Essentials Archives | portalZINE NMN | Development meets Creativity

2. December 2020

cubicFUSION Themes for Klaro!

“Klaro [klɛro] is a simple consent management platform (CMP) and privacy tool that helps you to be transparent about the third-party applications on your website. It is designed to be extremely simple, intuitive and easy to use while allowing you to be compliant with all relevant regulations (notably GDPR and ePrivacy).”

The tool is developed by KIPROTECT and can be found on Github.

Black & White

As I integrated Klaro on a couple of websites so far, I decided to make my work a bit easier and start building some basic clean themes for it.

I have a basic white and black&white theme so far. The download includes a testdrive folder, to showcase the themes. The white theme is also used on this website ;)

I really hate those standard consent management modals, that integrate badly into the website native design.

Klaro does a good job allowing to override its core theme and makes it a bit more pleasant. We do have to live with those modals from now on ;)

The themes are Sass-based and provide easy configuration options.

Enjoy!

cubicFUSION Themes for Klaro! @ Github

Klaro! Tweaks

Klaro is still missing some things, will collect some workarounds here for you to play with.

Missing events for consent modal open / closed …

Updates: Github Discussion
– 0.7.10 also adds custom callbacks to services (onAccept, onDecline, onInit) NICE!

Used a simple MutationObserver to do some magic for now, without diving into the core Klaro code for now. I am sure they already have an event listener or watcher setup.

var cm_event = document.createEvent('Event');

cm_event.initEvent('consentModalOpen', true, true);

document.addEventListener('consentModalOpen', function (e) {
    console.log("consentModalOpen")
}, false);
	
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(e) {        

        var cm_target 	= document.getElementById( "klaro" ),
			cm_visible 	= false;	

        var observer 	= new MutationObserver(function(mutationRecords) {          

            if(document.querySelectorAll('#klaro .cookie-modal').length > 0 && cm_visible == false){	
                cm_visible = true;
                document.dispatchEvent(cm_event);
              
            }else{
                cm_visible = false;
            }
        });

      observer.observe(cm_target, {
        childList: true, 
        subtree: true, 
        characterDataOldValue: true 
      });
});

var cm_event = document.createEvent('Event');

cm_event.initEvent('consentModalOpen', true, true);

document.addEventListener('consentModalOpen', function (e) {

console.log("consentModalOpen")

}, false);

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(e) {

var cm_target = document.getElementById( "klaro" ),

cm_visible = false;

var observer = new MutationObserver(function(mutationRecords) {

if(document.querySelectorAll('#klaro .cookie-modal').length > 0 && cm_visible == false){

cm_visible = true;

document.dispatchEvent(cm_event);

}else{

cm_visible = false;

}

});

observer.observe(cm_target, {

childList: true,

subtree: true,

characterDataOldValue: true

});

6. November 2020

Welcome Dashboard with Gutenberg – cubicFUSION Admin Enhancer 0.2.5

What’s new / What changed ?

Admin Enhancer is the first free plugin released under the cubicFUSION brand. The plugin is still work in progress, but a tool that is already used within some of my client projects. I am using this plugin to centralise things I love & need, when sending out a finished website or project.

NEW: DASHBOARD GUTENBERG / DASHBOARD TEMPLATES
NEW: ADMIN TOOLBAR
UPDATE: SHORTCODES

Addons included …

This version includes a new addon “GUTENBERG DASHBOARD“, that allows you to build a White-Label Admin Dashboards using the Gutenberg Editor.

It integrates with the SHORTCODES addon and allows to drop in the dashboard widgets via its own Gutenberg Block.

The Block provides settings to overwrite CSS from the admin widgets, allowing you tweak them a bit — for better visual integration. The Dashboard template itself can be tweaked using CSS and Sass via SCSS now 😉

I am also releasing the first integration of the “ADMIN TOOLBAR” addon, which allows you to tweak some of the admin toolbar and footer options (Hide WP Logo, Hide Toolbar on Frontend, Hide Menu Items ..)

Already working on 0.3 … ENJOY!

cubicFUSION – Admin Enhancer
WordPress Repository

14. May 2020

2020: WordPress Admin White Label Solutions ( Personal Favorites )

I am always looking for easy ways to white label the WordPress administration for myself and my clients. A nice personal touch for each project and an easy way to declutter the interface.

These are my personal favorites, that I use on a regular basis.

