks with ACF Pro
As of about a year ago ACF Pro includes an option to apply the “location” rule of an ACF group to a block
wp_is_mobile
there are cases when the limited bandwidth of mobile visitors demands that less than crucial elements on the page are eliminated from the page load
Creating a Block Pattern Plugin
While the Block Pattern Builder Plugin is a fantastic innovation, as of the writing of this article (5/22/20) there is no JSON export as found in reusable blocks – which means that while the pattern exists in the site where you built it, it isn’t easily portable to another site.
Gutenberg Block Patterns
In Gutenberg 7.8 the concept of reusable blocks is being extended to the next logical step – block patterns.
Limit the available blocks in Gutenberg
To date I have only found a way to explicitly allow certain blocks (rather than the selective disallowing of certain blocks) using this addition to the active theme’s function file
Taking control over the Gutenberg Color Palette
For many of the block elements in Gutenberg there are color settings for text and/or background colors.
The default color selections are less than perfect in my opinion – thankfully they can be over-written by taking a few steps in your theme.
WordPress Go Live Steps
Some security & search visibility steps that are recommended for all WordPress websites
Search Engine Optimization: Get Better Results from the Web
SEO has two components: On page & Off page
SEO can be a noun, verb, person, process, field of study, or a strategy.
SEO is part of Internet Marketing Strategy which includes these strategies:
Obtain visitors(SEO) – Engage – Convert – Retain – Get Ratings/Referrals
WordPress Overview Presentation
Wordpress has an impressive market share of 34% which makes it the single most popular framework around. Flipping this equation tells us that nearly two thirds of site owners probably have little understanding on how WordPress works.
We will cover a high level overview on the default structure of this CMS, how to extend it and how the theming system works. I will also be sharing my somewhat opinionated views on best practices from the perspective of a developer who has repaired dozens of malformed and under-performing websites built by those whose experiments and improvisations with WordPress have failed.
ACF and WordPress – Jeff McNear
With the advent of Gutenberg and the increasing popularity of other page builders like Beaver Builder the WordPress ecosphere is increasingly embraching drag and drop process to achieve layout configuration. It is important to realize that the data generated via the page builder process generally lives within a single database field.
WordPress Template Hierarchy
The WordPress templating system has a clear hierarchy of files as found in the active theme.
CHILD THEME: style.css
The stylesheet contains the theme information and defines styles that supersede the parent styles