AI Writing Tools – Aint Going To Change My Style
AI Writing and Music tools have an early and deep presence in savvy AI usage. And as a Yoast user in WordPress and Grammerly with Office being a constant companion one can say this scriber is not exactly a Wordcraft Virgin. But ChatGPT has suddenly inserted real muscle into the auto-generation of paragraphs, presentations, and […]
Why CSS Is So Busy
Inherently CSS, Cascading Style Sheets, do not have to be busy or complex. Classic CSS 1 & 2 commands like color, margin, text-size, and others are easy to understand. However, CSS commands have 3 inherent layers of potential complexity. The first is the fact that every HTML element can have many CSS commands styling the […]
WordPress ThemeBuilders Under Stress
Our MasterWP.guru blog recently posted WordPress Under Duress, a report underlining multiple signs of pressure impacting WordPress. The WP Tavern Posting acknowledged several signs of stress. The article cited intensive competition from other CMS systems such as SquaresSpace and Shopify, increased complexity throughout the rapidly changing WP Core and profound shortcomings in both the Gutenberg Editor […]
WordPress WebPage Performance Tuning
WebPage Performance Tuning WordPress Performance Tuning is like WordPress SEO, an anointed discipline akin to Alchemy – complex practices subject to many sub-disciplines. As a result, three WordPress performance experts agree [ Adam Connel at BloggingWizrds, TomDupuis at Online Media, and Staff at WPBuffs ] that there are a number of factors that can impact […]
Meetup-WordPress Backend Bustout
Most of the attention in the WordPress community for the past five years has been about the effort to build a better WordPress frontend – a Visual Editor using React JavaScript that becomes an integral part of the WordPress core and runs increasing portions of the WordPress “No Coding Knowledge Required” system. But the Gutenberg […]
How to Find News About WordPress
One of the most frequently asked questions about WordPress is what is the WordPress market share? The answer is easy – go to W3techs.com scroll down and get the latest report on the top CMS system as used by the top 10 million websites in the World.: But as a WordPress Developer or Agency you […]
Looking for a Better Visual Editor
It maybe late to be looking for a better Visual Editor given the rapid improvement in both Page Builders like Elementor, Beaver or Divi plus the Gutenberg Block editor. But this developer is still looking for an improvement for the Visual Editor. Kay features sought include drag and drop layout, user CSS styling blocks, insertable […]
Banned WordPress Plugins
At a recent WP Meetup about Database plugins I was faulted for not citing which of the plugins being reviewed had been banned by WordPress or other vendors. Yes, I am aware of banned plugins. But I had never deliberately searched for them. However, a Securi note that 78% of hacked websites used WordPress confirmed that […]
WordPress Popup PDFs
This tutorial is based on the fact that PDFs have become the leading document integrators on the Web. Note the distinction – PDFs are multi-page containers for completed rich output like word documents, spreadsheet tables or Visio and other Object diagrams. PDFs are not like web development containers like Docker, Kubernetes, and Envoy which encompass […]
Measuring your Website
Measuring the Web The Web is the20th Century’s Cauldron of Change. The Web is spilling out change that is innovative, widespread and intimidating. Innovative because with DIY- Do-It-yourself Web Development tools it is possible for individuals and teams to create online presences and services that would have been improbable before the Internet. Widespread because in […]
Editorx Beta Bolsters Wix?
Wix and Squarspace have to watch out, Shopify, a Canadian startup specializing in shopping sites, has taken over their runner-up position in the Content Management System sweepstakes Both Wix and and Squarespace are saddled with same dynamic – low usage websites and comparatively a small number of website than their competitors. Wix appeared to have […]
Element Kits Free & Pro Elementor Widgets
At the Toronto WordPress Meetup Group we have been doing a series of presentations about the substantial widgets and features available in Elementor. But in the process of doing the research some Elementor add-on vendors offer freemium packages in which their free components and widgets are very attractive – such is the case with ElementKits […]
Happy Addon’s Free & Pro Elementor Widgets
At the Toronto WordPress Meetup Group we have been doing a series of presentations about the substantial widgets and features available in Elementor. But in the process of doing the research some Elementor add-on vendors offer freemium packages in which their free components and widgets are very attractive such is the case with Happy Add-ons. […]
ClassicPress: Why a WordPress Clone?
