Developer Blog
Three Chords & Fake News is my new album! But hang on a second... things might not be what they seem.
I composed these songs between 2010 and 2015. Recently, I used Suno.com to generate AI "covers" from them, and I was struck by how much better some of the AI renditions sound compared to my original recordings. This experience has led me to believe that it won't be long, maybe five years tops, before AI essentially takes over the entire music writing, composing, and recording industry. It's a truly fascinating yet somewhat alarming prospect.
My first teaching experience has primarily focused on WordPress, as per our College's request— and that’s exactly what I delivered.
The demo site at https://demo.ucll.info/ showcases nearly everything I cover in my lessons:
- Navigation
- Hero sections and many other built-in blocks
- Parallax backgrounds
- Cookie notice
- Twenty Twenty-Five theme
- Various plugins, such as Getwid and WooCommerce (though WooCommerce isn’t in the demo yet)
Teaching WordPress has significantly shifted my perspective on it. I now see it as an excellent visual page builder with a vast (but often commercial) ecosystem. However, I stick to free plugins in my lessons.
Having worked in the CMS industry for about 20 years (and having Nick by my side), I quickly figured out which themes and plugins best suit my needs. The next logical step would be developing my own plugins, but with so many already available - many of them free - there’s little left to create.
I can easily envision myself continuing to teach WordPress professionally, catering to various audiences. Many webmasters struggle to unlock WP’s full potential, whereas experienced developers like us know how to maximize its capabilities.
The key question I always ask myself is whether to use plugins or stick with WordPress’s default CMS features, which can feel quite limiting. It often takes some trial and error to get it right.
QuickerSite may no longer be relevant. But I will always be proud of what we made of it through the years.
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine regularly crawls and archives the entire web, creating copies of all websites. That's how I was able to access earlier versions of QuickerSite.com. It's giving me a bit of nostalgia!
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17/03/2025 10:49:57 | Pieter | Login | Reply | Replies (4)
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (17/03/2025 19:43:02)Between 2008 and 2011, for me by far QuickerSite was the best CMS to build sites. Probably the most fun was when we first discovered Artisteer at the time, and making html templates and then manually converting them to Quickersite templates.
- Pieter says: (17/03/2025 20:27:40)Totally agree Nick. The screenshot above were taken from QuickerSite.com between 2007 and 2013.
- David says: (18/03/2025 12:04:40)They were good days for sure, I still have QS sites running and they give me no headaches or admin, unless the hoster changes something that is
My first one was in 2007 at www.globaltribe.co.nz but now gone and the oldest one that is still going is from 2008 https://cafe93.co.nz/
Latest one with a "made in Webflow" template and V4.3 codebase is actually four clubs from Friendship Force at https://friendshipforce.org.nz/
How are you getting on with the teaching role Pieter, hope its going well and your enjoying your time there? - Pieter says: (18/03/2025 13:42:03)Hello David, so great to hear from you again. These are old but very nice websites. I remember having contributed to both of them at some point. Make sure to wipe the forms from time to time. I remember one of the forms on these sites had over ... 40.000 submissions... That caused a bit of a delay if I remember well. And none of them were spam :)
My teaching experience is all about WordPress. I must admit: WP has it all. At this point, I cannot think of any scenario where I would prefer to use QuickerSite.
Ever since WP has turned into a block-based pagebuilder, things went very well for WP. And having WooCommerce being developed by Automatic themselves... well, that's a big plus.
I'm lucky to have Nick helping me out and pointing me to useful plugins. And for the record: IIS (Windows) is perfectly able and very well equipped to run WP sites. So far, I hosted 400 WP sites on my good old Amazon Windows Server. Zero issues.
In this exciting update, I'm thrilled to announce the release of QS44, which introduces the page media-feature. Adding images to any page is now a breeze, and the best part? It's fully responsive! Responsiveness has always been a challenge with the outdated CKEditor software. This new feature can be previewed here.
You can download QS44 directly from its GitHub repository.
Speaking of CKEditor, it's become a commercial product. We started using it back in 2006, under the name FCKeditor. After version 2.6.6, I transitioned to its successor, CKEditor. Interestingly, that trusty FCKeditor 2.6.6 still runs flawlessly on a handful of older QuickerSites I host.
The version of CKEditor used by QuickerSite (4.4.5) dates back to 2014, and it's never caused any problems. It was a reliable editor then, and it will continue to be for years to come. However, if we needed a new WYSIWYG editor today, we'd be stuck. None offer ASP Classic support for file uploads, which CKEditor did.
The CMS Landscape and the Rise of WordPress
The CMS landscape has drastically changed. Today, WordPress reigns supreme. This server hosts 200 WordPress websites alongside 300 QuickerSites. While QuickerSites are resource-efficient, WordPress sites gobble up processing power. My server bill has doubled since adopting WordPress!
While WordPress is free as a CMS, it has a surprisingly large server footprint. Even a basic WordPress installation with a few plugins consumes 100MB of disk space, spread across numerous files and folders. This grows significantly with plugins like WooCommerce, Astra, or Elementor.
This shift towards WordPress has pushed me to explore Apache/Linux servers. It's clear that Microsoft is phasing out ASP/VBScript anyway.
Looking Ahead: New Ventures and Continued Support for QuickerSite
Despite these changes, I'm fortunate to pursue my passion for web development as a web design professor at a nearby college. Using WordPress has sparked a desire to develop a similar platform with built-in multilingual support from the ground up. While WordPress is excellent for the US market, it falls short for European businesses and institutions when it comes to multilingual capabilities. I've heard positive things about Drupal (a Belgian product) in this regard, but I haven't had the chance to use it myself.
In the coming months, I'll be focusing on teaching and revamping my course materials, methods, and the tools I use. If these improvements benefit QuickerSite in any way, I'll wholeheartedly dive back into QS development.
New Opportunities and the Looming Threat of War
2025 brings new regulations for Belgian VAT-registered companies. The government wants to closely monitor invoicing activity to automate tax calculations and prevent fraud. Many companies are developing software solutions to streamline this process, and I'm considering creating my own ASP Classic solution. Development would likely only take a few weeks.
While these opportunities are exciting, they pale in comparison to the global conflict brewing between Ukraine and Russia. It's a conflict with worldwide ramifications, yet no one dares to acknowledge it as such.
The days between Christmas and New Year are a time for reflection and decision-making. While I always strive to achieve this, it remains a work in progress. Regardless, here's to a Happy 2025!
27/02/2025 11:40:53 | Pieter | Login | Reply | Replies (10)
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (26/12/2024 18:49:08)Well said, I'm going to stay away from the political stuff...
That said, Drupal, not in its' core, but as a plugin uses Gutenberg as well. In fact, since I believe 2018, their team worked with the WordPress team to bring Gutenberg to Drupal - https://drupalgutenberg.org/ - https://www.drupal.org/project/gutenberg
The official White House website was built with Drupal, but Obama changed it to WordPress. Just understand that WP is amazing if you know how to tame it, and if you don't it will be your worst nightmare. With tens of thousands (not a typo) themes a plugins, and the 3-4 times a year of core updates, and constant new APIs under the hood, there is never a dull moment, or again, a total nightmare for those who want to know and test everything. It is almost a task similar to "reading the entire internet from A-Z". In 1997 I had foolishly bought a book that promised just that, and I was convinced that I will know everything and anything was available. Today, with their super computing powers even AI can't catch up...
Gutenberg is supposed to work within any CMS, at least that was their claim. If you one day decide to bring it to QuickerSite, you can try getting help at the WP's slack channels. If that happens I expect some issues that need to overcome, just to mention one major one: Gutenberg does not have a media uploader. If you hack into the gigantic Gut. code, updating will be a nightmare. Gutenberg since 2018 to the day, releases a new update every 2 weeks ! An impossible task for a one man band...
And for most people nowadays, a CMS without a page builder looks like a CMS from the Soviet era. It's like a flip phone vs smart phone.
One almost last thing - and I'm quoting here: "It's clear that Microsoft is phasing out ASP/VBScript anyway. " And yet, you still want to build new apps in Classic ASP?
When it comes to coding, for 2025, my wish is for AI to become much better, becasue right now, unless you want some very basic stuff, and I mean VERY basic, AI really, REAlLY sucks at coding, although it gives you 80-90% of the correct code, so you can use the generated code to build on and fix the generated stupidity... - Pieter says: (27/12/2024 10:22:05)In the college where I teach, they stopped teaching coding. All they do is prompt their software solutions together. They learn to structure a solution rather than code it themselves. They use ai for that. Not sure what to think about that.
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (27/12/2024 18:16:05)Sad, and very stupid, on so many levels.
- Mik says: (28/12/2024 09:29:54)As always, interesting reading and about future considerations.
I have previously used Wordpress for my webshops for Luxafor.dk + 4 other languages. But it was simply too unstable and there were a lot of updates. So I now use Shopify. But this solution is not optimal either. We only sell B2B and therefore have challenges with the EU, Norway and the rectification of VAT numbers. If you want the platin-plated solution from Shopify, you have to pay about $2,000 per month.