Admin Themes / Login Page

There are a lot of solutions out there, but many break easily and are really heavy to load. Some of these solutions I tried also break easily on new WordPress Upgrades. The first two below are currently my favorites.

Slate Pro ( Commercial )
“Slate Pro is a powerful WordPress admin theme plugin that reimagines WordPress with a clean and simplified design. White label your WordPress install with custom colors, a custom login screen, custom admin branding, and more. Slate Pro is now multisite compatible! Network activate to control the look of all sub-sites.”

Slate Pro is a clean and simple admin theme, that does not try to alter the interface completely. Small changes that make a difference. Color adjustments, logos, simple menu & widget enhancements and login page tweaks. Compared to other solutions it has been a stable experience, even after multiple WordPress Updates.

This is an install and enjoy solution!
Kodeo Admin UI ( Free – Open Source )
“Kodeo Admin UI turns your WordPress backend into a clean and modern user interface. All elements are well designed and arranged for the best user experience.”

Kodeo is another clean interface, that goes further than Slate Pro. Many areas of the admin theme have been changed. It works well with most 3rd party plugins, but I have had problems with some plugins doing their own little interface tweaks.
With Kodeo your WordPress Admin completely transforms and gives it a really modern & clean look.

This is an install and tweak solution! You might need to trim certain CSS properties to make it work for everything.
Material WP ( Commercial )
“Material Design version of the WordPress Admin Interface”

I have used this once or twice in the past. Its more of a honorable mention. The admin theme transforms the interface completely, but can feel sluggish on slower servers. It has an impressive set of options and gets regular updates.

This is again an install and tweak solution! It works with most of the 3rd party plugins and Gutenberg, but some things might need to be trimmed by hand.

Menu Editors & User Groups

When sharing the administration with your customer, you often need to make it as simple a possible for them. Depending on your setup, the menu becomes cluttered and overwhelming really fast.

I often trim menus for each user role, to make only those options accessible that are really needed.

Admin Menu Editor Pro ( Free / Commercial )
This tool has been part of many of my projects and has been a solid solution for years. You can hide & move menus, create new menus, tweak menus by user role, hide plugins and also tweak the admin toolbar with an extra addon.
Worth every penny! There is a free version available, that might just provide enough functionality for your next project.
Groups ( Free )
“Groups is designed as an efficient, powerful and flexible solution for group-oriented memberships and content access control. It provides group-based user membership management, group-based capabilities and access control for content, built on solid principles. Groups is light-weight and offers an easy user interface, while it acts as a framework and integrates standard WordPress capabilities and application-specific capabilities along with an extensive API.”

This plugin allows you to add new user groups easily and can tie into the plugin above.

User Profiles

When sharing the administration with multiple users, its always nice to add some personality to the user profiles as well.

WP User Profiles
“WP User Profiles is a sophisticated way to edit users in WordPress.”

The plugin provides other small addons, like WP User Avatars. Neat plugin to tweak admins, editors and other users.

Admin Dashboard Replacements

cubicFUSION Admin Enhancer (Free)

This is a new plugin I am currently working on. The current shortcodes addon can help you integrate dashboard widgets into the dashboard builders below.

I am also working on my own dashboard builder, that requires none of the solutions below and builds upon WordPress core functionality.
Dashboard Welcome for Elementor (Free)

“Dashboard Welcome by PowerPack Elements gives you full control over the WordPress welcome panel using Elementor.

You can personalize the dashboard with content and design built with Elementor. You can add heading, contact information, form, video, images, affiliate links, etc.

While the above plugin is free, you need a Elementor Pro License to use it!
Dashboard Welcome for Beaver Builder (Free)

“Welcome by Beaver Addons gives you full control over the WordPress welcome panel using Beaver Builder.

You can personalize the dashboard with content and design built with Beaver Builder. You can add heading, contact information, form, video, images, affiliate links, etc.”

Even though the plugin above is free, Beaver Builder is a commercial plugin!
Divi Dashboard Welcome ($22)

“Divi Dashboard Welcome gives you control over the WordPress Dashboard Welcome screen …”

The plugin requires the Divi Page Builder. Both plugins are commercial!

Enjoy
Alex

30. May 2019

Have you heard of GatsbyJS?

Gatsby is a free and open source framework based on React that helps developers build blazing fast websites and apps.

