DEV Community: Paul Preibisch

Sick of WordPress?

Paul Preibisch — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 17:39:37 +0000

Last year, I launched several websites using WordPress, one of which was a Community Events site. On that site, I wanted to implement Event Booking functionality. I spent four months purchasing a variety of plugins to:

Optimize the site
Enhance SEO
Generate sitemaps
Log site activity
Add and manage events
Enable booking
Create a newsletter system
Optimize images
Track visitor data
Showcase a gallery

While I was able to accomplish all of this, it came at a high cost—not just financially, but in terms of time and effort. Managing and maintaining multiple plugins, ensuring compatibility, and customizing them to meet my exact needs was a daunting task. In the end, I had spent over $2,000 on plugins and subscriptions alone!

That experience led me to search for a better solution. As a PHP developer with over 1,800 hours of Laravel experience, I felt frustrated using such a slow, resource-heavy platform like WordPress. It felt like an expensive, opaque black box where the inner workings were a mystery.

This summer, I made the switch to Statamic, a flat-file-based content management system built on top of Laravel. Unlike WordPress, Statamic doesn't rely on a database, which makes it faster, more secure, and easier to manage. It’s built with modern development in mind, giving developers full control over their site's functionality without the need for bloated plugins.

Statamic simplifies complex tasks with its intuitive control panel, while offering the flexibility of using Laravel’s robust framework. No more hunting down and maintaining dozens of plugins just to make the site function. Everything, from creating events to managing content and optimizing performance, is much easier and more streamlined.

So far, I’m loving the switch, and I'll continue updating this post with more insights into my journey with Statamic.

Enhancing Your Experience with WP-Events Manager: Insights and Suggestions

Paul Preibisch — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 05:55:28 +0000

Dear Community,

I hope this message finds you well. As someone who passionately teaches Salsa Dance in a picturesque beach town in Mexico, I've embarked on a journey that bridges cultures and continents. My unique path—from a Canadian learning Latin dance in Korea, to sharing these vibrant rhythms with both tourists and locals in Mexico—highlights the universal language of dance. Interestingly, while my lessons cater mainly to tourists, it's fascinating to see the cultural exchange unfold, especially since the local dance flavor, Cumbia, differs from the "L.A. Style" Salsa I teach, known locally as "Linia" or "Casino Style".

This cultural tapestry led me to leverage WP-Events Manager for my website, aiming to create a hub for Latin Dance events. Investing in their comprehensive bundle was a decision made with the intent to offer the best to my audience. However, my experience has surfaced opportunities for enhancement within the platform that I believe are crucial for potential users to consider.

Optimization of Event Listings: The current setup where event listings significantly slow down website performance due to the lack of optimized thumbnail support is a critical area for improvement. Implementing a feature for automatic thumbnail optimization or allowing users to upload optimized images could drastically enhance site speed and user experience.

Management of Expired Events: The handling of expired events presents a challenge, especially when it affects the visibility of past events and their SEO value. A refined approach, such as introducing settings to manage the visibility of expired event details without cluttering current listings, could greatly benefit both organizers and attendees, preserving the SEO efforts and enabling historical event exploration.

As I continue to navigate these challenges, I remain hopeful for future updates that will address these concerns, enriching the WP-Events Manager platform for all its users. I look forward to sharing more insights and developments in the coming months and eagerly anticipate the enhancements that WP-Events Manager will introduce to improve our collective experience.

Warm regards

Create the Best Linux shortcut to move your windows between workspaces

Paul Preibisch — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 00:35:17 +0000

What I love about linux and the gnome desktop, are all the great customization powerups available.

One of my main go-to's is to configure the keys

super+shift+left = move window to left monitor
super+shift+right = move window to right monitor
super+shift+down = move window to lower WORKSPACE
super+shift+up = move window to upper WORKSPACE

To do this, open settings->keyboard-shortcuts

next, look for:
"move window to lower workspace"
"move window to upper workspace"
"move window to rightward monitor"
"move window to leftward monitor"

and set a shortcut key for each one.

Now moving your screens around will be much easier in Linux.

