OK, here’s the deal: Do you need a website to conduct simple, straightforward ecommerce all the while maintaining the familiar WordPress dashboard and integration that you are used to using?

If so, get in touch with me today. Today might be the day you start selling online. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The Ashleigh Iserman Boating Safety Foundation was established to honor the life and memory of Ashleigh Iserman. The goal of the foundation is to help promote boating safety education in order to keep our families safe on Michigan’s waterways.

It was a pleasure to be chosen to develop this website. As usual, I used WordPress as the content management system. The client was happy with the finished product and so was I!

I am excited to announce the roll out of a new website for a candidate for the state senate in Michigan.

Kim Russell has recently announced her candidacy for the Michigan State Senate as a Republican from the 12th District. Her website represents the vibrancy and passion that she will bring to the race and I was pleased to be selected to develop her campaign website.

As usual, I developed this website using WordPress as the back end content management system. I am very pleased with the design of the website and wish Kim the best in her election efforts.

Late last week I was contacted by a client who needed some help with a WordPress blog that he had installed and customized. He was on a tight time schedule and wanted his new website completed as quickly as possible. To complicate matters just a bit, the client was on a business trip that took him from his home in Quebec to Los Angeles for the week. The client wanted his new Corrugated-Pipe website to be up and running within the week.

In order to complete this project within both the time frame and budget I had to fall back on some previous WordPress themes I had been working on in my spare time. One of those themes was to the liking of the client and we agreed to utilize that theme, with modifications, to complete this project.

During the next seven days the client and I worked exclusively via email with the client doing almost all of the project review using his Blackberry. I am very proud to say that the project was completed on time and to the full satisfaction of the client. In fact, I completed the website installation, plugin installation and conent insertion while the client was enroute from Los Angeles to his home in Quebec. When he arrived home he found his new website up and running and looking good. He’s happy, and so am I.

Project Complete: In late July of this year I was contacted by St. Anastasia Roman Catholic Church and asked to submit a proposal for a website redesign and development. The church was not happy with their outdated site, which needed a new look. Nor were they happy with the content management system that drove the site. It was cumbersome to work with and as a result the site was rarely updated.

As is often the case, I utilized the WordPress content management system to control the backend of the new site. WordPress afforded me the flexibility of developing a hundred page website, with multiple users and contributors, and all within both the time frame and the budget of the client. The new site is clean, good looking and easy for the staff at St. Anastasia to use. That was the goal, and I am happy to report the goal was met. And of course, the XHTML is coded to the Strict standard and validates according to the standards of W3C. As you might guess, the CSS is also valid level 2.1.

Working with this client was really a dream come true. My primary contact at St. Anastasia took her responsibilities regarding this project just as seriously as I took mine. Together, we worked hard to deliver a finished product that everyone is proud of. And to be honest, we did it in a time frame that is rarely ever met for sites that are one-tenth the size and complexity of this project. If only all my clients were this easy to work with!

Thanks to everyone at St. Anastasia for working together to get the new site up and running!

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Project Complete: Back in early June I was contacted by the physician owner of Access HealthCare. Dr. David M. Smith was interested in a redesign of his current website, which had become out dated over the years and was in need of an overhaul.

After my initial conversations with Dr. Smith it was apparent to me that I could redesign his site using, you guessed it, WordPress as the backend content management system.

Dr. Smith was one of the most responsive clients I have ever worked with. He worked quickly to express his needs, authorize design layouts and provide me with content and photographs for the new site.

I really like the new website for Access HealthCare. It looks sharp, professional and should be easy for the office staff to update. It also includes a blog feature so that Dr. Smith and his staff can keep patients updated on news, medical information and other important information.

Thanks for being a great client Dr. Smith. I hope you enjoy your new website as much as I enjoyed developing it!

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Project Complete: I am a member of a community organization known as Rochester Area Youth Assistance (RAYA).

