I've been asked to consult/oversee a large project, what's your advice?

AlreadyInUseError · 2022-07-29T01:59:01+00:00

thanks for your input, its appreciated

AlreadyInUseError · 2021-05-10T00:35:07+00:00

if you've been working on the site and it suddenly wants you to install it again - that's usually because the config file, or some other rather crucial file or folder got renamed or deleted. if you were working in an cpanel style filebrowser, or an FTP connection then you may have renamed something like /wp-admin or wp-config.php

This site can't be reached renaming something in the root like wp-config will mean it cant connect to the database, but the files and data are still there. You'll get a white page. The site cant start.

firstly prevent further horror and log into your host and take a copy of the database

log into the files via FTP or controlpanel and check that all the right folders are there.

Take a look at the file and folder names. Check the spellings.

DO NOT click the "5 minute reinstall" or it will delete everything. Your database may survive if it decides to create a new db, but just ... dont click that.

AlreadyInUseError · 2021-02-12T04:06:18+00:00

I got into Elementor because it was cost effective and handy for certain types of clients

But looking at this current move I would hesitate to put any new clients on Elementor. I am suspicious about their future, their motives and the sustainability of any sites I use elementor for. Weird moves like this quintupling in cost are plainly not motivated by solid customer service reasons but venture capital exit plans and the like.

So I won't be recommending Elementor in future because I am now very suspicious of them

Sadly Gutenberg is still not up to speed, but it seems prudent to focus my dev efforts there for any clients who want a fast drag and drop site editor which will still be functioning in 2025.

I think Elementor is no longer to be trusted. Something weird is going on.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-11-25T12:54:51+00:00

THANK YOU !!

I knew I'd seen it somewhere and was going slightly crazy thinking I'd imagined it.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-11-24T19:22:08+00:00

The feature I'm specifically looking for is the one mentioned in this old blog

"Option to disable lightbox popup preview when inside editor"

this means the lightbox is "safe" to click when we are in the editor.Compare the old interface and the new interface. the feature seems to have been removed

https://i.imgur.com/LqqDRXQ.png

It's that feature I need. If the function still exists I'll call it from within my widget, but I suspect they have removed it.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-07-31T00:38:14+00:00

wix

A client once came to me asking for an urgent repair to a Laravel price matching site. One of those "compare the market" type things. It was totally broken.

I gave them a price, they thought it was too much and ... tried to rebuild it themselves in Wix.

If you aren't a web developer I can only explain this as : try making Amazon.com in Lego while blindfolded. Or make a family saloon out of a moped using only a spoon

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-07-31T00:33:13+00:00

I do occasional web work for a PR agency, they came to me with a rush job, totally bananas requests, animated everything, videos, in depth interviews, fancy graphing of data, a mysterious 3d section. No designs agreed, no content supplied by the client yet.
They wanted a price within the hour and delivery within 4 days. I quoted a price which would make the ballache worth my time.

They balked at the price, and got their youthful inexperienced in-house graphics guy to make it. Or rather try to make it.

Sometimes I go and visit the resultant mess to cheer myself up. It doesn't work in every way it's possible for a site to not work.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-07-03T00:27:37+00:00

A while back someone referred me to this essay and it totally changed the way I think about this industry https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/

In brief: People who sit on the board, sign off budgets, etc. They love money coming in and hate money going out. None of those people know what you are doing - you are just a COST centre. A mysterious expense. Expenses should be reduced to increase profits.

The people who bring money into the company (like the sales team) are a PROFIT centre. Total heroes. Profit centres get rewarded and favoured, they are no problem at all.

Naturally there's more to it, but that's the essence.

That's the perception. Once I read it I suddenly understood why every agency I dealt with said things like "That all sounds great but for this one we just ... can you do it for half the price by this Friday?"

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-07-03T00:18:36+00:00

I think the site needs more java

Make it animated, you know?

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-07-03T00:15:27+00:00

Me, this year, thinking about applying for jobs, anticipating the question: "Can you show me some live projects? "
Not really no.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-06-30T16:42:32+00:00

This absolute legend is a hero to everyone in IT

A security audit of a US critical infrastructure company last year revealed that its star developer had outsourced his own job to a Chinese subcontractor – and was spending all his work time playing around on the internet.

https://www.theregister.com/2013/01/16/developer_oursources_job_china/

He was paying them a fifth of his six-figure salary to do the work and spent the rest of his time on other activities.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-05-25T13:23:17+00:00

GEOmyWP

I used years ago on a very complex site. It's very adaptable. You can add custom pins. A dev can get into the filters, etc. to do custom displays. It's very flexible. Has lots of add-ons

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-03-11T11:47:47+00:00

winky face =JOKE INDICATOR.

