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. View my About Me page for my resume.

KEEP IN TOUCH

Joseph Dickson portrait

Recent Posts

  • Excluding a software as a service script from Events Calendar pages and others using Conditional Tags

    Recently, I hit a hard page limit with our web governance subscription and decided to exclude lower priority pages such as calendar entries, media attachment pages and blog archive indexes to removing them from the automated check I can avoid upgrading our plan and focus on pages and posts that actually matter. Last year I […]

  • Overriding Gutenberg’s default editor width and font

    By default Gutenberg sets the editor width to 580px on the desktop unless the browser window is narrower. Since Kubrick’s post content area is 480px we’ll need to override the width so text wrapping occurs at the same width as the final post. for that we simply set new declarations for the wp-block class tag.

  • Upgrading Kubrick for Gutenberg

    This post will contain files and tutorial information related to my talk at WordCamp Santa Clarita on April 6, 2019.

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 […]