By the way, I am using PopOS 22.04
I love it!

Linux User living in Latin America? Install this Command-Line translator!

Paul Preibisch — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 20:54:27 +0000

Wow, my brain is totally blown today! Currently, I am living in Latin America as a digital nomad, and discovered an amazing command line translator for Linux!

sudo apt-get install translate-shell

Next edit your ~/.zsrc or ~/.bashrc
and add the following environmental vars

export SOURCE_LANG=en
export TARGET_LANG=es

now apply changes

source ~/.zshrc

Now you can translate!

trans bueno

(Use -I for interactive mode)

Get more help here:

man trans

Create a Laravel App to export a Spreadsheet with a Dropdown

Paul Preibisch — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 20:22:34 +0000

So cool! Due to an example I posted earlier on dev.to,
a community member reached out to me on LinkedIn, and asked if I could provide an example. Here is a Start To Finish example on how to programmatically create downloadable spreadsheets using Laravel excel WITH drop downs.

In this article I will explain how to create am Excel Spreadsheet using Laravel with Drop-down menus on a column.

You may view the code here:
https://github.com/paulpreibisch/laravelExcelDropdownExample

This example will pull drop-down data from a separate sheet within the Workbook so we can get around Excels 256 character data limit for drop-downs.

My example spreadsheet lists two sheets: Dogs, Dog Type
The type cell in each row of the Dog sheet, will provide a drop-down of dog types, which is pulled from the second sheet in the workbook.

Environment Setup:

First, lets create a Laravel application to house our drop-down example:

composer create-project laravel/laravel exampleLaravelExcelDropdowns

Check if it is up and running

cd exampleLaravelExcelDropdowns
php artisan serve

Composer Requirements

Lets add our requirements:

Laravel Excel
friendsofphp/php-cs-fixer (so we can clean our code as we go using ./vendor/bin/php-cs-fixer fix .)

composer require maatwebsite/excel
friendsofphp/php-cs-fixer

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Maatwebsite\Excel\ExcelServiceProvider" --tag=config

There are some nice default settings in excel.php so check it out. You can change things such as the document properties of each Excel File generated etc:

Controller

Now, Lets add a DogController in App/Http/controllers/DogController.php and add an endpoint so the Excel Spreadsheet can be downloaded:


namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Exports\Excel\DogExport;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Facades\Excel;

class DogController extends Controller
{
    public function downloadImportTemplate()
    {
       $dogWorkbook = App::make(DogWorkbook::class);
        return Excel::download($dogWorkbook, 'DogImportTemplate.xlsx');
}

Routing

Now, let's add a route to our Controller function in web.php


Route::get('/dogs/downloadImportTemplate',
    [DogController::class,'downloadImportTemplate']
);

The Spreadsheet

The Spreadsheet will contain two sheets:

The Dog Sheet

On this sheet, we will populate the collection with some example dogs

<?php

namespace App\Exports\Excel;

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromCollection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithHeadingRow;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithStyles;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithTitle;
use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Cell\DataValidation;
use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Worksheet\Worksheet;

class DogSheet implements FromCollection, WithHeadingRow, WithStyles, WithTitle
{
    const SHEET_TITLE = 'Dogs';

    public function collection()
    {
        return collect(
            [
                [
                    'id','name','type'
                ],
                [
                    'id'   => 1,
                    'name' => 'Midnight',
                    'dog_type' => 'Black Fell Terrier',
                ],
                [
                    'id'   => 2,
                    'name' => 'Celeste',
                    'dog_type' => 'Husky Mix',
                ],
                [
                    'id'   => 3,
                    'name' => 'Renata',
                    'dog_type' => 'Shepard Mix',
                ],
            ]
        );
    }
    public function styles(Worksheet $sheet)
    {
        $validation = $sheet->getCell('C1')->getDataValidation();
        $validation->setType(DataValidation::TYPE_LIST);
        $validation->setErrorStyle(DataValidation::STYLE_INFORMATION);
        $validation->setAllowBlank(true);
        $validation->setShowInputMessage(true);
        $validation->setShowErrorMessage(true);
        $validation->setShowDropDown(true);
        $validation->setErrorTitle('Input error');
        $validation->setError('Value is not in list.');
        $validation->setPromptTitle('Pick from list');
        $validation->setPrompt('Please pick a value from the drop-down list.');
        $validation->setFormula1( '\'' . DogTypesSheet::SHEET_TITLE . '\'!$A$2:$A$10000');