You mention that the Belgian government is making indictments to avoid VAT fraud. I believe that it is an EU regulation, i.e. that it applies throughout the EU. I must at least state the correct VAT number of all customers on the invoice. If it is wrong, I have to pay VAT myself. :-(
So, an alternative to Shopify will be in order. B2B is a very growing market in terms of ecommerce.
Pieter you said many years ago, when you already predicted that the days of Classic ASP were numbered, that you would migrate QS to .NET. Is it completely wrongly remembered?
As you probably know, I'm a big fan of QS. I'm a huge fan. Therefore, I hope that in time it will be secured (Other platform) and that it will have a design "facelift" so that you use the entire screen.
I would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2025. - Pieter says: (28/12/2024 16:30:15)Hi Mik,
I'm moving away from rewriting QS in another language. WordPress is a better fit for our needs.
Down the road, I might develop custom apps for WordPress using ASPLite, similar to what I did on https://playground.iseral.be/asplite-framework
Hosting WordPress on a Windows Server lets you combine its rich editing features with ASP Classic scripting, much like we did with QS. ASP can connect to MySQL databases, allowing you to add custom tables to the WordPress database, just like many plugins do. This opens exciting possibilities for Classic ASP developers, as long as the technology remains viable.
On the invoicing front, e-invoicing through the PEPPOL network will become mandatory for all European companies in the coming years. In Belgium, it's mandatory from 2026 onwards. This is why many Belgian companies are looking for new invoicing tools.
Even invoices created in WooCommerce will need to be sent through PEPPOL. This presents a challenge since PEPPOL is not an open standard. Accessing it requires going through Access Points, which charge fees.
To be continued. - Sergio says: (08/01/2025 00:17:48)Hi Pieter,
I made this integration for Page Media (as per attached image), I made sure to display the name of the image file for each single image.
Naming the images with criteria I think it can be useful to have a short description of the images.
I changed this in page.asp:
medfstr=medfstr & "<div class=""" & pad4 & """><a title='" & left(medf,len(medf)-len(getFileExtension(medf))-1) & "' rel=""" & lightboxSAMPLE & """ href=""" & Application("QS_CMS_C_DIRECTORY_QUICKERSITE") & "/showthumb.aspx?maxsize=1920&FSR=0&img="
medfstr=medfstr & Application("QS_CMS_C_VIRT_DIR") & Application("QS_CMS_userfiles") & "pagemedia/" & iId & "/" & medf & """ class=""QSPPIMG"">"
medfstr=medfstr & "<img src=""" & Application("QS_CMS_C_DIRECTORY_QUICKERSITE") & "/showthumb.aspx?maxsize="&imgSize&"&FSR=0&img="
medfstr=medfstr & Application("QS_CMS_C_VIRT_DIR") & Application("QS_CMS_userfiles") & "pagemedia/" & iId & "/" & medf & """></a>" & left(medf,len(medf)-len(getFileExtension(medf))-1) & "</div>" & vbcrlf
- Pieter says: (08/01/2025 11:05:50)Very useful addition indeed Sergio. Thanks for sharing your code!
The more elegant way would be to add a proper capture for each picture. But that requires a new table and a more complicated datamodel and program flow. This is definitely the quick 'n dirty solution... The only issue I see is that you have to provide meaningful filenames for all pictures... Sometimes that can be tough.... - Sergio says: (08/01/2025 11:54:50)Yes Pieter I agree with you, it's a quick and dirty solution. Maybe a flag somewhere to show or not show image descriptions could be useful.
- Sergio says: (20/01/2025 14:24:04)Pieter,
I saw that for the "Page Media" you included the aspLite.asp library through the bs_itemmedia_handler.asp file.
I did a test by calling the aspLite.asp library directly from begin.asp and it seems that everything works correctly.
You will say why do you want to do it? the answer is to have aspLite available for the entire QS environment.
Do you see any contraindications in doing this integration of aspLite.SP from the begin.asp file? - Pieter says: (20/01/2025 15:02:11)Sergio, including asplite in QS would have caused issues. Asplite is a framework and QS is not built on it... For this small additional feature in 4.4 I was able to include and isolate it, but it would require a major rework to use Asplite in QS.
I haven't released a new QS version in a while, but that's about to change soon. My recent work with WordPress, experimenting with Bootstrap for other projects, and exploring the Google Search Console have all inspired me to refine some existing QS features and even create an entirely new plugin.
14/11/2024 10:34:55 | Pieter | Login | Reply | Replies (6)
- Sergio says: (13/11/2024 20:05:27)Great job Pieter,
I'm doing some tests locally on my PC and I'll give you my thoughts:
I noticed that on the pages that compose a "list" the "MEDIA" button is not available, is this behavior correct?
My thought is that this functionality could also be useful on the sub-pages of a list.
The "Remove All ... Images" button appears only for a number of images greater than 3.
I see that the images for each individual page are archived in the path "/userfiles/pagesmedia/...randomfolder.../" I think that having the possibility of defining a customizable storage path for each individual page could be useful (optional otherwise by default it uses the random path).
Last thing but perhaps not really on topic, is that the "Upload multiple files to this folder" of the QS filemanager does not work anymore (I think for the swf no longer supported by recent browsers), it would be nice to have the same functionality for file uploads as you did for media.
That's all for now, thanks again for the wonderful work you do to support QS. - Pieter says: (13/11/2024 22:04:24)Sergio, thanks for the testing.
I just added the media button for the list items. I face a issue in responsive mode, so this needs some tweaking.
The images are stored in /userfiles/qspagemedia/ID of the page.
I know about the broken multifile uploader. Yes, it would be a good thing to get it fixed in QS4.4.
Many thanks again. I'll see what I can do. - Pieter says: (15/11/2024 09:20:51)Meantime I fixed the responsive mode and I added this media plugin to list items. You can now have a list page with list items each showing their own galleries.
I somehow try to mimick the "text and image" block in WordPress, a block that I've used a lot lately in some WP sites. - David says: (04/12/2024 03:23:03)Hi Pieter, Is there a new script to update the database for this?
- Mik says: (04/12/2024 07:51:10)Look forward to implement ver. 4.4
- Pieter says: (04/12/2024 21:10:05)I have updated both update scripts (for Access and SQL Server) on https://quickersite.com/r/downloadsection
After having played with WordPress for several months now, it's about time to compare it to QuickerSite. Or better, ask myself the question: when to use WordPress and when to stick with QuickerSite?
When stick with QS?
- For small sites
QS has a 14MB codebase. WordPress starts with a 80MB codebase and a 10MB MySQL database. The WordPress codebase quickly grows into 100's of megabytes in case you use plugins. If you host 100's of such websites, WordPress blows up your server's hard disk.
- For customers who do not want to dive into the complexity of the WP admin panel
Let's face this. The WP-way of dealing with content is complex. Posts, pages, blocks, patterns, templates, plugins, themes, but above all: the way all these are all mixed up. An average non-tech user is not able to use WordPress without at least one or two training sessions. As a self-employed entrepeneur, you may find yourself in a position where you simply cannot provide adequate support for a large WordPress user/customerbase.
- For speed, performance and security-reasons
QS development has ended years ago but it's still rocking fast, solid and safe. WP development is always ongoing and you never know when security/performance bugs will hit your site.
- If you are into Classic ASP development, QS is your perfect partner.
- In case you need an intranet with dozens (or even hundreds) of site editors, each having access to their own pages and media (only)
- If you know how to deal with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you may find QS somewhat easier to integrate with them.
When use WP?
- If you need e-commerce (Woocommerce is a great, no, it's an AMAZING plugin)
- For complex websites with lots of different functionality, you need lots of plugins for
- If you are into PHP development, WP is a no-brainer.
- If your customer is willing to learn and dive into the complexity of the WP admin panel, go for it.
In all honesty, I prefer to keep on using QS for most sites I ever built and ever will build or need. Except in case I'd need e-commerce. I really fell in love with Woocommerce, even though it messes up the performance of your complete site. Even then... love it. But not enough to use WP for any type of site. WP is simply too bloated.
I wouldn't have been me if I'd not look into ways to link developer frameworks to WordPress. So I did: https://playground.iseral.be/
I can now use WP as a container app for custom Classic ASP development using aspLite and Bootstrap, something I've been doing very successfully over the last years.
Are there other JS/CSS frameworks you can think of?
21/10/2024 14:42:38 | Pieter | Login | Reply | Replies (14)
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (21/10/2024 03:53:20)You cannot (technically can) use animate.css without a way to animate an element without having a way for the animation to start when the element gets in the viewpoint. For example if the animation happens at the bottom of the page, and is a short one, by the time you scroll down, the animation has already concluded. There are some solutions for that, and the one I'm using is the wow.js library - it's 8kb, very lightweight. BTW, that's exactly what Mobirise was using last time I checked 5-6 years ago... Just add the class wow in front of the animate.css class - ie: wow fadeIn - followed by any optional parameters, time length of the animation, and delay time to start the animation.
