Archives: Websites

• December 15, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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How to Build a Gutenberg Block with Advanced Custom Fields and Custom Posts Types

09/13/2021 – This article is out of date. Please see https://deliciousbrains.com/advanced-custom-fields-wordpress/ Bill Erickson describes the process of building a block with Advanced Custom Fields in his post Building a block with Advanced Custom Fields. I wanted to take his excellent post a bit further and describe how to do this for a custom post type.How to Build a Gutenberg Block with Advanced Custom Fields and Custom Posts Types See the full project…

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• September 20, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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Modern CSS – part 3

In Modern CSS part 1 and part 2, I discussed using flexbox for layout. In this post, I explain how I used CSS Grid along with fallbacks for IE and other older browsers. The Grid One of the design requirements for Chaffey Building Group is the display of properties in a grid format.  An exampleModern CSS – part 3 See the full project…

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• September 5, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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Don’t Double Cache

Caching, of course, is a great way to speed up your website. It keeps your browser from having to download static images and files.  WordPress has several great caching plugins available. Websites hosted on SiteGround can take advantage of that host’s caching system known  as the “Super Cacher”. Pace Staffing is hosted on SiteGround withDon't Double Cache See the full project…

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• August 29, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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Modern CSS – part 2

Building a Menu In building the new Chaffey Building Group website, the design naturally included a responsive menu.  I opted to use Flexbox as the main way to layout the menu. The design calls for two menus. The first menu is the main site navigation and the second contains the social media links. To getModern CSS – part 2 See the full project…

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• August 21, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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Modern CSS – part 1

Building an Image Grid In building the new Chaffey Building Group website, the design included an image grid  as seen below: I thought about whether to use CSS Grid or Flexbox for the layout. I decided on Flexbox as each image requires a specific percentage of width and really only needs the one dimension, whichModern CSS – part 1 See the full project…

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• August 9, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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WordPress Web Hosting Recommendations

WP Mayor has published its 2018 web host reviews base on a survey from CodeinWP. The article discusses how the host is marketed, customer satisfaction, security, reliability and WordPress support. As I have been recommending both SiteGround and WPEngine, I was pleased to see that they were well-regarded.  Most of my clients are small businessWordPress Web Hosting Recommendations See the full project…

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• July 5, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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Why use Yoda in your Code

In reviewing PHP coding standards for WordPress, best practices include “Yoda” code for logical comparisons. What does this mean? Simply put, this means to always put the variable on the right side as in this example: 1 2 3 if ( true == $the_force ) { $victorious = you_will( $be ); }if ( true ==Why use Yoda in your Code See the full project…

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• May 26, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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Own Your Website

When business owners are asked if they have a website, many will answer “yes”.  However, does this website really belong to you? If your website is on a platform like SquareSpace or Shopify the answer is not completely. While convenient and an easy way to get started on the web, platforms like this have limitations.Own Your Website See the full project…

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• May 8, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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Use Caution When Upgrading Your Hosting Plan

While I don’t like to share things I mess up on, this one cannot be overlooked. I recently had a client upgrade from SiteGround’s “GrowBig” to “GoGeek” in order to take advantage of better performance and the staging site. While this seems a good idea, I forgot to consider that the site would be movedUse Caution When Upgrading Your Hosting Plan See the full project…

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• May 2, 2018
• / By Merrill Mayer
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Keeping Things Easy for the Next Developer

As a freelancer, you always has to consider that other developers may work on a project after you do. Obscuring code or other items may make it difficult for someone not familiar with the code or website to make updates and changes. I recently encountered just such a situation where the previous developer hid theKeeping Things Easy for the Next Developer See the full project…

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