In an ideal world, web design presentation would be separated from the logic of web applications. To some degree, that’s the case in WordPress, but for theme developers, much of the functionality and the presentation is mixed. Theme files are a combination of HTML and PHP, which can make developing and editing WordPress themes complex […]

WordPress may be one of the most powerful content management systems in the world, but that doesn’t mean that it’s flawless. It can still be misused, and you can definitely still make mistakes if you don’t know what you’re doing. If you’re planning to upload rich media like images, video, or audio to your site, […]

Over the last few years, web development toolchains have grown increasingly complex. It wasn’t all that long ago that web pages were coded in HTML and CSS in a text editor. But, with the introduction of CSS pre- and post-processors, template languages, greater demand for site optimization, and the plethora of other helpful little tools […]

A decade ago, Subversion (SVN) was the version control tool of choice for many open source and enterprise software development projects. That’s why the WordPress.org plugin and theme repositories are based on Subversion — at the time, it was the obvious choice. But times change, and now most open source developers use Linus Torvald’s Git […]

We’re happy to announce our Platinum sponsorship of Meet Magento NL, and the attendance of several of our Magento eCommerce hosting experts, two of whom will be giving in-depth talks packed with practical information to help Magento retailers improve both the security and performance of their stores. One of our favorite parts of being an […]

People love shopping, but they don’t love jumping through hoops to make a purchase. Forcing users to enter reams of data into complex interfaces is a conversion rate optimization anti-pattern. However enthusiastic a shopper is to make a purchase, their enthusiasm will be dampened by complex checkout processes. A significant proportion of all shopping carts […]

In 2015’s State Of The Word address, Matt Mullenweg talked about WordPress 4.4, about PHP 7, and about the growth of WordPress, but the headline message of the talk was this: JavaScript and APIs are WordPress’s future. That statement has to be taken in its proper context: WordPress isn’t abandoning PHP, and PHP will be part […]

Passwords are not a great authentication method — a point that’s been made many times, not least by me on this blog. Passwords are great in theory, but in practice, when users are asked to choose and manage strong passwords, they don’t. They choose easy-to-remember and hence easy-to-guess passwords. And they use the same password […]

An uncared for WordPress site will soldier on through the years, but it won’t provide the best service. Eventually, without intervention, something will go wrong: it will be hacked or a software bug or hardware failure will cause data to be lost. If you aren’t prepared for that eventuality, the result can be catastrophic. The […]

After surviving the busy holiday shopping season last November and December and now with the first quarter of 2016 in the rear-view mirror, hopefully your Magento store is still going strong. Need to fine-tune things a bit? There’s still plenty of time for renovations and enhancing stores before the 2016 holiday season arrives. Now is a […]