FontAwesome (v4.8) is another one that I use, as well as Datatables. I load those through their respective CDNs, same with Animate .css btw...
DataTables is unbelievable with ACF Pros Repeater field ! - Pieter says: (21/10/2024 11:02:07)Thanks Nick. I also noticed the Animated.css issue. I will give wow a try. Meantime I also added Bootstrap icons (2000 free icons): https://playground.iseral.be/icons/
I noticed I cannot @import url("") anything in the Extra CSS-field in WordPress. How do you import CSS files? - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (21/10/2024 18:39:20)I don't...
- I have imported CSS files in the future, but not in the past 7-8 years. At this point, I'm not sure if the Site Editor is blocking the import process or WP itself. The only way to test that is to try importing in the theme's stylesheet. BUT WAIT !!! Knowing you, you are probably using the default theme Twenty TwentyFour. That theme does not enqueue the stylesheet, so whatever CSS commands you put in there, will not get executed, until you enqueue the stylesheet in the functions.php file. Their excuse for not enqueuing the stylesheet was to prove that block themes do not need CSS files, you can do things in the Site Editor and with the theme.json file, which is very stupid and very communistic way to enforce things. So if so, why is there a style.css file? Because a block theme needs at a minimum these files: index.html and style.css, and I think functions.php (I could be wrong on the last one). The header of the css file is where it tells WP the needed info about the theme.
- In a short few weeks we will be getting WP 6.7, with a new default theme, and unless things change, surprise, surprise..., they are now back to enqueuing the styles.css file, so you can now effectively add CSS in there and work out of the box. HOWEVER, unless you export the theme with a different name and make it yours, with a theme update you will lose all your changes. So you have 4 choices here:
1. Export the theme using the WP theme export feature, and manually change the name, so updates will not affect you.
2. Use the plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/create-block-theme/ I love this plugin, makes things so easy !
3. Create a child theme either manually or even better by using the Create Block Theme Plugin.
4. Forget the Child theme route and use a plugin like WPCode - I love this one too ! - https://wordpress.org/plugins/insert-headers-and-footers/
BTW, you can download the latest WP 6.7 Beta version, or test it in your browser with the WP Playground - https://wordpress.org/playground/ Go to the settings and change the WP version to the latest Beta among other things. It's not perfect, you run out of memory if you use it for some time, but for quick testing without a host, it's awesome. That said I would recommend to use a free or paid version of InstaWP for quick testing ! - https://instawp.com/
You make me work like a mule, with just one line of a question ! - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (21/10/2024 18:40:23)... I meant "I have imported imported CSS files in the past"....
Early morning here !!! - Pieter says: (21/10/2024 20:48:33)Work like a mule
The extra CSS is included in Twenty Twenty Four but these idiots add some lines before the inline CSS. That breaks the import directive.
I now use a JavaScript solution. I add all JS/CSS code in a custom HTML block in the header. And it works fine. But it's ugly like hell.
I'm gonna give WPCode a try. Hope this plugin allow me to do what I want for free... Most plugins require a pro license as soon as you really want to use them. I'll report back! Thanks buddy!
- Pieter says: (21/10/2024 21:06:24)WPCode does exactly what I need. Perfect... except I now have to use a plugin to prove I don't need one... damn.
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (21/10/2024 22:51:17)As great as WP is, you have to understand that 25% is great because of the core, and the rest it's the third party devs., plugins, themes, and code snippet coders. However, they have an extensive and numerous APIs to let us extend things easily without re-inventing the wheel each time - the Block Styles API is one tiny example. If you don't know what are Block Styles, ask me for a demo...
As far as WPCode goes, same with Microthemer, and because I make my own themes, I use them for dev./testing purposes only. Once I'm satisfied, I get the code and put them in their corresponding places in my themes (usually in functions.php files, separate php files, or styles.css). With block themes, you also need to register another CSS file specifically for the editor (backsite), and also include all the custom additional CSS, so your CSS additions will also be visible in the Editor. Otherwise they will only apply to the front end, if you just add them in the styles.css file.
The sooner you get into ACF Pro, (there are other solutions, but ACF Pro is the fastest and easiest way to make custom blocks and applications in general, to edit things from the front end too, like a marketplace for example) and making your own blocks and containers to accommodate all the animations, etc visually, the sooner you will realize what can of damage you can do. Until then, WP by itself, it's pretty basic. The real power of WP is the monstrous 80MB of code underneath everything that allows devs. to extend it pretty much to anything they want.
Also, check this out: https://library.wpcode.com/ , and
https://codesnippets.cloud/search
Now go crazy:
I believe in the wpcode code snippets there is a html one that gives you a "back to top" script. If you can't find it, let me know, I have it saved somewhere !
The amount of resources you can find in WP is unreal.... And everyday there are new stuff coming out. For example, officially they just announced a new API for WP 6.7 to register Patterns within plugins, so far you could do that only in themes, unless you were willing to go through hell and use bunch of filters and other stuff just to do that. So in the near future I expect a fury of plugins to offer patterns. The same goes with page/post/cpt templates btw... Initially it was only for themes, now plugins can do the same very easily. And of course with code you can also unregister any pattern or template.
Mule out ! - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (21/10/2024 22:53:59)BTW, the back to top script is here: https://library.wpcode.com/snippet/e50xyx35/
- Pieter says: (22/10/2024 07:19:01)Wonderful. Added on https://playground.iseral.be/
I needed both the header, body and footer area to implement it. See screenshot. This WPCode plugin really works very well. These 3 areas are the only ones you need to implement JS/CSS frameworks.
- Pieter says: (22/10/2024 16:27:54)Their back to top button stays behind WordPress groups and thus the footer. I had to add z-index:999 to the css for it to work fine.
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (22/10/2024 18:31:30)Actually I knew about the z-index fix, but because I don't use this particular script, and found it weeks ago, I forgot to mention it to you - my bad sorry. Also, during testing, I just put the entire thing in a html code snippet and it worked, since in html you can also have internal. or inline CSS, as well as JS. But the way you separated the script, with the CSS in the header, the html in the body and the JS in the footer, is 100% the right way, performance wise, but in this case, because of the tiny size of the script, I doubt it would make any difference.
- Sergio says: (24/10/2024 14:37:33)I am studying couchcms, as it is based on the inverse concept used by most cms.
That is, cms want the design of the pages to adapt to the cms and sometimes this is not easy and most of the time it is necessary to use code (PHP, ASP, JAVA, PYTHON .... etc), snippets or plugins to obtain the desired style and layout result.
Couchcms does the opposite, take an html page with its layout and style, insert the couch tags for content management and obtain the desired result.
Its creator is a web designer and created it specifically for his work in order not to clash with the adaptations to be made in the various cms he uses for his work including wordpress.
URL of Couchcms: https://www.couchcms.com/ - Pieter says: (25/10/2024 12:23:07)Thanks Sergio. This CouchCMS looks much better than WP ever will. I guess they really focus on web designers in the first place. I will take a closer look any time soon.
- Sergio says: (25/10/2024 17:35:30)my pleasure Pieter,
another similar to couchcms and maybe more "powerful" is this: https://expressionengine.com open source like couchcms but with different license costs when used in a commercial or business context:
couchcms 69$ for single website
expressionengine 249$ + 49/year for single website
I have never been a big fan of WordPress. But I was wrong all the time. WordPress is in a transition however. It's slowly going away from blog engine to a visual website design tool. Slowly. I share the things I learned these past few weeks. Enjoy!
01/10/2024 19:12:56 | Pieter | Login | Reply | Replies (7)
- David says: (16/10/2024 01:23:37)Very good video Pieter, should be a breeze teaching those students I'm sure you will do well. Reckon you should take your guitar in and treat them all to a song before starting out for the day, would have loved something like that back in the day :-)
I have hosted and maintained a handful of WP sites but mostly found them to be way to much admin and so resource hungry. One site I took on for a mate came with a virus, had been previously hacked which was a nightmare. However, I persevered and got it working for him. One plus that came out of that experience was an introduction to Pinegrow, a desktop app for all things WP but also a good general purpose visual builder for static sites, way cheaper than Webflow.
Good to see you guys rocking on with web stuff
- Pieter says: (16/10/2024 20:16:14)Thanks David. I'm trying to keep both worlds separated. Showbizz and teaching :) Two different things as such, but indeed, it helps to be used to take the stage ... in a way. I have to sell my website design as hard as I have to sell my music when performing. Sure thing.
I tested Pinegrow one day (the free trial). I was impressed I remember. It also comes with a WordPress theme builder I see.
https://hcstudios.be/ is our latest project. That's a WP site - Bob says: (17/10/2024 13:04:28)> One site I took on for a mate came with a virus, had been previously hacked which was a nightmare
A long time ago I did a proposal for a local town hall using QS. Long story short, they went with a guy using WP because "he was a photographer as well and could take all their publicity shots without them being involved"
About 5 months later their site had crashed and there was "no content to be found on the site". They rang me for (free) advice and of course I said just use your back ups. You guessed didn't you? No back ups and the WP version was wildly out of date. It wasn't anything complicated or sinister - just some spotty script kiddie.