RAYA is a non-profit organization of volunteers, working in conjunction with a professional full-time counselor, whose goal is to strengthen youth and families. Through RAYA’s efforts we expect to see a reduction in the the incidents of delinquency, abuse and neglect through volunteer involvement.

At a board meeting last week, the RAYA leadership expressed the desire to have a website developed and said that they had been in contact with a web designer who works with non-profit organizations such as RAYA. I asked if this designer was willing to develop the site for free, and needless to say the answer was that they were not.

Being between projects, I set to work on creating a website for the group. I am very pleased with the outcome. The site is clean, uncluttered and professional looking. Although the images provided were not of the best quality, I am happy with the final product.

As usual, this site is constructed to to the Strict standard and uses valid XHTML code. I have used one little tweak in the CSS code to make Safari behave correctly:

/*
Safari only hack

http://dustinbrewer.com/css-hackgetting-safari-to-behave/

*/
@media screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:0){
#menu ul li a {padding-top:20px;}
#menu ul li.current_page_item a {padding-top:24px;}
#menu ul li a:hover, #menu ul li a:active, #menu ul li a:focus {
	margin-top:7px;
	padding: 14px 12px 7px 12px;
}
}

But other than that, the CSS is standard compliant as well. The site is also Section 508 compliant.

Once again, I have built this site using WordPress as the backend content management system. This will afford the site adminstrator the ability to make reasonable content changes to the site as well as to write news articles and to provide other updated information.

I wish RAYA good luck with their new website!

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Project Complete: My most recent project went live on February 1, 2009. Sunrise Side Snapshots is a website that showcases the photographic artwork of nature photgrapher Denise M. Willis. Denise is located on the “sunrise side” area of Michigan and specializes in landscape and nature photography of that area.

This project, like most of my recent work, was completed using WordPress as the backend content management system. I designed a custom WordPress theme for this project, and both the client and I are very pleased with the results.

This project is a basic eCommerce site that uses a terrific WordPress plugin called eShop. This plugin was written and distributed by Rich Pedley. I customized this plugin just a bit, but without the help of Rich I would not have been able to do so. He answered each of my emails in very prompt fashion and was willing to assist me with each twist and turn I encountered.

As usual, the project is standards compliant – valid to the Strict level for XHTML. I do use a bit of non-compliant CSS code for the javascript image rotation on the Home page, but it’s something I can live with!

Denise was great to work with and I wish her well with her new website and with her photography business! She does beautiful work and I am certain that her photographs will be very popular!

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While searching the WordPress forums for the answer to another problem, I stumbled upon this script that places a breadcrumb navigation trail into your WordPress theme template.

It’s easy to use and works like a charm. It would have taken me hours and hours to figure out how to do this myself, so I am glad it was available to me without having to reinvent the wheel. I hope you can put it to use, too.

<div id="breadcrumbs">;
  <span>You are here: </span>
	<a href="<?php echo get_bloginfo('url'); ?>" title="">Home</a>
	  <?php
		$parent_id  = $post->post_parent;
		$breadcrumbs = array();
		while ($parent_id) {
		  $page = get_page($parent_id);
		  $breadcrumbs[] = '<a href="'.get_permalink($page->ID).'" title="">'.get_the_title($page->ID).</a>';
		  $parent_id  = $page->post_parent;
		}
		$breadcrumbs = array_reverse($breadcrumbs);
		foreach ($breadcrumbs as $crumb) echo ' » '.$crumb;
	  ?>
	 <span> » <?php the_title(); ?></span>
</div>

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Project Complete: My most recent project went live yesterday. Lakeside Plumbing, Inc. is a Chicago area plumbing business that has been serving the north shore and northwest Chicago suburbs for decades. They decided that they wanted to establish a presence on the web. Lakeside Plumbing contacted Aardvark Web Works, a very highly regarded web services company located in suburban Chicago.