What they have to say …

Go Beyond Static Websites. Get all the benefits of static websites with none of the limitations. Gatsby sites are fully functional React apps so you can create high-quality, dynamic web apps, from blogs to e-commerce sites to user dashboards.
Use a Modern Stack for Every Site. No matter where the data comes from, Gatsby sites are built using React and GraphQL. Build a uniform workflow for you and your team, regardless of whether the data is coming from the same backend.
Load Data From Anywhere. Gatsby pulls in data from any data source, whether it’s Markdown files, a headless CMS like Contentful or WordPress, or a REST or GraphQL API. Use source plugins to load your data, then develop using Gatsby’s uniform GraphQL interface.
Performance Is Baked In. Ace your performance audits by default. Gatsby automates code splitting, image optimization, inlining critical styles, lazy-loading, and prefetching resources, and more to ensure your site is fast — no manual tuning required.
Host at Scale for Pennies. Gatsby sites don’t require servers so you can host your entire site on a CDN for a fraction of the cost of a server-rendered site. Many Gatsby sites can be hosted entirely free on services like GitHub Pages and Netlify.

What I have to say …

While researching some popular static site generation tools, GatsbyJS comes up often. I have played with NuxtJS and Hugo in the past, but what I REALLY like about GatsbyJS is the plugin / modular system. You can build your website with plain-old React and CSS styles, but make your development more efficient by adding node_modules.

Also being able to import any data source with ease, using GraphQL, is amazing. And when it comes to content management, you can easily hook a headless WordPress or Drupal setup into the mix and consume their REST APIs :)

I am not switching my own website to GatsbyJS anytime soon, but its another tool in my toolbox for future project consideration !

There are many tutorials on Youtube about getting started, maybe something to consider for the next freetime testdrive ;) Enjoy …

GatsbyJS @ Github

18. May 2019

Screenshot Service with Node.js

Manet is a REST API server which allows capturing screenshots of websites using various parameters.

The Node.js server can use SlimerJS or PhantomJS as headless browser engines.

I have build similar with CasperJS, but this is far better for those that want a simple straight solution.

@GitHub

5. February 2019

SVG Cleaner – streamline your vectors

svgcleaner has been around for some time and is constantly being optimized! It helps you clean up your SVG files, keeping them free from unnecessary data.

Temporary data used by the vector editing application
Non-optimal SVG structure representation
Unused and invisible graphical elements

Github project.

The GUI application adds batch file processing, decompression & compression and parallel cleaning jobs, GUI application.

10. February 2018

IMAP Wrapper client for PHP & Default IMAP Search Criteria

There are many variations of these out there, SSilence/php-imap-client is a lib with a nice set of methods, clean integration and pretty good documentation.
Adding it to my goto essentials !

$mailbox = 'my.imapserver.com';
$username = 'username';
$password = 'secret';
$encryption = Imap::ENCRYPT_SSL;

// Open connection
try{
    $imap = new Imap($mailbox, $username, $password, $encryption);
    // You can also check out example-connect.php for more connection options

}catch (ImapClientException $error){
    echo $error->getMessage().PHP_EOL;
    die(); // Oh no :( we failed
}

// Get all folders as array of strings
$folders = $imap->getFolders();
foreach($folders as $folder) {
    echo $folder;
}

// Select the folder Inbox
$imap->selectFolder('INBOX');

// Count the messages in current folder
$overallMessages = $imap->countMessages();
$unreadMessages = $imap->countUnreadMessages();

$mailbox = 'my.imapserver.com';

$username = 'username';

$password = 'secret';

$encryption = Imap::ENCRYPT_SSL;

// Open connection

try{

$imap = new Imap($mailbox, $username, $password, $encryption);

// You can also check out example-connect.php for more connection options

}catch (ImapClientException $error){

echo $error->getMessage().PHP_EOL;

die(); // Oh no :( we failed

}

// Get all folders as array of strings

$folders = $imap->getFolders();

foreach($folders as $folder) {

echo $folder;

}

// Select the folder Inbox

$imap->selectFolder('INBOX');

// Count the messages in current folder

$overallMessages = $imap->countMessages();

$unreadMessages = $imap->countUnreadMessages();

GitHub

Enjoy coding …

Default IMAP Search Criteria

ALL
      All messages in the mailbox; the default initial key for
	ANDing.

ANSWERED
	Messages with the \Answered flag set.

BCC 
	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope
	structure's BCC field.

BEFORE 
	Messages whose internal date (disregarding time and timezone)
	is earlier than the specified date.

