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Notes on building WordPress themes in 2026
No comments on Notes on building WordPress themes in 2026I wanted to align the design of this blog with the design of my new personal website. As the blog runs on WordPress this required building a new WordPress theme. Whilst I do look after some WordPress websites and need to occasionally delve into the code I am not the full-time WordPress developer that I used to be. So I actually hadn’t built a WordPress theme from scratch for quite a while. The last time…
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A new personal website
I am a fan of personal websites. I kind of think that everyone should have one – or at least everyone who is engaged with the online world should have one. It doesn’t have to be complicated. A single page with a brief introduction to who you are and some relevant links can be enough. Having a simple personal home on the Internet is also very much in the spirit of the open web. A…
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Dicing with values
This week I was asked to attend a “values refresher workshop” at work. The purpose of this half-day training was to review and discuss the corporate values of the organisation. It is easy to be cynical about these kind of exercises. But I found myself being surprisingly positive about it. This is partly because the process that the organisation did to develop the values was a genuinely consultative and thoughtful exercise. It was a solid…
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A post with footnotes
Version 6.3 of WordPress introduced a much needed new feature to the WordPress editor. Footnotes! So this is a blog post making use of footnotes. How exciting is that! If you are as thrilled as I am you kind find some documentation here: the footnotes block
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New Liberal History website
Its been a long time in the making – rather too long if I am honest – but at the end of January we were finally able to go live with the new website for the Liberal Democrat History Group. liberalhistory.org.uk I’d built the previous version of their website back in 2015 (I think) so it was due an upgrade and I was very pleased the Group asked me to build them the new version.…
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Standards for Government Digital Services
I am continuing my exploration of common standards and have been looking at those that can be applied to the provision of services online. Here are some notes. As part of their “digital by default” agenda the UK Government has defined a standard against which the development of government services provided online should be judged against. The… http://grit-oyster.co.uk/blog/2016/08/standards-for-government-digital-services/ Source: This content was originally posted on my company website Grit & Oyster Limited.
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Standards for Conceptual Data Models
It is to state the obvious that data is about things. But I am often finding that I have to ask myself precisely which things? The creation of data models is an integral part of software engineering. They are used, particularly in database design, to understand and map out the structure and characteristics of the data you… http://grit-oyster.co.uk/blog/2016/06/standards-for-conceptual-data-models/ Source: This content was originally posted on my company website Grit & Oyster Limited.
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Three online training courses for local government data publishing
The Open Data Institute (ODI) together with the Local Government Association (LGA) has developed three data publishing and data standards learning modules for Local Government. These online courses include information to support local authorities to publish data, improve the quality of data, and use common standards to be able to more easily share, combine and compare… http://grit-oyster.co.uk/blog/2016/05/three-online-training-courses-for-local-government-data-publishing/ Source: This content was originally posted on my company website Grit & Oyster Limited.
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Making Data Standards Work: 25 April 2016
On Monday 25th April 2016 I attended a Local Government Association (LGA) event “Making Data Standards Work” which through a series of presentations explored the role that common standards for data can have in improving the performance, effectiveness and accountability of local government. Given I have a background in web development, an activity that wouldn’t exist… http://grit-oyster.co.uk/blog/2016/05/making-data-standards-work-25-april-2016/ Source: This content was originally posted on my company website Grit & Oyster Limited.
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Big Bang Data exhibition
Last Friday (26 February 2016) I visited the Big Bang Data exhibition at Somerset House in London. The exhibition explores the implications of the huge explosion in the amount of data we are now generating, sharing and storing about our world and our behaviour in it. It looks at the positive uses that this data can be put to and the dangers it represents from the perspective of artists and designers. I thoroughly recommend the exhibition…
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Tools for managing Twitter followers
Here are links to two services I’ve begun using to help understand and manage the followers associated with my Twitter accounts. They help you to analyse both who is following you and the accounts that you are following. This means you can then do various housekeeping tasks such as making sure you are following back those following… http://grit-oyster.co.uk/blog/2015/12/tools-for-managing-twitter-followers/ Source: This content was originally posted on my company website Grit & Oyster Limited.
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The story of WordPress’s nonces
An etymological explanation. http://grit-oyster.co.uk/blog/2015/12/the-story-of-wordpresss-nonces/ Source: This content was originally posted on my company website Grit & Oyster Limited.
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New LinkedIn page
I’ve created a page for Grit & Oyster on LinkedIn. If you are a user of that service please follow the page to get company updates. New LinkedIn page Source: This content was originally posted on my company website Grit & Oyster Limited.
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A Glossary of Typographic Terms
This is a really good glossary of the terms used in typography. It includes a very clear definition of the difference between a font and a typeface. It has also taught me the meaning of the word “gadzook”. A Glossary of Typographic Terms Source: This content was originally posted on my company website Grit & Oyster Limited.
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Loading WordPress template files in plugins
I’ve been working on a project where I wanted to include a template file to handle the display of a particular WordPress custom post type. However, I wanted this template to be included in the plugin that created the custom post type and not in the theme. The plugin adds the post…
