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What is agentic browsing?
Agentic browsing transforms the web browser from a passive display window into an autonomous AI agent that can interpret natural language commands and execute complex tasks across websites on your…
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Core Web Vitals: Optimisation techniques
Google's Core Web Vitals have become the de facto standard for measuring user experience on the web. For years, developers have focused on the foundational trio: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP),…
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Web Safe Fonts: A Quick Explainer for Developers
If you've ever built a website and wondered why your carefully chosen typography looks completely different on someone else's screen, you've encountered the world of web safe fonts. Let's break…
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Choosing the right content management system
Choosing the right content management system (CMS) is one of the most consequential early decisions when building a website The content management system shapes everything from how editors publish to…
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WYSIWYG or plain-text CMS editing?
Finding the Right Balance for Your CMS UsersWhen configuring a content‑management system (CMS), the choice between a WYSIWYG (What‑You‑See‑Is‑What‑You‑Get) editor and a plain‑text interface has far‑reaching implications for both usability…
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General-purpose AI assistants
ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Lumo, Grok and Copilot are all general-purpose AI assistants. They are built around markedly different priorities: overall capability, integration with existing platforms, privacy, integration with wider platforms…
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Website speed improvements
Website speed has become one of the most significant factors in determining user satisfaction and search performance. A slow-loading website can frustrate visitors, damage your brand’s credibility and, ultimately, cost…
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Structured data for SEO
Adding structured data to a website is one of those steps that often gets overlooked, yet it can make a real difference to how a site performs in search engines.…
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Using WordPress as a static site generator
Static site generators have gained significant traction amongst developers, designers, and businesses seeking faster, more secure websites. Unlike traditional dynamic sites, which rely on a database to deliver content on…
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Moving a WordPress website with ACF and custom post types to Brightspot CMS
Migrating a website from WordPress to Brightspot CMS can seem daunting, particularly when the WordPress installation relies heavily on Advanced Custom Fields and Custom Post Types. Both ACF amd CPT…
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Switching to Eleventy
When I first set up my personal website it was powered by WordPress. It did the job for a while, but I soon found myself frustrated by the overhead and…
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Brightspot CMS
Choosing the right content management system (CMS) is one of the most important decisions for any business that publishes online. WordPress has long been the go-to choice for organisations of…
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Simple Analytics: A privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics
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 protection laws and maintain user…
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Introduction to Bluesky
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, and taking advantage of its…
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Web application security testing
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 covers the essentials of Web…
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Cookieless website tracking and analytics
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 a key component in tracking…
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What's going on between WordPress and WP Engine?
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 content management system (CMS). WP…
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Guide to writing a good cookie policy (UK)
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 this page is not intended…
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Install XAMPP on Ubuntu using Terminal
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 the download directory, and make…
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Start/stop XAMPP on Ubuntu using Terminal
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 operating systems, including Ubuntu. The…
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Animated SVGs (Scalable Vector Graphics)
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 for graphic elements and background…
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Using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs)
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 functionality of websites when used…
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Designing websites for accessibility
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 integral to daily life, ensuring…
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How to update your hosts file.
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 combination of domain names and…
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Email and newsletter deliverability best practice
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 email deliverability ensures that emails…
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Project Management Methodologies
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 and disadvantages, and the choice…
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Create a plain text file on Windows
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 pieces of information that may…
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Create a plain text file on MacOS
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 pieces of information that may…
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Create a plain text file on Linux
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 pieces of information that may…
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Latest web image formats
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. One of the most popular…
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Using OpenAI tools in ecommerce environments
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 businesses can enhance the customer…
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Mobile-first Web Design
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 devices first and then making…
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Web development in Northern Ireland
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 home to a number of…
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Redirects
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 to the new version of…
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Spam investigation toolkit
Tools to help identify and engage spammers. I'm often asked what tools are best to use to identify spammers, there are plenty of free tools online that work just as…
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Lighthouse and Google Fonts
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 render-blocking resource. The best way…
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Cookie Script and GDPR
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 and regulations, such as the…
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Set-up a Rackspace CDN service
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 the next pop-up set the…
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Web image formats
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 supported in all web browsers…
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What is Laravel?
