29. February 2016

AMP-WP Tweaks & Tips

The AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages Project) plugin for WordPress is still pretty young and under heavy development.

There are little things that can help to fix current validation problems. I have a couple of fresh AMP pages, that are already indexed by Google.

0. RESOURCES

1. MISSING IMAGE (schema.org-NewsArticle)

The currently registered Microformats template (schema.org-NewsArticle) requires an image.
The AMP-WP documentation explains how to add a featured image to your pages (documentation).

I extended that a bit, to link a default attachment image, I uploaded before. This needs to be added to your themes functions.php.

function xyz_amp_add_custom_actions() {
    add_filter( 'the_content', 'xyz_amp_add_featured_image' );
}

function xyz_amp_add_featured_image( $content ) {

 $your_attachment_id = 2016;

 if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
  $image = sprintf( '<p class="xyz-featured-image">%s</p>', get_the_post_thumbnail() );
        
 }else{
 $image = sprintf( '<p class="xyz-featured-image">%s</p>', wp_get_attachment_image( $your_attachment_id, 1280) );
        $content = $image . $content ;
 }
 $content = $image . $content ;
 return preg_replace('/(<br>\s*){2,}/', '<br/>',$content);
}

function xyz_amp_add_custom_actions() {

add_filter( 'the_content', 'xyz_amp_add_featured_image' );

}

function xyz_amp_add_featured_image( $content ) {

$your_attachment_id = 2016;

if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {

$image = sprintf( '%s', get_the_post_thumbnail() );

}else{

$image = sprintf( '%s', wp_get_attachment_image( $your_attachment_id, 1280) );

$content = $image . $content ;

}

$content = $image . $content ;

return preg_replace('/( \s*){2,}/', ' ',$content);

}

Next we adjust the Microformats definition. This needs to be added to your themes functions.php.

add_filter( 'amp_post_template_metadata', 'xyz_amp_modify_json_metadata', 10, 2 );

function xyz_amp_modify_json_metadata( $metadata, $post ) {
  if(empty($metadata['image'])){
    $your_attachment_id = 2016;
    $imgMeta = wp_get_attachment_metadata($your_attachment_id );
    $metadata['image'] = array(
        '@type' => 'ImageObject',
        'url' => wp_get_attachment_url( $your_attachment_id ),
        'height' => $imgMeta['height'],
        'width' =>  $imgMeta['width'],
    );
  }
    return $metadata;
}

add_filter( 'amp_post_template_metadata', 'xyz_amp_modify_json_metadata', 10, 2 );

function xyz_amp_modify_json_metadata( $metadata, $post ) {

if(empty($metadata['image'])){

$your_attachment_id = 2016;

$imgMeta = wp_get_attachment_metadata($your_attachment_id );

$metadata['image'] = array(

'@type' => 'ImageObject',

'url' => wp_get_attachment_url( $your_attachment_id ),

'height' => $imgMeta['height'],

'width' => $imgMeta['width'],

);

}

return $metadata;

}

2. ADD YOUR OWN AMP TEMPLATE

Read the AMP-WP documentation first :) This forces AMP-WP to override the core template with your own. Use the default template as a reference.

add_filter( 'amp_post_template_file', 'xyz_amp_set_custom_template', 10, 3 );

function xyz_amp_set_custom_template( $file, $type, $post ) {
    if ( 'single' === $type ) {
        $file = dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/amp/amp_template.php';
    }
    return $file;
}

add_filter( 'amp_post_template_file', 'xyz_amp_set_custom_template', 10, 3 );

function xyz_amp_set_custom_template( $file, $type, $post ) {

if ( 'single' === $type ) {

$file = dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/amp/amp_template.php';

}

return $file;

}

3. REMOVE NONE VALIDATING CONTENT

Normally the core sanitizer should take care of that. I am sure a filter will be added in the future. For now, this is a quick workaround. You can use a RegExp or DOMDocument to alter the amp-content in your custom template and filter things that break validation.