        $validation->setSqref("C1:C10000");
    }

    public function title(): string
    {
        return self::SHEET_TITLE;
    }
}

Dog Types Sheet

Now Lets make the other sheet which will be used to populate the dropdown

<?php

namespace App\Exports\Excel;

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\FromCollection;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithHeadingRow;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithStyles;
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithTitle;
use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Cell\DataValidation;
use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Worksheet\Worksheet;

class DogTypesSheet implements FromCollection, WithHeadingRow, WithTitle
{
    const SHEET_TITLE = "Dog Types";

    public function collection()
    {
        return collect(
            [
                [
                    'Type'
                ],
                [

                    'Black Fell Terrier',
                ],
                [
                    'Husky Mix',
                ],
                [
                   'Shepard Mix',
                ],
            ]
        );
    }

    public function title(): string
    {
        return self::SHEET_TITLE;
    }
}

The Workbook

Finally, Ill create the Workbook that contains the two sheets, and is downloaded via our controller endpoint

<?php

namespace App\Exports\Excel;

use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithMultipleSheets;

class DogWorkbook implements WithMultipleSheets
{
    private DogSheet $dogSheet;
    private DogTypesSheet $dogTypesSheet;
    public function __construct(DogSheet $dogSheet, DogTypesSheet $dogTypesSheet)
    {
        $this->dogSheet = $dogSheet;
        $this->dogTypesSheet = $dogTypesSheet;
    }


    public function sheets(): array
    {
        return [
            "Dogs" => $this->dogSheet,
            "DogTypes" => $this->dogTypesSheet
        ];
    }
}

Now, point your browser to:

http://127.0.0.1:8001/dogs/downloadImportTemplate

And you should see the template in action!

I hope this helps.

P.S.

I just got asked to create a new Workbook, with the Columns:
Name, Type, Breed

I am to add a dropdown for the Type column where the user can choose the values "Dog" or "Cat". If they choose "Dog" then another dropdown in Column "Breed", should list all the dogs breeds. But if the user chooses "Cat", then the dropdown should show all the Cats Breeds.

I've Updated the git repo now, and once downloaded, you can go to
http://127.0.0.1:8001/animals/downloadTemplate
to see the desired behavior.
I will create another blog post this week to explain how I did it!

Cheers!

Workflow Optimization

Paul Preibisch — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 17:51:01 +0000

For the last year, I've logged 1800 hours coding in Laravel using PhpStorm as my main IDE, on my PopOs Linux box. Some ways I've optimized my workflow are listed below. I'd love to hear what you do to optimize your workday as well:

Shortcuts

Pinning/Unpinning Tabs (Control-p, Control-shift-p) Often times, when working on three or four files, I pin them so they don't get lost in the sea of other files I open along the way

Save as Live Templates Recently, I have been using live templates more and more, especially to help populate factory attribute lists when writing unit tests.

[ 'project_id' => $this->project->getKey()]

Compare With Branch If you click on a folder, then control-shift-a to search for actions, type in "Compare with Branch..."

This lets you easily see how your changes compares with your "staging" / "master" branch. Whats nice is, when you switch branches, you can press the refresh button to update the list

PhpStorm squash commits, git push --force Before submitting a PR, I often squash all my commits to remove developer noise and provide a clean mearge for my code reviewer

PhpStorm Plugins

Quick Notes The quick notes plugin is an absolute MUST have, great way to take notes right within your IDE:

Git Commands

git checkout -
Checkout the last branch I was working on
git stash / git stash apply (in PhpStorm - Unstash changes)
This allows me to stash my current work if an urgent bug comes up that needs attending. Then I unstash (git stash apply) when I am able to return.

