Archive for the ‘Misc Web Design’ Category

The pitfalls of a do it yourself website.

Friday, May 6th, 2016
With the advent of the do it yourself website tools like Wix and Weebly, many business owners have the ability to now create their own site without working with a design house.
 
 
In some cases, that might be all that business ever needs however the problems start when those businesses decide they need to add a feature that those services don’t provide or they want to change the look outside of the template versions provided. They quickly realize just how difficult those platforms can be to work with.
 
 
Lately, I’ve seen problems arise when a company that has used one of those services wants to move away from it and host with a different company. They don’t understand why you can’t just simply take the files with you and load them elsewhere without manipulating the code somewhat.
 
 
We believe a business owner should be spending their time working on their business and not messing around with trying to create a website. Once we have developed a client a great professional site on the WordPress platform, they can then go about blogging, adding items, etc. and doing the things that won’t tie up their time trying to figure out how to accomplish it. With WordPress, you can move it to any host you want to with simple migration plug-ins that make it a couple click process.
 
 
Need a custom WordPress site, give us a call!

 

Create Custom Home Page in WordPress

Thursday, January 15th, 2015

WordPress is a pretty versatile platform that can be used for many things other than just blogging.

 

One way to create a custom home page in PHP is to create a file in the template folder and name it home.php

 

You will need to include the header and footer in the page by using

 

 

Then, you include whatever hooks you need in between the two calls.

 

It’s that easy!

Detecting Current Page with PHP

Wednesday, November 19th, 2014

Sometimes, it is necessary to get the current page the visitor is on and then feed it through some other code so that it can produce a result based on the current page.

 

For this site, we gather what page is displayed, then based on that result, the output is put into the menu so that it displays the current page class in the <li> tag and then turns the current page text green in the nav menu.

 

 

We then give the result a variable name so that we can call it further down the page.

 

 

Based on the result, we then serve up the correct class for the current page to turn the text green. In this case, it is looking for the home page and if present, setting the active class to home.

 

Using ACF values in a WordPress Search Query

Saturday, July 27th, 2013

WordPress search by default is kind of limited.

If you use Advanced Custom Forms, the default search does not allow you search through the custom fields.

But, there is a powerful query called wp_query for WordPress that will allow you to do some really custom search scripts.

Here is some code that will query the custom fields in ACF. I have it set to pull a variable from the search form but to get that to work you will need to create a filter and a function on the themes function.php to pass the input result into the search script.

***********************

// args

$args = array(

‘numberposts’ => -1,

‘post_type’ => ‘post’,

‘meta_key’ => ‘bg_certificate’,

‘meta_value’ => $_POST[‘cert’]

);

 

// get results

// get results

$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

 

// The Loop

?>

<?php if( $the_query->have_posts() ): ?>

<ul>

<?php while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?>

<li>

<a href=”<?php the_permalink(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></a>

</li>

<?php endwhile; ?>

</ul>

<?php endif; ?>

 

<?php wp_reset_query();  // Restore global post data stomped by the_post(). ?>

******************************

 

Together with the filter and function, this script will output the search results based on the customs field you select in ACF.

You can find lots of other examples on the ACF site.

In my next post, I’ll show how to set up the filter and function to pass the value into the  ‘meta_value’ => $_POST[‘cert’] field.

Using WordPress as Your Sites CMS System

Thursday, February 21st, 2013

When WordPress first came out in 2003, it was an  interesting blogging platform that nobody paid attention to at first. As time wore on, more and more users specifically developers starting using the platform and creating new code for it through the Open Source program. Because of this, WordPress has become one of the most widely used CMS platforms across the web.

It is no longer just a blogging platform. With all the plug-ins that are available, you can now run a full feature rich ecommerce site with it if you so desire.

Once the site is setup, a WordPress CMS system allows the sites user to fully control the content on the website. They no longer have to call their designer and have them make changes. They simply login in and edit the page themselves using an interface that is very similar to MS Word.

When building sites for customers, we determine up front if they are going to utilize a site where they are always making changes, blogging, tweeting, etc. or if they are going to just use the site as a static brochure. If they are going to use Facebook or Twitter on a regular basis, you can use WordPress as your blog, then have it post your latest postings to Facebook and Twitter so you no longer have to post in 3 separate places. That is just one of the many great features of WordPress.

For designs, you can use templates or have it completely custom designed to fit your needs.

We highly recommend WordPress as a CMS system for your website.

