Using a WordPress action you can include PHP global variables in your html without having to modify any theme files.
Read MoreYet another WordPress filter provided the ability to use a regular expression to add to the title parameter of the WordPress menus. Potentially good for SEO.
Read MoreAt Sun Microsystems I enjoyed submitting build fixes to the GNOME community. And I got a nerdy trill seeing my name in the ChangeLog files. After using the Display Posts Shortcode in the 4tec site, I submitted a patch to enhance that plugin.
Read MoreThe Zeus web server that Register365 use on their shared hosting servers requires that index.php be in all urls. Some code doesn't expect this - woo_pagination is in that group, but it gave me a really easy way to fix it.
Read MoreI am building an online store for a client with OpenCart. I needed to import data from an existing osCommerce store so I purchased an osCommerce to OpenCart script.
The script was a great help but it needed a lot of changes to work nicely and fail gracefully. I emailed the changes back to the script author. At my request he has added a credit link to the script page.
Below is a summary of the changes I made:
- Add mysql_query() query string to error messages to help track down problem query.
- Use one strtr() call instead of multiple calls to str_replace() when creating $seo urls.
- Do not add the product_id (or category_id or manufacturer_id) to the SEO url unless there is a url clash.
- Count the number of products/categories/manufacturers copied to OpenCart and display at the end.
- Don’t die() when a mysql_query() fails – store the error and display it later (for product/category/manufacturer copying).
- Put “Back” button inside ‘p’ tags.
- Added ‘manufacturer_to_store’ table to the TRUNCATE list.
- Reformat list of tables to truncate to make it easier to read.
- Added setting at top of script to disable copying of image files (my osCommerce and OpenCart databases were on different servers).
I am currently developing an online store and using OpenCart. It is quite different from osCommerce as it uses MVC architecture but it is also modular so core files (generally) don’t need to be modified.
Some OpenCart Extensions do require modifying core files and this is obviously bad practice and will make upgrades to the core code difficult.
One of the OpenCart developers, Qphoria, developed an amazing add-on that allows developers virtually modify files, including core files, with XML files. vQmod is a Virtual File Modification System. It is fantastic!
Instead of modifying core files to include an extension, you use vqmod xml file to make the changes. It’s a bit more initial work but definitely worth it.
I am using Facebook Like button extension to put a Facebook Like button on the product pages. It required modifying the product page’s template file. This would make theme upgrades painful and error prone so in steps vQmod.
Brooks Running has a new “Brite Green” range of hi-viz running gear for the dark evenings. Hi-Viz gear seems to keep moving through different colours as one colour becomes too prevalent (yellow was first, then orange and I’ve seen pink too).
I went to their Stockists Locator page to see if there were any retailers near me. The Region drop down list had a typo for Ireland (North & Rebuplic of Ireland) where “Rebuplic” should be “Republic” (swap b and p).
I used the Customer Centre section to inform them and they replied telling me that the issue would be forwarded to the web site team to fix the issue.
A few days later I checked the site and found that the list had been changed but that they had only half fixed it. Now it says “Repuplic” – the b was changed to a p but the other p wasn’t changed to a b.
I am sure that some would take this half-fix a deliberate slight against Irish people but I find that such offence takes a lot of energy.
Update: 4 November – the typos have finally been corrected.
Last Saturday I did the adidas Irish Runner 5 mile race in the Phoenix Park. My first mile split time was a unbelievably fast 5:07. As this was 8 seconds faster than I have ever run a mile I figured that the mile marker was in the wrong place.
The rest of the mile markers seemed to be placed reasonably accurately (well, mile 3 seemed a little long) but I finished the race a full minute faster than last year (29:47 vs 30:50). I was suspicious – I felt that something must be wrong.
Back home I was reading the boards.ie thread on the race and someone questioned whether the course was short. A number of others soon followed with the same conclusion, with Garmin and similar data to back it up. My Polar HRM measured low too (it normally measures low but this time it was extra low).
One guy developed a chart for people to use their chip time to extrapolate their time for a full 5 miles. The chart only listed whole minutes so I wrote a PHP script to extrapolate any time.
I posted this on the thread and it was well received. I then posted it to the Dublin Marathon page on Facebook and I saw a jump in visits to the page during the day.
This weekend my wife and I are attending an ante natal class at the Springfield Hotel in Leixlip. Off to the website to get directions.
Nice looking site.
I clicked on ‘Maps’ at the bottom of the page. Nothing happened. The url in the status bar showed a ‘#’ so I waited for a popup window. Nothing happened. I looked at the source code (no tables – good stuff) and was quite surprised to see:
<a href="#">Maps</a>
for all 15 links in the footer! (i.e. no url, no javascript for a popup, no nuthin).
I did find the directions via the Contact Us link at the top of the page. Unfortunately the directions seem to have been copied from the AA Route Planner – they are horribly verbose. The M50 and M1 toll prices are out of date too.
The page also mentions getting their by rail but omits which Leixlip station to use and directions from the station to the hotel (it’s Leixlip Confey and it’s about 1.25 miles from the station to the hotel).
It then lists three Dublin Bus routes to Leixlip but gives a link to CIE’s website instead of to the timetables of each route.
I reported the links, directions and train issues a week ago. Nothing has changed except for a typo (City Center -> City Centre) being fixed.
A friend asked me to look at the website for Cronin moving company because he couldn’t find the phone number. He wasn’t mistaken, it’s not on the site! Nor is the company address! The phone book was used to get the number.
This omissions violates item 7 (Hidden Contact Details) in 10 reasons why your website sucks. In the list it gives Amazon.co.uk as an example. From a web development perspective, the site is horrible – look at the source code. Shudder. It appears to have been generated by Adobe GoLive 4 (AFAIK current version is GoLive 9).