Dodge Web Solutions

Editing CSS via the Customizer – Updates, Child Themes, etc

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At a recent WordPress Wednesday Meetup, Don Brown had a great question that forced me to realize I was wrong in something I’d blithely assumed about the Customizer.  Or, more accurately, never really stopped to think about.  As you doubtless know (since you, my dear readers, generally know everything and I am perpetually just trying to catch up to you), in December of 2016, WordPress 4.7 arrived with the new option in the Customizer to let us add Additional CSS.  (Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS option)

Well, it sounds silly to say it out loud, but I had assumed that the “Additional CSS” you added via the Customizer was stored in the database, not dependent on the theme it was enhancing.  My friend Don gently questioned that assumption until we saw that, of course, all CSS added is attached to the particular theme you’re adding it to, and when you switch themes, that CSS doesn’t magically appear.  Thanks for helping to clarify this in my mind, always good to learn something new!  Looking forward to seeing you at the next Bucks County Marketing and WordPress Consortium meeting!

Home / Landing / Front – Which?

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I have been guilty of using these terms interchangeably, as I think have many of us.  As a public service (and a public mea culpa), here is the difference for these types of pages, in the WordPress world:

  • Landing Page – this is mostly seen if your site’s goal is conversions (sales) or leads.  You can have a landing page that visitors are funneled to after they have “met” you on your home page or front page.
  • The Home Page or Front Page is like the front door to your house.  It’s where you welcome your visitor, and they learn about you (and decide if your site is worth their time to stay and look around)

The difference between a Home page vs a Front (or Splash) page is uniquely a WordPress thingie, though.  It comes down to the hierarchy of the templates of your theme.  Per the WordPress Codex (emphasis mine):

On the site front page, WordPress will always use the front-page.php template file, if it exists. If front-page.php does not exist, WordPress will determine which template file to use, depending on the user configuration of ‘Settings > Reading ->Front page displays’, as follows:

  • A static page: WordPress uses the Static Page template hierarchy: Custom Page Template, page-{id}.php, page-{slug}.php, page.php, index.php
  • Your latest posts: WordPress uses the Blog Posts Index template hierarchy: home.php, index.php

To recap, landing pages is a term for marketing/sales/lead generation page.  Front page is the first, “home” page you come to on a brochure or static site, as long as the WordPress theme contains that template.

Disabling a plugin that crashed your site…when your site is still crashed!

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I’m…ah…only familiar with this because a “friend” may have installed a plugin on a client’s site and that site may have gone down like a ton of bricks.  Who would have thought that Modern Tribe’s free version of Events Calendar (downloaded more than 400,000 times) would crash their theme?  Not me…er, my friend!

Anyway, the next time this happens, fear not.  The awesome people at WPBeginner.com lay it all out step by step for you in this helpful article about deactivating plugins.  But basically

  1. ftp into the back end of your WordPress site (I like FileZilla)
  2.  navigate to wpcontent > plugins folder
  3. right click and rename the plugins folder, maybe something like notworkingplugins or evilplugins
  4. leave your ftp connection up, you’ll be coming back
  5. try signing in to yoursite.com/wp-admin again (if the problem was with a plugin, you should be able to gain access again)
  6. rename the plugins folder again to “plugins”
  7. reactivate the plugins one by one in wp admin console until you encounter a problem again (then you’ve found the offending plugin and can repeat the steps above, deactivate them all, sign in, reactivate and then delete that one)

I do hope this helps someone.  Let me know if you use this tip!

Another Great Idea Stolen, or Let’s Give This a Try!

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I was idly wondering what theme to go with for this site.  And now you’re curious, right?  But remember when your dad wouldn’t tell you the answer when you were little and made you look it up? Well if you’re now wondering what theme you’re reading this one, leap over to “What WordPress Theme is That?” and you’ll find out for yourself.

Anyway, I was trying to pick a theme, but then I had an awesome idea.  What if each page were a different theme?  How fun and different would that be!?!?! But just like twaikus, someone had already thought of it.  The Multiple Themes plugin will allow you to put different themes on the same site.  Apparently there might be some limitations, especially with particularly plush premium themes, but let’s give it a try and see how it works!  Otherwise you can just make your site a multisite and have each “page” actually be a different site.  …and I can’t take credit for that one, either (I had only the vaguest glimmering of an idea in that direction), and wpmudev fleshed it out for me.

Speaking of wpmudev, they are so awesome, and really really nice; they had a free table at WordCamp last year where a very nice guy helped me with a vexing WordPress problem.  For free.  Just to be nice.

Specializing, Force Multipliers and Thoreau

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Thoreau said, simplify, simplify.  Realized I have been carrying around a bag full of tools, when a Swiss Army knife would have sufficed.

Background:  I was chatting with a very kind and interesting man at last week’s WordCamp US in Philly (so much fun, so educational, and really excellent mid-afternoon snack).  He was talking about force multipliers for the entrepreneur who is a one-person shop.  Basically, you need to use tools or methods that make the best use of your time – for example, finding a trusted web host and steering all of your clients to them; you know their downtime is minimal, their support is excellent, they handle all updates and security patches and you already understand how their system works.  That is the crucial part.

In our professional lives today, we are increasingly specializing.  We are experts in our area, constantly acquiring more knowledge and experience…but that takes time and energy.  To succeed in one’s field, you need to cut away the distractions and time-sucks.  Making a site is no different.

I have been experimenting with several frameworks for themes, but this gentleman urged me pick just one, whichever works best for me, and stick with it and become an expert.  Likewise, find a host with great support, find a company that makes great plugins or tools, and stick with them.  You can do so much more with your time, and actually do so much more for your clients, if you are deeply familiar with your system for making a site and completely knowledgeable with the tools you choose to use.

It is also a heck of a lot easier!