$attributes = $element->attributes;
while ($attributes->length) {
    $element->removeAttribute($attributes->item(0)->name);
}

$attributes = $element->attributes;

while ($attributes->length) {

$element->removeAttribute($attributes->item(0)->name);

}

I am using phpQuery for now, as it allows me to add quick fixes. DOMNode or QueryPath works nicely as well :) Will be looking at the core sanitizer and options later this week. All of this is currently added to the custom template.

 require('your-libs/phpQuery/phpQuery.php');
 $doc = phpQuery::newDocumentHTML($this->get( 'post_amp_content' ));

1 2	require('your-libs/phpQuery/phpQuery.php'); $doc = phpQuery::newDocumentHTML($this->get( 'post_amp_content' ));

Remove REL attributes that are not allowed. Only registered Microformat rel attributes are allowed.

$doc['.prettyphoto']->removeAttr("rel");

1

$doc['.prettyphoto']->removeAttr("rel");
Remove attribute ALIGN

$doc['*']->removeAttr("align");

1

$doc['*']->removeAttr("align");
Fix TARGET Attribute

$doc['a[target="new"]']->attr("target","_blank");

1

$doc['a[target="new"]']->attr("target","_blank");

Finally output the fixed content as HTML.

 echo  $doc->html(); // amphtml content; no kses

1	echo $doc->html(); // amphtml content; no kses

The above examples need to be tweaked to your specific content requirements.

The custom template “post_amp_content” before:

 echo $this->get( 'post_amp_content'); // amphtml content; no kses

1	echo $this->get( 'post_amp_content'); // amphtml content; no kses

The custom template “post_amp_content” after:

 require('your-libs/phpQuery/phpQuery.php');
 $doc = phpQuery::newDocumentHTML($this->get( 'post_amp_content' )); 
 $doc['.prettyphoto']->removeAttr("rel")->removeAttr("href");
 $doc['*']->removeAttr("align");
 $doc['a[target="new"]']->attr("target","_blank");
 echo  $doc->html(); // amphtml content; no kses

require('your-libs/phpQuery/phpQuery.php');

$doc = phpQuery::newDocumentHTML($this->get( 'post_amp_content' ));

$doc['.prettyphoto']->removeAttr("rel")->removeAttr("href");

$doc['*']->removeAttr("align");

$doc['a[target="new"]']->attr("target","_blank");

echo $doc->html(); // amphtml content; no kses

4. ADD PREVIOUS & NEXT POST NAVIGATION

From the AMP specification :”Note, that AMP document may also be linked to directly…”

This is being added to the custom template as well.

Next:

global $query_string; 
$posts = query_posts($query_string); if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); 

$next_post = get_next_post();
if (!empty( $next_post )): 
 echo '<a class="next" href="'.amp_get_permalink( $next_post->ID ).'"> &#8604; '.$next_post->post_title.'</a>';
endif;

global $query_string;

$posts = query_posts($query_string); if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();

$next_post = get_next_post();

if (!empty( $next_post )):

echo '<a class="next" href="'.amp_get_permalink( $next_post->ID ).'"> ↜ '.$next_post->post_title.'</a>';

endif;

Previous:

$prev_post = get_previous_post();

if (!empty( $prev_post )): 
 echo '<a class="prev" href="'.amp_get_permalink( $prev_post->ID ).'"> &#8604; '.$prev_post->post_title.'</a>';
endif;

$prev_post = get_previous_post();

if (!empty( $prev_post )):

echo '<a class="prev" href="'.amp_get_permalink( $prev_post->ID ).'"> ↜ '.$prev_post->post_title.'</a>';

endif;

5. SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING

You can find a simple pure PHP highlighter here. Not perfect, but a start. Don not forget to include the CSS :)

require_once("your-lib/SyntaxHighlight/SyntaxHighlight.php");
foreach(pq('pre') as $code)
{
 pq($code)->html(SyntaxHighlight::process(pq($code)->text()));
}

require_once("your-lib/SyntaxHighlight/SyntaxHighlight.php");

foreach(pq('pre') as $code)

{

pq($code)->html(SyntaxHighlight::process(pq($code)->text()));

}

I will extend on this as new validation errors or tweaks come up. The core sanitizer of AMP-WP still needs some work and should allow us to do some of the above directly, when the content is parsed / converted for AMP.

