In Expression Engine, global variables can be used at template level for many uses. In one of my latest projects, I needed to pass through a specific global variable, but instead of placing the tag in the template I needed to put it directly into my channel entry. Unfortunately, EE2.0 does not natively support this feature.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install the amazing Allow EE Code plugin. This plugin does 90% of the work required and allows you to put Expression Engine tags within a Channel Entry. To make this work, activate the plugin and go to the location in your template where the entry will be output. Wrap whatever you want to be allowed to write EE tags in the following:

This will allow you to then place, and successfully output, Expression Engine tags within your entry. The problem is, if you want to be able to render your global variables in the entry it will not work.

To be able to pass through global variables, we need to tell the plugin to string replace the global vars with their correct contents. To do this, open up the EEAllow plugin file:

and just before the function “Allow_eecode” ends, put the following:

Voilá! This will now correctly output the global variable wherever you want your content to be shown.

Thanks to @spol for helping me figure this one out, saving me endless hours of banging my head on the desk.

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This tip is really handy if you need to add excerpt functionality for your WordPress pages. Simply drop the following code into your functions.php:

	add_action('init', 'my_custom_init');

	function my_custom_init() {
		add_post_type_support( 'page', 'excerpt' );
}

You’ll magically see the excerpt field appear in the wordpress page creation screen.

After a few weeks delving into the intricacies of Xcode I’ve had the good fortune to come across some very well written and helpful tutorials. I did, however, stumble upon some not so good guides. So here for your consumption are a few tips to making a better developer tutorial.

Know Your Audience

If you’re writing an article describing simple HTML tips and tricks, make sure you use language specific to that level of developer. Often if the tip is quite basic you will scare off those who are unaware of the tip by using overly complex descriptions. On the flipside, if you are talking memory management or more complex languages don’t be afraid to use terms that might otherwise be required to be explained. Depending on the amount of content on your site, the complex descriptions could be linked up to an article that explains the specifics in greater detail.

Well Formatted Examples

An essential tip for anyone writing a developer tutorial is to provide code. Because of the nature of the work, displaying commented code can be alot more useful than paragraph after paragraph of text that achieves the same. Developers are often reading the guide to get the information they need before darting off to implement. Additionally, the use of a JavaScript based syntax highlighter and an easy way to copy and paste is very helpful.

Provide Additional Reading Material

Developers are always looking to learn more and if you can provide them with an example but link off to multiple sources that give demos, source code or further descriptions then it will definitely be welcomed.

Reread & Spell Check

This is an obvious one but it seems to be the least followed (at least throughout the guides I read…). A quick read over what you’re putting out to your readers is the highest priority before you whack that “publish” button. Don’t disappoint your visitors!

Avoid Expert Exchange’ifying

The last thing a developer wants is to find the exact question having been asked and answered, only to be told they need to register or even worse, PAY to get the answer. In order for developers to grow and improve, knowledge needs to be shared and answers need to be provided and putting a pay wall up helps no one.

Is It Needed?

The final tip is probably what I consider the most important. It needs to be asked just before you hit publish – does the Internet need another “jquery carousel” tutorial for example. What does your tutorial add to the multitude of guides out there? If you still believe you have created something that would help a fellow developer then go right ahead and start RT’ing the crap out of it! If you’re doing it for potential Google Juice or hits then perhaps reconsider.

If you’re looking into writing tutorials take a glance over at the best out there. Start with SmashingMagazine or WebDesignerWall . If you have any other suggestions throw them in the comments below.

Quick Tips is a series of posts designed to show some quick html, css and php tips that you may find useful in your every day work or personal projects.

The jQuery function allows for a second, lesser known about, parameter which tells the function to only search for the element within the context of the given element.

List item 1


List item 2

In this scenario the selector will navigate through the menu unordered list and select the list item with “List item 2″ in it, having never seen the other unordered list.

Instead of having to work its way through the entire DOM, containing perhaps several hundred of the same element, the function can search within the smaller search area and provide results faster and more accurate.


If you wish to submit a quick tip to this section please contact me..

Quick Tips is a series of posts designed to show some quick html, css and php tips that you may find useful in your every day work or personal projects.