So they had to rebuild the site from scratch - using the same version of WP. I actually emailed them and said it needed to be updated and kept up to date, but they ignored me.
Unsurprisingly, the got hacked again and all their data was deleted. Did they have a backup this time? Of course not.
The best part was that they rang me a week later. Because I had been so helpful would I rebuild their web site..... for free because they had spent all their budget! I couldn't help but I admire their "chutzpah"
I just looked, I think they stuck with WP but I don't know if this is up to date any more (the sun shines too much!)
Meta name="generator" content="Powered by Slider Revolution 5.4.8.1 - responsive, Mobile-Friendly Slider Plugin for WordPress with comfortable drag and drop interface. - Pieter says: (17/10/2024 14:51:03)Incredible story, Bob.
The reality is that using WordPress no longer provides peace of mind; any core version, theme, or plugin can fail or be compromised at any moment. This has been a harsh reality for the past 15 years and remains unchanged today. I am not accustomed to this uncertainty. Since addressing the security issues with QS back in 2008, I have been confident that QS is as secure as software can be.
Currently, this server hosts 189 WordPress sites, all operating on the latest version of WP, utilizing a single theme (Twenty Twenty Four) and only three plugins. For security reasons, my students are prohibited from installing additional themes or plugins. Thus far, everything has been stable; I haven't encountered any issues, hacks, or crashes.
The main attraction of WordPress is its cost—it's free and widely used. Competing with a free option is nearly impossible, and convincing a large user base to switch to an alternative is equally daunting.
Regarding server resources, David is correct: WordPress requires 60MB for installation (without any plugins and just one theme) and an additional 10MB for its MySQL database, totaling 70MB to get started. However, it does not demand more RAM or CPU than other content management systems. At least I have no complaints in that area.
Overall, the latest WP version and the Twenty Twenty Four theme are quite robust and versatile. I find myself looking forward to the Twenty Twenty Five theme set to release in November. However, I suspect it will only be a minor update from Twenty Twenty Four.
This brings us to updates. I stopped updating QS in 2014, so it now appears completely outdated, even though it can still create attractive and modern websites. People expect constant updates. Yet with each release comes new issues and security challenges—a paradox indeed. Many believe that regular updates ensure product safety when often it leads to the opposite.
Isn't it remarkable that we're having this conversation on this website, ten years after the last QS release? I genuinely appreciate that! - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (17/10/2024 21:53:53)1. WP 6.7 the new install size goes up to 80MB ! When I started in 2011-12 it was 6MB and I thought that was too much... WP is now the equivalent of MS Windows... for websites.
2. Pieter, I know which 3 plugins you are using, but I would strongly recommend 2 VERY essential ones to be added to the list:
There are many on both categories but I have narrowed my decisions to:
- For securoty I use FluentAuth - https://wordpress.org/plugins/fluent-security/ You cannot believe how many hacking attempts this plugin stops, I'm averaging 2-3 a week, and without this plugin, I'm sure it would have been dozens.
- If somehow they manage to pass Hostinger's firewalls (my cloud hosting provider), I use an automated backup plugin WPvivid - https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpvivid-backuprestore/ This is not only an automated backup plugin but also a migration plugin, staging. It has a premium version to backup Multisites, migrate a site from a multisite to a single site installation, but more importantly, the ability to store the backups, including the auto backups in a cloud storage like OneDrive, Dropbox, etc...
With WP you have to know what you are doing, understand the risks (13,000 sites get hacked every day), but most importantly you have to have defensive forces, and if they fail, which will fail one day, have the backups OUT OF SITE, to recover as soon as possible. Hostinger has an automated security checkup system to scan for viruses and malware, and daily backup system as well, along with their firewall. As of now, nobody has successfully hacked any of my sites, but when (not if) they do, I'm fully prepared.
Another important note when it comes to security. You can get hacked by simply trusting third party sites. For example. Divi has this new plugin to manage many websites from one place - called the Dash. Imagine you have hundreds of sites, and you have to manually log in in to them one by one for updates... With this you can do all that from one place with a few clicks. The problem is that each site's Admin credentials are stored ON THEIR SERVERS. If their servers get hacked, your website's credentials will be public. Or if they have a disgruntled employee, you are done ! Thankfully, Hostinger has a similar service, and they already have all my info, so I can trust them. With my plan I can have 300 WP installs, and can update, disable, add plugins and themes to any site, with a few clicks, I can even batch update plugins or themes across all sites ! - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (17/10/2024 22:10:13)One last point (I run out of characters before):
Just because you have the latest versions of the WP core, plugins, and themes, it DOES NOT MEAN you are secure. A new version of a plugin or theme, can introduce new security holes, which did not exist with the previous versions.
With the WP core, it's a total joke. Every 3-4 months they come with a new version. EVERY SINGLE TIME about after a major release, they come with another minor update, many times more than once, where if you look at the update logs, are mostly security fixes, on average of about 10 of them for each case, sometimes more. So each time updating to a new WP version immediately after a major update, puts you in the greatest risk. The safest thing is to wait 2-3 weeks for the patched version(s) to come out, but with this, you are delaying all the new features that come with the new versions as well. That's why once again, having off site backups and a good security plugin and firewall are crucial. Building a site today is too easy, you can teach a monkey to do it, keeping it safe, fast, and SEO optimized is a whole different ballgame, which many do not understand or care, until they DO - just ask any of the 13,000 site owners that finally get it, EACH SINGLE DAY ! - Pieter says: (18/10/2024 11:05:08)Thanks Nick. I do not trust plugin developers. I kind of trust the WP core developers. Well, we have to, isn't it?
I add this line:
define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true);
to all my sites in wp-config.php.
I guess this prevents both the core and the plugins to modify any file in my codebase, except for the mediafiles. Not sure though.
This way, automated updates are disabled, and my students cannot upload, update or add new plugins or themes. I really think that is a effective way to somehow protect myself againt hackers.
So far so good. I have not seen any suspicious behaviour on any of the sites or the server.
I have been playing (a lot) with WordPress on IIS (Windows Server 2019) lately. Nick has been very helpful by guiding me around. WordPress is some kind of an application in the end as long as you stay away from performance-killing plugins.
Even though IIS is not the recommended host for WordPress, it does the job. And the stronger your specs, the better. I get very good results on a very basic AWS Cloud Server with 8GB of RAM on 2 CPU's.
The web.config below is all you need to:
- Have a recent version of PHP working (PHP 8.3.11 in the example below) for all PHP files
- Add the one and only static file handler for all other files.
- Have index.php as your (only) default document
- Have a rewriting rule to mimic the unsupported .htaccess
- Note that this web.config does not deal with any MicroSoft technology (.NET or Classic ASP).
Here it is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<handlers>
<clear />
<add name="php-8.3.11" path="*.php" verb="*" modules="FastCgiModule" scriptProcessor="C:\Program Files\PHP\v8311blank\php-cgi.exe" resourceType="Either" requireAccess="Script" />
<add name="StaticFile" path="*" verb="*" modules="StaticFileModule,DefaultDocumentModule,DirectoryListingModule" resourceType="Either" requireAccess="Read"/>
</handlers>
<defaultDocument>
<files>
<clear/>
<add value="index.php"/>
</files>
</defaultDocument>
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="WordPress on IIS" patternSyntax="Wildcard">
<match url="*"/>
<conditions>
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true"/>
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true"/>
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="index.php"/>
</rule>
</rules>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>
18/09/2024 18:39:00 | Pieter | Login | Reply | Replies (2)
- John Wilkin says: (23/10/2024 03:50:09)This is quite a useful blog on Wordpress on IIS. And it was me who flagged the point about web.config.
https://soupbowl.io/2020/01/the-complete-guide-to-running-wordpress-on-windows/
If you're lucky the Wordpress "one click" installation process will detect that it's on IIS and will generate a web.config file for you - Pieter says: (23/10/2024 11:10:00)Thanks John, very useful article. I do indeed tweak my php.ini like described in this post.
There is a lot a fake news going around about WP and IIS. IIS is fully capable of hosting all sorts of PHP apps, including WP and the vast majority of its themes and plugins.
The fake news I often read can be divided into several categories:
1. IIS is not safe for hosting WP
That's not correct. Each and every website in IIS can and should be secured by selecting/adding a user and set read/write permissions for the hosting folders. That's true for both Classic ASP, .NET and PHP applications.
2. Performance of PHP is weak on IIS
That's somehow correct. PHP sure is slower in IIS than on Apache or Nginx. But that depends a lot on the servers specs. The WP sites I host (with an average of 4 plugins) have an average render time between 300 and 500ms. That is without cache pluging. With a cache plugin, page render times go down to 30-100ms.
One thing IIS does much better than Apache, is that in IIS you can easily switch between PHP versions. You can install 20 different PHP versions on a Windows Server and decide for each and every PHP web application which version of PHP you want ot use. You can even install the same version of PHP multiple times and change the PHP mailer settings in each php.ini. I currently implement PHP this way, as then I don't need additional SMTP plugins in WP.
