BeeWUG - Page 4 of 6 - Blackburn WordPress User Group

BeeWUG 6th December 2017

Get involved and book here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/

Be sure to subscribe to the mailing list on the right hand side to keep up to date with all future events and BeeWUG news.

BeeWUG is a community driven event, meaning that it is what people make of it. If you are interested in WordPress, use WordPress professionally or just want to know what WordPress is about, come along and find out more.

WordPress is awesome, get involved!

Event Format

18:00 — Arrivals
18:30 — Prompt start – Talk – WordPress news
18:45 — Q&A – For topics covered and Michael’s WP update
19:00 — WP Clinic – Bring your laptop and get the hands on help you need from the WordPress community in the room
20:00 —Break & Networking
20:15 — In Depth Talk – TBC
21:00 — End

BeeWUG 1st November 2017

Get involved and book here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/

Be sure to subscribe to the mailing list on the right hand side to keep up to date with all future events and BeeWUG news.

WordPress is awesome, get involved!

Event Format

18:00 — Arrivals
18:30 — Prompt start – Talk – WordPress news
18:45 — Q&A – For topics covered and Michael’s WP update
19:00 — WP Clinic – Bring your laptop and get the hands on help you need from the WordPress community in the room
20:00 —Break & Networking
20:15 — In Depth Talk – TBC
21:00 — End

BeeWUG 4th October 2017

Get involved and book here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/

Be sure to subscribe to the mailing list on the right hand side to keep up to date with all future events and BeeWUG news.

WordPress is awesome, get involved!

Event Format

18:00 — Arrivals
18:30 — Prompt start – Talk – WordPress news
18:45 — Q&A – For topics covered and Michael’s WP update
19:00 — WP Clinic – Bring your laptop and get the hands on help you need from the WordPress community in the room
20:00 —Break & Networking
20:15 — In Depth Talk – TBC
21:00 — End

BeeWUG 6th September 2017

Get involved and book here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/

Be sure to subscribe to the mailing list on the right hand side to keep up to date with all future events and BeeWUG news.

WordPress is awesome, get involved!

Event Format

18:00 — Arrivals
18:30 — Prompt start – Talk – WordPress news
18:45 — Q&A – For topics covered and Michael’s WP update
19:00 — WP Clinic – Bring your laptop and get the hands on help you need from the WordPress community in the room
20:00 —Break & Networking
20:15 — In Depth Talk – Understanding Linux
21:00 — End

Event Information

Be sure to review the details about BeeWUG and how to get here. If you’d like to speak at one of our future events or even sponsor a future event, let us know.