The following code snippet will allow you to set the page breaking behavior to break before every h1 element, giving you a lot of control over how printed versions of your website will be displayed.

@media print {
       h1 {page-break-before:always}
}

If you wish to submit a quick tip to this section please contact me..

Quick Tips is a series of posts designed to show some quick html, css and php tips that you may find useful in your every day work or personal projects.

With CSS, on the standards compliant browsers such as Firefox, Chrome or Safari, you can decide what color shade the highlighted text appears for users using the following CSS:

::selection { /* Safari & Chrome */
 color:#000;
 background:#FFF;
}
::-moz-selection { /* Firefox */
 color:#000;
 background:#FFF;
}

If you wish to submit a quick tip to this section please contact me..

In the latest version of the WordPress blogging platform, the developers have (finally) introduced Custom Post Types, allowing it to become more of a CMS without extensive use of plugins. Unfortunately, after installing the latest version, you’ll probably have noticed that there doesn’t immediatly appear to be any way to create your own. That’s because there is no UI to do this with – doh. The way to do this is to use the recently introducded method register_post_type().

The Example

Lets say you are running a blog that will have podcasts as a content type every so often, but you don’t require a heavyweight plugin like PodPress – Custom Post Types are the perfect solution.

The Code

Take a look at the following code:

The Parameters

As you can see, all we’re really doing is calling the new register_post_type() method and sending through some parameters:

• Label is pretty straight forward, what do you want the custom post type to be displayed.
• Singular label is also intuitive, what do you call ONE of your post types.
• Public is a meta argument to determine whether your post type will be accessible via search, menu’s etc… (more about this on wordpress docs)
• Show UI - set to true to show the custom post type on the back end. False can be set to allow extra content to determine how the custom post type is displayed in the back end.
• Hierarchical is a parameter to determine whether each custom post can have or be a parent of another.
• Supports allows you to determine what content creation fields are used when creating or editing a custom post:
  • ‘title’
  • ‘editor’ (content)
  • ‘author’
  • ‘thumbnail’ (featured image) (current theme must also support post-thumbnails)
  • ‘excerpt’
  • ‘trackbacks’
  • ‘custom-fields’
  • ‘comments’ (also will see comment count balloon on edit screen)
  • ‘revisions’ (will store revisions)
  • ‘page-attributes’ (template and menu order) (hierarchical must be true)

The Results

Shown below: the new “Podcasts” custom post type. Now start filling that bad boy with some content!

Spent a few hours (read: obsessively too long) tidying up my personal email inbox today, striving towards the eventual goal of Inbox Zero. Whilst working through the several thousand emails I realized “Wow, I have a crap load of spam, I should probably unsubscribe”. Emails from Top Table and Play.com are a devil on my shoulder – ohh look how much we’ve got on offer, come, spend all your money…etc.

This gave me the good fortune to see how 30 or so websites handle opting out of their newsletter.

The best that I came across were when there was a clearly defined opt-out button in the footer of the email which, on clicking, opened a new window with a “confirm your choice to unsubscribe” to push. On clicking, the page was automatically closed. Wham-bam thank you mam.

The bad types were the systems which required me to enter in my email address that I wished to unsubscribe from. Seriously, I just came from my email window, surely you could have sent that information over as a parameter. This system, however, is dreamy when compared with several or so websites which required me to login to their site, using a long since forgotten username and password system, then eventually navigating to the correct “my profile” settings. Pretty shoddy. At least it wasn’t as bad as the newsletters which require you email the newsletter with only “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

The worst offender however was a certain train booking service which required me to login with a username (not an email address), navigate 3 menus deep, un-tick 3 individual boxes (don’t sign me up to: 3rd party, offers…etc…) and then click submit. After clicking submit, excited in the knowledge that I no longer would receive timely rail maintainence updates, I was surprised when I recieved yet another email from said website telling me that I had unsubscribed and no longer would receive any emails. Gah.

I have a feeling that in a few days I may recieve another email from them reminding me that I’m continually unsubscribed, oh and btw check out these new offers!

So please, I know newsletter creation is a ball-ache but please, just one “confirm” button to save sanity and inbox capacity for all.