Joseph Dickson

I’m a Web Developer.

I have over ten years of experience designing WordPress themes and plugins for multisite deployments in higher education.

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Recent Posts

  • Creating Custom Block Patterns For WordPress

    Effectively copy and paste the entire group into an editor Joseph Dickson Call to Action Block YouTube Embed Block Image & Quote Articles Referenced In The Video Block Patterns on WordPress.org Get Stylesheet Directory URI Get Plugin Directory URL How to Build Block Patterns for the WordPress Block Editor

  • Creating smaller buttons for Gutenberg

    Often I find WordPress’ default button blocks are too large for some situations. Fortunately, extending Gutenberg blocks isn’t too difficult. Following the Gutenberg Handbook I’ve created short video and code samples to create addtional smaller button options without relying on a plugin.

  • Using is_multisite to loop in a post from another blog

    Multisite is a powerful feature that allows us to manage multiple blogs within a single WordPress installation. In this post I briefly describe how to post content from the main site to a sub-site. We can use any method you like to query a post from the main site. In this example I’m using WP_Query…

Web Development Projects

  • Block Child Theme

    The Challenge WordPress 6.1 included the new Twenty Twenty Three theme which features new Full Site Editor Block Theme methodology. However, it doesn’t include Open Graph support, Post Types and remove taxonomy labels from archive pages. The Solution Added practical features to a Child Theme improving user experience.

  • Open Graph Protocol

    A simple function running conditional checks delivering relevant information to social media platforms using the Open Graph Protocol.

  • Homepage Redesign

    The Challenge The College wanted to use the full-width capabilities of the WordPress Block Editor. The Solution I created a custom Child Theme breaking the rigid grid of the college’s other landing pages.

  • Pathway Forward

    The Challenge As the COVID-19 pandemic began to normalize the community updates section needed to be replaced with an evergreen landing page leading to news updates and policies in advance of return to campus. The Solution Using the WordPress Block Editor a simple landing page was created featuring call to action cards and buttons for…

  • COVID-19 Community Updates

    The Challenge With the move to remote learning the campus community needed an at a glance archive to contain all public messages posted during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Solution Using WP_Query I created an accordion system organized by date. This simplified email notifications by providing a common URL for all updates where…

  • Staff Directory

    The Challenge Human Resources required a simple workflow for adding and removing staff from a public directory. Previously this was accomplished by pasting a shared document into a WordPress page. The Solution I created a no code solution for human resources by creating a Staff Directory Plugin using Custom Post Types and Custom Fields. Each…