As part of the team of web developers who work with Aardvark, I was asked to work on the Lakeside Plumbing project. Working closely with both Aardvark Web Works and the owner of Lakeside Plumbing, I was able to craft a new website for their business that I am quite proud of.

Once again, I have utilized the WordPress platform as the backend of this site. Making some custom tweaks in WordPress allowed me to offer the client the ability to update their own website. Their two most critical needs were to post Employment Opportunities as well as to offer various Special Coupons that website visitor scan use for plumbing services. WordPress proved to be a good fit for this application.

As delivered, the site is built to adhere to the following standards:

• XHTML Strict
• Valid CSS
• Section 508 compliant

I am proud of the new Lakeside Plumbing website. Aardvark Web Works is pleased with my work, and most importatnly the client is happy with their new website!

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Project Complete: As one of the premier cardiology specialist practices in the Detroit metropolitan area, Academic Cardiology Associates wanted a new website that portrayed their practice in a clean and professional manner.

I worked closely with the practice administrator and enjoyed working on this project. The client was prompt with content, understood what they wanted from their website and provided quick feedback during the design phase of the project. It was a pleasure to work with them and I am pleased with the final product.

This website, as with many that I design, employs the WordPress content management system as the backend. Although there is no blog feature associated with this site, utilizing WordPress allows me to better control, edit and modify the site from anywhere I happen to be when changes or updating are required. This feature is convenient for me and better serves the client, as I am able to institute changes almost immediately in most cases, as I do not have to rely on an FTP client or third party software to make the changes.

The Academic Cardiology website was fun to design, a pleasure to build and efficiently completed due to a great working relationship with the client. Thanks again for choosing me to design your new website!

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Project Complete: It’s football season, and in the area of the country that I live in there are many folks who cheer for the University of Michigan Wolverines. But U of M football is not the only thing in Michigan that is maize and blue.

I have just completed a new website for Amazing Blue Taxi, LLC. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Amazing Blue Taxi provides premier transportation services to Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan, Detroit Metropolitan Airport and all of southeastern Michigan.

Do you need a short hop taxi ride in Ann Arbor? Do you need transportation to the airport? Do you need a ride for a night out with the girls, or a bachelor party? Amazing Blue Taxi can handle all those needs and more.

I am quite proud of this project and had a great time working on it. The owner of Amazing Blue Taxi was a great client, knew exactly what he wanted from a website, and provided content quickly and efficiently so that the project could be completed in a timely fashion. Thanks again, Rick, for choosing 1955 Design for your website needs.

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I recently had some difficulties with a client website that had been hacked. During my research to find a solution to the problem, I stumbled upon a post about a similar problem over at Duck Toes.

After exchanging a few emails with the owner of DuckToes, I learned that she was having difficutly installing a new version of WordPress, which she suspected would help solve a hack that had been employed at her website. I have had a bit of experience doing WordPress installs, and offered my services to DuckToes to do an upgrade to WordPress 2.6.2 for their website.

I am pleased to say that the install went off without a hitch and DuckToes is now operating with the newest version of WordPress. If you are having difficutly with your WordPress installation or upgrade, get in touch with me today for a quote.

Project Complete: I have just completed a new website for Matthew C. Shepard, PLC. Mr. Shepard is an attorney located in Keego Harbor, MI.

In addition to a standard website, Mr. Shepard wanted the ability to write articles and news items for both his clients and website visitors.

WordPress as a CMS

With that in mind, I designed the site using WordPress as the CMS for this project. With only a modest amount of training, Mr. Shepard will be able to update his “Law Blog” on a regular basis. Not only will this be informative for his readers, but the blog articles will also make his website much more attractive to search engine indexing. Afterall, both Google and Yahoo love fresh content on websites and are likely to increase the page rankings for websites that regularly add new content.
Custom Blog Theme

This website was completed by customizing a blog theme that I have used for previous clients. By reusing an existing theme, and simply modifying the graphics and applying a few other tweaks, I was able to provide Mr. Shepard with a very cost effective solution for his webiste needs. I think the site portrays Mr. Shepard’s law firm as both serious and professional, and that’s just what he was looking for. I am happy with the site, but most importantly, so is the client!