But above all, using PHP on Windows Servers gives you all the freedom of combining it with Classic ASP and .NET libraries. I just started doing just that on https://playground.iseral.be/asplite-framework/ and it works very well. I can now offer contact forms, custom applications, custom database integrations (use QuickerSite in the back, why not?), implement backup solutions, add my own website statistics, etc... by simply reusing all my Classic ASP scripts in the background. And no one will be able to tell.
I am offered a job as a teacher in Webdesign. So I have a question for you guys. What would you consider modern webdesign tools, trends, do's and dont's? Thanks!
26/07/2024 14:53:42 | Pieter | Login | Reply | Replies (41)
- Nick says: (26/07/2024 21:44:15)1. Essentials:
- HTML
- CSS
2. Trends:
- JavaScript , and JS libraries such as: (I hate JS !!!)
- REACT
- Vue
- Angular
etc...
https://kinsta.com/blog/javascript-libraries/
3. Tools:
- Developer Tools found in browsers like chrome.
Note: Stay out of the topic of SEO (at least for now), where most likely you will look like a fool, as nobody knows what the hell is going on with that anymore, thanks to AI.
4. AI:
- Open AI
- Perplexity
- Suno !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Github Copilot perhaps?
etc..., etc...
5. Pick a platform, WordPress, QS, Drupal, Shopify etc..., and depending what you choose, you can have a gazillion ideas and topics to teach...
But before anything, start with the basics of CSS and HTML, take them back 25 years... - Pieter says: (26/07/2024 21:57:06)Thanks Nick. Suno for Webdesign?
- Pieter says: (26/07/2024 22:13:40)I totally agree, start with HTML/CSS, but the choice was made already to not dive into that. And the more I think about it, the more I can live with that decision. There are plenty of visual web design tools these days.
Is WP a web design tool? There are sitebuilders and pagebuilders... ok, but that does not sound like webdesign I think. - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (27/07/2024 09:43:09)Nowadays I throw in Suno with everything... If you had asked me what car to buy, my answer would have been Suno !!!
As far as WP is concerned, and specifically design tools, you have to look at Advanced Custom Fields, where you can transform the platform to something similar to ASPRunner/PHPRunner, they have a free version, but the Pro is 100x more powerful, I have unlimited lifetime access, let me know it=f you want access...
Also, WP has a plugin called Microthemer, which also has a free version which does 70-80% of the premium version. In simple terms, you can point to any element of a page and style it. The beutiful thing is that you can also see the generated CSS code. That's how I style my themes, and over time, without realizing it at the time, that's how i learned CSS, not to mention all the experiments you can do with it. Again, let me know if you want access to the premium version as I also have lifetime unlimited sites license... Before I forget, to include my CSS additions/changes, I copy the generated code and append it in the theme's style.css file.
With your experience I would say that you can master ACF Pro within weeks, and Microthemer within a few hours. Both are amazing and very powerful. The Microthemer is the best tool anywhere to learn CSS, I was an early adopter about 10 years now, and one day after just a few months of using it, and copy/pasting the code, I realized that because of it, I learned a lot of CSS. It has responsive points too, and you can also add custom responsive points as well.
Something that I should have mentioned before anything else, teach them good coding hobbits, such as adequate backup systems, speed is very important, not to overload with too many libraries, whether it jQuery, JS, CSS frameworks etc... balance things out between functinality/looks vs speed, the importance of readbility, choice of colors, fonts, fonts sizes (Google wants a minimum of 16px). As far as modern designs go, fluid typography, which in terms of the new Block based themes, fluid typography is supported. This is where the font sizes get bigger or smaller depending on the device. BTW, even though you can have php and css code in your theme, they are no longer necessary, things are done basically with html and json files. Much easier and faster..., but because my themes and more complex I have to use some php, css and even some JS in my themes. - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (27/07/2024 09:43:22)Finally, speed is important. Good (Cloud) hosting, caching and getting rid of things you don't need is the way to go.
- Pieter says: (29/07/2024 12:43:56)hi Nick, thanks a lot. I'm sorry for the delay. We're on holidays in France so I was not online for a while. 40°C = 104.00°F...
I'll have a look at your suggestions asap and I report back. Thanks! - Pieter says: (05/08/2024 09:43:48)Nick what do you think of using Nicepage as a starting point for learning web design?
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:15:32)Last time I looked at Nicepage was 4-5 years ago. It's cool, but the bullshit that comes with it is not worth my time - what do I mean?
1. It's really a cloud based service software, and sometimes their server goes down, and you can't even edit pages on a live site. That's right, they have a WP plugin, but you have to be logged in their server to edit pages. It is not a template/theme builder like Artisteer was, where you did your design, exported it, and that was it. The real question is that what info can these commies steal from your site since their servers are always connected?
2. They market Nicepage as an AI product, years before AI really came around. There is nothing AI about Scampage, sorry Nicepage, ok? It has some interesting algorithms to place things in containers with some randomize functions, but that's about it. As far as it's WP performance goes, at that time of testing, it was horrible.
Let me say it one more time. Do you want to teach just for the sake of teaching, or do you really want to help them become successful in the real world? If your answer is the ladder, then you really have one choice:
WP in now 42.1% of the entire internet, and you want to use a block theme, not a traditional php based theme, for these 2 important reasons.
1. Block themes are faster, easier to code, easier to mintain, smaller in size.
2. With block themes it's like having Artisteer/JSTemplate built right inside of it. With little code, and in 90% of the time with no code (visually) you can edit the theme and even create new post/page/cpt templates for your site, and easily export your new theme to be used elsewhere. I did abandon my Artisteer project mainly for this reason among others...
Again, let me know if you need any help/demos/files, etc... to prove what I'm saying are valid. At this point it seems to me that you don't want to really teach web design (by code), but to teach a tool that makes websites, in other words a tool that will write the underlying code for you. Then you might as well try one of the AI site building tools that many hosting companies have, for example Hostinger has one (I am a client of theirs), and have you seen https://zipwp.com/ ? You can have AI create 2 starter websites for free per month. I think Wix has something similar tool too, and I'm sure there are a gazillion other AI tools as well... - Pieter says: (05/08/2024 20:16:29)Very interesting thoughts. Thanks Nick.
The NicePage you once used was v2.5.1, back in 2019. I actually donated a user license to 10 users, you were one of them.
Today, NicePage is at v6.15.2. In other words, they have released zillions of versions ever since we used it back then.
What you say about NP being a cloud based SAAS product is not 100% correct. NicePage has 2 different license models: the subscription and license (downloadable app). I bought a downloadable professional license back in 2019. It still works on my laptops even though I never renewed that license. It was a lifetime license that I bought for 169.00 USD back then. Even today their licenses are lifetime. The program keeps on working, even if you don't renew.
I once setup a QS demo site on a Nicepage website: https://nicepagedemo.quickersite.com/. It's still working and it does not rely on any CDN that relates to NP.
You do know that NicePage is the flagship product by the same guys from Artisteer and Themler, and that they're from Nicosia, I assume?
And you're right, talking webdesign, I really think that the page and block editing features in WP are very poor, except when using specific editors and/or plugins. WP is not a design tool, not in a million years. You need commercial plugins, that DO need renewal fees every year.
I am going to teach web design to students who will only occasionally build and/or maintain websites. In all honesty, the universtiy already made the choice to use WordPress. So yes, I need help. I kind a hate WP...
I will look into your suggestions. Many thanks. - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:15:57)Yes, apparently they are located in Nicosia, just 3 miles where I was born and grew up until 18.
This is where I totally disagree with you... Gutenberg is the fastest editor/page builder in the WP world, and nobody else come close. The issue with it is that because of the choices they are making many of the traditional page building features are missing, such as responsive controls etc... That said, once you understand and get fully acclaimed to it, you can very easily fill up all the missing tools and features with FREE plugins, or making your own, even if you are not a real coder with the help of ChatGPT, Preplexity, etc... No need to ever buy any premium plugin to make the editor any better.
The only money I do spend on WP that I use:
1. About 10 years ago I bought ACF pro lifetime unlimited site license for $75. Now, for unlimited sites, ACF costs $150/year...
2. WPVivid backup plugin: The free version will do for 95% of the time, but the premium version will also work with multi-sites, and that['s why i got it... I don't really use multisites except for demo purposes, so I can get away by letting this plugin go if I wanted.
Everything else, it's either something I have coded, or comes from a free plugin.
Let me know specifically what you need (demos, plugins, themes, tutorials, etc...).
BTW, one of my fav. design tools is https://instawp.com/ . I use the site as a free user simply because they don't accept PayPal, but I use their services almost on a daily basis. Great for testing things without relying on a localhost. You get a test site within 2 seconds, I have no idea how they can do that.l... - Pieter says: (06/08/2024 20:31:18)The one thing that confuses me a lot is how WP has been organised lately.