ClassicPress is a GPLv2[Free Software Foundation] clone of WordPress version 4.9.x – any theme, plugin or website that runs on WordPress 4.9 will run on ClassicPress. The ClassicPress FAQ page provides key insights into the reason for ClassicPress: ClassicPress is a community-led fork of the WordPress content management system that preserves the classic TinyMCE editor […]
Thinking Styles and UI Widgets
There has been a revolution in thinking over the past 50 years. How rationalizations is colored. The dual nature of Decision making. And better processes for thinking in general. The following set of presentationa and talks highlight some of these thinking insights. But there is also a revolution in creating smart UI interfaces in WordPress. […]
Data Recovery Processes
Data loss through a failed PC hard drive or cyber-attack is a galling problem for three reasons. First, you missed the warning signs of disk slowdown hinting at failure or somehow let a hacker get access to your PC or online system to loot or lock it up. Second is that both cyber attacks and […]
WordPress PageStyling with PageBuilders
WordPress Page Styling has moved from being the primary domain of the Theme chosen to display the website to what can now be called PageBuilder PageStyling. Now this transition from CSS styling via Theme to broader control of CSS styling options has been picking up pace in the past five years. The break up of […]
Interactive News
If this post’s title sounds like an oxymoron – it is deliberately so. Print newspapers are declining – not yet Dodo material. Even in Toronto with 4 daily print newspapers [Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The National Post and The Sun – note each of these are Internet editions], the newspapers are surviving. The […]
Website Backups – WayBackups
As a website developer it is amazing and disconcerting the number of times the “problem du jour” is a website backup recovery. Yes, just getting a website recovered either after a hack attack or sometimes simple “misplacement” is a 4-8 times a year consulting task. Now the reason this is surprising is because most hosting […]
WordPress PageBuilders as PageStylers and ThemeBuilders
This is a story about the intense competition among the WordPress PageBuilders for the past 3 years has added substantial PageStyling and ThemeBuilding capabilities to all the top tools. Consider the following table of the top WordPress PageBuilders: Tool Free+Pro Cost site/year WP Plugin Rating Active Sites Beaver Builder Yes , $99US unlimited/yr 4.98 500,000+ […]
Automation of Website Translations
About five years ago for a consulting assignment, we looked at programs that could automatically translate from one language to another. Of course, Google Translate and Babylon were two major players. Well as more Web users are looking for an economical automated translation of the text on a website from one language to another, there […]
Mobile Development With “No-Coding-Required” Mandate
While doing a review of Google Sites, a second “no coding required” app making system was encountered. Forrester calls this tool system – Mobile Low-Code Platforms For Business Developers. Forrester and Clutch identify this as a fast growing development segment as companies look to speed up data and information exchange internally between offices and divisions […]
Web Development Tools Overview
While completing a posting on the Mobile Mandate in Web Development, I ran across this excellent review of contemporary Web Development skills and tools. What makes this video compelling is that there is a natural order to the explaining the tools. Thus, the progression is from HTML and CSS to SQL,PHP and Vanilla JavaScript and […]
US CyberSpy vs CyberSpy Incompetence
Spy vs Spy was a Mad Magazine comic strip started during the Cold War era in 1961. Drawn by Antonia Prohias, the strip featured two spies one level too clever such that they inevitably did themselves in with scheming stunts of self-destruction. These spies were Maxwell Smart over confident and Inspector Clouseau clumsy clowns as […]
Appointment Scheduling
Appointment Scheduling is a pervasive requirement for a wide range of service businesses.Think of rentals of equipment, rooms, expertise. Or scheduling events, classes, and training. Or booking flights and other modes of transportation. Or the range of personal care appointments made by doctors, dentists, chiropractors, yoga instructors, physiotherapists, hair stylists, beauty spas, etc, etc. The […]
