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keithgreer.dev
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Latest PHP January 2025
Deploying a PHP website application requires meticulous planning, a solid understanding of the environment, and a thorough execution process. To ensure a smooth deployment, it is essential to follow best practices that minimise errors and maximise efficiency. Below is a comprehensive guide to...
→ Continue reading "Ensuring a smooth deployment of a PHP website application"
December 2024
In an era where digital privacy concerns are at the forefront of online discourse, many organisations are reassessing their tools to ensure compliance with data...
→ Continue reading "Simple Analytics: A privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics"
November 2024
In today’s digital world, protecting your privacy online has become essential. With personal data constantly being shared, stored, and potentially accessed by unauthorised parties, safeguarding...
→ Continue reading "Simple steps to protect your privacy online"
November 2024
Making the most of Bluesky after coming from whatever Twitter (𝕏) has become involves exploring the platform's unique features, adapting to its smaller, community-driven culture,...
November 2024
With the increasing dependency on web applications in daily operations, securing these applications is paramount to safeguarding data and protecting against breaches. This blog post...
October 2024
Cookieless website tracking is a method of collecting analytics data and monitoring website behaviour without the need for traditional browser cookies. Traditionally, cookies have been...
→ Continue reading "Cookieless website tracking and analytics"
October 2024
The disagreement between WordPress and WP Engine has sparked considerable debate within the WordPress community and could have important implications for users of the WordPress...
→ Continue reading "What's going on between WordPress and WP Engine?"
September 2024
Combining Laravel with WordPress offers a unique and powerful approach to web development, blending the strengths of both platforms to create highly efficient, flexible, and...
September 2024
Switching a WordPress website over to ClassicPress can be done smoothly with minimal impact if approached carefully. The process involves a few key steps to...
→ Continue reading "Switching from WordPress to ClassicPress "
August 2024
A cookie policy informs website visitors about the cookies your website uses, why they are used, and how users can control them. The information on...
→ Continue reading "Guide to writing a good cookie policy (UK)"
July 2024
The Bitnami package for WordPress provides a quick one-click install solution for WordPress. Once installed you’ll most likely need to replace the default install with...
July 2024
To use XAMPP on Ubuntu, begin by downloading the XAMPP installer for Linux from the Apache Friends website. Once downloaded, open a terminal, navigate to...
June 2024
Here’s detailed look at some of the most popular PHP frameworks, each of which can help speed up development, improve code organisation, and enhance application...
June 2024
XAMPP is a free and open-source software package that provides an easy way to set up and run a local web server environment on various...
→ Continue reading "Start/stop XAMPP on Ubuntu using Terminal"
April 2024
ClassicPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) that originated as a fork of WordPress in 2018. It was developed as a response to the...
March 2024
As PHP continues to evolve, so do the threats that target its vulnerabilities. Ensuring robust PHP security practices is paramount to safeguarding sensitive data and...
→ Continue reading "PHP Security in 2024: navigating the evolving landscape"
February 2024
Setting sales prices in your Shopify store is a straightforward process that can help boost sales and attract customers. Follow these steps to effectively set...
February 2024
Animated SVGs, Scalable Vector Graphics, are increasingly popular choices for adding dynamic elements to websites. Their scalability, lightweight nature, and flexibility make them attractive options...
→ Continue reading "Animated SVGs (Scalable Vector Graphics)"
December 2023
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs) have revolutionised website design, offering unparalleled flexibility, scalability, and interactivity. As versatile graphic elements, SVGs can enhance the visual appeal and...
November 2023
In today's digital age, establishing an online presence is crucial for businesses looking to promote their brand effectively. One powerful tool for achieving this is...
→ Continue reading "Creating a brand-promoting brochure website with WordPress "
November 2023
In an era where digital presence is paramount, charities are increasingly turning to online platforms to raise awareness and funds for their causes. WordPress, with...
→ Continue reading "WordPress for charities and donation websites "
October 2023
The database structure of Magento is designed to store and manage various aspects of an e-commerce website, including products, orders, customers, and more. Understanding the...
September 2023
In the ever-evolving landscape of web design, the balancing act between accessibility and aesthetic appeal remains a crucial consideration. As the digital realm becomes increasingly...
August 2023
In the digital age, where online shopping has become an integral part of our lives, ecommerce websites hold the key to business success. Amidst the...
August 2023
Every computer has a file on it which allows the owner to specify where a website is loaded from. A hosts file is a simple...
August 2023
For small businesses aiming to establish a formidable online presence and drive sales, Magento emerges as a powerful e-commerce platform offering a suite of features...
→ Continue reading "Using Magento to get small businesses online"
July 2023
Securing a WordPress website involves a combination of practices, including using secure hosting configurations, regularly updating WordPress and its plugins/themes, and implementing strong security measures....
July 2023
Speed optimisation is crucial for a Magento website as it directly impacts user experience, conversions, and search engine rankings. You should prepare your server so...
June 2023
Enable Gzip compression on your server to compress your website's files before sending them to the visitor's browser. This significantly reduces the file size, resulting...
→ Continue reading ".htaccess: Enable GZIP Compression for Magento"
June 2023
Email deliverability refers to the ability of an email to successfully reach the recipient's inbox, rather than being marked as spam or bouncing back. High...
→ Continue reading "Email and newsletter deliverability best practice"
May 2023
Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall are three of the most popular project management methodologies used in software development. Each of these methodologies has its own advantages...
April 2023
Ecommerce payment gateways are critical components of any online store, as they enable merchants to accept payments from customers securely and conveniently. There are many...
April 2023
Quick guide to creating simple plain text (.txt) files on Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS and Linux. Text files are useful for sending code or short...
April 2023
Quick guide to creating simple plain text (.txt) files on Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS and Linux. Text files are useful for sending code or short...
