As an aside, content from Ed’s old Blogger account was transported via the handy WordPress ‘import’ function. Although imported in an untidy spaghetti like inline code fashion, it certainly relived the burden of having to paste each and every blog post. All in all, it’s a great function for a prolific Blogger based blogger looking to upgrade to a self hosted WordPress outfit.

For the actual programming of the blog, customised template pages were utilised for the ‘about’ , ‘newest’, and ‘archive’ pages. The ‘about’ page saw the use of custom fields to extend WordPress’s CMS capabilities to allow Ed to post both images and descriptions of his favourite books. The ‘newest’ page leveraged a custom page template so as to order and limit the latest posts by date, while similarly, the ‘archive’ displays category headings and related posts by date.

In addition to customised Facebook and Twitter plugins, a user subscription and Google sitemap plugin rounded out the build.

In order for the website owner to manage his own content, WordPress was used as a CMS (content management system). Each page is editable, while images can be uploaded to a specific category, which will then appear on the website automatically re-sized. The quotations and contact pages feature forms that check for incorrect email addresses and make sure compulsory fields are satified. Here’s a screenshot of the site:

To see it in action, go to here.

To see it in action, visit: www.montrose-partnership.com

The ecommerce system features an easy to use admin section to upload and manage stock, monitor orders and dispatch, and to keep record of all transactions. The cart, or order basket, is kept in the sidebar and updated automatically throughout the shopping experience. Once the items have been selected, the user proceeds to the checkout, submits his/her personal details, then chooses a payment method. The user has the option to either complete the transaction via Pay Pal, or credit/debit card. The order’s recorded and a confirmation email is sent.

All in all, this is a very convenient and compact ecommerce system, and a must for those wishing to make the transition to online sales. If you have a ‘bricks and mortar’ business, why not compliment it and reap the reward of additional sales with an online ecommerce presence.

Additionally, SEO (search engine optimisation) was undertaken to make sure the products are found when searched for in Google, or another search engine. With some SEO tuning, the page now appears at the top of page one for very relevant search terms.

So, if you try to activate a WordPress plugin, but can’t, due to a memory allocation problem, you can either modify the wp-settings.php script, or, if that has no effect, increase the ‘memory_limit’ variable in the php .ini file. If you can access the php .ini file yourself, great, if not, contact your host.

To change the wp-settings.php file, open it up and locate the following lines:


if ( !defined('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT') )
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '32M');


Now change ’32MB’ to ’64MB’, so it reads:


if ( !defined('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT') )
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');

Again, if this doesn’t and you can’t change the php .ini file yourself, contact your host. Incidentally, if you’d like to see your ‘memory_limit’ allocation, pop the following code into a php web page and upload it to the server:


<? php echo phpinfo(); ?>


Surrey Van Sales trader website, Trading Vans, is a mash-up utilising data from Google Base and eBay, and mapping API, Google Maps. The development images, above and below, illustrate the home page and a search results page, respectively.

The vehicle results column lies to the left and is updated using AJAX to aviod page refreshing. Once a vehicle is selected, its details are generated in a content area beneath the map, which is set out in tabs for ease of use. The open tab’s a basic description for a brief overview, next to a tab of photos (see below) and a tab full of detailed information. The vehicle content area is also populated by AJAX.

The Google and eBay APIs are accessed using object orientated PHP. The script queries the server to see if cURL is enabled, if not, a socket connection is use to access the data.

Carried out for a West London based design agency, this job entailed taking a psd design and bringing it to life via XHTML/CSS and the wonderful jQuery JavaScript library. The vertical menu is set to stay in place while the content area to the right changes to reflect whatever the user chooses to click on.

jQuery’s chaining ability is put to thorough use as each menu link sets off a series of events; the menu itself – inc. child elements – expands and contracts, and the content area is repopulated. The following picture illustrates what happens when a specific wedding ring is clicked. The content area changes to a large ring with a column of thumbnail rings situated to the side. The thumbs can be navigated with arrows and clicked to expand and fill up the content area. Again, this is all performed using jQuery.

CSS sprites were implemented for the menu’s hover states, however, the selected ‘active’ state is actioned using jQuery. Here’s one of the sprites:

All in all, an interesting exercise in the uses of CSS and jQuery, which indeed makes for clean uncomplicated code.

This is a convenient little resource featuring the abovementioned tip and plenty of others.

For seasoned SEO experts and budding beginners alike, the study represents “the collective wisdom of expert practitioners”, and without doubt sheds a some light on what’s percieved by some to be more art than science.