DEV Community: Ashley Armstrong

My list of plugins I use daily and why. 🔌

Ashley Armstrong — Sun, 24 Jul 2022 20:33:23 +0000

So WordPress still powers around 30% ⚡ of the worlds sites, which roughly equates to 455 million websites^[1]. I'd estimate that each site using a least one plugin, wether that be create custom post types, or protect their site from spam comments or contact form submissions.

I have a certain plugin suite to extend WordPress, below is the list of plugins we use and why we use them. So lets just dive straight into them!

ACF (Advanced Custom Fields)

Link to ACF

ACF allows developers to add different types of components to pages, templates and custom posts. Ranging from simple text and WYSIWYG fields, to gallery and repeating fields.

We use ACF as we build bespoke websites and this helps us build templates, quicker and easier.

Gravity Forms

Link to Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is the form builder we use. Yes, we could have chosen Ninja Forms, Formidable, or even Contact Form 7. But we realised quickly there were a-lot of extensions that will allow us to use Stripe, or extending it to use our marketing software Campaign Monitor. It's simple, and easy to build forms and allows dynamic data so we can change fields depending on links.

EWWW.IO

Link to EWW.io

EWW is an image optimiser that allows you to delivery highly-optimised but still delivering high-quality images. We can also delivery images in WEBP format read more on WEBP from Google

These are our core suite of plugins, use anything different of similar? Comment below, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[1] What Percentage of Websites are WordPress in 2022?

Some of my personal favourite functions

Ashley Armstrong — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 19:58:40 +0000

Using Gravity Forms?

You can only return a US or International Phone Number; using this function we can return a UK Phone Format:


// Add UK phone number to Gravity Phone number using REGEX

add_filter( 'gform_phone_formats', 'uk_phone_format' );
function uk_phone_format( $phone_formats ) {
    $phone_formats['uk'] = array(
        'label'       => 'UK',
        'mask'        => false,
        'regex'       => '/^(((\+44\s?\d{4}|\(?0\d{4}\)?)\s?\d{3}\s?\d{3})|((\+44\s?\d{3}|\(?0\d{3}\)?)\s?\d{3}\s?\d{4})|((\+44\s?\d{2}|\(?0\d{2}\)?)\s?\d{4}\s?\d{4}))(\s?\#(\d{4}|\d{3}))?$/',
        'instruction' => false,
    );

    return $phone_formats;
}

Switch from Gutenberg to Classic Editor

This will switch you back to the classic editor and remove the Gutenberg styling

add_filter("use_block_editor_for_post_type", "disable_gutenberg_editor");
function disable_gutenberg_editor(){
    return false;
}

//Remove Gutenberg Block Library CSS from loading on the frontend
function remove_wp_block_library_css(){
    wp_dequeue_style( 'wp-block-library' );
    wp_dequeue_style( 'wp-block-library-theme' );
    wp_dequeue_style( 'wc-block-style' ); // Remove WooCommerce block CSS
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'remove_wp_block_library_css', 100 );

Reduce the risk of being hacked!

Disabling XMLPRC can help reduce the amount of hackers trying to gain access to your site

add_filter('xmlrpc_enabled', '__return_false');

Change the max image size before it's scaled.

add_filter( 'max_srcset_image_width', 'plott_max_srcset_image_width', 10 , 2 );

// set the max image width
function plott_max_srcset_image_width() {
    return 2200;
}

Change the url for the logo in WordPress admin login

function theme_url( $url ) {
   return get_bloginfo( 'url' );
}

add_filter( 'login_headerurl', 'theme_url' );

Change the category checkboxes to radio buttons

<?php
function admin_js() { ?>
    <script type="text/javascript">

        jQuery(document).ready( function () {
            jQuery('form#post').find('.categorychecklist input').each(function() {
                var new_input = jQuery('<input type="radio" />'),
                    attrLen = this.attributes.length;

                for (i = 0; i < attrLen; i++) {
                    if (this.attributes[i].name != 'type') {
                        new_input.attr(this.attributes[i].name.toLowerCase(), this.attributes[i].value);
                    }
                }

                jQuery(this).replaceWith(new_input);
            });
        });

    </script>
<?php }
add_action('admin_head', 'admin_js');

There you go; some of best and favourite functions that I use to make my life easier when developing sites for clients that are always in my base theme.

Why is WordPress considered one of the top CMS’s?

Ashley Armstrong — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 20:49:30 +0000

Welcome

I use WordPress everyday in my job, here's why I believe it is considered one of the top CMS's on the market!

It’s FREE!

The first thing to say is yes, it is free! The core WordPress system (which is downloadable via .org version of the site). Making WordPress free, is one of the main reasons why it’s so popular; it helped lowered the barrier to making high-quality professional sites.

It is important to note that only the core WordPress software is free and any plugins and themes that you want, may come with a separate fee.

There’s a plugin for nearly everything!

There are loads of talented developers/ companies out that create plugins to extend the core system. They can range from e-Commerce stores to forms and SEO, that can meet your needs.

Plugins can be free or paid, some offer both, which can be very beneficial when evaluating your options. But normally a free version of the plugin will normally get the job done for you.

Don’t know where to start? The best place to look first is the WordPress Plugin Repository. There are thousands to choose from free or paid. Have a read of which Plugins I use on a day-to-day basis and why I use them.