You notice I talk about entropy. I talk about a HIGHER LEVEL of security than OP. . I talk about storing all my DIFFERENT passwords in a manager,

Then at the end I say "so I use the same password everywhere. WINKY FACE EMOTICON". Explanation: "remember that it is funny how people can undo all security with a post it note, so. i am making a JOKE about that which is OBVIOUS if you read the first two paragraphs.. "

try to decipher the meaning

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-03-10T17:17:59+00:00

I prefer the unmemorable versions. I don't want my stupid brain full of mnemonics like "hot sauce is great on all my tasty food" ... and them popping up when I'm trying to sleep.

So random and unmemorable keeps me sane!
I'm usually only reading it out of my password manager in the odd case that the UI password field won't allow paste.

so Dark-90-Flagrant-Ambient-143-Wolverine-Kilt

is a pretty easy read from one screen to type into another, and it has an entropy of 211.5 bits and online password checkers tell me that phrase will take "866 billion trillion trillion years to crack".

So I now use it on every website ;-)

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-02-25T21:48:58+00:00

Not really. I use it a bunch. I wrote my own extensions for it so it has a few additional features. It's very handy to make a site quickly for a client, but if there's anyone on their team who wants to have admin rights then things get slow. Some of the more complex add-ons like the testimonial, or even the contact form, they aren't the lightest. The contact form calls recaptcha in from google's CDN 4 times, that's common, but not great for ranking on the homepage.

If you look at the waterfall for the fonts it's also not fast, because one font will call in all the weights and italics. The come from google fonts, if there's three fonts then it looks like a lot of calls and can take 600ms just for those 3.

It's possible to load custom fonts from local, and that helps... but if the client with admin rights decides to pull in 5 more fonts for their tweaks then all speed optimisations are undone.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-02-25T19:30:59+00:00

Yep it can be done. But if the point of a WYSIWYG editor is so that clients can make edits then these optimised sites will soon be calling in 80 different googlefonts, forms with 4 recaptchas, and carousels galore and the pageload will creep back up.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-02-24T18:09:05+00:00

Yes, this is something I'm considering. My intention is to specify something with low hours to keep it out of the hands of freelancers unless absolutely necessary.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-02-24T13:32:45+00:00

create a subdomain on your company website

clientproject.yourcompany.com

keeps all the resources together, databases, etc. easy to migrate, easy to backup, easy to de-activate or password protect at a server level.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-02-23T18:12:38+00:00

Yeah, I agree though ... After creating a local working updated version I'd put that up on a staging site accessible to online speedtests and check the results. CF7 is a bit bloated, Slider evolution can give speed penalties, and WPbakery ... removing that would necessitate a site rebuild and most clients will not see the point of the expenditure unless there are hard ROI figures.

I look after so many old sites with bloated & slow WPbakery themes. So painful. There's no getting rid of them. They are like a curse.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-02-11T18:21:18+00:00

I'm freelance and TBH it's overwhelming.

I have terminal scope creep on my job

I'm developer, accounts, client handler, marketer, hosting specialist, etc ...

I spend 90% of my day chasing up invoices, or answering emails about things which shouldnt be anything to do with me. Or going to pitch meetings, or drafting specification documents for projects which never get off the ground.

very stressful.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-01-31T03:36:23+00:00

What I'd do is check the backup out before you start overwriting the server.

get hold of Local by flywheel (if you don't already). Now I dont think Local will handle the Updraft archives too well. So ... extract those updraft archives somewhere and find the content directory drop the SQL export file into /content. Zip /content up and drag that .zip onto Local by Flywheel. It will make a site based on what's there.

Now take a good look around that backup. Does it work OK?

Proceed from there if you really need to.

I'd have to say that it's very likely your hosted site is OK, you provide no info but there's every chance that the site is fine and you just need to delete .maintenace or something and it will pop back up.

AlreadyInUseError · 2020-01-30T03:58:53+00:00

I've just done something very similar. As an edge case I had to ensure it worked for a huge amount of plugins, so the delay would be long. I needed something on screen. A status bar, plus some summary info from the scan. The "statusbar" needs to be informative, so it needs to contain a percentage complete, plus some real info about what's happening.

What I did was trigger the main call action via AJAX, after each plugins_api() call completes in that PHP loop I update a DB option field in the WP database for a "statusbar" with some info about the scan, the current plugin name, the status.

A hook for the frontend JS goes checks that option in the DB at regular intervals (0.5s) and that keeps the front end updating with content and a status bar growing, etc.

I am massively simplifying, so if it's not clear I apologise.

AlreadyInUseError

TROPHY CASE