A summary of my week in projects, posts, and pins. This is probably as much for my benefit as anything, but let me know if you find it interesting or helpful. Use the comments – I’m happy to tweak the format to make it more useful for others.
Projects: what I’ve been up to
- The big job this week was a small project to develop a branch lookup system for a client who uses lots of Ninja Forms. The branch lookup will need to work on multiple forms, so I’m extending Ninja Forms with a custom field that can be used wherever it is needed.
This has involved working out the existing data structures, creating an API for doing the lookups, and building the form element. I got a but stuck, because, while Ninja Forms has a good reputation, I’ve found the developer documentation a bit lacking. More next week! - I’m working with a local community organisation on a new website. This is a project that has been on and off for a while and I’m determined to get stuck into it. There was some WordPress plugin finding/testing, some WP-CLI commands to do some custom data importing and processing and some general WordPress work.
- I have an ongoing piece of work updating a Laravel/Vue Project that got some more updating based on testing and feedback.
Posts: things I made
- Charging up the SchoolBot – I’ve been gently nudging SchoolBot development along in my mornings and evenings the last week – here’s where it’s at.
- Do website owners need a “drivers license”, or should websites be more “self-driving”? – Surely many of the things that I set up on new WordPress sites with plugins and settings tweaks are solved problems now. So why do I have to add them myself?
- CSS and… err …job titles? – I think it’s easier to switch languages than to switch disciplines. We need job titles that better describe our disciplines.
- Be careful what you write! Basic SEO is easy, important, and really boring. – Trendy, abstract, modernist marketing is great, and you can still use some of that, but be careful what you write: you may need to be boring to be found!
Pins: things I read and remembered
- CSS specificity and the cascade – HankChizlJaw – great article from Andy explaining the CSS cascade
- Repeat yourself, do more than one thing, and… — programming is terrible – a pragmatic take on sometimes-dogmatic programming mantras: ‘The problem with following advice to the letter is that it rarely works in practice…It isn’t “Don’t Repeat Yourself”, but “Some redundancy is healthy, some isn’t’
- HTTP Status Dogs – made me laugh
- Introduction · WordPress The Right Way – Tom Nowell has pulled together a bunch of WordPress developer information and best practices – a good resource!
- Home – HappySelf – I came across this on a Slack channel. It’s a journal for kids intended to promoted positivity and resilience. I was initialy shocked at the price tag of £19.95 for a 3-month journal, but when the author pointed out this was the cost of two swimming lessons it seemed like good value. Hoping to try it out with my kid. Oh, and adults needs this too!
- ACF: Better Search | WordPress.org – A WordPress plugin that makes ACF fields searchable. I need this!