You can have pages and blog posts. That I get.
But with its own Twenty Twenty Four template, you can also have content (text and images) in one or more templates or even in patterns. I fail to see how that glues together.
Also, as soon as you use a theme like Astra, a completely different control panel takes over your WP control panel, and WP begins to acts as a poor webpage builder, that does not even comes close to the free version of Mobirise.
I can't find a video that explains this jungle to a dumb dumber guy like me. Do you know of any video about that? - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:16:57)Yes, I'll post some videos tomorrow, as I have to go through the vast number of Bookmarks. In the meantime:
1. Twenty Twenty four is a block theme, Astra is not. Astra is a php based theme, now called a "Classic Theme". In block themes, WordPress pretty much controls the menus to develop your themes etc. This is the place where global styles come in very handy where you can style things visually through the SITE EDITOR or with code, using json commands. If you switch to another block theme, very little will change with the interface.
2. I understand your confusion - here we go - the developers are almost idiots but there is a plan behind their madness.
a. Stupidity number 1: WordPress releases each version on a time based usually every 3-4 months between versions. They should release each version like a normal human being, when the new features are ready. But just like a big socialist government results are not important in the WP world, but showing there is some sort of activity. Each version has about 600 contributors, unlike QS which always had 1. Furthermore, many contributors are paid good money by corporations to work full time on the project. A couple of years ago it took an army of people and 2 weeks to create a new version of their About page - https://wordpress.org/about/ It could have been done by a 10 year old in 10 minutes.
b. So they have created this new interface call the Site Editor which is very similar in ways with the Editor. Right now it's confusing because things are in between, eventually both these things will become one. Bet because the releases are time based, you have 2 systems to edit things. Even though you can edit content on the Site Editor, for the confused people, I would suggest to ise the Site Editor to edit the theme and create new pge templates, etc... and use the Editor (Gutenberg) for content editing (Pages/Posts/CPTs).
Topic for another day are Patterns - formerly known as Reusable blocks. Patterns are just like Constants in QS, only 100x better. You can have a pattern, which you can add to a page and make changes to it. Then you have Synced patterns, where they are locked. So you put a synced pattern in 50 pages, and you make a change to your synced pattern and all fifty pages get the update automatically. WP 6.6 last month introduced Partial Synced Patterns. You can now decide which elements of the patterns can be individually be edited, like images, text ,headings, buttons, etc... more... - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:17:17)... but the structure of the overall pattern stays locked like a regular Synced pattern. So the creator of the pattern can give you access to edit each individual Pattern's Text, Images, etc... but you can add new blocks, remove blocks, or even move them around or set settings like background images, text color, dimension settings etc... Perfect for control freaks who set the design and allow their web site clients to only change certain allowed content. That said, with one click you can free things up and do whatever you want with the pattern.
I'll post some professional tutorial videos tomorrow. - Pieter says: (06/08/2024 21:37:59)Actually, I found an interesting video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jRJKl9Tf74
WordPress is trying to become a visual drag and drop site builder. But there are tons of better options if you're into that. There is no way to freely position elements, create overlays, overlaps, or even have some slightest website design freedom. All you have are dumb blocks you put one beneath the other.
WP is not a design tool. Not in a million years. It's a text editor with some extra's. - Pieter says: (12/08/2024 17:04:26)OK, I admit, I have to take this back. WP is not just a text editor with some extra's.
As I have no choice anyway, I had to redive into WP and I'd like to share my thought so far.
1. At the risk of stating the obvious: IIS is not capable of hosting WP. WAMPserver for Windows is. I have however hosted some WP sites in the past on various Windows Servers. I still do actually. But these are very small sites, with no or very few visitors. Don't even think about hosting a busy WP on IIS. It's gonna blow your RAM.
2. Even though WP introduced it's blockeditor in 2018, today the most popular templates (Astra...) are still PHP based. I don't understand that. Also, the Classic editor seems to be still very popular. The default Gutenberg blockeditor seems to be very unpopular: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/gutenberg/reviews/. I think it's very powerful though.
3. I'm still very confused about the various ways WP "accepts" content: templates, template parts, pages, posts, patterns... it's a jungle. And with each theme or plugin you install, things get even more complex. The initial idea must have been to come close to easy-to-use drag 'n drop website builders I guess. And that partially worked out well. Even though most drag 'n drop website builders I have used in the past did a much better job.
4. WP misses a basic built-in lightbox for popups (alerts), images and videos. Also, the built-in Gallery-widget is useless. At least, it does not better than FrontPage back in 1997.
5. WP misses a basic built-in formbuilder that generates contact- and registrations forms.
6. The most popular plugins have little or nothing to do with CMS. They're about SEO, security, backups, migration, performance and caching. Boring, extremely boring stuff.
That's it so far.
Thanks Nick for all your comments so far. They helped me a lot to look at WP from a different angle. - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:17:27)Sorry for the delay, today is the first day I'm feeling like a human again... having fever for about a week during heat waves builds character. I'm no longer afraid to going to hell !
1. I have no experience hosting WP on windows, so...
2. Before I answer this one, look at https://zipwp.com/, you can start for free, they use Astra for the sites... Ok, this is where I make tons of enemies and tried to get cancelled... WP is a huge community, and the majority o0f them are idiots, or uninformed, and too lazy to test things and do their own research. Gutenberg is absolute garbage actually on it's own, BUT, with some plugins, custom blocks, etc..., you ca make it the best and the fastest page builder. More on this later...
Gutenberg compared to other page builders is weird to use, and weird to get use to. But once you do... It's developers are complete morons, 600+ of them, with no real leader, and with no real plan how to proceed. Some examples: They change naming things, including IN THE CODE, so if you have coded something for the editor, it stops working with the next version, and it's up to you to figure out what changed and fix it. Another example is that patterns used to be call Reusable blocks for years. so users were getting confused. Back to the topic: When it comes to developers, a php based theme can only be changed with coding where most people don'[t know how. With block themes not only you can edit things visually, but after you make your changes, not only you can export the theme for distribution, but you can create a brand new theme from it. Astra, Divi, etc... took them years and a fortune to market just to get at the point they are now, they are not willing to give the control and power for a block theme... Simply put, a developer of php themes, have more control and the users need to do more work to switch to another theme. With blocks themes, switching is easier, BUT NEVER fast either.
3. I know: Until everything is built, and we get a system that makes sense, just use the editor for content, and the Site Editor to edit the theme. Do not use the site Editor for content, even though you can. In the site editor you can switch between editing content, and editing a template.
4. There are a gazillion form buildrs out there bo0th free and premium. Actually there is a very basic one being build in Gutenberg, probably we will see it by the edn of the year, and of course it will be block based.
5. I have to leave, I'll make you a list... - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 22:53:59)... of plugins and videos, and show you some of the crazy things you can do in WP right out of the box.
You have to look WP like football (soccer), or playing the guitar. Very easy to get into, quickly developing some skills, but you need to have that obsessive personality and work on it and think about it 24/7, if you want to get to the top level. Any moron can kick a ball, or strum a guitar, however, very few can become a pro football player, or Metallica's next guitar player !
Keep asking questions, now that you are onboard, I will put my WP hate hat on, and tell you what's wrong with WP. And WP ifor me it's just the USA. They are both the best in the world, but they are both very fucked up, really, REALLY fucked up !!! When I talk to non WP users, people think I'm a WP sheep, and when I talk to WP people, they think I'm a WP terrorist, trying to destroy it. I'm just trying to be fair and truthful...
I'll have some more either tonight or tomorrow depending what the medications are doing to me ! - Pieter says: (13/08/2024 22:49:04)Get better soon Nick.
I have installed WooCommerce on my localhost. All of a sudden, each and every page now takes 5 seconds to load. What a bummer. I thought I had finally found a good hosting solution in Wampserver. Noooot. Damn. WooCommerce installed about a dozen of plugins in the back. I probably don't need them.
Anyway, I reverted to a clean install. 1 minute job. No further questions for now. I really have to break down all elements that make WP a designer tool, like the document overview, the right pane with styling options, the drag 'n drop options, sizing stuff, etc. I am sure I will face lots of problems. I'll report in private. Nevermind my questions for now. Get better soon
- Pieter says: (14/08/2024 14:58:19)Yesterday, I spent quite some time with Google Sites. Just to make up my mind about whether or not I would mention it to my students: https://sites.google.com/view/mysuzukisamurai/
But today, for some reason, I renewed my 5y old Nicepage license. 1 hour later, I was able to upload: https://site22273299.nicepage.io/
It's game over for Google Sites. Nicepage comes with 100's of premade and ready to go templates, blocks, animations, popups, icons, galleries, headers, footers, exportable to any format, including as a WP theme. Nicepage also ships with an AI site, page and blockbuilder. I have not written a single word of this site myself. I used my own pictures though.