WordPress is top when looking for a blogging solution.

WordPress started in 2003 as a blogging platform and 18 years on and it’s still going strong. It has also seen it’s fair share of competition in forms of Tumblr, Medium and Blogger. But they were not match for WordPress.

With its simplicity, it’s easy to manage posts, scheduling of posts, having multiple authors or editors. You can easily create an online publishing platform or magazine, without even knowing a single line of code. You can even preview how it would look before you release it to the world.

You can do so much more than blogging with WordPress

You don’t just use WordPress to create a blog you can create some of the following with WordPress;

e-Learning Portal: Looking for somewhere to host a portal dedicated to learning online? Whether it’s to host online tutorials or somewhere pupils can share their work. You can build it with WordPress.
Invoicing Manager: Running a small business? You can integrate payment systems, using gateways like; stripe or PayPal and allow your clients to see and pay their invoices.
Job Portals: Running a recruitment agency? You can create a portal to upload jobs and allow prospective candidates apply for roles. You can easily categorise and managing listings in your agency making life easier.
Appointment Scheduling: Run a business where you need to allow clients to book appointments? You can build this in WordPress too. You can easily integrate it with Google, Apple or Outlook calendars. Allowing for a seamless User Experience for your clients that they’ll love.

Your website will grow with you!

Whether you are just starting out or you already have a presence online you’ll be able to expand your WordPress website, I’ve worked on many different sized WordPress sites from 1 pagers to complex multi-paged sites that has over (150 pages).

I would always recommend having a digital brand and web agency to do the hard work for you. We can create designs that will work for you and your business. We can help develop pages, content, designs and flexibility into your website. We let you focus on your business and allow you to grow. You can go it alone, using page builders/ themes however you will spend more time working on your website, rather than looking after your clients.

Managing your content is easy!

Yes, it is easy. Where I work, we build websites and pages that allows you to add, change or remove content easily without breaking anything. It gives non-developers the freedom to allow what goes on to their site and what doesn’t. We create extensive page builders, options and templates that make it easy for client to choose what they want on their site.

It supports many media formats

A quick tap into Google can show you all the different types of media formats you can use in WordPress here are the primary types that you can use:

Images (.jpeg, .png)
Documents (.pdf, .doc, .pptx)
Audio and video (.mp3, .mp4, .m4a, .mov, .wmv, and .avi)

You can programme WordPress to accept other formats like .svg or .webp.

You’re in control of everything.

WordPress grants you full control of everything relating to your website. Move site files with ease; build and expand your online store; do just about anything you need with WordPress. The majority of WordPress competitors out there aren’t open-source. And although they’ll do an adequate job of hosting your site, there’s a limit to their flexibility.

Responsive Background Images Mixin with SCSS

Ashley Armstrong — Tue, 11 May 2021 09:49:20 +0000

So responsive images are BRILLIANT with Bootstraps handy html class

.img-fluid

I also use EWWW for optimizing my images on Wordpress and converting images to WEBP.

However I wanted my background images to use have the same proportions whilst working responsively.

I used the below mixin and it has changed my life. Give it try.

@mixin responsive-bg-image($image-width, $image-height) {
  background-size: cover;
  height: 0;
  padding-bottom: percentage($image-height / $image-width);
  display: block;
  position: relative;
}

What I've learnt in the past 2 years in the job and in life.

Ashley Armstrong — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 11:19:37 +0000

So I've been in the industry for almost 2 years! I love coding and have done for years.

I have learnt a lot in my time from actually developing websites in WordPress to creating a meet up for junior web develops (WebJnr).

But through all the companies I've been involved in here are some of the most of valuable lessons I have learnt;

Always develop yourself

Web development is one of most crucial parts of any developers career progression, not in terms of money or career progression. But can help you build more beautiful and amazing websites.

Look after #1

Your mental, physical and digital health needs to be your number one priority, it's okay not to feel good that day, but extra steps can help you feel more relaxed. I was diagnosed with Imposter Syndrome last year and had to rapidly teach myself that I am accomplishing a-lot everyday, sometimes it may not be big achievements sometimes it is only small steps.

Don't be a YES person

This has been something I have always done. For example being asked to do a project outside of hours and expect no gratitude for doing/ completing it. I have learnt not to say yes to every little thing and make sure the job is done correctly and that is of high quality.

Keep people who respect you close.

In the agency I work with now, I have earned respect and have made some great professional and personal relationships. Which is something I have never had before and for this, has helped my mental health and think more clearly about certain people and traits.

BE YOURSELF

Last but not least (I could go on forever), don't pretend to be someone you're not, just be yourself. For me that's be one of the guys, having a laugh whilst producing high quality and efficient code.

Conclusion

Why am I writing this? I writing this because, the past 7/8 years in my life have been difficult and if one person reads this and makes a difference in their life. I feel then I have given someone comfort, understanding and strength from what I have written.

This is something hard for me write about, but I don't need to hide anymore!

Am I a developer yet?

Ashley Armstrong — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 14:05:55 +0000

So I've been working with my current company for almost 9 months now! I've worked on some amazing projects but I quite a fan of my latest curation: https://fuelbankfoundation.org/.

I would love to get some honest feedback on the functionality and the smoothness of transitions ect.

Thanks guys :D

Post Image: https://lattice.com/library/constructive-feedback-should-always-be-a-discussion