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 (MVC) architectural pattern and offers…
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Apache VirtualHost with reverse proxy
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 reverse proxy directives will also…
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Upcoming changes to eBay's PayPal Payments
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 collected and how money is…
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Choose a better browser
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. Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Opera…
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Upgrading WordPress
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 online store, neglecting updates can…
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Website optimisation with Pingdom speed test
There are plenty of website speed tests out there, some are better than others. Pingdom is one of these tools, this post explains how to fix some of the common…
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Simple jQuery Cookie Pop-up
This is a simple EU cookie notification pop-up for legacy websites. All that's required is jQuery. Add the following HTML, jQuery script and apply some CSS - example supplied.…
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Automatically Deploy website from Github
This walk through will allow you to set-up a website to automatically deploy on a remote server whenever updates are pushed to the GitHub repository. You will need root access…
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Jekyll: Post Loop in Liquid Templates
Jekyll uses the Liquid templating language to process templates. This post provides a basic example to show the five latest blog posts and highlight the first post. The code consists…
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Remove outdated content from Google Search Results
From time to time unwanted pages can appear in Google Search Results. Could be a temporary page, old content or even a test page that's made its way onto Google's…
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Kentico
Kentico is a commercial, all‑in‑one digital experience platform Kentico combines content management, e‑commerce and online marketing tools within a single, integrated solution. Designed for medium‑ to large‑scale organisations, it offers…
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Drupal
Drupal is a powerful, open‑source content management system Drupal excels when a website demands flexibility, robustness and scalability. Built around a modular architecture, it lets developers define custom content types,…
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Jekyll
I've been using WordPress for this site for a long time. It is familiar, well-supported and easy to get started with, but over time I began to feel weighed down…
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Introduction to Ubuntu MATE
This article was written in 2019, it provides a general overview of Ubuntu MATE, highlighting its key features and benefits, and why I decided to make it my main operating…
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Don't use images to display text
Don't use images to display text on your website. It may look nicer, oftentimes the same effect can be generated using style sheets while making the text more accessible to…
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Cookie pop-up notification for legacy websites.
This post is from 2019, it may be out-of-date. For a better solution try: Cookie Script for GDPR Simple no-nonsense JavaScript and CSS cookie pop-up notification for legacy websites. Required…
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Running Ubuntu on Windows
**One of my favourite aspects of Windows 10 has been the Linux subsystem for Windows. ** I’ve been using it since launch partly because it sounded cool but also because…
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Cloudflare: My next step for website optomisation
I’ve been working to dramatically reduce page load times on my site. Load times were reduced from 6 seconds to about 3 just by minifying content, using a CDN for…
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ADSL vs Fibre Broadband
This article was originally me complaining about he state of Broadband in North Belfast, compared to rural Mid Ulster. Since fibre has become available, I'm no longer angry at BT…
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Useful .htaccess Rules: Setting the expires header for browser caching
Expires headers let the browser know whether to serve a cached version of the page. This can simultaneously help to reduce server load and increase page load time by telling…
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MySQL Database Backup and Restore via Command Line (Copy-and-pasteable)
Putting this together because I always end up checking online for the correct bash commands for Linux. These commands rely on your knowing for sure which database is which and…
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PHP Storm and making FTP connections with SSL (FTPS)
If you’re having issues connecting to a server via FTPS in phpStorm I found that the magic combination for PHP Storm and FTP-SSL connections is… Type: FTPS SSL: Explicit Passive…
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Steven says Slack messenger is awesome
My colleague Steven Cotterill has outlined just how useful a messenger app can be in a development environment. At the beginning of the year we here at the Tomorrow Lab…
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Useful .gitattributes defaults for Beanstalk Git
Some useful copy-and-paste lines for the .gitattributes file when using Beanstalk Git. Image and other binary files Upload and store images as binary files, rather than text – the default.…
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Domains, Subdomains and Subdirectories
Domains, subdomains, and subdirectories are all components of the hierarchical structure used to organise content on the internet. The terms can be confusing, here's what each means: domain.name A domain…
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LAMP Software Bundle
Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP/Perl/Python LAMP is an acronym denoting one of the most common software stacks for many of the web's most popular applications. However, LAMP now refers to a…
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Composer - Dependency Manager for PHP
Composer is an application-level dependency manager for the PHP programming language that provides a standard format for managing dependencies of PHP software and required libraries. Composer runs from the command…
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Understanding Markdown formatting
Markdown is a lightweight way of writing and formatting text that has become popular with developers, writers and content creators. Files that use Markdown usually end with the.md extension, and…
