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I use the LiveValidation Javascript library to handle most of my client-side form validation features. With it, fields are validated as the user types and instant feedback provides the user with specific instruction on how to correct errors – BEFORE they get to the server and database. The documentation for the library (see link above) is complete and provides lots of examples. More
When Interior Design Fair decided to update their website from a static hard-coded site to a Content Management System, they turned to designer Nicole Bratt of Rock + Feather Creative and DCP Partners. Together we updated their internet presence and added a number of new features – including a custom Project Gallery, Concepts Gallery, and Team Member Gallery. There’s lots of custom AJAX-driven code, written as WordPress plugins, that provides exactly what the client wanted in functionality.
With the new site, the IDF team can easily update their site without programmer intervention – allowing them to keep their clients and visitors updated with the latest information and improve their SEO ranking.
Contact us for more information on this project and how we can help you take control of your site.
We recently released an all-new website for Midas Recovery Services. MRS President Paul Leahy and Manager Wendy Payton wanted an updated look and feel to their web presence that they could update and manage themselves. We created a new design and implemented a simple WordPress system that provides the CMS functions they were looking for. In addition to static Pages that describe their services, a simple contact form makes it easy for visitors to get more information.
Its a simple design that provides a solid foundation for the future – without breaking the bank.
I’ve just recently completed the first version of a Volunteer management plugin for WordPress. The plugin provides AJAX-driven administration pages for Categories/Events, Volunteer Tasks, and Global Settings – as well as an AJAX-driven shortcode for the Volunteer Registration Form, which can be embedded in your content.
The plugin will generate and send email confirmation of all Volunteer Registrations and provides a listing for committee or event managers, with volunteer names, phone numbers, and email contact information.
If you have to manage multiple volunteer projects with multiple tasks, this Volunteer plugin can simplify your life.
The plugin is currently only available to DCP Partners clients, so please contact us for information on our services and how we can help you with your WordPress system needs.
A nifty little project we developed was a shortcode plugin for WordPress that provides geocoding services for an order form on LocalStick.com’s website. We developed an easy way for visitors to enter any address/location in the world and have it return the coordinates (Latitude and Longitude) for the address entered. The Google Maps API provides the underlying technology and a bit of jQuery/Javascript makes it all work.
Check it out at http://localstick.com/shop/custom-stickers
If there’s something special or unique that you’d like to add to your site, drop us a note and let us know what you’d like.
Like many website owners are discovering, having Adobe Flash in your website can be more of a detriment than an advantage. The folks at Bungee America asked us to remove the majority of the Flash on their site, so more people can view their dynamic content.
We removed the Flash components and replaced them with jQuery/Javascript elements that provide similar animations and are compatible with a wide range of browsers and devices – including Apple iOS devices. We built modular components that make updates easy and reduce future maintenance issues and costs.
Check-out their site at www.bungeeamerica.com.
We’ve just completed the migration of Pacific Crest’s website from Joomla to WordPress 3.3. The change was made to leverage WordPress’ easy-to-use interface, great SEO features, and the rich development environment that WordPress offers.
Migration went smoothly and a number of custom plugins were written to provide special features for the site – including an alumni database, document management, and volunteer registration.
The user-friendly WordPress interface will allow the client to more-easily distribute content management responsibilities to others in the organization – freeing management to focus on issues more ‘productive’ than managing web content.
WordPress plugins offer a great way to extend the functionality of your ‘standard’ WordPress implementation. Often the plugin author includes a CSS file that provides the style attributes for the content elements that the plugin creates. However, many authors do not provide a way to change the style of the elements, without having to change the plugin’s CSS file. This works fine – however, any changes will be lost when the plugin is upgraded and the bundled CSS file is replaced.
My solution for this problem is to place CSS changes in a separate ”style-override.css” file in the Theme’s directory – including all of the selectors and attributes that I’d like to change. CSS works on the ‘last one in wins’ rule – so the last definition of a given rule will over-ride any previous definitions.
You can load this ‘style-override.css’ file at the end of the page, over-riding any previous definitions, by using the following code in your functions.php:
//load the style-override.css file at the very end of the document
//allowing CSS for plugins to be altered and protected against overwrite by upgrade
add_action(‘wp_footer’, ‘loadOverrideCSS’);
function loadOverrideCSS() { ?>
<!– load style-override.css file –>
<link rel=’stylesheet’ type=’text/css’ media=’screen’ href=’<?php echo get_bloginfo(‘stylesheet_directory’); ?>/style-override.css’ />
<?php }
//pcLoadOverrideCSS()
This will use the ‘wp_footer’ hook, which is one of the last things executed by WordPress when generating the content page.
We’ve just delivered an interesting project that brought a wide variety of technologies and techniques together to create a custom application for Midas Recovery Services. Midas works with insurance companies and other health care providers to recover expenses associated with Worker’s Compensation cases and has been using an aging FoxPro database for the past 15 years to manage their business.
Our system collects data about every Worker’s Comp case filed in California, then looks for matches against a table of over 3 million client members. An easy-to-use AJAX user-interface provides information about each case, as well as complete case management and activity tracking tools. Midas has seen processing times go from several hours with the old system to under 1 minute with our optimized mySQL database and object-oriented PHP code. DCP Partners is hosting the application and providing on-going administrative / management services.
Initial response from Midas has been very positive, as they see: significant improvements in their ability to provide service to their clients, increased efficiency of their staff, the security of hosting their core business application in a managed datacenter, and the strength of a solid technology foundation on-which to grown their business. Next on the list – a new public-facing website.
Based on the reviews I’ve been reading, I’m going to hold-off spending a lot of time with the new WordPress 3.3. Like with most bleeding-edge software updates, there are going to be performance and quality issues with the initial releases that I’d prefer others spend time finding and resolving. My clients’ sites are working fine and the new features implemented in WP 3.3 are largely cosmetic – adding little in the way of functionality. It will take several weeks/months for plugin developers to complete their upgrades for the new system, where needed, and the WordPress team a similar amount of time to get all of the bugs resolved. We’ll revisit WP 3.3 next quarter and evaluate the benefit of jumping on the bandwagon.
In the mean time, enjoy the solid performance of your present system and know that we’re keeping a close eye on the progress of this new version of the WordPress core.