April 2023
Quick guide to creating simple plain text (.txt) files on Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS and Linux. Text files are useful for sending code or short...
March 2023
There are a number of new image formats that have been developed in recent years to improve the performance and quality of images on websites....
February 2023
OpenAI is a leading artificial intelligence (AI) research organisation that has the potential to revolutionise the ecommerce industry. By leveraging OpenAI’s cutting-edge AI technologies, ecommerce...
→ Continue reading "Using OpenAI tools in ecommerce environments"
February 2023
WordPress WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, and there are several reasons why it is so widely...
January 2023
Mobile-first web design Mobile-first web design is a design approach that prioritises mobile devices when designing a website. Instead of designing a website for desktop...
December 2022
Laravel is a powerful and popular PHP framework designed to make web development easier and more efficient. This quick start guide will help you set...
→ Continue reading "Quick start guide for Laravel on a PHP server"
December 2022
Web development in Northern Ireland is a thriving industry, with many talented and skilled individuals and companies offering a range of services. Northern Ireland is...
November 2022
Magento Northern Ireland Open Source allows you to build a unique online store from the ground up. Standard Features Magento Open Source includes everything you...
→ Continue reading "Getting started with Magento Open Source"
October 2022
Apache, Nginx, PHP, JavaScript and Meta redirects There are two main redirect options 301 for a permanent redirect. Use this when the redirect is pointing...
September 2022
An introduction to image optimisation in WordPress Northern Ireland Image Optimisation is an increasingly important step improve page speed and search engine performance of your...
→ Continue reading "WordPress - WebP and AVIF image formats"
September 2022
An introduction to image optimisation in Magento Northern Ireland Image Optimisation is an increasingly important step improve page speed and search engine performance of your...
July 2022
WP-CLI is the official command line tool for interacting with and managing your WordPress Northern Ireland installation in command line. WP-CLI is the command-line interface...
July 2022
I recently had performance issues on Google Lighthouse due to the fonts used on the website. The Google Fonts I used were classified as a...
July 2022
WordPress is currently used by over seventy-five million websites worldwide. This is primarily thanks to its flexible, customisable and user-centred admin panel making it the...
June 2022
Quick guide to using Cookie Script for GDPR and cookie tracking. Cookie Script is a tool that helps website owners comply with cookie consent requirements...
May 2022
Quick guide for setting-up a CDN on Rackspace. CDN Set-up Log into your Rackspace MyCloud account. Click into Storage > CDN then “Create Service”. In...
April 2022
The image file formats that are most commonly used on the web are listed below. Classic image formats These are the classic image formats universally...
March 2022
Aheadworks will be removing Composer keys and download access for existing customers and switching entirely to a subscription model. From February 2022 Aheadworks announced it...
→ Continue reading "Aheadworks switch to subscription model"
February 2022
ProtonMail is an encrypted email service that takes a radically different approach to email security. In 2014 the Swiss company ProtonMail became the first email...
February 2022
Before you start building-out your Magento website you must first plan your store hierarchy. Magento’s hierarchy is referred to throughout your store’s configuration. Each store...
January 2022
If you are a business in Belfast or Northern Ireland who is looking to expand your presence online, WordPress Northern Ireland is a great platform...
→ Continue reading "WordPress development Belfast, Northern Ireland"
December 2021
How to add breadcrumbs to your Shopify Northern Ireland liquid templates Breadcrumbs are a secondary navigation aid that helps users easily understand the relation between...
→ Continue reading "Shopify: Add breadcrumbs to Liquid templates"
December 2021
Some (fairly) simple step-by-step instructions to ensure your Magento Belfast 2 store is running the best it can. While most of these options should only...
October 2021
Laravel is an open-source web application framework written in PHP, designed to make the development process faster, easier, and more streamlined. It follows the Model-View-Controller...
September 2021
The Mage Open Source Community Alliance have published an open letter to the Magento community to announce a new initiative designed to focus on ensuring...
August 2021
This PHP function accepts a public Google Sheets URL and converts it into a PHP array. You can use the array to either display the...
August 2021
This post documents the process of setting up a reverse proxy to load one (Origin) website in the subdirectory of another. During this process the...
July 2021
While Magento Belfast isn’t the go-to platform for blogs it can be useful for store owners to have a quick and easy way to post...
July 2021
AOS is a simple CSS/JS based animation on scroll library by Michał Sajnóg. Easy to install and highly configurable. This is a basic introduction, there...
June 2021
Over the course of 2021 eBay will be incrementally changing how it works with sellers. Changes include updates to the fee structure, how fees are...
→ Continue reading "Upcoming changes to eBay's PayPal Payments"
May 2021
Shopify Belfast is an ecommerce platform that hosts your website for selling products and services. It helps organize the layout of your store's appearance through...
May 2021
A run down of the most popular web browsers including Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Opera as well some alternate options if you'd like something different....
April 2021
Magento 1 A brief reminder of the Magento 1 folder structure: app/code followed by either /core for core files /community for third party extensions /local...
March 2021
The latest version of Magento Northern Ireland has been released - Magento version 2.4.2 is the usual mix of security updates, performance and some improvements...
March 2021
The following post will explain how to use PHP/cURL to retrieve data in JSON or XML and process it for using in your PHP application...
March 2021
Keeping your WordPress website updated is crucial for maintaining its performance, security, and functionality. Whether you’re managing a personal blog, a business site, or an...
February 2021
The roll out of 3D Secure 2 has been a long drawn-out process not helped by the COVID–19 pandemic. Part of the update has included...
→ Continue reading "Global Payments: Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and 3D Secure 2"
January 2021
A quick guide to help set-up a discount code in a Shopify Belfast store. First login to your Shopify store admin area and click on...
