The internet plays a huge role in my life, from a place to share photos and videos, to a career, to a means of communication linking me to friends and family all over the world.
I occasionally have a need to divert file requests on a website to a PHP script. By doing so, I can determine whether the visitor may access it, see whether an image should have a watermark automatically applied, or notify…
Published on 20th October 2016
The battle royal du jour in the web development community is the argument of whether websites should be built with a JavaScript-based technology like AngularJS, Node.js or React, or using the classic composition of HTML and CSS, then extending it with JavaScript…
Published on 14th October 2016
Using modern web technologies to replicate the ubiquitous red panel used by Swiss railway company SBB CFF FFS.
Published on 28th September 2016
Publishing photos to WordPress directly via FTP using Adobe Lightroom.
Published on 23rd September 2016
I’m in the closing stages of development for a new WordPress site for a client. (A private one, so I can’t go into details.) As the development phase has progressed, the management of the required plugins in the Multisite installation has…
Published on 16th September 2016
There are many copy-and-paste examples of how to write your own functions and apply them through WordPress’ hooks and actions. But with a little simple knowledge of PHP’s namespace syntax, developers who regularly work on WordPress projects can make their lives a lot…
Published on 7th September 2016
I wrote and posted my first blog post in this version of my website ten years ago today. To celebrate, I'm reviving the “Photos” section of the site, which will contain my best and my favourite photos.
Published on 20th August 2016
The latest project we've launched at !frappant is for SBB (Swiss Railways): a microsite for the Rail Control System team, which promotes their work controlling the flow of rail traffic throughout the national network.
Published on 18th May 2016
(The WordPress theme, not the year.)…
Published on 13th April 2016
Until I had to switch to doing mainly technical work on web projects, I used to do a lot of design work. I came across my old designs when clearing out my home office and thought you'd like to see…
Published on 8th April 2016
2016 sees the tenth anniversary of this website. I decided that this was to be the year when I'd do some major overhaul work on my site: improved technology and a long-awaited clear out of some legacy data problems. That's all…
Published on 7th April 2016
Why processes based in outdated print media routines can be massively optimised by adopting modern practices, and how process efficiency can lead to negative employment effects.
Published on 5th April 2016
“Comment spam” is a term which relates to automatically-generated website comments. People with too much time on their hands make software to submit to websites like mine. It’s then down to me to ensure that the nonsensical or downright abusive…
Published on 1st April 2016
In an effort to share more of my work with the open source community, I’m gradually starting to submit more plugins to the WordPress Plugin Directory. The latest addition, approved recently and made public today, is a plugin which…
Published on 1st April 2016
CSS Flexbox has been ready for mainstream use for a while now, and I've implemented it on a third client project for my employer.
Published on 31st March 2016
I’ve added a feature to the site which allows you to get an email when someone replies to a comment you’ve left on this site. Let me know if you encounter any problems.
Published on 30th March 2016
Many web developers (and web project managers) are insistent that we shouldn’t be concerned with the availability of JavaScript in the browser. “Who turns off JavaScript these days?” is often the argument. The problem isn’t related to who turns off…
Published on 29th March 2016
A technical goal for 2016 is to make more WordPress plugins, and to submit them to the official WordPress plugin repository, so that other users can benefit from them. The next addition to the set of plugins I’ve contributed is…
Published on 26th March 2016
A colleague from the WordPress Bern meetups asked for advice on how to track clicks on certain page elements on his website. Having looked into this for a few different purposes over the past year, it was quick and easy to…
Published on 25th March 2016
The Next Big Thing* in the world of CMS-based web development is the headless CMS solution. A headless CMS is a more pure – and therefore technically more simple – content management system. A system in which the focus is 100%…
Published on 23rd March 2016
Notizen aus dem letzten Treffen der Berner WordPress-Gruppe. Das nächste Treffen (Thema WordPress Themes) findet morgen Donnerstag Abend statt. Sicherheit rund um WordPress – 24.02.2016…
Published on 23rd March 2016
Building a website or app based on third-party code and solutions may work… but what happens when that code breaks or becomes unavailable?…
Published on 23rd March 2016
The new Lingo app (from The Noun Project) allows you to collate and manage your design assets in one place.
Published on 22nd March 2016
The key principles behind the complex relationship between pixel-based and relative sizing units in CSS for web design.
Published on 18th March 2016
…doesn’t have anything to do with jumping up and down to music. Sadly. Typographic principles are just as valid in designing for the web as they are in designing for traditional media. Through the application of a very simple mathematical principle,…
Published on 18th March 2016
Andy Budd made a very important point during episode 93 of The Web Ahead podcast. In it, he's answering a question raised about where a less-experienced web designer can find resources to see what the current “best practices” are for…
Published on 17th March 2016
HTTP/2 allows you to separate your CSS, JavaScript and other template resources into individual files, without running into problems with multiple requests.
Published on 11th March 2016
One of the best CSS tips I’ve come across in recent months is the :not() selector. Rather than having to define a set of rules for an element, then re-defining new rules for the element when it has a certain…
Published on 3rd March 2016
My employer re-branded recently, which meant a new corporate identity and a new website using Zurb Foundation, CSS Flexbox and TYPO3.
Published on 3rd March 2016
I reported an issue to the WordPress Core team about eighteen months ago, noting that the function which creates thumbnails of larger images in the CMS strips the EXIF data from these smaller files. This means that not only…
Published on 3rd March 2016
We could do with a comprehensive, multilingual list of Swiss localities for work projects, so after a bit of digging and a suggestion from Habi, I came across a reference on which to base the list. After tidying it…
Published on 23rd February 2016
Improve the speed of your WordPress website by reducing the file size of the automatically-generated images.
Published on 23rd February 2016
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Published on 9th February 2016
Better, simpler, cleaner. Online resolutions to coincide with the new year.
Published on 7th January 2016
Hotel Posthuis in Melchsee Frutt gets a shiny new website, to say thank you for all their hospitality through the years.
Published on 15th December 2015
Websites get from where they live to your computer via a network of wires. They’re transferred using a technology called HTTP, which has been stuck at version 1.1 for a little more than sixteen years. All well and good:…
Published on 3rd December 2015
Experiences building my first ever phone app, using Cordova and jQuery to deliver content from a WordPress installation.
Published on 26th November 2015
Would you invest your time, experience and effort to do your job when there was a potential that your client or boss wouldn't pay you for it?…
Published on 6th November 2015
A brief history of ten years using the online photo-sharing service Flickr.
Published on 23rd October 2015
Lessons learned and presentations seen at this year's WordPress conference in Zurich.
Published on 19th September 2015