WordPress Conditional Title Loop

Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

While working on a WordPress site for a client, I needed to load a header logo based on a term that was present in the title tag of page. While there is lot of stuff out there about using the conditional loops for pages, categories, etc. you really have to dig to find something like what I need.

So, in case somebody stumbles across this looking for the same thing, this might save you some time.

In the header.php file of the theme you are working with, you need to place the following in the area that you need to setup the condition. For my use, I had it serve up an image.

[code]

elseif (stripos($post->post_title, ‘TITLETERM’)!==false) {

print(‘<img alt=”” src=”/wp-content/themes/themes/images/main-top.jpg” height=”101″ width=”800″ align=”left”/>’);

} else

print(‘<img alt=”” src=”/wp-content/themes/themes/images/main-top2.jpg” height=”101″ width=”800″ align=”left”/>’);  [/code]

And that’s it. Not too difficult at all to do.

You could expand this to add other terms as needed.

Apple iPhone Vs Android Phone

Saturday, December 1st, 2012

I’ve had an Android Galaxy phone for a little over a year. At first, I really liked the phone. As time wore on, I came to hate it with a passion. It was constantly freezing, and I’d have to take the battery out to reset it not to mention typing on it was a real challenge.

I took the plunge and got an iPhone 5 and all I can say is WOW!!! It’s like comparing a Ford Pinto to a Ferrari. The iPhone just works. It seems to be much more polished and typing on it is a breeze. I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to actually use an iPhone as my main phone.

Now, from a Developer standpoint, the Android eco system just plain sucks. There are so many different branches out there on different phones and they all don’t work the same way. Unlike the Apple eco system, when Android updates the software, not all phones get the update so you may be stuck running an older version. With Apple, all the phones get the update and if your code works on one, it will most likely work on all of them. Not the case with Android.

I can see back when iPhones were pretty pricy why people went  with the Android phones. But now, you can get an iPhone 4 for free and you can use many different cell carriers. There is no reason to buy an Android anymore if you want a quality phone.

If you want to own a phone that works great and is the best smartphone on the market, then get yourself an iPhone.

Native App VS Web App

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

There are actually two kinds of apps for the mobile phone and tablet market. They are native apps and web apps.

With a web app, it is hosted on a website and mimics the look and feel of a native app with exception of the way it is installed and its limitations to using various functions of the device it’s installed to. To install, you have to save the entrance screen to the device home and it then places the app icon on the desktop of the device. Web apps can utilize many of the same functions of a native so depending on what the purpose of the app is; you may be able to use a web app which is much cheaper to produce.

Web apps don’t need to be submitted to Apple so they won’t appear in the iTunes store or the Droid store so that is one of the drawbacks to web apps.

Native apps are created using various languages, compiled and then submitted to either iTunes or the Droid market. These apps can take advantage of all the device functions and are installed by downloading them from the app stores. Because of the complexity of languages used to create native apps, these are generally priced much higher.

Choosing which type of app to use really comes down to what your app is going to do and how you want to distribute it.

App Design Preparation

Friday, June 1st, 2012

Once you have an idea for an app, the next thing to do is to translate that idea to paper. This will make it much easier when discussing with a designer in the initial build phase.

Ideally, you will want to “storyboard” or “wireframe” the app on paper. This means drawing out each app screen, buttons and then detailing what happens when those buttons are pressed. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be an artist, the purpose is just to show what the app does and how it is supposed to interact with the user. This part of the process is important because if you don’t know yourself how the flow of app is going to go, then how is the designer supposed to figure it out when it’s your idea?

Once you have the app outlined, and receive a quote for it, you need to be aware that if you decided to change things that it could affect the quote depending on what the changes are and if it adds on to the hours needed to complete the design.

How much does it cost to create an app?

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

How much does it cost to create an app?

That is a question I get asked and see a lot.

The cost of the app depends on the app it’s self and exactly how many programming hours is it going to take to complete it.

I see stuff all the time that goes like this; “My friend who knows about these things told me it would be easy and only take x hours to complete”.  I just laugh when I read those. If it was that easy to do, then why didn’t their friend do it for them?  Yes, somebody who has no direct knowledge of the programming involved in creating an app is a great authority to get your information from.

A big problem I run into is when potential clients are asking for a price, they are reluctant to really detail out what the app is going to do which leaves me in a position of having to give a ballpark estimate with a wide range. If someone is serious about an app and needs exact pricing, then the best thing to do is have a non disclosure agreement drafted and then have the person quoting the app sign it. That way, you can give all the details to the designer of the app so they can better understand how many hours it’s going to take to develop it and give you a solid quote.