BeeWUG Summary 2nd August 2017

What’s Been Happening in the WordPress World Last Month

All of the URLs on your website have a built in RSS feed which can be accessed by adding /feed/ to the URL such as, https://www.contradodigital.com/category/developer/feed/
Couple of really handy tools for automation, https://zapier.com/ and https://ifttt.com/ with one example of how this can be used for social media management, https://www.contradodigital.com/2015/10/08/60-seconds-a-day-social-media-management-with-automation-and-technology/ and an interesting example using Tweets and Hashtags to control bubbles in the office, http://bubblino.com/
Handy plugin that adds in the Featured Image URL into the RSS feed which can then be used in MailChimp campaigns, https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/featured-images-for-rss-feeds/
Lots of popular Gallery Plugins, which ultimately depends on your individual needs and requirements, https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/wordpress-gallery-plugins/
Various tools for local WordPress development including, https://github.com/Varying-Vagrant-Vagrants/VVV, http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-on-your-windows-computer-using-wamp/, http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-a-local-wordpress-site-using-xampp/
Debugging WordPress can be challenging if you didn’t build the website yourself or if you are unsure of how WordPress fits together. A handy guide and process to follow can be found here, https://www.contradodigital.com/2016/08/12/how-to-debug-wordpress-problems/
Handy Cacheing plugin for WordPress, https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/, beware that while cacheing can be great, it can also cause problems.
How to add custom fields to WooCommerce category pages beneath the product listings, follow this guide here, https://www.contradodigital.com/2016/07/05/add-custom-field-woocommerce-product-category-pages-display-content-products/
WordPress template hierarchy handy for understanding how WordPress decides on which PHP file to use to load content,
How to automate email marketing campaigns, https://www.contradodigital.com/2016/09/22/automating-your-email-marketing-campaigns-with-wordpress-and-mailchimp/
How to add featured images to RSS feeds, https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/featured-images-for-rss-feeds/
Handy plugin for adding Facebook Messenger to your WordPress website for Live Chat functionality, https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/fb-messenger/
Other Live Chat functionality for WordPress, https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-live-chat-support/, lots of plugins available, have a browse around for something that meets your individual needs
Handy tool for seeing how real people are using your website, https://www.hotjar.com/
Guide on how to implement free SSL certificates on your website, https://www.contradodigital.com/2016/09/01/claim-your-free-ssl-certificates-for-https/ using Lets Encrypt
SiteLock Acquires Patchman’s Malware and Vulnerability Detection Technology, Expands WordPress Customer Base to 4 Million – https://wptavern.com/sitelock-acquires-patchmans-malware-and-vulnerability-detection-technology-expands-wordpress-customer-base-to-4-million
Adobe to Discontinue Flash Support and Updates in 2020 – https://wptavern.com/adobe-to-discontinue-flash-support-and-updates-in-2020
.blog Passes 100,000 Registrations, 66.5% of Purchased Domains are in Use – https://wptavern.com/blog-passes-100000-registrations-66-5-of-purchased-domains-are-in-use
New Dobby Plugin Captures and Hides Unwanted WordPress Admin Notices – https://wptavern.com/new-dobby-plugin-captures-and-hides-unwanted-wordpress-admin-notices
Jetpack 5.2 Brings Major Improvements to the Contact Form Module – https://wptavern.com/jetpack-5-2-brings-major-improvements-to-the-contact-form-module
Let’s Encrypt Passes 100 Million Certificates Issued, Will Offer Wildcard Certificates in January 2018 – https://wptavern.com/lets-encrypt-passes-100-million-certificates-issued-will-offer-wildcard-certificates-in-january-2018
Automattic Releases Net Neutrality WordPress Plugin Ahead of July 12 Protest – https://wptavern.com/automattic-releases-net-neutrality-wordpress-plugin-ahead-of-july-12-protest
Sustain Event Draws 100 Attendees to Discuss the Sustainability of Open Source Software – https://wptavern.com/sustain-event-draws-100-attendees-to-discuss-the-sustainability-of-open-source-software
WordPress.com Introduces Scheduling for Social Media Posts – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-introduces-scheduling-for-social-media-posts
Gutenberg Boilerplate Demonstrates How to Build Custom Blocks – https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-boilerplate-demonstrates-how-to-build-custom-blocks
Stylishly Display Weather Conditions with the Weather Atlas Widget – https://wptavern.com/stylishly-display-weather-conditions-with-the-weather-atlas-widget
WP Rollback Adds Multisite Compatibility and Changelog Preview – https://wptavern.com/wp-rollback-adds-multisite-compatibility-and-changelog-preview
bbPress 2.5.13 Readds Sanitization to Anonymous User Data – https://wptavern.com/bbpress-2-5-13-readds-sanitization-to-anonymous-user-data
The State of JavaScript 2017 Survey is Now Open – https://wptavern.com/the-state-of-javascript-2017-survey-is-now-open
WordPress 4.8.1 Adds a Dedicated Custom HTML Widget – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-8-1-adds-a-dedicated-custom-html-widget
Members 2.0 Adds Capability Registration System, Introduces New Settings Screen for Add-Ons – https://wptavern.com/members-2-0-adds-capability-registration-system-introduces-new-settings-screen-for-add-ons

The next meetup is on Wednesday 6th September, full details here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/

BeeWUG 2nd August 2017

Get involved and book here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/

Be sure to subscribe to the mailing list on the right hand side to keep up to date with all future events and BeeWUG news.

WordPress is awesome, get involved!

