19. May 2016

More than 10 Material Design Resources

I am starting a small list of Material Design resources. If you have anything to share, let me know in the comments.

ICONS

Material Design icons by Google – google.github.io/material-design-icons
Material Design Icons – materialdesignicons.com

FRAMEWORK

PURE CSS

UI

Material UI Colors

JAVASCRIPT

Enjoy coding …

19. May 2016

Debugging WordPress plugins on a live website

Sometimes we need to debug a WordPress plugin, even though the website is live.

This would display the errors for anyone.

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

1	define('WP_DEBUG', true);

Gladly WordPress provides options to do this more subtle.

// Turns WordPress debugging on
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
 
// Tells WordPress to log everything to the /wp-content/debug.log file
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
 
// Doesn't force the PHP 'display_errors' variable to be on
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
 
// Hides errors from being displayed on-screen
@ini_set('display_errors', 0);

// Turns WordPress debugging on

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

// Tells WordPress to log everything to the /wp-content/debug.log file

define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);

// Doesn't force the PHP 'display_errors' variable to be on

define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);

// Hides errors from being displayed on-screen

@ini_set('display_errors', 0);

Enjoy coding …

14. May 2016

metisMenu … a jQuery menu plugin

metisMenu offers a lot of options to tweak layout and usage. The plugin provides options for

Vertical menus
Folder Views
Hover Menus

GitHub / WordPress Version

24. March 2016

Code snippet manager for GitHub Gists –

“Gisto is a code snippet manager that runs on GitHub Gists and adds additional features such as searching, tagging and sharing gists while including a rich code editor. All your data is stored on GitHub and you can access it from GitHub Gists at any time with changes carrying over to Gisto.”

The application is multi-platform.

Gisto

5. March 2016

UPDATE: AMP-WP update to version 0.3.2

Jetpack Stats support.
Better version of Merriweather and use system fonts for sans-serif (props mattmiklic).
Move font to stylesheet so it can be more easily overridden (props mattmiklic).
Fix: Template loading issues on Windows. (Thanks to everyone who reported this, especially w33zy for pointing out the validate_file issue.)
Fix: don’t run AMP on post comment feeds (props kraftbj).
Fix: un-break pagination when using a static home page with multiple pages.
Fix: force amp-iframe to use https to validate correctly (props mister-ben).
Fix: validation for target and video/audio attributes.
Fix: clipped images in galleries (thanks tobaco).

AMP-WP

4. March 2016

Make Syntax Highlighting work in AMP-WP using GeSHi

Again another Google AMP article, this time dealing with Syntax Highlighting. If you have a code centric website, this is important.

In one of my last articles I talked about a Generic Syntax Highlighter. This time I want to show you, how to add Syntax Highlighting with GeSHi to a custom template in AMP-WP.

FIRST SOME RESOURCES

Please read up on documentation, as I am not diving into every detail.

AMP-WP – github.com/Automattic/amp-wp / Documentation
The WordPress AMP integration. We will be using a custom template for our AMP pages.
Crayon Syntax Highlighter – github.com/aramk/crayon-syntax-highlighter
I am using this for Syntax Highlighting on none AMP pages. It adds specific language classes to the code / pre areas, that I am using to configure GeSHi.
GeSHi – github.com/GeSHi/geshi-1.0
The Syntax Highlighter
phpQuery – github.com/punkave/phpQuery
DOM Document transversal & modification simplified. You should be able to apply the things below with any other tool as well.
My tweaks on GitHub

ADDING GESHI TO AMP-WP

Upload GeSHi and phpQuery to your desired location on your webserver.

Call the custom template for AMP-WP in your functions.php

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__ ) . '/templates/my-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__ ) . '/templates/my-amp-template.php';

}

return $file;

}

I have an example stored on GitHub

Create a custom template in your themes folder.We could use the following filters, but its easier to use the custom template, due to the GeSHi style setup. The problem is, that the style action is called before the content action within the template. But I am planning to build a TWIG template for myself, as I am running Timber everywhere. That will detach logic and content completely, allowing to rethink some of these things and make styling a lot easier :) So watch out for my next article!

add_action( 'pre_amp_render_post', 'xyz_amp_add_custom_actions' );
add_action( 'amp_post_template_css', 'xyz_amp_my_additional_css_styles' );

1 2	add_action( 'pre_amp_render_post', 'xyz_amp_add_custom_actions' ); add_action( 'amp_post_template_css', 'xyz_amp_my_additional_css_styles' );

Add this to the top of your custom template:

 // Load phpQuery
require ('my-libs/phpQuery/phpQuery.php');

// Load GesSHi
require ('my-libs/geshi/geshi.php');

// Get AMP content and add it to phpQuery

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

// Loop through the code snippets (pre tags)

foreach(pq('pre') as $snippet) {

	// Get classes of tag

	$class = pq($snippet)->attr("class");

	// Check for Crayon Syntax Highlighter Class

	if (strpos($class, "lang:") !== false && strpos($class, "lang:default") === false) {
		preg_match("/lang:(?P<lang>\w+)/", $class, $catch);
	}
	else {

		// Fallback, if no language is detected

		$catch['lang'] = "php";
	}

	// New Syntax Highlighter for each code snippet, with the correct language set
	// Storing for later stylesheet output. This makes also sure that stylesheets are only loaded once.