WordPress Gutenberg Editor Episode
The Columns Block was the cliffhanger in the rollout of the Gutenberg Editor with WordPress 5 a week ago. It simply did not was glitchy right through WordPress 5 RC3. So when WordPress 5 was announced for release in two days, this reviewer had some concerns. But lo and behold, the Columns Block appeared to […]
WordCamp Toronto 2018 Features Gutenberg
WordCamp Toronto 2018 is coming to the North York Civic Centre at roughly the same time as WordPress 5.0 and the new Gutenberg will be released. So it should not be a surprise that the WordCamp theme is Gutenberg and the Future of WordPress. The timing could not be more fortuitous because the much delayed […]
Keywords Help Everywhere
Having been badly cash-burned by Facebook and Google on their pay for click schemes, this reviewer has concentrated on 2 different SEO Marketing strategies. First, conversion lead strategies like one-time discount prices for trying a service, or free copies of tutorials in exchange for an email address or free advisories with links to other providers […]
Google Cloud Summit Toronto 2018: Mixed Messages
Systems as a Service are slowly hollowing out corporate data centers while bringing every major system direct to the Web to serve customers in myriad ways. And there are a Trio of Cloud Computing Disruptors – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud – that are slugging it out for top dog position among […]
Zedity: Killer Addon to WordPress Classic Editor
Gutenberg as upcoming replacement for the Classic Editor this Fall is forcing an issue for WordPress users from newbies to hard-in-the-trenches WP Pro Developers – what is the best WordPress editor for them to use? There are three main candidates. The tried and true Classic WordPress Editor known as TinyMCE with maybe some addons to […]
WordPress Debugging 101
This is a case study in debugging WordPress when things go crazy wrong. Here is the problem: It is really very simple – when I try to upload images to the Media Library it says the file has been uploaded but only a blank thumbnail appears in the Libraries gallery There are several blank thumbnails […]
How Gutenberg is Shaking WordPress UI Foundations
But It Is Theme And PageBuilder Vendors Who Are Currently Transforming How WordPress UI Design Is Actually Done Let us be clear, Gutenberg is by itself having a profound effect on WordPress UI Design and Development. Here are some of the major trends. Gutenberg brings the 3rd Generation JavaScript frameworks to WordPress. In the case […]
Speed Wins: Why WordPress Adopted JavaScript
Why More of WordPress UI is written in JavaScript not PHP With the announcement of Calypso, a JavaScript based UI in November of 2015 and then the launch of the Gutenberg project in 2016 using React.js, WordPress Head Honcho Matt Mullenweg tripped off a lot of conjectures as to why the departures from WordPress’ primary […]
An Introduction to Brizy
This is the latest and most interesting PageBuilder, what Gutenberg should be. [iframe src=”http://theopensourcery.ca/brizy/index.html” width=”100%” height=”900″]
TPL Recommends Security & Data Privacy Measures
TPL- Toronto Public Library prides itself on staying current on the latest computing trends. And they certainnly delivered this past week with their presentaion on Security and Data Privacy best practices. The lecture was delivered at TPL’s Lillian H. Smith branch on Thursday May 31st: Lock Down Your Digital Privacy in 10 Easy Steps. And […]
Protected: The WordPress Role in the GDPR Rollout
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
WordPress Gutenberg Looms Large
On St. Patricks Day in Toronto, The Toronto WordPress Meetup Group had a 2 1/2 hour session devoted to the implications of Gutenberg to the WordPress developers and wider community of users. Great St. Patty’s Day Fun in TOTown. The Meetup brought out 26 WP Developers on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. All of the group had […]
Cornerstone & Divi PageBuilders
Here are two WordPress PageBuilders which support important features that make for productive development – extensive styling options for each UI element plus targetted section as well as page templates. One of the key advantages of PageBuilders is that they deliver frontend, WYSIWYG editing so end users as well as developers see what they are […]
CSI Member’s Excellent Website: Evergreen.ca