Event Format

18:00 — Arrivals
18:30 — Prompt start – Talk – WordPress news
18:45 — Q&A – For topics covered and Michael’s WP update
19:00 — WP Clinic – Bring your laptop and get the hands on help you need from the WordPress community in the room
20:00 —Break & Networking
20:15 — In Depth Talk – Understanding Linux
21:00 — End

Event Information

Be sure to review the details about BeeWUG and how to get here. If you’d like to speak at one of our future events or even sponsor a future event, let us know.

BeeWUG Summary 5th July 2017

What’s Been Happening in the WordPress World Last Month

WordPress 4.9 to Focus on Managing Plugins and Themes, Gutenberg Targeted for 5.0 – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-9-to-focus-on-managing-plugins-and-themes-gutenberg-targeted-for-5-0 with more details found about Gurenberg here, https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/06/16/4-9-and-gutenberg/ and the plugin for testing Gutenberg can be found here if you want a play, https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/, and if you want to find out more about Gutenberg, have a read here, https://wptavern.com/why-gutenberg
WordPress Marketing Team Launches Case Studies and Usage Survey for Agencies, Clients, and Enterprises – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-marketing-team-launches-case-studies-and-usage-survey-for-agencies-clients-and-enterprises – This is a really positive step forward to marketing WordPress as a platform
WooCommerce Drops 50% Renewal Discount on Subscriptions – https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-drops-50-renewal-discount-on-subscriptions – Something to be aware of if you’re using WooCommerce Extensions which isn’t going down too well in the community
WordPress 4.8 “Evans” Released Featuring Nearby WordPress Events, New Media Widgets, and Link Boundaries – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-8-evans-released-featuring-nearby-wordpress-events-new-media-widgets-and-link-boundaries – Great to see a few new members at the event this month as a direct result of the local WordPress meetup event being listed in the dashboard 🙂
Holler Box: A Smart Notification Plugin for WordPress Websites – https://wptavern.com/holler-box-a-smart-notification-plugin-for-wordpress-websites – Handy little plugin. There are various different versions of plugins like this which can be found in the WordPress repository
Gutenberg 0.2.0 Released, Adds New Custom HTML and Cover Image Blocks – https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-0-2-0-released-adds-new-custom-html-and-cover-image-blocks – This isn’t going down too well in the community and there have even been blog posts pleading not to make this part of WordPress Core. Time will tell. This type of page builder style technology is good and bad
Popular WordPress Plugins Slow to Add Meta Box Support for Calypso – https://wptavern.com/popular-wordpress-plugins-slow-to-add-meta-box-support-for-calypso
WooCommerce 3.1 Adds New CSV Product Importer/Exporter, Improves Extension Management – https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-3-1-adds-new-csv-product-importerexporter-improves-extension-management
Create your own Street View imagery with new 360 cameras – https://www.blog.google/products/maps/create-your-own-street-view-imagery-new-360-cameras/
Google have launched a Mobile Sites Certification – https://www.contradodigital.com/2017/06/08/weve-passed-googles-mobile-sites-certification/ – It’s worth running through the test if you want to learn more about mobile websites and technologies beyond the surface level. For the majority of WordPress users, most quality Themes will have a lot of this taken care of
Recommended Themes and Plugins – https://beewug.uk/resources/recommended-wordpress-plugins-themes/ – The discussion came up again, so here is the information for reference
Any ideas and feedback you would like to contribute to the WordPress world and community, get involved here, https://wordpress.org/support/forum/requests-and-feedback/ – Many of the features you see today are based on comments, discussions and generally getting involved with the WordPress community online
Discussion around cacheing, quite a handy tip if you’re using Google Chrome to completely disable browser level cacheing, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5690269/disabling-chrome-cache-for-website-development and always consider additional cacheing levels at the WordPress level and the web server level that are quite likely impacting what you are seeing
Handy tool for testing the speed of your website, https://tools.pingdom.com/ and optimising the content of your website to load faster
A good responsive slider plugin if needed, http://soliloquywp.com/
New image attribute for responsive websites for multiple devices, srcset, https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-build-responsive-images-with-srcset/ – Many quality WordPress themes will implement this by default, others may not. Something to consider for making sure that smaller images are loaded on mobiles and larger images are loaded on larger screens such as laptops and desktop computers
Imsanity Plugin to avoid people using your WordPress website uploading extremely large image sizes – https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/imsanity/ – A very handy plugin that I’m sure will come in handy for people.

