Tutorials

[Written for internal DD9 use, published for the good of mankind] What is git? Git is an application for distributed version control. It’s version control because it lets you deftly create and manage versions of your files, and it’s distributed because there is no server. What is a git repository? … more

[Quick guide written for internal DD9 use, published for the good of mankind.] This is a rough guide, since I don’t have a specific project to test it on. When we get there, I’d like to test it out myself to improve this document. That said… 1)  Download and Install … more

Below is a quick screencast illustrating the two methods for adding a PDF link to a WordPress Post or Page.  If you’d prefer a non-video explanation or an additional resource, you can download this screenshot, which includes similar instructions to those covered in the video.

Interesting bug today: A client’s web form takes file uploads and forwards them as email attachments. Script works great for .doc files, but .docx files end up as mysterious attachments with filenames like ATT00010.txt, whose content starts with this: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document; name=”filename.docx” Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=”filename.docx” Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 This “header” is followed … more

After installing Internet Explorer 9, I began cross-browser testing the DesignDivine sites.  IE9 destroyed the layouts of at least a half of our websites with no discernible or obvious patterns.  Large content areas were missing from new and old sites alike.  Each of these sites was compatible with IE6, IE7, … more

One of our clients wanted two sites—two URLs, two designs, two sets of content—on a single WordPress install. They wanted to be able to log into a single admin area to manage both sites, and to be able to make posts of certain categories show up on both sites, while … more

We just launched a new site for one of our clients, and one small improvement we made was replacing all the old and ugly (and not especially SEO-friendly) URLs like /cand_jobs.shtml with shiny new ones like /jobs. The catch here is that Google’s existing index refers to all the old … more

WordPress automatic updates are awesome. When they work, they’re as easy as a click of a button. When they fail, however, you’re left either reconciling yourself to an eternity of manual updates, or troubleshooting your host–a process that routinely takes much longer than applying the update manually would’ve. In this … more

A VPS is the standard upgrade when conventional shared hosting won’t meet your needs. The catch, and most hosts try not to make this clear, is that you’re then on the hook for all configuration, upgrades, and maintenance. And as an added bonus, many hosts offer default VPS installs configured … more

Compared to WordPress’s automated self-updates, Drupal’s update process is something of a chore. This chore isn’t made any easier by Drupal’s documentation (also here), which at the time of writing takes up nine pages, is self-contradictory, unnecessarily time-consuming and somewhat paranoid. And it never offers a canonical pragmatic checklist. After … more