6. OTHER AMP ARTICLES

Make Syntax Highlighting work in AMP-WP using GeSHi

Time to get AMP ready

Enjoy coding …

26. February 2016

Time to get AMP ready

Google’s AMP is here to save us from slow mobile content delivery, by enforcing strict standards and limiting what is allowed within AMP pages. The pages only allow a subset of tags and introduce their own tags for fast prefetching of content (images, videos … AMP Specs)

THIS IS AMP

“The Accelerated Mobile Pages (“AMP”) Project is an open source initiative that came out of discussions between publishers and technology companies about the need to improve the entire mobile content ecosystem for everyone – publishers, consumer platforms, creators, and users.

Today, the expectation is that content should load super fast and be easy to explore. The reality is that content can take several seconds to load, or, because the user abandons the slow page, never fully loads at all. Accelerated Mobile Pages are web pages designed to load instantaneously – they are a step towards a better mobile web for all.”

AMP CACHE & VALIDATION

AMP pages are cached within the AMP Cache, providing even faster delivery of your content. The core libs validate your implementation and highlight any problems by pushing errors to the console.

INTEGRATION

The documentation lists all components currently supported within a page and experimental components in development as well.

I have already added AMP support to our blog posts:

Google’s Webmaster Tools also integrates a new section for AMP, to see how they perform.

WHAT AMP IS NOT

AMP is not supposed to replace your webpage, but offer a faster access point to presented content. It will not solve all use cases, but offer better performance for your simple reading pleasure for now. Its a start and lets see how it evolves ;)

Enjoy coding …

18. February 2016

Countdowns & Timers with TimeCircles

TimeCircles is a countdown / timer plugin. The plugin provides a huge amount of options to optimize the look to your individual needs.

TimeCircles

16. February 2016

Build drag-and-drop multi-column grids – gridstack.js

“gridstack.js is a jQuery plugin for widget layouts. It allows you to build draggable responsive bootstrap v3 friendly layouts. ”

Demo @ Github

13. February 2016

Markdown editors

As I mentioned the usage of Markdown for the Slate documentation builder, here some Markdown editors:

ULYSSES FOR MAC/ IPAD

Highly customizable editor.

http://www.ulyssesapp.com/

STACKEDIT INBROWSER SOLUTION

Use it anywhere and sync to dropbox if you like.

https://stackedit.io/

MARKDOWN PAD FOR WINDOWS

Nice split-screen setup, that shows you how the html conversion looks like.

http://markdownpad.com/

MARKMYWORDS FOR LINUX

A nice minimal editor that was developed for Elementary OS.

https://github.com/voldyman/MarkMyWords

Enjoy coding …

12. February 2016

High performance browser dialogs with alertify.js

Alertify.js is a small library which provides light-weight, high performance browser dialogs.

// confirm dialog
alertify.confirm("Message", function () {
    // user clicked "ok"
}, function() {
    // user clicked "cancel"
});

// confirm dialog

alertify.confirm("Message", function () {

// user clicked "ok"

}, function() {

// user clicked "cancel"

});

Alertify @Github

12. February 2016

jQuery.sheet Easy & Wicked Fast spreadsheets for the web

jQuery.sheet is spreadsheet plugin, that offers creation, viewing and editing. All combined with a nice API.

jQuery.sheet

1. February 2016

Parse Alternatives

Now that Parse is phasing out (01/2017), people are looking for alternatives that offer:

Data Storage
Push Notifications
Usage Analytics
Dashboard
Social Integration
User Administration
Cloud Code Integration
Multiple Mobile Platform SDKs
Background Jobs
Crash Report

Collaborative list of Parse alternative backend service providers @ GitHub

28. January 2016

PNotify – simple javascript solution for notifications on the web and desktop

“PNotify is a JavaScript notification plugin, developed by SciActive. PNotify can also provide desktop notifications based on the Web Notifications spec. If desktop notifications are not available or not allowed, PNotify will fall back to displaying the notice as a regular, in-browser notice.”

PNotify @ GitHub

22. December 2015

Shepherd – build user guides for your app with ease

Shepherd is a javascript library for guiding users through your app. It uses Tether, another open source library, to position all of its steps.

We should always try to make our apps as self-explaining as possible, but sometimes features need to be showcased or explained. This helps you to do a quick first-start guide for new users.

Shepherd @ Github