Evergreen is another HTML5 website that tracks the many policies associated with Evergreen and the associated leisure time activities at the Evergreen Brickworks. Evergreen follows in the style of excellent CSI Member’s websites. Its mission is clearly declared on the opening page, the navigation is easy to follow and the website is chock full of […]
CSI Member’s Excellent Website: Art Institute Canada
Art Institute Canada is a bilingual website which is “dedicated to making Canadian art history a contemporary conversation “. And they more than succeed with wonderful stories filled with great historical and contemporary images of some of the best Canadian artists at work. Art Institute Canada is a throwback – it is written in straightforward HTML5 showing what […]
Now WordPress PageBuilders Become SiteBuilders
There is no doubt there is a lot of competition in the WebBuilders marketplace. There are at least 10 very good WordPress PageBuilders. WordPress is now used on 29.2% of the world’s websites. Yet it is undergoing a PHP to JavaScript makeover with Gutenberg. Gutenberg , you see, is more than a Javascript based new Visual Editor […]
CSI Member’s Excellent Website: Kunle.TV
Kunle.TV states its purpose and vision on its front page with a full width, video mission statement capped with the Cisco declaration – “By 2019, 80% 0f all the world’s Internet traffic will be video”. Kunle.tv is written in WordPress and every page is filled with informative videos ranging from Futurism Weekly through Video Presenting […]
CSI Best Website: GreenMajority.ca
GreenMajority.ca is an example of excellence in small business, non-profit websites at Toronto’s CSI- Centre for Social Innovation. Here is is a screenshot of GreenMajority.ca : What makes CSI-Centre for Social Innovation interesting is that it supplies co-working space and collaboration tools for small businesses [about 35% of members] and non-profit organizations [about 55% of […]
Gutenberg will be THE WordPress Visual Editor
Late October 2017 the latest 1.6.1 release of Gutenberg, the new WP Visual Editor => PageBuilder => SiteBuilder being created by Automattic for WordPress, appeared in the WordPress plugin library. This is about 8 weeks from the previous upgrade and there are clearly many new improvements. But also Gutenberg has a long way to go […]
JavaScript Arriving in WordPress Stealthily
With Calypso and Gutenberg, clearly JavaScript is arriving onto WordPress in a big way. Here are seven reasons why: Gutenberg is not just the new Visual Editor but is the “official” WordPress PageBuilder; But Gutenberg goes beyond page building and is a complete Web canvas builder – header, content, footer, sidebar plus any popups and […]
WordPress JavaScript Reactions
WordPress Gutenberg and Calypso are back in the tech news now that CIC Matt Mullenweg has rejected React.js as the core JavaScript library for WordPress. The issue is the Patent Clause in Facebook’s licensing which is less than the Open Source Software’s adherence to unencumbered usage standards as in MIT’s license. So Matt felt compelled by some […]
Post Grid Plugins
Grids are vital UI elements in medium to large scale websites. Think of websites with scores if not hundreds of products or properties or simply posts. Grids go well beyond tabular layouts or even accordion lists. Grids are able to show off all items in varying sorted order and subject to category and/or filters. The […]
WordPress Image Display Using CSS Grid
CSS Grid has taken off in the past year with the arrival of a complete implementation of the standard working in all 5 major browsers. CSS Grid is easy to learn and understand for 3 reasons. First, one can accomplish a lot with just a liitle code. Second, CSS users familiar with Flex layout will find the […]
Gutenberg Page Builder: A September UI Autopsy
Matt Mullenweg has written a detailed post on Gutenberg, the upcoming WordPress PageBuilder plugin. Within the post is a critical commitment by Matt: WordPress has always been about websites, but it’s not just about websites. It’s about freedom, about possibility, and about carving out your own livelihood, whether it’s by making a living through your […]
CiviCRM: CMS Integration Example
I discovered CiviCRM this past Tuesday at The Social Impact Meetup at CSI [The Centre for Social Innnovation]. What makes CiviCRM compelling is that it is a complete Customer Relationship Management system integrated well with some of the most popular CMS software – Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress. CMS systems have taken off in the past […]