6. September 2019

Finally! GreenApe Shop goes live!

Together with my partners in crime (Dorit & Micha), we have finally opened our own personal online store.

We have been selling our single origin coffees (1st Single Malt Whisky Coffee, Basic – Single Origin Arabica, Kill me Quick Espresso -Single Origin Robusta), teas (Kräuterschorle – Kräutertee, Feuerkieker – Schwarztee) and rum (Fortune Teller – Double Aged Barbados Rum) using the Amazon Marketplace for the past 2 years.

No more Amazon

GreenApe has been a side project for the past years and I never wanted to deal with the maintenance of our own store. But its time to move on and do our own thing. Amazon has removed so many useful features over the years or added a new fee on top of other fees. Even though Amazon provides access to a large amount of customers, for small companies the fees build up quickly.

Our own

With our own store we can finally do bundles, coupons again and better optimized shipping. It will also allow me to better testdrive some new interesting features for my customers ;) Yeah its kind of my new toy or shopping lab! Its fun being able to work on untested new SEO features, structured data, merchant tools, shopping ads and tracking of all of those.

Locations

We have been selling in Germany for the past 2 years, but that might be changing in the future depending how well the new store shapes up :)

If you live in Germany, love good coffee, tee or rum … say Hi!

GreenApe – Makes Your Life Better
Homepage
Shop
Contact us

10. February 2019

Advanced Custom Fields – Free Your Gutenberg Blocks Data

Updated 25.03. : Some function names changed in the latest beta version.

IN BETA

ACF 5.8 Beta introduced an easy way to create your custom Gutenberg blocks. I am already using it heavily for a current project, to easily organize content and media assets.

Really powerful, when combined with Timber as well, which has been the foundation of many of my themes for years now ;)

ORGANIZE YOURSELF

Organizing data using ACF is nice, but sometimes you seek access to that saved block data directly. I hate it when I am confined to boundaries and the data flow is restricted or hidden. I need things to be accessible to choose the creative flow myself.

SIMPLE EXAMPLE

// Parse blocks from post content
$blocks  = parse_blocks($your_post_content);
$collect = array();

// Loop through the blocks
foreach($blocks as $block){

//Setup global block post data context
// before: acf_setup_postdata
acf_setup_meta( $block['attrs']['data'], $block['attrs']['id'], true );

// Get ACF fields
$fields = get_fields();

// I am using this to organize my assets.
// Each block of mine has a unique identifier as its first field:
// $uid = $block['attrs']['data'][array_keys($block['attrs']['data'])[0]]
// I would do:
// $collect[$uid] = $fields; 

// Collection of fields using the block id. 
$collect[$block['attrs']['id']] = $fields;

// Restore global context
// before: acf_reset_postdata
acf_reset_meta( $block['attrs']['id'] );

}

// Parse blocks from post content

$blocks = parse_blocks($your_post_content);

$collect = array();

// Loop through the blocks

foreach($blocks as $block){

//Setup global block post data context

// before: acf_setup_postdata

acf_setup_meta( $block['attrs']['data'], $block['attrs']['id'], true );

// Get ACF fields

$fields = get_fields();

// I am using this to organize my assets.

// Each block of mine has a unique identifier as its first field:

// $uid = $block['attrs']['data'][array_keys($block['attrs']['data'])[0]]

// I would do:

// $collect[$uid] = $fields;

// Collection of fields using the block id.

$collect[$block['attrs']['id']] = $fields;

// Restore global context

// before: acf_reset_postdata

acf_reset_meta( $block['attrs']['id'] );

}

There you go, enjoy some free block data :)

I was a big skeptic, when it comes to WordPress and the new Gutenberg editor, but combined with ACF + Timber its pure magic :) Looking forward to things to come!

Cheers
Alex

Enjoy coding …

Extended example:

$collect = [];
$blocks = parse_blocks($your->post_content);	
		
foreach($blocks as $block){
		
	if( isset($block['attrs']['data']) && !empty($block['attrs']['data'][array_keys($block['attrs']['data'])[0]])){	
								
		acf_setup_meta( $block['attrs']['data'], $block['attrs']['id'], true );
			
		$fields = get_fields();
			
		 acf_reset_meta( $block['attrs']['id'] );
				
		$collect[$block['attrs']['data'][array_keys($block['attrs']['data'])[0]]] = array('render' 	=> 	render_block( $block ),
																				 'field' 	=>	$fields,																							
																				  'block'  	=> 	$block
																				);
	}else{
          $collect['main'] .= render_block( $block );
}
}

