• Tag Archives WordPress

  • Stupid WordPress Plugin

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    Words can’t start to describe my anger to one specific WordPress plugin right now.  They went ahead and released an update, and it did away with a portion that I was using EXTENSIVELY on a few websites.

    And my sites were all set to auto-update their plugins.

    Long story short, all my custom php code on TRC and a few other sites is gone.  It didn’t just disable it, it removed the crap entirely. I tried rolling back to the old plugin version, but the content was just GONE.

    I had restore TRC’s database back to before the update, and and fast-as-you-can disable the update.  I still need to fix it on the Milo Historical Society site, and in the long-run figure out how to do my code in the new way.

    Not a happy camper.


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  • TRC 9.1: New Calendar

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    I’ve started on my next project: Overhauling the TRC Calendar.

    The old Calendar is a homegrown PHP / MySQL script that I wrote well over a decade ago, and she’s starting to show her age.  It doesn’t have great functionality, the forms to submit & edit are clunky, and the back-end would give you a migraine.  Since moving TRC to WordPress, I’ve wanted to convert it over to use a proper WordPress Plugin.

    So far, so good!  The new plugin I’m using is working out GREAT! Here are some pics to compare the old vs. the new with my current progress.

    There is still quite a lot of work to do, including purging and vetting events, and figuring out how to do user submission.

    Community Calendar Page

    Homepage Calendar Widget


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  • TRC 9.1: New Directory

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    TRC LOCAL DIRECTORY

    I spent the entire weekend working on a long-overdue project for TRC: a shiny new directory.

    The directory we had was written by yours truly, over a decade ago.  The code was custom PHP, had to shoe-horn it into WordPress, and it was just clunky.  I’ve invested in a great new plugin that lets us do the directory natively in WordPress instead, and its working out great!  I stated last week moving everything but the business directory into the new setup, and then spent ALL weekend entering the business directory.

    187 items got moved into the new setup, and 180 items are on hold until we can get more information or at least verify the places are still in operation.  The directory is quite old… I came across one business where I confirmed the guy retired a decade ago, and another where the guy had died 5 ago.  This purge really needed to happen.

    I went live with it last night, and so far it looks great.  I’m hoping to get some feedback on it, but its early.

    This is the first stage in what I am calling “Version 9.1” of TRC.  We’ve been running on WordPress for about 5 months now, and I felt it was time to go to the next step.  The oldest parts of the site still being used are my home-grown php scripts that run the directory, calendar, and memoriams.  Everything else from that era was phased out, and its time these parts got an upgrade.

    The Directory is now upgraded, and for my next trick I’m moving onto the Calendar.  I’m looking into a plugin that would also integrated it natively into WordPress, and make it much easier to manage. After that, I may even look into something to replace the Memoriams / Obituaries.  More to come later…


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  • TRC: Big things are coming…

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    I made some progress on TRC 9 this weekend. Finally settled on a WordPress theme and pulled the trigger on buying it.  I have a lot of configuration to do still, but the picture is a sneak peak.

    Its all uphill from here.  Need to get the layout/theme straightened out to where I like it, then start the arduous process of converting the bulk of the site.

    Expect more updates in the coming weeks 🙂


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  • TRC 9 Progress

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    I spent some time this evening running another battery of tests for my WordPress Alternative idea for the new version of TRC.

    The tests went successfully!  It actually looks I’ll be able to do just about everything I need to to make TRC work similar to how it does now. In some ways, better!

    I think I’m confident that this method will work, and I’m going to start moving ahead with it.  The next step is a bit of a daunting one though, as I need to find the PERFECT theme.  I’ve already accepted that I’m going to have get a paid one and stop getting by with free ones.  TRC deserves the best after all!

    If anyone would like to help me out, I’m looking for suggestions for WordPress themes. Send ’em my way!  I do have a few requirements though:

    • Page Templates: Full Page-Width, 1 & 2 Columns
    • Color Customization – we gotta use the TRC blue!

    I feel its gonna take some time to find just the right theme, so watch for future updates!


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  • TRC 9: Possible Breakthrough

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    The last week, I’ve been on a roller-coaster with trying to plan out my upgrade for TRC.  I sat down to look at going from Drupal 7 to 8 yet again, and pretty much drove off a cliff.  Drupal 9 is due out in 2020.  And support for both 7 & 8 will be ending in 2021.  To get to 9, I’ll have to go through 8 to get there.  This gave me a splitting headache, so I decided to grudgingly look into WordPress again.

    And I think it MIGHT actually work out in the long run.  I’ve got a laundry list of testing to do before I can be certain, but the first important test actually worked!  I found a way that I can insert my custom PHP code and it WORKS!  I mean, its going to need a mountain of tweaking to get it to look right, but the actual code actually flipping works!

    This discovery was brought to me by my time spent fixing some broken parts of TRC the other day.  The Town Crier and Three Rivers News section on the historical society page had broken due to PHP upgrades.  I found a method to fix those, and it will miraculously work for TRC’s nefarious purposes as well.

    This really is just the first glimmer of a light at the end of the dark tunnel, but I’ll take it. Let’s just hope it isn’t another oncoming train.


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  • Setbacks with TRC 9 Plan

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    After some extensive research, I’ve had to grudgingly rule out the idea of using WordPress for the new version of TRC.

    I was hoping to use a plugin called Multisite to use WordPress to replace the aging TRC website. I figured I could use it to more easily let different users have access to editing pages and what-not.  After setting up a dummy set of test websites, the overall concept worked.  I just ran into a major issue that blew up my plan: I can’t easily show posts on the sub-sites on the main news feed. I looked into several options, but it was going to get far too complex.

    I guess this means I’m back to the original scary plan of upgrading from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8.  I mean, I love WordPress as I use it on ALL of my other sites, but Drupal just gives me so much more control over doing what I want to do.  I’m still not looking forward to the upgrade though…  I need to sit down and re-group.  My notes on the upgrade process are from the last time I looked into it – November 2018.

    At that point in time, I put the whole thing on hold as there were still several modules and things that weren’t going to work in the new version.  I need to go through it all again and see where we stand now on compatibility.

    Look for more updates in the future.


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