Category: Content Management Systems

ClassicPress 1.0.0 Now Available

Ian Grieve1 minute read1 Comment

ClassicPressAfter a couple of RC (release candidate) releases over the last couple of weeks, ClassicPress 1.0.0 “Aurora” has been released.

This is the first version of the hard fork of WordPress to be released; I have previously done a series on migrating from WordPress and am currently part way through a series on installing ClassicPress on a new site.

You can download ClassicPress, or the migration plugin, from the ClassicPress website.

This version is fully compatible with WordPress 4.9.8, but there have been some changes which are detailed in the release notes.

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Installing ClassicPress: Download

Ian Grieve1 minute read0 comment

ClassicPressThis post is part of the series on Installing ClassicPress; ClassicPress is an open source fork of WordPress which aims to target the business market or those looking for a CMS with a focus on security, stability and flexibility.

To download ClassicPress, visit their website and click the green Download ClassicPress button:

ClassicPress site with Download ClassicPress button

Continue reading “Installing ClassicPress: Download”

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Installing ClassicPress: Series Index

Ian Grieve3 minute read4 Comments

ClassicPressWhen I started this blog seven years ago, I opted to use WordPress as the content management system to build it on. It was both easy to use and flexible. I’ve taken advantage of that flexibility over the years to write a number of plugins to add new functionality.

However, in the most recent iterations of WordPress, ostensibly an open source project, but actually controlled by Automattic, has introduced the Gutenberg block editor which has, in my opinion, fundamentally broken the easy writing experience of WordPress. This lead me to start looking around at alternatives and, quite naturally due to the duration and extent of my use of WordPress, the hard fork of WordPress known as ClassicPress. The initial impetus around the fork was against Gutenberg, but it has taken a wider view of the issues around WordPress and is trying to set itself up so that no one person can dictate the future of the project (as Matt Mullenweg dictates for WordPress).

Having gotten involved in the project, I have helped to update some documentation (such as FAQs), draft some proposed rules for the plugin directory (intended for ClassicPress v2) and assist in a few other small ways (unfortunately, my PHP is not good enough to help update core files).

Continue reading “Installing ClassicPress: Series Index”

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Sites Migrated to New Host

Ian Grieve1 minute read0 comment

azurecurveOver the course of this weekend I have migrated my websites to a new web host; hopefully, the only difference you will notice is that the sites are now being served over an https connection.

However, if you do notice any issues, images not loading or broken links (I’ve moved from a Windows hosting package to a Linux one so case now matters) ,for example, I’d appreciate you leaving a comment below with details.

Update: I forgot to mention, that when I migrated the sites to a new host, I also migrated them from WordPress to ClassicPress.

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What Will 2019 Bring For Gutenberg in WordPress

Ian Grieve2 minute read0 comment

GutenbergBack towards the end of last year, I did a few posts on Gutenberg for WordPress. Since then there’s been a bit more clarity around what 2019 will bring for Gutenberg in WordPress.

A post on the Make WordPress blog explains how phase 2 will be about introducing Gutenberg to the Customizer:

Gutenberg phase 1 and 2

This means that the sidebar, widgets, and menus will all be moved to Gutenberg.

Assurances that the Classic Editor will be supported until 31st December 2021 are largely worthless, as Gutenberg will be rolling out into Customizer in 2019 and this will fundamentally change WordPress.

Themes already need to be updated for Gutenberg as a post editor; entire new themes, or huge rewrites, will be required when the Customizer changes.

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ClassicPress/WordPress Usage: Add Page Breaks In Blog Posts

Ian Grieve1 minute read0 comment

ClassicPressAdding page breaks to a blog post came up in discussion the other day, where someone thought it was done by adding <!--more--> to a post.

However this tag is actually used to add a break to a post in the blog index or archive pages, resulting in something that looks like this:

Blog post with more tag

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WordPress/ClassicPress Plugin Development: Checking If Function Exists In Namespace

Ian Grieve2 minute read0 comment

WordPress PluginI’ve been developing my own plugins for WordPress and, more reently, ClassicPress. At times it’s been necessary to check if a function exists.

It’s fairly straightforward to do this check:

if (!function_exists('azrcrv_get_breadrumbs')){
	// code here
}

I also use a few plugins developed by other people. One of the ones I’ve been reviewing recently is Estimated Read Time by CodePotent.

John uses namespaces in his plugins which means the check also needs to include the namespace. You can check for this using the following syntax (the highlighted section is the namespace defined in the plugin):

if (function_exists('CodePotent\EstimatedReadTime\process_shortcode')){
	// code here
}

I’m posting this as a reminder to myself as it took me a few minutes of searching before I found the right answer.

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Allow WordPress to Perform Minor Updates

Ian Grieve1 minute read0 comment

WordPressBack in December I posted about stopping WordPress from updating to WordPress 5 (which includes the terrible Gutenberg.

However, I realised soon afterwards that was the wrong thing to do; instead I should have allowed WordPress to perform minor updates within the WordPress 4 branch, which can be done using the below line:

define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', 'minor' );

Once this line has been added to your wp.config file, WordPress 4 will be able to update to later WordPress 4 versions, but not to WordPress m5.

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How To Downgrade WordPress 5.0.3 to 4.9.9

Ian Grieve2 minute read0 comment

WordPressI’ve discussed before the problems WordpRess 5 and Gutenberg present me; I’ve avoided upgrading to WordPress 5 and remained on Wordpress 4.9.x as I plan my migration to ClassicPress.

Despite remaining on the WordPress 4.9.x branch and telling WordPress, via the config file, to only allow minor upgrades within that branch, the admin dashboard has a large Update Now button which will upgrade you to WordPress 5. Today I had an accident and clicked this button when I intended to click the Update Plugins button.

WordPress dashboard showing Update Now and Update Plugins buttons

Continue reading “How To Downgrade WordPress 5.0.3 to 4.9.9”

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Local by Flywheel: Review

Ian Grieve2 minute read0 comment

Local By FlywheelThis post is part of the series on Local by Flywheel.

Over the course of this series, I’ve installed Local by Flywheel, created and tested the default WordPress site and also accessed the local development site from the Internet.

Overall I have been very impressed with Local by Flywheel. It is a very easy installation, flexible yet simple setup and easy enough to access both internally and externally.

It would be nice, in future, to see ClassicPress available as a default install rather than having to either migrate the default WordPress one or manually replace it with ClassicPress, but that might come with time as ClassicPress grows.

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