BODY 
	Messages that contain the specified string in the body of the
	message.

CC 
	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope
	structure's CC field.

DELETED
	Messages with the \Deleted flag set.

DRAFT
	Messages with the \Draft flag set.

FLAGGED
	Messages with the \Flagged flag set.

FROM 
	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope
	structure's FROM field.

HEADER  
	Messages that have a header with the specified field-name (as
	defined in [RFC-2822]) and that contains the specified string
	in the text of the header (what comes after the colon).  If the
	string to search is zero-length, this matches all messages that
	have a header line with the specified field-name regardless of
	the contents.

KEYWORD 
	Messages with the specified keyword flag set.

LARGER 
	Messages with an [RFC-2822] size larger than the specified
	number of octets.

NEW
	Messages that have the \Recent flag set but not the \Seen flag.
	This is functionally equivalent to "(RECENT UNSEEN)".

NOT 
	Messages that do not match the specified search key.

OLD
	Messages that do not have the \Recent flag set.  This is
	functionally equivalent to "NOT RECENT" (as opposed to "NOT
	NEW").

ON 
	Messages whose internal date (disregarding time and timezone)
	is within the specified date.

OR  
	Messages that match either search key.

RECENT
	Messages that have the \Recent flag set.

SEEN
	Messages that have the \Seen flag set.

SENTBEFORE 
	Messages whose [RFC-2822] Date: header (disregarding time and
	timezone) is earlier than the specified date.

SENTON 
	Messages whose [RFC-2822] Date: header (disregarding time and
	timezone) is within the specified date.

SENTSINCE 
	Messages whose [RFC-2822] Date: header (disregarding time and
	timezone) is within or later than the specified date.

SINCE 
	Messages whose internal date (disregarding time and timezone)
	is within or later than the specified date.

SMALLER 
	Messages with an [RFC-2822] size smaller than the specified
	number of octets.

SUBJECT 
	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope
	structure's SUBJECT field.

TEXT 
	Messages that contain the specified string in the header or
	body of the message.

TO 
	Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope
	structure's TO field.

UID 
	Messages with unique identifiers corresponding to the specified
	unique identifier set.  Sequence set ranges are permitted.

UNANSWERED
	Messages that do not have the \Answered flag set.

UNDELETED
	Messages that do not have the \Deleted flag set.

UNDRAFT
	Messages that do not have the \Draft flag set.

UNFLAGGED
	Messages that do not have the \Flagged flag set.

UNKEYWORD 
	Messages that do not have the specified keyword flag set.

UNSEEN
	Messages that do not have the \Seen flag set.

100

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ALL

All messages in the mailbox; the default initial key for

ANDing.

ANSWERED

Messages with the \Answered flag set.

BCC

Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope

structure's BCC field.

BEFORE

Messages whose internal date (disregarding time and timezone)

is earlier than the specified date.

BODY

Messages that contain the specified string in the body of the

message.

Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope

structure's CC field.

DELETED

Messages with the \Deleted flag set.

DRAFT

Messages with the \Draft flag set.

FLAGGED

Messages with the \Flagged flag set.

FROM

Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope

structure's FROM field.

HEADER

Messages that have a header with the specified field-name (as

defined in [RFC-2822]) and that contains the specified string

in the text of the header (what comes after the colon). If the

string to search is zero-length, this matches all messages that

have a header line with the specified field-name regardless of

the contents.

KEYWORD

Messages with the specified keyword flag set.

LARGER

Messages with an [RFC-2822] size larger than the specified

number of octets.

NEW

Messages that have the \Recent flag set but not the \Seen flag.

This is functionally equivalent to "(RECENT UNSEEN)".

NOT

Messages that do not match the specified search key.

OLD

Messages that do not have the \Recent flag set. This is

functionally equivalent to "NOT RECENT" (as opposed to "NOT

NEW").

Messages whose internal date (disregarding time and timezone)

is within the specified date.

Messages that match either search key.

RECENT

Messages that have the \Recent flag set.

SEEN

Messages that have the \Seen flag set.

SENTBEFORE

Messages whose [RFC-2822] Date: header (disregarding time and

timezone) is earlier than the specified date.

SENTON

Messages whose [RFC-2822] Date: header (disregarding time and

timezone) is within the specified date.

SENTSINCE

Messages whose [RFC-2822] Date: header (disregarding time and

timezone) is within or later than the specified date.