The next meetup is on Wednesday 2nd August, full details here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/

BeeWUG 5th July 2017

Get involved and book here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/

Be sure to subscribe to the mailing list on the right hand side to keep up to date with all future events and BeeWUG news.

WordPress is awesome, get involved!

Event Format

18:00 — Arrivals
18:30 — Prompt start – Talk – WordPress news
18:45 — Q&A – For topics covered and Michael’s WP update
19:00 — WP Clinic – Bring your laptop and get the hands on help you need from the WordPress community in the room
20:00 —Break & Networking
20:15 — In Depth Talk – TBC
21:00 — End

Event Information

Be sure to review the details about BeeWUG and how to get here. If you’d like to speak at one of our future events or even sponsor a future event, let us know.

BeeWUG Summary 7th June 2017

What’s Been Happening in the WordPress World Last Month

VersionPress Launches VersionPress.com to Fund Open Source Project – https://wptavern.com/versionpress-launches-versionpress-com-to-fund-open-source-project
WPForms Acquires WP Mail SMTP Plugin – https://wptavern.com/wpforms-acquires-wp-mail-smtp-plugin
WordCamp Europe 2017 Livestream Tickets Now Available – https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-2017-livestream-tickets-now-available which can be registered here, https://2017.europe.wordcamp.org/tickets/
WP-CLI 1.2.0 Released, Project Unveils New Logo – https://wptavern.com/wp-cli-1-2-0-released-project-unveils-new-logo, for examples of how to use WP-CLI view the resources here, https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/core/
WordPress Removes HHVM from Testing Infrastructure – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-removes-hhvm-from-testing-infrastructure so be sure to test thoroughly if you are using HHVM for future as there is no guarantee that updates will work out of the box at this current time
When upgrading to PHP7, be sure to check that everything is likely to work on your website, a handy plugin for this is PHP7 Checker Plugin, https://wordpress.org/plugins/php-compatibility-checker/
WordPress to Select New JavaScript Framework for Use in Core – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-to-select-new-javascript-framework-for-use-in-core
WordPress 4.8 Improves Accessibility on Admin Screens – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-8-improves-accessibility-on-admin-screens
WordPress 4.8 Increases Maximum Width of the Customizer Sidebar to 600 Pixels – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-8-increases-maximum-width-of-the-customizer-sidebar-to-600-pixels
Preview the next WordPress Gutenberg release that is planned, https://wpcoredesign.mystagingwebsite.com/gutenberg/
Avada Theme Version 5.1.5 Patches Stored XSS and CSRF Vulnerabilities – https://wptavern.com/avada-theme-version-5-1-5-patches-stored-xss-and-csrf-vulnerabilities – Another reminder to always keep everything up to date at all times to patch security issues
WordPress.com’s TV Commercials Are Confusing, apparently, https://wptavern.com/wordpress-coms-tv-commercials-are-confusing
WordPress 4.7.5 Patches Six Security Issues, Immediate Update Recommended – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-5-patches-six-security-issues-immediate-update-recommended
WordPress.com Experiments With Allowing Business Plan Customers to Install Third-Party Plugins and Themes – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-experiments-with-allowing-business-plan-customers-to-install-third-party-plugins-and-themes
WordPress Security Issue in Password Reset Emails to Be Fixed in Future Release – https://wptavern.com/wordpress-security-issue-in-password-reset-emails-to-be-fixed-in-future-release
Jetpack 4.9 Introduces EU Cookie Law Banner Widget – https://wptavern.com/jetpack-4-9-introduces-eu-cookie-law-banner-widget, although if this is all you need from the Jetpack Plugin, then this may be a bit overkill to use just for this feature
WordPress Turns Age 14 – https://ma.tt/2017/05/wordpress-14/
Google’s JamBoard is now available, https://blog.google/products/g-suite/lets-jam-jamboard-now-available/, with quite a hefty price tag, but the technology is pretty cool
Google is bringing the speed of AMP to search & display ads – https://adwords.googleblog.com/2017/05/bringing-speed-of-amp-to-search-display.html