From a design POV, NicePage is amazing. The only problem I face is that I think it's not possible to ask students to buy a 100$/year tool if all they will ever use it for is one single website... - Pieter says: (14/08/2024 15:09:53)2 minutes later... I let NicePage build a website about ... learning web design. 100% AI.
https://websitedesign2039506.nicepage.io/
Check out all these animations on load... I have not touched it. It just rolls out the app like this... - Pieter says: (15/08/2024 17:22:40)To those who receive these notification emails (there are a dozen of them) and don't want to read all this crap, please unsubscribe below! This web design chit chat is too much fun. I can't help it.
Back to WP
It seems that the built-in WP 2024 theme is quite popular with 1 million installs. But it's boring. It does not have lightboxes, does not have the option to create overlaps, apply opacity, or free position anything. At least, not without breaking into the code, or not without being Nick and being into WP for more than a decade.
It looks like you need to install templates like Astra or Elementor if you really want some design freedom. And these are commercial templates. Let's be honest. The free versions are only meant to make you buy the pro. Pro versions cost more than an average hosting solution these days, who include their own website builder today, like Hostinger, Godaddy, etc. Elementor is only useful for agencies I guess. It's even quite affordable for web agencies for only 33 EUR/month. But once you start using an Elementor theme, you can't live without it anymore. You just have to keep on paying license fees until you die. I always think that's scary.
By the way, I just gave the Elementor basic gallery a try. It's crap. But it has a lightbox. And Elementor has some AI, even the free version. But Elementor is marketing it's product very well. They must spend a fortune to advertising. It's amazing how often I get ads from Elementor everywhere I go on the internet. Same for Nicepage btw. These days, everything is about online advertisting. You need to reinvest 90% of your revenue back into advertising. It's crazy.
If I had to use WP, I'd stick to the built-in WP twenty-series and go from there to learn how to use WP as an all-in-one website builder. That's OK. But I would add a lightbox-plugin at some point. Or write my own. All you need is one of the many JavaScript plugins and some CSS. Can't be that hard I guess.
Back to my students
It's gonna be a dillemma. There are 2 ways to teach web design. Use (and buy) a commercial website builder like Nicepage, Mobirise, Elementor, Astra, etc... or learn to handwrite HTML/CSS (and use something like Bootstrap to make it fun). There are equally good arguments for both approaches. There really are. It's like a religious dillemma, a philosophical puzzle. I can't get my head around it. But I will have to. I urgently need to start preparing my lessons.
To be continued! - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:16:05)WP has an option for overlaps, opacity and lightbox.
Remember the other day when I said the developers are idiots? Well, they are a bunch of typical lefties who want things both ways, and by doing so exposing themselves as hypocrites and morons. The left wants free speech as long as you agree with them, otherwise you get cancelled, name called, and even jailed in Europe. In WP they want simplicity for non developers, but some complexity for advanced users (developers), where logic and stupidity collides. That is why many things are hidden behind menus, buttons, panels etc...
I have a video demonstrating overlaps and opacity. However, out of the box WP believes in intrinsic design, so there are no responsive controls, this is where people do run into troubles when viewing things with smaller devices. My plugin incorporates many other plugins, and one of them is "Responsive Controls" which solves the issue - https://wordpress.org/plugins/responsive-controls/
I have a video demonstrating negative margins which they just added with WP 6.6 (which shouold have been included from day one, like a descent page builder, but hey, 6 years later is good enough right? Just like a big useless government here...
The video demonstrates the issue with small devices, and then the fix by adding the responsive margin settings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIX1g9qxlb4
Gutenberg is awesome once you know all the ins and out, horrible otherwise. In the video I also have a plugin that shows the borders between the blocks just like a descent page builder, but out of the box, Gutenberg wants you to guess those borders...
I have to go, so tomorrow I'll show you lightbox... - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:16:43)BTW, the reason of the silent videos are that my voice is gone, and my throat is killing me...
WP has a lightbox, but out of the box it is not active. You have to activate it via the Site Editor, on the block level, in this case the Image block. The video demonstrates the image block without the lightbox activated, and then how to activate the lightbox in WP. I also use a plugin for Lightbox, so I can have one in my custom made ACF Pro blocks. In WP once lightbox is activated, the WP gallery block gets the lightbox as well (I believe), I don't use the WP Gallery as I have coded my own with ACF Pro, which is way more powerful than the default one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmv4BhTWfcc
Keep 'em coming... Now I'm really out for the day ! - Pieter says: (16/08/2024 22:30:43)Wow, this helps Nick, thanks!
More questions and thoughts will follow soon. - Pieter says: (17/08/2024 18:36:21)Nick, what do you recommend for using AI in WP? Whick themes, plugins?
- nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:16:35)By far the best plugin for AI is AI Engine - https://wordpress.org/plugins/ai-engine/ . They also have a pro version - https://meowapps.com/products/ai-engine-pro/ . Both the free version and the premium require you to have your own OpenAI API key, which will cost you some money depending on your usage.
That said, in my plugin that I have made with ACF Pro, I have embedded Getwid - https://wordpress.org/plugins/getwid/ . It comes with an AI assistant block. Like in most AI cases, do NEVER trust what AI says, do your own research as well to verify the accuracy of the answers. For example. if you ask about Quickersite, in my case it says it is a drag and drop CMS among other things.
Getwid comes with many blocks - besides the AI the ones that stand out for me are the Sections block and the Image Hotspot.
BTW, you can install and activate as many block plugins as you want. without affective page load speeds. The blocks along with any resources that they are using, only get loaded on the front if a particular block is being used. So you can have 5000 blocks, and if in a page you only are using 3 of them, it will be as if you only have 3 blocks installed.
You should figure out how to add/delete fonts to your themes with the site editor. You can even have the site editor download and install one from Google, without having any legal issues in Europe. - Pieter says: (18/08/2024 12:25:57)Thanks Nick. I have meantime updaten my OpenAI account. I had used my 5 free credits, enough for 2 lines of AI generated texts ;)
I have also found the best plugin (for me) so far. It's free, and it does NOT come with a paid version: Twentig. It extends the built-in twenty-twenty themes with lots of patters. I now have more than 200 patters, instead of the 40 built-in. This is a real game changer for me. It makes WP a little less boring. - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:16:18)If you want to create your patterns you can:
1. Create the patterns in the editor, where they will be stored in the database. You will have to export them and them import them elsewhere - real pain !
2. Code them manually and store them in json files, which is a pain too, especially dealing with images, or,
3. Use The Pattern Manager plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/pattern-manager/
With this you can create your patterns in the editor, even create your own categories, and the patterns will be stored as actual files in the activated theme, and all the images will also be localized. All you have to do is zip the theme folder and take it elsewhere, or copy the folder where the patterns are stored in the theme and insert them into another theme.
Be careful though when using a pattern created in a theme when using them in another theme. If not done properly you will have spacing and/or color issues, because the WP blocks use css variables to style them, and there are no standard naming policies on those. If a theme in it's theme.json file does not reference a specific variable, things probably will not end well. Remember what I'm saying this part, I'm sure sooner than later you will ask me why this is happening and how to make the patterns universal to be use in any theme without any issues... - Pieter says: (18/08/2024 20:32:15)This is telepathy. I was just looking into https://wordpress.org/patterns/?curation=all&s=overlap and have copied 2 patterns (with overlap-look) from there. I simply copy/paste the JSON into an html-block. That appears to work.
All in all, WP is far behind on Nicepage when it comes to patterns. NP has over 10.000 patterns, and NP has an AI builder to automate both their texts and images. Also, WP's patterns are far less attractive than NP's ones.
But (these) WP's patterns are free. You can't compete with that.
That https://wordpress.org/plugins/pattern-manager/ hasn't been updated lately...
Another thing I just discovered, that Twentig plugin adds animations and visibilty tweaks. Amazing plugin! - Pieter says: (20/08/2024 20:01:55)What I fear most in WP is outdated and abandoned plugins. Sometimes these dev companies just disappear. What if you've been using their plugins for 100 websites... and all of a sudden they're gone and their plugins are no longer compatible with WP. These things happen, all the time. One example: Getwid by MotoPress. It once (not even that long ago, in 2020) offered many useful additional blocks for Gutenberg. But they seem to have lost focus on this free plugin lately. It shows several issues with the lateste WP versions, it even crashes Gutenberg.
And that's only 1 plugin. Imagine you're using 10 of them.
So I am already having doubts about Twentig. What if I promote it amongst my students, and the devs decide to pull the plug in 2 or 3 years from now...
WP is kind of a kamikaze ride anyway. You never know if your site will still be up when you wake up. You really don't. I have not had that feeling with QuickerSite in the past 15 years... I did know the feeling back in the early days, when security issues were discovered. But after I fixed those, in 2008, I'm pretty sure all 300 QSites I host will be available as long as I pay my hosting fees. - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (20/08/2024 20:15:13)I use Getwid with almost all my websites. Never crashed - not even once. It was last updated a month ago - https://wordpress.org/plugins/getwid/ I even your their AI assistant block which uses open source AI (not as good as some others), but hey, it's free and I don't even need an API key.