Docker Commands

docker-compose-exec composer dump-autoload

I use this after I rename (refactor) a class file so that composer knows it exists

Bash Aliases

fix This command is an alias which I added to my .bash_aliases so I can easily clean my code before pushing to the repo: alias fix="./vendor/bin/php-cs-fixer fix --verbose --show-progress=none --using-cache=yes"

Artisan

artisan route:clear after adding new API routes, I run this to ensure cache is updated

If you like, let me know what some of your daily command / shortcut go-to's you find yourself using over and over again. I'd be curious to hear how you optimize your work day as well.

Prevent Data Entry Duplicates in Real-time, using Laravel Excel

Paul Preibisch — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 04:32:12 +0000

Over the past year, I have been tasked with creating several Downloadable Excel Spreadsheets so that Clients can more easily import data into our system.

The data model we are importing into however, uses the unique validation rule on one of the columns. I've added code on the back-end to catch this error, however I thought it would be nice to try and prevent it in the first place.

To do so, I analyzed some of the recipes PhpSpreadSheet uses to create Dropdowns for a user, and noticed they are using the Data Validation feature of Excel.

From this, I was able to create a function which notifies the user that a duplicate has been entered.

I have the following in a trait called sheetHelper

use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Cell\DataValidation;
use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Worksheet\Worksheet;

public function preventDuplicates(
    string $column,
    Worksheet $sheet,
    int $startRow,
    string $errorMessage,
    ?int $endRow = null
): static {
    $startCell = $column . $startRow;
    $endRow = $endRow ?? $sheet->getHighestRow();
    $endCell = $column . $endRow; //specified large number to include all cells up to

    $validation = $sheet->getCell($startCell)->getDataValidation();
    $validation->setType( DataValidation::TYPE_CUSTOM );
    $validation->setErrorStyle( DataValidation::OPERATOR_EQUAL );
    $validation->setAllowBlank(false);
    $validation->setShowInputMessage(true);
    $validation->setShowErrorMessage(true);
    $validation->setShowDropDown(false);
    $validation->setErrorTitle($errorMessage);
    $validation->setFormula1('=COUNTIF($A$3:$A$10000,$A3)=1'); //$A$3 is absolute value, $A3 is absolute column, relative row 3

    $validation->setSqref("{$startCell}:{$endCell}");

    return $this;
}

This function can be used in your Exported Sheet. Just implement the WithStyles interface, and place it in the styles method:

public function styles(Worksheet $sheet) : void
{
    parent::styles($sheet);
    $this->preventDuplicates(
        column: 'A',
        sheet: $sheet,
        startRow: 2,//we use row 1 for the header
        errorMessage: 'Name already exists in this column',
        endRow: 10000 
    );
}

Now, if a user enters a duplicated name in column 'A', a popup in Excel / Libre Office will appear notifying them that a duplicate name has been entered. It will then remove the text they entered.

The key values I used to get this to work was setting the SerrorStyle to DataValidation::OPERATOR_EQUAL, and setting the type to DataValidation::TYPE_CUSTOM

Happy Coding!

Ensure Nvidia settings on restored on reboot - PopOs 22.04

Paul Preibisch — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 04:20:59 +0000

I struggled NVidia on my Linux box for for years. On every reboot / disconnection of my Laptop, Nvidia settings would reset.

My Setup

2 display ports, and 1 HDMI port on my laptop = 4 displays.

The steps to have these set to specific orientations on startup are:

1) capture the current configuration from the xorg.conf file
2) write a script that writes the orientation/location/main monitor settings via nvidia-settings command line option
3) run the script at startup

Let's begin:

1) Capture the current configuration

Open the nvidia GUI through your OS, or via the command-line by typing: nvidia-settings.

Next, click "X Servier Display Configuration" set the orientation and location of each display, and the main display.

2) Grab the X Configuration settings

A popup appears, click "Show Preview"

Copy the preview text into an editor.