$collect = [];

$blocks = parse_blocks($your->post_content);

foreach($blocks as $block){

if( isset($block['attrs']['data']) && !empty($block['attrs']['data'][array_keys($block['attrs']['data'])[0]])){

acf_setup_meta( $block['attrs']['data'], $block['attrs']['id'], true );

$fields = get_fields();

acf_reset_meta( $block['attrs']['id'] );

$collect[$block['attrs']['data'][array_keys($block['attrs']['data'])[0]]] = array('render' => render_block( $block ),

'field' => $fields,

'block' => $block

);

}else{

$collect['main'] .= render_block( $block );

}

The $collect array will hold all data, including all ACF fields. You will have full access to any field, including repeater fields. The $collect[‘main’] will just collect the standard post content.

30. August 2017

GreenApe is breathing again

After some downtime, GreenApe is breathing again. I revived the brand with a good friend of mine and we will be reopening shop options shortly.

Michael and I have been friends for a long time. We have been working on many different projects over the years.

He launched GreenApe in 2011 and I helped him with his first steps. A couple of months ago we decided to merge our competences and expand what GreenApe offers and stands for.

From the website: “The GreenApe brand was established in 2011. GreenApe’s career began with the 1st Single Malt Whisky Coffee.

As the first of its kind, our coffee is refined with Original Single Malt Whisky. To this day, he pampers many connoisseurs and gourmets with his unique taste. Now there is another reason to rejoice.

From now on, we are continuously expanding the GreenApe product world with several stylish gadgets and useful accessories. For you this means that you will be able to discover even more beautiful, special or practical things in the future.“

GreenApe is all about lifestyle & leisure products, fun gadgets and unique food & drinks.

31. March 2017

PHP Life Saver of the Week – preg_replace_callback

I am currently building a custom slides / template builder for a project, with a lot of moving parts and dynamic logic.

As there are repeating patterns within the slides, each pattern and its logic needs to be neatly separated. As the slides can be reordered and dropzones can be changed, I need to make sure logic doesn’t break and IDs get updated.

Before reassembling all templates, I am making sure that IDs match the slide and dropzone using a preg_replace_callback

One of the patterns is a simple tab setup, each has its unique ID defined like vl-tab_U1_S1_D1.

The function below passes the found matches through to the anonymous callback function in preg_replace_callback and offers outside data to the function using use($foo). The $dropzone object holds the current unit, slide and dropzone of the pattern, which can be used to replace the current ID with the correct one.

$dropzone->region_content = preg_replace_callback('/vl-tab_[^"]++/',function($hit) use($dropzone){
	$oldID = explode("_",$hit[0]);
	$newID = array(
		"vl-tab", 
		"U".$oldID[1], 
		"S".$dropzone->slide,
		"D".$dropzone->dropzone
	);	
	return implode("_", $newID);
							
},$dropzone->region_content);

$dropzone->region_content = preg_replace_callback('/vl-tab_[^"]++/',function($hit) use($dropzone){

$oldID = explode("_",$hit[0]);

$newID = array(

"vl-tab",

"U".$oldID[1],

"S".$dropzone->slide,

"D".$dropzone->dropzone

);

return implode("_", $newID);

},$dropzone->region_content);

Really nice combo to make magic happen ;)

BTW here a nice website to testdrive and tweak your Regex : https://regex101.com/

Enjoy coding …

4. May 2016

Timber reaches One-Point-Oh – Congratulation

TWIG is always part of my development process, allowing me to easily update handling and apply changes for my customers.

Nice to see Timber (TWIG integration for WordPress) reach version 1.0.

GitHub

1. November 2015

Get translatable strings from templates into Poedit

Some options to get those translatable strings out of your templates. I will be adding new things, as I discover them :)

xgettext-template – Handlebars & Swig
gettext-twig – {% trans “string here” %}
rtwix – Ruby based TWIG translations extractor
twig-po – Extract translation keys from twig templates and move them to PO
Twig-Gettext-Extractor – tool which extracts translations from twig templates

Enjoy coding …

31. October 2015

Timber , TWIG & PoEdit

Timber / Twig templates are normally not recognized by Poedit. Its just a matter of tweaking the C/C++ extractor within the settings panel.

Add TWIG to the filetypes: *.c;*.cpp;*.h;*.hpp;*.cc;*.C;*.cxx;*.hxx;*.twig

Gettext calls, like {{__(“Points Conversion Rate”, “wplms-extras”)}} in Timber, are being extracted from your templates after that.