Google Analytics is Enhancing Support for AMP – https://analytics.googleblog.com/2017/05/google-analytics-is-enhancing-support.html
Google is now recommending Schema markup for job postings – https://developers.google.com/schemas/reference/types/JobPosting
Google for Jobs Launched, an AI-Powered Job Search Tool – http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/google-io-2017-google-for-jobs-launch-search-ai-machine-learning-1695078 – Running Tendo Jobs, we’re not quite convinced Google Jobs has a long term future based on the lack of quality data powering the platform. Hence, why I believe, they are encouraging companies to use Schema markup to “Help with SEO” when in practice they are using that to capture data for companies and jobs. Unfortunately most businesses haven’t implemented Schema markup for the options that have been around for many years, so I doubt this is going to work over the long term. Time will tell.
The Good, the Bad and the AMP – https://www.semetrical.com/the-good-the-bad-and-the-amp/ – An interesting topic discussed at the meetup and worth a read for those interested in the potential future
People WannaCry But I’ve No Sympathy – https://www.contradodigital.com/2017/05/15/people-wannacry-but-ive-no-sympathy/ – A few thoughts on the latest global cyber attack. TL;DR, Invest in proactive security or feel the wrath of cyber criminals. It is up to you to decide to invest in cyber security or decide not to and hope that you won’t be caught up in an attack (top tip, you will be if you don’t invest in keeping your systems secure)
Google sends out a reminder about links in large-scale article campaigns for SEO – https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/05/a-reminder-about-links-in-large-scale.html – TL;DR, Just don’t do it
Make your own data gifs with our new tool from Google – https://blog.google/topics/journalism-news/make-your-own-data-gifs-our-new-too/ – Pretty cool tool that has been released which can bring data to life easier which you can use here, https://datagifmaker.withgoogle.com/edit
Introducing Twitter Kit 3 – https://blog.twitter.com/developer/en_us/topics/tools/2017/Introducing-Twitter-Kit-3.html – Lots of new features available to embedding Twitter content into mobile apps for those interested
Facebook tweaks Trending algorithm – https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/05/update-on-trending/
BA IT systems failure: Uninterruptible Power Supply was interrupted – https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/02/british_airways_data_centre_configuration/ – In essence, I’m not convinced this was the issue. These systems are designed to prevent failure, not cause it. Always make sure you have invested well in any critical IT infrastructure to ensure this type of failure cannot happen.
WordPress TV, where you can hear all about the latest WordPress related talks, https://wordpress.tv/ – Well worth a watch to continually learn new things and you may even see a few familiar faces while browsing around
Giphy Capture – https://giphy.com/apps/giphycapture – Super handy tool for quickly creating GIFs to help with tutorial based activities and how-to style quick snippets, and for Windows users, take a look here for alternatives, http://alternativeto.net/software/giphy-capture/
WordPress Template Hierarchy – https://developer.wordpress.org/files/2014/10/template-hierarchy.png – We’ve talked about this before, but always handy to keep referring back to this as it will help you understand how WordPress fits together and how to customise WordPress to suit your needs

The next meetup is on Wednesday 5th July, full details here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/

BeeWUG 7th June 2017

Get involved and book here, https://www.meetup.com/Blackburn-WordPress-Meetup/events/239048780/

Be sure to subscribe to the mailing list on the right hand side to keep up to date with all future events and BeeWUG news.

WordPress is awesome, get involved!

Event Format

18:00 — Arrivals
18:30 — Prompt start – Talk – WordPress news
18:45 — Q&A – For topics covered and Michael’s WP update
19:00 — WP Clinic – Bring your laptop and get the hands on help you need from the WordPress community in the room
20:00 —Break & Networking
20:15 — In Depth Talk – TBC
21:00 — End

Event Information

Be sure to review the details about BeeWUG and how to get here. If you’d like to speak at one of our future events or even sponsor a future event, let us know.