How to ignore a folder in GitHub Desktop
I had a whole folder that I didn’t want to include in my project. Although I like the desktop client, I did not like the idea of having to select several files and have the app add them all to my .gitignore file. There had to be an easier way, like there is from the command line. And of course there is, I just didn’t know what it was. If you’re in the same boat, then you’re in luck – because here’s how you ignore a whole folder in the GitHub Desktop App (works on Windows and macOS). On the main menu at the...
read moreHow to install an rpm file on CentOS
On extremely rare occasions (LOL) we get precompiled binaires we can install on our Linux systems. Depending on the distributions, we may end up with an rpm file. I always forget how to install them when this happens – probably it happens so very rarely. Here’s how we can do that. Installing rpm files with yum Yum can deal with both local and remote precompiled rpm files. For files already on our system, we can call this: yum localinstall yourfile.rpm Instead of a local filename, we can also pass a URL like so: yum localinstall...
read moreDid you know: Windows 10 has an Emoji Picker? 😮
I’ve often wished that I could bring up an Emoji Picker in Windows just as easily as I can use it on macOS, where it’s been available for years. All I need to do there is press CTRL + CMD + Space, and I’ll get a window with little graphic icons. iOS even has a whole Emoji Keyboard that can be added and used just as easily. But Windows? Not without additional headaches. Well until that secret Emoji Picker arrived with an update in 2018. How did I miss that? Either way, all we need is to press WIN + . (as in the Windows key...
read moreHow to cancel you Amazon Prime Video Channels
I really like the how Amazon let you add new channel subscriptions to the existing Prime Video library. Julia and I are having great fun channel hopping through various British catalogues and catch up on UK telly. So far we’ve had Acorn TV, PBS and Britbox. What we don’t particularly like is that certain shows seem to move without notice from one provider to another. Programmes that were available on Channel X last week are now only available with a subscription to Channel Y. Bizarre – but that’s how it goes these...
read moreHow to calculate elapsed years from the current time in WordPress
I’ve implemented a neat feature on the front page of my other website: it calculates how long Julia and I have been married. Rather than this being one of those items I will certainly forget to update in the future, it uses a shortcode in the regular page text to calculate this value. The WordPress function current_time() returns the value of “right now”, and the rest is PHP maths under the hood. Here’s how I did it: <?php function guru_yearsmarried() { // dates to be calculated $dateMarried = strtotime(...
read moreHow to amend built-in WordPress Queries before execution
I wanted to update the order of posts shown on a regular category/tag archive page. At first I thought I’d have to write my own custom query for that, which would have meant a great deal of fudging an existing template that worked fine as it was. All I wanted to do was to amend a single parameter of the existing query WordPress was generating under the hood. Lo and behold, there’s the beautiful hook we can use for this very purpose: pre_get_posts(). This is fired after all parameters for a regular WordPress query are setup, but...
read moreCreating simple Shortcodes in WordPress
I’ve built my very own shortcode in WordPress for the first time. Quite the adventure! It’s a very convenient and powerful way to call a function without resorting to writing code while you’re writing text. I needed to echo some text that would rely on something dynamic I wrote in PHP. In my post, all I wrote was [whatever], which would then be replaced by whatever came out of my function. I didn’t need any parameters to be passed to/from my shortcode, which is fairly easy. Here’s how I did it in principle: <?php // create your shortcode...
read moreHow to re-open a closed Tab in Firefox
Hey I’ve been there more times than I can count: close one or several tabs, only to think, “dang – I needed to keep that one open. What was that URL again?” Looks like I’m not alone, because many browsers support a feature that lets us re-open an accidentally closed tab. I use Firefox, and here’s how you do that: Right-click on your Browser Bar (next to the plus icon to open a new tab), then select Undo Close Tab. It’s genius! Your most recently closed tab will magically re-open, without having to...
read moreHow to style the WordPress Login Page
It’s relatively easy to add your own logo and a custom message to the default WordPress login page. Several plugins let you do that, but I’m a big fan of a little “hard coding”. It makes it easy to have all changes contained in your own files. Here are the four little helper functions I’ve used to make the login section on my own sites a little more palatable. All of these are done with hooks rather than hacking page templates by the way, so this is PHP and CSS only. Adding your own logo This is the most complex...
read moreHow to remove the Title and Description from Archive Pages in GeneratePress
I’ve been having great fun with the Page Hero feature in GeneratePress, and I wanted to use it for archive pages too. By default however, the Archive Title and Description show up in the Page Hero as well as underneath it. This doesn’t happen on single posts, so we’ll have a bit of work to do to make them not show up twice. Rather than hack the actual archive template page, I found two hooks that can accomplish this nicely: generate_archive_title and generate_archive_description. Knowing of their existence means we can...
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