WebMrFixIt

LiveValidation – Validate all text fields

Oct 26

John DonovanReference & Tutorials, Technology
No Comments

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

Save WordPress Plugin CSS changes

Jan 12

John DonovanReference & Tutorials, Technology
No Comments

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.

WordPress 3.3 – Ready for Prime Time?

Dec 19

John DonovanCompany News, Reference & Tutorials, Technology
3.3, Wordpress No Comments

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.

Joomla Content Basics

Jun 24

John DonovanReference & Tutorials
No Comments