SINCE

Messages whose internal date (disregarding time and timezone)

is within or later than the specified date.

SMALLER

Messages with an [RFC-2822] size smaller than the specified

number of octets.

SUBJECT

Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope

structure's SUBJECT field.

TEXT

Messages that contain the specified string in the header or

body of the message.

Messages that contain the specified string in the envelope

structure's TO field.

UID

Messages with unique identifiers corresponding to the specified

unique identifier set. Sequence set ranges are permitted.

UNANSWERED

Messages that do not have the \Answered flag set.

UNDELETED

Messages that do not have the \Deleted flag set.

UNDRAFT

Messages that do not have the \Draft flag set.

UNFLAGGED

Messages that do not have the \Flagged flag set.

UNKEYWORD

Messages that do not have the specified keyword flag set.

UNSEEN

Messages that do not have the \Seen flag set.

10. February 2018

Screen Scraping with Goutte

We all have been in situations were we need content or information from a connected website, but have no access to a REST Api or any other backend feed.

In these cases screen scraping is the only option to get needed information to finalize an integration. You can do that directly in CURL, but that can be tedious. Far easier to use a nicely packaged solution that combines a component that simulates web browser behavior and a component that eases DOM navigation for HTML and XML documents. Meet Goutte!

STEP 0

Install via composer.

composer require fabpot/goutte

1	composer require fabpot/goutte

STEP 1

$client = new Client();
$crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://www.page/login.php');

// select the form and fill in some values
$form = $crawler->selectButton('Login')->form();
$form['f_loginname'] = 'HelloMe';
$form['f_loginpass'] = 'securepass';

// submit that form
$crawler = $client->submit($form);

// go to next page    
$crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://www.page.de/overview.php');

$client = new Client();

$crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://www.page/login.php');

// select the form and fill in some values

$form = $crawler->selectButton('Login')->form();

$form['f_loginname'] = 'HelloMe';

$form['f_loginpass'] = 'securepass';

// submit that form

$crawler = $client->submit($form);

// go to next page

$crawler = $client->request('GET', 'https://www.page.de/overview.php');

STEP 2

Get the data you need.

// loop over html and filter out what you need

$crawler->filter('table.clients tr')->each(function ($node) {

  $node->filter('td')->each(function ($sub_node) {
    echo $sub_node->html();
  }
}

// loop over html and filter out what you need

$crawler->filter('table.clients tr')->each(function ($node) {

$node->filter('td')->each(function ($sub_node) {

echo $sub_node->html();

}

Goutte @ Github
BrowserKit Documentation
DOM Crawler Documentation

Enjoy coding …

27. January 2018

Never store sensitive credentials in your code again – PHP dotenv

PHP dotenv loads environment variables from .env to getenv(), $_ENV and $_SERVER automagically.

You should never store sensitive credentials in your code. Anything that is likely to change between deployment environments – such as database credentials or credentials for 3rd party services – should be extracted from the code into environment variables.

Add your application configuration to a .env file in the root of your project. Make sure the .env file is added to your .gitignore so it is not being checked-in.

DEFINE

S3_BUCKET="dotenv"
SECRET_KEY="souper_seekret_key"

1 2	S3_BUCKET="dotenv" SECRET_KEY="souper_seekret_key"

LOAD

$dotenv = new Dotenv\Dotenv(__DIR__);
$dotenv->load();

// OR WITH filename

$dotenv = new Dotenv\Dotenv(__DIR__, 'myconfig');
$dotenv->load();

$dotenv = new Dotenv\Dotenv(__DIR__);

$dotenv->load();

// OR WITH filename

$dotenv = new Dotenv\Dotenv(__DIR__, 'myconfig');

$dotenv->load();

ACCESS

$s3_bucket = getenv('S3_BUCKET');
$s3_bucket = $_ENV['S3_BUCKET'];
$s3_bucket = $_SERVER['S3_BUCKET'];

$s3_bucket = getenv('S3_BUCKET');

$s3_bucket = $_ENV['S3_BUCKET'];

$s3_bucket = $_SERVER['S3_BUCKET'];

GitHub

Enjoy coding and be secure …

10. January 2017

Paw – essential HTTP client to test your APIs

Paw is a full-featured HTTP client that lets you test the APIs you build or consume. It has a beautiful native OS X interface to compose requests, inspect server responses and generate client code out-of-the-box.

This is one of my go-to tools, when test-driving my API endpoints.

Paw for Mac