Category: Development

How to Setup a Local WordPress Development Environment using DB and Media from Staging

Local Dev Setup

In order to make local WordPress development as seamless as possible with collaboration between multiple developers, I’ve devised a process where local versions of WordPress sites can dynamically use the database and media uploads from the staging server. Continue reading How to Setup a Local WordPress Development Environment using DB and Media from Staging

How to Make a Fixed Header Align and Play Nice With the Page

Laptop with Code

Do you have a fixed header area on your website that is not playing nice with the rest of the page?  You can’t quite get the bottom of the fixed header to line up with top of the page content?

Maybe you tried manually adjusting the margin at the top of the content, but when the header height changes at different screen resolutions, what to do?

Well, there’s an easy fix that makes the margin completely dynamic and it uses jQuery.  Use this jQuery in your theme… Continue reading How to Make a Fixed Header Align and Play Nice With the Page

How to Enable Shortcodes in WordPress Text Widgets

kobu-agency-685117-unsplash

So, you want to use a shortcode, and you want to put it in a widget.  You probably found out that the shortcode doesn’t process, but instead displays the shortcode text on the page.  Lame, right?

Luckily there’s a really easy quick fix for this.

Simply add this code to your theme’s functions.php file Continue reading How to Enable Shortcodes in WordPress Text Widgets

How to Redirect to Force WWW and HTTPS Using .htaccess File

Local Dev Setup

I’ve made a ton of websites over the years, and somethings are done every time.  Redirects in the .htaccess file is one of those things that’s always on the checklist.

Don’t worry about Googling how to do each redirect each time.  Just bookmark this page. Continue reading How to Redirect to Force WWW and HTTPS Using .htaccess File

Automatic Table of Contents Sticky Magellan Menu for WordPress Posts

Magellan Menu

See that sweet Magellan menu over on the right sidebar (if you’re not viewing the AMP version of this page)? →

Pretty cool right?

  • It acts as a nice table of contents for the post (and it’s 100% automatic!).
  • You can click the links to smooth scroll down to that section.
  • As you scroll, the visible section is highlighted.
  • It’s also inside of an awesome Theia Sticky Sidebar.

Continue reading Automatic Table of Contents Sticky Magellan Menu for WordPress Posts

How to Add a Scrolling Sticky Sidebar to WordPress

Sticky Sidebar

A sticky sidebar is a great way to improve the user experience of just about any website.  When a website has a sidebar that is not sticky, then when you scroll down below the bottom of the sidebar, then you just have this awkward white space on that edge of the site.  What’s the point of that white space, when the sidebar could stay there? Continue reading How to Add a Scrolling Sticky Sidebar to WordPress

WooCommerce: How to Fix Can’t Pay for Order Because “Out of Stock” Error

WooCommerce Ninja

In some WooCommerce setups, customers who select an offline payment (like Cash on Deliver or Check/Cheque) and then change their mind and go into the order to pay for it using an online method find that they are unable to pay for their pending order because it says the item is out-of-stock. Continue reading WooCommerce: How to Fix Can’t Pay for Order Because “Out of Stock” Error

How to Remove & Forget Gitignored Files from a Git Repo

Forget Gitignored Files

If you have already been working in your git repository before you realized that you needed to add something to your .gitignore file, you may have found that it’s not as simple as updating your .gitignore file anymore.  The tracked files that you just decided to ignore won’t just magically stop tracking and disappear from git, oh no.

Luckily, it is actually very simple to accomplish this with just a couple commands. Continue reading How to Remove & Forget Gitignored Files from a Git Repo

5 Steps to Speed Up WordPress

Speed Up WordPress

So you have a WordPress website that takes a bit too long to load.  You ran a speed test at Google PageSpeed, GTMetrix, or Pingdom, and found you have a lot of room for improvement.  You’re probably concerned about high bounce rates, and you fear Google penalizing your search rankings because of high page load times. Continue reading 5 Steps to Speed Up WordPress

Local Dev Setup With Wildcard Subdomain Vhost

Wildcard Subdomain Vhost

When setting up new local sites for development, skip the hassle with this game-changing setup that uses a single vhost with a wildcard subdomain so you never have to mess with vhosts ever again.

  • Don’t hassle with setting up a vhost every time
  • Don’t waste time adding more rows to your hosts file
  • Don’t mess with developing a site in a subdirectory where absolute links starting with “/” take you back to your localhost dashboard.

Continue reading Local Dev Setup With Wildcard Subdomain Vhost