You have this typical WP hatred syndrome, where you are trying to manufacture issues where issues don't exist. Another example is what you said the other day about the Pattern Manager plugin - that it has not been updated for a while - updated to what? It does it's advertised job, there is nothing else I can think of that can be added as a feature or improvement, and it has no known security issues. QS get's an update every half a decade at best, are you knocking down QS now too? - Pieter says: (20/08/2024 23:28:14)Getwid's AI Assistent does not work for me. Does it for you?
And WP clearly states:
Warning: This plugin has not been tested with your current version of WordPress.
Same is true for that Pattern Manager.
For a newbie like me, these are red alerts. I don't want to use plugins that WP itself considers possible unsafe, untested or outdated. That's all I'm saying.
Maintaining, securing and testing plugins for a volatile web application like WP must be outrageously time consuming. I understand that developers give up on that sooner or later. I would too. - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (21/08/2024 19:20:59)Before I forget late last night I made a video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIWeDYRs6H0 I'll explain later down the post.
How things work security wise in the WP world:
1. All plugins and themes in the WP.org are first checked to guideline errors, code errors and security errors by machines. Then when passed those tests they have to pass similar tests conducted by humans. On a regular basis the file are checked by automated systems.
2. If a security hole is found, most of the time is kept a secret for a few days, the developer is informed of the issue and is given the chance to fix the issue. If the developer needs some time for the fix, the theme/plugin gets temporarily suspended. If the developer does not respond, the theme/plugins gets deleted. There was a discussion for a while where in such cases WP itself would automatically delete such themes/plugins from websites, but so far so good - they attempted another socialist/communist move !
3. There are at least a dozen or so companies who look for security holes, because they want to sell their security plugins or get some bounty reward money offered to them. When they find something, both the WP and the developer is notified before going public.
To keep safe, make sure your username is not exposed, in the Users screen make sure you publicly display anything else but your actual username. NEVER use Admin as your username either - long story for another day.
When deciding to use a plugin don't bother too much when it was updated, which WP version it was tested with last, etc... Look at reviews and read the low ones, look at the active installation numbers, and look at the percentage of happy reviews. Foe example, and let's say even though Getwid was actually been updated a month ago, in this example let's say it was updated 2 years ago... IT has 60,000 active installations and 97% happy reviewers. You test the plugin against your server, and see there are no conflicts with other plugins/themes, and go from there. One question that I always have to answer is, is the cost of the plugin (not monetary but how much will a plugin slow down the site) worth it? Does the load time cost justify what the plugin/theme offers? more... - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (21/08/2024 19:43:44)Ok, let me get into this example. In my 70 or so ACF Pro blocks that I have created, one of them is to display a text, then in the middle the current year and the copyright symbol, and a text after that. So the site admin can configure it to display something like this:
QuickerSite - 2024 (Copyright symbol), All Rights Reserved. The text before and after the date are customizable, the date is automatically updated with a simple php functions.
Now, let's say I get this block out of my theme and make a stand alone plugin with it so it can be used anywhere no matter which theme you are using.
Now 10 years go by, and I never update the plugin, because there is no new functionality to add, and there are no security issues. WP is going to list this AUTOMATICALLY as an outdated plugin, which is not really. Why does this happen? The min. php version requirement, and which WP version it was last tested with, are obtained automatically by software and not humans, from the header part of the plugin's main file. If every 3-4 months I go and update the header part that changes these 2 values, then it would look a freshly updated and well kept plugin, even though NOTHING has actually changed.
I have my issues with WP, and how it's been developed, but you have to understand their goals, and experiment and always search for better solutions with their 60,000+ plugins and tens of thousands of themes, not to mention even more stuff in other marketplaces. Their goal is to have WP easy enough for a newbie to just jump in and put his/hers ideas on a site, while at the same time have the tools (mostly hidden) for advanced users to do more complex stuff, and with tools like ACF PRo make idiots like me make a fool of all other CMS - trust me on this, there are no dull moments in the WP world, you can hardly catch your breath...
To finish things up for today, I never had any issues with Getwid AI, except the images (who cares), make sure you accept the answer you get, so it will import the answer in blocks. The video also demonstrates that I could not talk without waking up everyone in the house at 2am, some interesting tricks, and some plugins out of the many that I use to make things easier.
My suggestion to become an expert in WP are to follow these steps:
1. Learn the philosophies of the WP community, and don't believe the hype, negative or positive, make your own opinions with testing proofs.
2. Learn everything how to use the Editor and Site Editor (you are here).
. - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (21/08/2024 19:59:15)...
3. Learn how to customize, edit themes with the Site Editor with block themes, and export and create a new one with your changes included.
4. Learn to how to create your own blocks (I use ACF Pro which is the easiest way by far), and at the same time learn how to easily create you own Apps using WP as a framework. What do I mean by an App? Imagine building a Real Estate site where you will allow registered Real Estate agents list their properties on the front end, have an Advanced search engine for the site visitors to find listings easily, display the data in any way and in any layout that you want, and do EVERYTHING with either no coding or very little coding, in other words, and let's not forget to make your own Custom Post Types, and relate them automatically if you wanted too, create custom taxonomies, all with a GUI, then export the code and package them in a theme/plugin for easy distribution/sale. ALL done easily with ACF Pro... Have your own version of ASPRunner in a way, but in a more professional looking site if you will.
The real fun begins when you reach step 4 !!! And ask about what plugins for what etc... there are so many to talk about... For example there is the Simply Static plugin that exports your WP site into a datbase-less straight up html site, and there is one called Freeze, where when activated, it closes all the doors to log in. The only way to unfreeze the site is to use FTP and delete the plugin folder, perfect for demo sites where you b uild it, and forget about it for ever, no hacking worries, Wp updates, plugin updates, etc... time freezes !
Keep 'em coming... - Pieter says: (22/08/2024 08:55:59)To export any site to a set of offline html/css/js/images, I use https://www.httrack.com/ for two decades. It mirrors/copies any website to your local PC. This freeze thing sounds like something ... cool
I am in Amsterdam for the moment, getting stoned by just walking the streets and smoking the weed others are smoking. Weird and stinky city.
I reinstalled Getwid and it seems to be stable now. But the AI assistant won't fire off... Maybe it only works in the US?
I keep on trying... - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (22/08/2024 09:47:01)Maybe the AI Assistant is working but you are too stoned to realize it !!! Seriously though, the US thing must be it. Also try Getwid without any other plugins activated, in case there is a conflict somewhere. Could it be a missing server component? Who knows. Try it at https://instawp.com/ , it has a cool free version, and setting up a site takes 3 seconds. Getwid give no info, about their AI, which actual service they use etc...
To be honest Pieter, for better results and accuracy use perplexity, they even list their actual sources, so you can manually dive in and further devise your content. Then it will be a simple copy/paste.
It's been a while since I looked at Nicepage, but from day one they rubbed me the wrong way. They were advertising it as an AI product, years before AI was a thing. I am guessing even today, there is nothing AI about it, it has some clever algorithms, but I bet it learns nothing from you about your likes and hates, and it's not trainable to your taste for future project suggestions. It has prebuild sections which cleverly randomizes the layouts from what I remember. Remember during the Artisteer days they were telling us that they had 250,000 customers. Who would abandon such a business?
Anyway enjoy Amsterdam, I've been there 3 times, long time ago, it was nice and clean, I'm afraid to ask now...
Have you decided on the most important plugins yet? Backup, Cache, Security. Everything else are secondary... also it's good to know how to transform a WP site into a multisite, and how to use it properly...
Final note, and I don't think there is such a plugin, about 7 years ago, I copied one QS feature and took me a few weeks to perfect it, is the ability for each user to only see their own uploaded files in the media, except for Admins and Editors which can see everybody's media files. Unlike QS though, it does not use folders, but things get filtered. Today, in the AI days, it would probably take me a few hours, since AI is still pretty bad at coding. In 20 years, people will probably say, what's coding? - nick6352683@yahoo.com says: (22/08/2024 20:11:56)As a coincidence this came up today, as we were talking about security the other day:
https://wptavern.com/record-bounty-awarded-as-critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-patched-in-litespeed-cache-plugin - Pieter says: (22/08/2024 21:04:52)"This vulnerability does not affect Windows-based WordPress instances but poses a risk to those running on other operating systems, such as Linux."
Haaaaa!!!! - Pieter says: (23/08/2024 22:49:45)Nick, I attach the scope of the Webdesign lessons.
- Pieter says: (25/08/2024 10:05:11)My first lesson starts the 30th of September.
As you can see in the scope, backups, migrations, security, etc are not in. SEO is. But I'm not sure it makes sense. A lot has been written about SEO, whether it still makes sense or not.
AI is going to be another important tool to master and integrate in the website building classes. As is the hosting-chapter. Where to find decent hosting? How to locally host WP?
I plan to dedicate at least one lesson to flat html/css/js/image builders and hosting platforms like Github Pages. I use them for many years for some static sites. It's a 100% (ad-)free hosting solution for static websites.
I really need a dirt cheap WP hosting solution for about 150 WP sites. Any idea?