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One of the deficiencies I noted in WordPress 2.5 was that the dashboard interface no longer showed the ID numbers for Posts, Pages or Categories.

Although this might not be much of a problem for the casual user of WordPress, those of us who write custom WordPress applications have come to rely on these ID numbers to add custom features to our projects. In fact, WordPress itself instructs end users to utilize these ID numbers in a variety of the WordPress template tags, such as in_category().

I have come to rely on these ID numbers in many of my applications, having used them in various template tags and in creating category page templates. As a result, I was frustrated with the new interface and the lack of information regarding these ID numbers.

I was discussing this issue with my friend Deborah over at Lireo Designs. Deborah is also developing sites using WordPress, and she is not one who lets a problem like this get in her way. After doing some research on this problem, Deborah discovered a neat little plugin that once again displays the ID numbers in the WordPress 2.5 dashboard.

Thanks for the help, Deborah! It’s a very useful plugin that makes my life a bit simpler.

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Project Complete: Working with a familiar WordPress theme, I have just completed a new blog for Southern Injustice.

This website will chronicle the upcoming appellate trial of death row inmate Richard Lambrix, who has been incarcerated and on death row in a Florida prison for the past twenty four years.

Richard and his supporters intend to use this blog to document the evidence in his case and to attempt to demonstrate that he has been wrongly convicted of capital murder.

As delivered, this theme is valid CSS and valid XHTML to the strict standard. The site is search engine friendly and uses WordPress as the content management system.

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Project Complete: I was approached by a past client who had a friend that needed a custom blog theme developed. The friend is currently incarcerated in the Florida federal prison system and wishes to write about the criminal justice / prison system and his role in it, including one set of circumstances that took him to the United States Supreme Court.

I was able to use the basic framework of a blog developed for another client and customize it for use on the new Hubris Corpus website. The client wanted a theme that was rather ominous in appearance due to the serious nature of the anticipated content of this blog. As a result, I broke away from my normal approach and developed a theme that was light colored text on a dark background, which is not normally my preference. However, the associated graphics work nicely with the dark colors and I am very pleased with the final product. So is the client, which is all that really matters.

It may be obvious from the subtitle of this post, but just as a reminder let me state that this project was completed using the WordPress content management system, which I have written about before, as the backend.

As delivered to the client, the code written for this project meets the following standards:

• Valid XHTML (Strict)
• Valid CSS
• Section 508 Compliant
• W3C WCAG - AAA Compliance

I enjoyed working on ths project. The client, who I had previously designed a blog theme for, was very easy to work with. In fact, she tells me that she has another project in the works and to expect a call from her early this year.

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As you may have noticed, I have implemented a “Featured Post&” module on the top of my main blog page. This module displays information about a particular post that I want to display more prominently.

I have been considering adding a feature like this for some time, but until I received some inspiration from from Philip Moore over at Big Square Blog I really had no direction on how to begin.

Philip suggests using his technique to display a post on a static WordPress Page, but I opted to use it to display a feature post on my main index template page. I used the code Philip supplied and tweaked it for my own use. Philip’s basic code assumes that you are going to display the content of your most recent post. However, in my situation I don’t want to display the most recent post. Instead, I want to identify a particular post and have the content of this post displayed in the “Featured Post” area of my blog.

After considerable thought, I decided to use two WordPress custom fields to accomplish this task. After spending an hour or so reading information about custom fields over at the WordPress codex, I opted to useI one custom field as a logical marker to identify which post to display. I used a second custom field to contain a very brief introduction paragraph describing the post. Depending on your particular blog, you may actually be able to use the WordPress the_excerpt() function to accomplish this. However, since I use a fairly detailed excerpt for each of my posts, I found that they were too long to be of use in the small “Featured Post” area.

