By using the official WordPress App I can create an Instagram like experience without Instagram.
I set forth a challenge to remove Facebook and its properties from my online presence and this includes Instagram.
Here I’m using the official WordPress App from Automattic and Snapseed by Google along with the Twenty Sixteen theme on my website to get the job done. What follows is a step back step gallery with screenshots. Yes, its more steps than Instagram but all the features are there.
First, I open the WordPress app and click the circular button at the bottom right to create a new post. Next, I upload the photos from my phone.
That’s basically it. However, if I’m willing to put in the additional effort. I’ll open up Snapseed to edit the image before uploading. This allows me to use automatic image editing filters and reduce the file size if I want to conserve my data during the upload process.
A photo I took at the Petersen Automotive Museum recently I open the image in Snapseed I open the image in Snapseed and prepare a smaller standard HD copy for export and upload. I’d be negligent if I didn’t mention the Instagram like filters available in Snapseed Back on the WordPress app there are additional settings found by tapping the gear icon. Here, I set the featured image, Geo location, as well as organize the post with categories, tags and custom post types. The Twenty Sixteen theme offers additional post types to further organize your post by type. Use your phones location to Geo tag the post Confirm the location. Review every detail of what you’re sharing. Set a display size, caption, alt text and even link the image.
That’s a lot of steps. However I can choose every detail or skip anything I don’t need for that particular post. This allows me to share as little detail or as much as I’d like.
The important point to take away is that there are options beyond closed social media platforms to share photos. Sure, I use Snapseed here to make adjustments but I can easily leave that out.
I’m taking a deep dive into WordPress’ Conditional Tags feature this month to get a better understanding of how it can minimize custom written code while providing practical features.
This personal study project will do the following.
Most importantly, create a minimal amount of new code.
The Business
A small restaurant trying to up it’s social media and web presence. This business would have relied solely on social media and a basic informational website in the past.
Their Needs for an Improved Website
The owner wants to generate more interest in the community. They have time to write and photograph a few times a week and drop in on social media. Meanwhile, staff have been concerned that answering phone calls, and social media posts from people asking for basic information cuts into their time with customers. With a little planning everyone thinks that their website could help with some new features.
A Currently on Tap and Dining Menu that can be easily maintained.
A listing of entertainment and specials.
A simple blog that supports the business within the community.
Twenty Seventeen as a Theme
Twenty Seventeen is almost perfect but the owner still needs a few practical features to humanize the business and inform the community.
Author profiles for the blogging staff
Practical suggestions like food parings
Maintain an archive of current and past offerings; items move in and out of availability almost daily so the manager will be tasked with updating the website as needed.
Conditional Tags
With a single well planned bit of code the Author profiles can be added to each post, page and author’s archive along with their portrait.
A second bit of code will also be added to posts about beer suggesting the reader view what’s Currently on Tap. It will also check if the beer they’re reading about is currently available.
A third block of code will create beer parings for current menu items; If possible the owner would also like parings for currently unavailable items
The Process
Each menu item, beer and event will be a post
Categories can then be used to control availability and placement of items
Tags will be used to create pairings
All content updates must be possible through the dashboard by an Editor
Unrelated Themes and Plugins can sometimes conflict with each other, having a debugging workflow in place is always a good idea.
Yesterday I discovered a broken element on my Events Calendar and jumped into the browser console to investigate.
At first glance I assumed the error is was within my Modern Tribe Events Calendar plugin.
JavaScript like PHP is tricky to debug, an error could read g.tribe_has_attr is not a function but be caused by something else on the page.
After creating a full site backup I duplicated it in a staging environment to safely hack away.
My WordPress debugging workflow
Check if this error appears on other pages, in this case it didn’t.
Disable current theme and activate a default theme like TwentySixteen.
Reload page to see if error persists.
The error disappeared which led me to suspect the actual flaw was in my theme’s code and not Modern Tribe’s Events Calendar.
My next step to uncover the cause took me to functions.php as it contains all the enqueued JavaScript for my custom theme. I commented out all the enqueues and almost magically the error disappeared from the page. Activating them one at a time I uncovered where the error originated.
After commenting out my theme’s jQuery requirement the error disappeared.
My theme is based on a responsive framework and includes a jQuery dependency for many of the interactive elements. A minified jQuery library for Foundation 6 was the culprit. Without it slideshow carousels, galleries, accordions and other features would not work.
A minified jQuery library for Foundation 6 was the culprit.
It’s probable that I made a mistake in how this jQuery was implemented in the theme. Ideally I’d audit the code but that wasn’t really an option. The next best solution is to remove this jQuery from the pages where it became a problem. At first I was going to dequeue it in my child theme where Events Calendar is used. However, creating a simple plugin that I could activate and deactivate seemed like a more elegant solution.
Dequeuing jQuery where it became a problem isn’t ideal but it’s a good fix.
Theme jQuery vs. Plugin jQuery?
I didn’t take the time to audit the precise conflict and determine whether it’s caused by my theme’s jQuery library butting heads with The Events Calendar’s version but having multiple enqueued versions sounds like a path towards disaster.
My to-do list minimize script conflicts in the future
Read and understand how jQuery is and should be properly enqueued for Themes and Plugins
Create a Plugin for each of the Theme’s interactive elements so they are self-contained blocks
I’m not certain independent plugins would lead to a better workflow. Photo galleries, content accordions, image carousels could all be maintained separately and activated as needed. But this could lead to a longer set up process for creating a new site. Then again, on child themes that don’t need all these features it would lead to a leaner code base.
Please leave a comment below if you have any suggestions on dealing with Theme and Plugin conflicts.
I’d like to thank everyone who attended my talk at WordCamp Riverside this weekend. It was a fantastic speaking experience and I hope everyone gained a little more insight into WordPress Multisite. If you are interested in digging further WordPress.tv a treasure of past presentations on this subject and others.
To the other speakers thank you for your commitment. Especially those of you who have spoken at past events. You are an inspiration to the rest of us to seek additional knowledge in our respective fields and in my case work up the nerve to submit a talk to speak at this WordCamp.
I also would like to thank the sponsors who supported this event. If you’re reading this post and looking for WordPress related projects I would like to suggest checking out sponsors of this WordCamp and others as a place to start.
Finally, to the organizers and volunteers who tirelessly got Riverside and the Inland Empire onto WordCamp map. Many of us work and or live in this community and commute across Southern California to connect with people in our own community.
Thank you everyone for making this first Riverside WordCamp an overwhelming success.