Easier than using the gettext extractor :)

ADDING GETTEXT FUNCTION TO TWIG

$function = new Twig_SimpleFunction('__', function ($args) {
 return __($args);
});
					
$twig->addFunction($function);

$function = new Twig_SimpleFunction('__', function ($args) {

return __($args);

});

$twig->addFunction($function);

Enjoy coding …

30. October 2015

WPLMS + MyCred Points + Instructor Commission Points payout

I am currently working on a WPLMS enhancement for a customer, that allows to simplify the payout of instructor commissions. The whole system runs on the MyCred Points System and students pay for courses with Points. The problem is how to easily payout the instructor commissions via PayPal.

There is currently no addon for MyCred available that does that magic, so I build one myself.

At the moment the payment process via PayPal is completely manual, due to budget constraints. I am basically generating a custom “Send Money” link that prefills the PayPal email and amount to send.

The interface itself handles the payout sessions, tracks the instructor balance, paid and unpaid points.

Here some images to illustrate the admin dashboard:

This list the instructors and their point balance and allows to start the payment process.

Payout sessions make sure, that only one session can be started per instructor, as the instructor could earn new points during the process. The points converted can be changed, allowing you to payout a fixed amount of points.

Its a 3 step process. Login at PayPal. Open the “Send money” dialog and send money to instructor. Confirm that you manually send the money and than register the payment and payout points in the system.

The session can be cancelled at any point. You can also leave the session open and continue at a later point.

On the frontend I added an interface to the BuddyPress Profile, that allows the instructor to track his payouts and balance.

The whole setup could be updated using PayPal Adaptive Payments, to make the whole process completely automated. Something to consider for the future :) Pretty happy with the manual process so far and it will be a great help for my customer to keep track of the commission payouts.

The whole setup is currently targeted for WPLMS, but can easily be adapted to other setups using the MyCred Points System.

Enjoy coding …

22. June 2015

Twital – addon for the Twig template engine

Twital is a small addon for the Twig template engine, it adds shortcuts and makes Twig’s syntax more suitable for HTML based (XML, HTML5, XHTML, SGML) templates.

Should be also no problem to integrate it with Timber, currently looking into that ;)

<ul t:if="users">
    <li t:for="user in users">
        {{ user.name }}
    </li>
</ul>

// shorter than :

{% if users %}
    <ul>
        {% for user in users %}
            <li>
                {{ user.name }}
            </li>
        {% endfor %}
    </ul>
{% endif %}

</li>

</ul>

// shorter than :

{% if users %}

<ul>

{% for user in users %}

<li>

</li>

{% endfor %}

</ul>

{% endif %}

Twital

18. June 2015

Regular Expression with TWIG / Timber to check for sticky post

TWIG allows you to use regular expressions within its templates, this makes it possible to easily check if a post is sticky in Timber for WordPress.

TWIG MATCHES OPERATOR

Comparisons in TWIG

{% if findme matches '/^[\\d\\.]+$/' %}
{% endif %}

1 2	{% if findme matches '/^[\\d\\.]+$/' %} {% endif %}

TIMBER TEASE-POST.TWIG

This is the template that is called within the loop on the index.twig to show each post.

{% extends "tease.twig" %}
{% block content %}
<div class="{% if post.class matches '/sticky/' %}col-md-12{% else %}col-md-6{% endif %}">
 <!--Your content -->
</div>
{% endblock %}

{% extends "tease.twig" %}

{% block content %}

</div>

{% endblock %}

The post.class holds the full set of classes assigned to a post, which includes the class “sticky”. We do the match magic and you can use that to style your sticky posts differently ;)

WHAT IS TIMBER?

“Timber helps you create fully-customized WordPress themes faster with more sustainable code. With Timber, you write your HTML using the Twig Template Engine separate from your PHP files.

This cleans-up your theme code so, for example, your php file can focus on being the data/logic, while your twig file can focus 100% on the HTML and display.”

WHAT IS TWIG?

Twig is a modern template engine for PHP

Fast: Twig compiles templates down to plain optimized PHP code. The overhead compared to regular PHP code was reduced to the very minimum.
Secure: Twig has a sandbox mode to evaluate untrusted template code. This allows Twig to be used as a template language for applications where users may modify the template design.
Flexible: Twig is powered by a flexible lexer and parser. This allows the developer to define its own custom tags and filters, and create its own DSL.