Combining Philip’s technique with custom fields allows me to control the “Featured Post” implementation from within the WordPress dashboard. Simple, clean and effective. I am really pleased with the results.

How do you like my “Featured Post” module? Can you think of a way to use this idea on your blog?

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Somebody over at WordPress has thought of just about everything.

The more I use WordPress and implement it into my web design projects the better I understand what a full featured Content Management System it really is. I recently wrote an article desscribing one of my favorite WordPress features which allows you to assign separate category template pages for different post categories. This article explains this concept in a bit more detail.

Most of the standard WordPress themes include a file name archive.php. This file is called each time a user accesses an archived post. Examples of archived posts are:

• Monthly posts
• Yearly posts
• Post within a certain category

When a user views the selected archived posts, the page displayed by the browser is controlled by the archive.php file and the XHTML code within that page. Often times this archive.php file is customized to offer the user information about the subset of posts that they are viewing. For instance, if you view the archives on this website for the posts filed under the category “Blogging” you will notice that the first paragraph of the page offers you a brief advisory of just what posts you are viewing.

As you can see from this example, the overall template look and feel is the same as the rest of this site, with the exception of the opening paragraph. This archive.php files displays the same format for any post that is part of the archive records.

Specialized Templates for Individual Categories

But what if you want the posts made under this category to be displayed on a page that has a completely different apperance than the rest of the blog? Sometimes this is a necessary part of a design project. WordPress has allowed you to customized the look and feel of individual category pages as well.

Follow these simple instructions to design a specialized category page for your blog:

1. Enter the WordPress dashboard and choose Manage->Categories from the menu.
2. Make note of the category ID number associated with the category you are interested in designing a template for. For the sake of this example, let us say that this is category #8
3. Copy the archive.php file and save it as a new file
4. Name the new file category-8.php
5. You are finished!

WordPress Does the Rest

Based on the heirarchy of page structure in WordPress, anytime a viewer chooses to view the files located in category 8 they will be viewing the code displayed by the category-8.php file rather than the more basic archive.php file. You simply need to customize this file to display your posts in any manner that you desire.

Who Needs Category Templates?

On first glance you might not be able to think of any use for WordPress specialized category pages. When I first read about them a couple years ago I could not think of how category page templates would be use to me.

However, while working on a recent project I found that I needed to display a scrolling list of “Appearance Dates” for upcoming events. These dates were nothing more than short WordPress posts, but they needed to be displayed in an entirely different way than the other traditional blog posts. Something in the back of my mind told me that cetegory templates might be just what I need to use. Guess what? Using WordPress category template pages solved my problem. Maybe they can solve a problem for you someday, too!

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Every website I have developed in the past year has used WordPress as the content management system. Every day I learn new techniques for implementing WordPress into my client websites. Although WordPress is realtively simple to use, it is packed full of features that make it ideal for many website design projects.

I wanted to share with others two of the neat features I have discovered that WordPress allows a developer to implement. Although WordPress is a great system right out-of-the-box, the ability to extend it for more custom applications is what really appeals to me.

Category Templates

WordPress allows the developer to specify different category templates for each of your categories. I had never even considered using this feature before, but while designing a website for Nancy Redd I found myself in need of having different templates for each of the pages on the website. WordPress to the rescue! I read up on how to use category templates and my problem was solved!

Custom Fields

Once I learned how to use custom fields in WordPress, I could think of dozens of reasons to use them. Using custom features gives the developer a method to add addtional dynamic data to each WordPress record. For instance, the subtitle on this page is displayed using a custom field. Couple this ability with a neat plugin like Custom Fields GUI and you have the ability to add, edit and implement custom fields directly through the WordPress dashboard. Neat, eh?

What are your favorite WordPress tips, tricks, plugins or extensions? I’d love to hear about them!