3) Search for `nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder`

We will set XineramaInfoOrder in the script below to this value

4) Search for `metamodes`. We will set `CurrentMetaMode` in the script below with this value

5) Write the Script:

So I created a script using the above attributes and the values from the xorg preview:

mkdir ~/bin
cd ~/bin
sudo nano nvidiaStartup.sh

Now paste in the command:

nvidia-settings --assign <attributeName>="<your setting from xorg.conf"

example:

#!/bin/bash
nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="DP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+1050, DP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1920+1080, DP-3: nvidia-auto-select +4480+1080 {rotation=right}"
nvidia-settings --assign XineramaInfoOrder="DP-1"

6) Set startup applications

Next, set the permissions of the script

sudo chmod u+x ~/bin/nvidiaStartup.sh

To access start startup settings:

gnome-session-properties

gnome-session-properties

press add

Now it will start up each time you load your OS.

To test it simply type

sh nvidiaStartup.sh

Hope this helps!

PhpStorm Open Search Results in a new Tab

Paul Preibisch — Fri, 26 May 2023 23:59:08 +0000

I found this tip on from WordPress Diaries, run by Sergey Korolev.

I am re-posting it here as it is a great PHPStorm Tip:

By default: when you search in PhpStorm (⌘ ⇧ F on Mac or Ctrl Shift F on Windows) and click the button Open in New Window in the search window, the results are shown in the same tab every time (overwriting each other). So you can not switch between the current and previous search results quickly. You need to search again instead.

How to change:

Run the search (⌘ ⇧ F on Mac or Ctrl Shift F on Windows)
Click the button Open in New Window on the bottom right of the search window
Right-click on a tab in the search results
Select View Options > Open Results in New Tab

View All changed files in Branch in PhpStorm

Paul Preibisch — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 16:57:04 +0000

Hi everyone, I found a great PhpStorm Power User Tip today which will enable you easily view files ALL files changed in the current branch you are working on while in PhpStorm.

USECASE:

You are working on a feature/bug branch off of your staging branch, and you want to see all files changes within the feature/bug branch from staging.

1) click on the top folder of your project in project files
2) press control-shift-a for the actions popup
3) type "compare with branch" (if it doesn't show up, checkbox 'include disabled actions'
4) Voila! The Changes tab is now available!

PhpStorm Plugin Picks

Paul Preibisch — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 17:10:39 +0000

Hi everyone, since July 30, 2022, I have 818 hours logged programming with the latest version of Laravel, and PhpStorm spending an average of 7 hours 9m per day. Exlcuding weekends, my daily average is around 8 hours per day.

During this time, I have come across several PhpStorm plugins that make my programming day a delight, and would like to share some of them with you. Today, I will share a few of them, and will do a follow up post with more.

1) WakaTime
Wakaktime is an INDISPENSABLE tool for time tracking.
What I love about it is that it tracks how much time you spend in each branch, per project. I do love RescueTime as well, but RescueTime does not track time per branch. Branch time tracking really helps when reporting how much time you spent on each feature / bug fix.

2) Inspection Lens

This plugin is great, as it prints code error inspections right within your editor in red. This can helps save time by identifying problems while coding in a very direct and clear manner.

3) Quick Notes
Quick Notes is another plugin I love, as it provides a very useful and available note pad you can use while you are programming. This is especially useful during Team meetings when talking to a PM, or another team mate.

4) PHPHammer

PhpHammer provides 47 inspections to help identify problem areas in your code which are not available natively in PHPStorm. It will suggest ways to optimize and clean up
your code, as your write logic in real time.

5) Project Label is also a neat plugin that adds a Colored Textual Label at the bottom of PHPStorm with the name of your project. This is handy when when switching between multiple projects within your organization.

I hope these help, more to come!

PhpStorm Shortcut for php-cs-fixer

Paul Preibisch — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 15:38:45 +0000

PhpFixer has become an essential tool to ensure our team's coding standards are kept in line.

Rather than run "/vendor/friendsofphp/php-cs-fixer/php-cs-fixer fix" each time from the command line before a commit

I configured the command as an "External Tool" called "fix" in PhpStorm, and assigned it to 'ctrl-alt-shift-l" in PhpStorm.

Now all I need to do is press the hotkey combination while programming to clean up my code before a commit!

Good luck!