	$highlight[$catch['lang']] = new GeSHi(pq($snippet)->text() , $catch['lang']);

	// Uses Classes and no inlien styles

	$highlight[$catch['lang']]->enable_classes();

	// Update code snippet

	$html = pq($snippet)->html($highlight[$catch['lang']]->parse_code());
}

// Load phpQuery

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

// Load GesSHi

require ('my-libs/geshi/geshi.php');

// Get AMP content and add it to phpQuery

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

$highlight = array();

// Loop through the code snippets (pre tags)

foreach(pq('pre') as $snippet) {

// Get classes of tag

$class = pq($snippet)->attr("class");

// Check for Crayon Syntax Highlighter Class

if (strpos($class, "lang:") !== false && strpos($class, "lang:default") === false) {

preg_match("/lang:(?P<lang>\w+)/", $class, $catch);

}

else {

// Fallback, if no language is detected

$catch['lang'] = "php";

}

// New Syntax Highlighter for each code snippet, with the correct language set

// Storing for later stylesheet output. This makes also sure that stylesheets are only loaded once.

$highlight[$catch['lang']] = new GeSHi(pq($snippet)->text() , $catch['lang']);

// Uses Classes and no inlien styles

$highlight[$catch['lang']]->enable_classes();

// Update code snippet

$html = pq($snippet)->html($highlight[$catch['lang']]->parse_code());

}

I have an example stored on GitHub. The above works, if you are using Crayon Syntax Highlighter for standard pages.
If you use something else, this needs to be changed.

Add the GeSHi styles to the amp-custom style tag

<style amp-custom>
<?php $this->load_parts( array( 'style' ) );
?><?php 
 do_action( 'amp_post_template_css', $this );
    
 // Load Stylesheets for highlighted languages
	
 foreach($highlight as $store){
  echo $store->get_stylesheet();
 }
?>
</style>

<?php $this->load_parts( array( 'style' ) );

?><?php

do_action( 'amp_post_template_css', $this );

// Load Stylesheets for highlighted languages

foreach($highlight as $store){

echo $store->get_stylesheet();

}

</style>

I have an example stored on GitHub.

Output updated amp-wp-content

<div class="amp-wp-content">
	<h1 class="amp-wp-title"><?php echo wp_kses_data( $this->get( 'post_title' ) ); ?></h1>
	<ul class="amp-wp-meta">
		<?php $this->load_parts( apply_filters( 'amp_post_template_meta_parts', array( 'meta-author', 'meta-time', 'meta-taxonomy' ) ) ); ?>
	</ul>
	<?php  echo  $doc->html();  // amphtml content; no kses ?>
</div>

<h1 class="amp-wp-title"><?php echo wp_kses_data( $this->get( 'post_title' ) ); ?></h1>

<?php $this->load_parts( apply_filters( 'amp_post_template_meta_parts', array( 'meta-author', 'meta-time', 'meta-taxonomy' ) ) ); ?>

</ul>

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

</div>

I have an example stored on GitHub.

Save and check that your AMP page validates, by adding #development=1 to the end of the url. Check the console for errors.
Show this page as AMP

Enjoy coding …

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( '<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);

}

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 …

24. February 2016

Visual Composer to Bootstrap Grid Cleanup

Simple way to do some Visual Composer Grid cleanup, when you are using Bootstrap within your theme. This removes and cleans up classes.

add_filter('vc_shortcodes_css_class', function ($class_string, $tag) {
  $tags_to_clean = [
	  'vc_row',
	  'vc_column',
	  'vc_row_inner',
	  'vc_column_inner'
  ];
  if (in_array($tag, $tags_to_clean)) {
	
	  $class_string = str_replace(' wpb_row', '', $class_string);
	  $class_string = str_replace(' vc_row-fluid', '', $class_string);
	  $class_string = str_replace(' vc_column_container', '', $class_string);
	  $class_string = str_replace('wpb_column', '', $class_string);
	  
          // replace vc_, but exclude any custom css 
          // attached via vc_custom_XXX (negative lookahead)
	  $class_string = preg_replace('/vc_(?!custom)/i', '', $class_string);
          
          // replace all vc_
          // $class_string = preg_replace('/vc_/i', '', $class_string);
  }
  $class_string = preg_replace('|col-sm|', 'col-sm', $class_string);
  return $class_string;
}, 10, 2);

add_filter('vc_shortcodes_css_class', function ($class_string, $tag) {

$tags_to_clean = [

'vc_row',

'vc_column',

'vc_row_inner',

'vc_column_inner'

];

if (in_array($tag, $tags_to_clean)) {

$class_string = str_replace(' wpb_row', '', $class_string);

$class_string = str_replace(' vc_row-fluid', '', $class_string);

$class_string = str_replace(' vc_column_container', '', $class_string);

$class_string = str_replace('wpb_column', '', $class_string);

// replace vc_, but exclude any custom css

// attached via vc_custom_XXX (negative lookahead)

$class_string = preg_replace('/vc_(?!custom)/i', '', $class_string);

// replace all vc_

// $class_string = preg_replace('/vc_/i', '', $class_string);

}

$class_string = preg_replace('|col-sm|', 'col-sm', $class_string);

return $class_string;

}, 10, 2);

Visual Composer for WordPress
Bootstrap / Bootstrap Sass

Enjoy coding …

5. February 2016

Get WordPress Page, Post or Custom Post-Type data anywhere you need it

Depending from where you want to access the page, post or custom post-type data, it might not always be available that easily.

WordPress provides an option to get your data through the page-slug.

The function is called get_page_by_path.

$page = get_page_by_path( basename ( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']),OBJECT, "your-post-type" );

1	$page = get_page_by_path( basename ( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']),OBJECT, "your-post-type" );