Only a small update this month, now we’re heading into the summer holiday season there’s a big rush from other clients on the bespoke / larger events side. As this quietens down in the summer weeks we’ll be able to focus on some of the bigger tasks waiting in the wings.

Exhibitors

  • Added backlink for exhibitor profiles

Seminars

  • Stripped out any https links for the edit seminar session button

Sphere+ Pagebuilder

  • New Feature: ‘Speaker Wall’
  • Removed old deprecated speaker list as it clashed with the existing speaker list shortcode
  • Tidied code
  • Added speaker groups to the speaker wall
  • Added basic ordering options to the speaker wall
  • Fixed bug with incorrect css
  • Duplicted speaker list shortcode with intention of removing to avoid clash with other shortcodes
  • Removed lazy loading from the slider when images are used to fix bug with first slide not loading
  • Fixed bug with sponsor logos with no logo

Prism

  • Added in extra check for exhibitor plugin prior to using the exhibitor template (belt and braces)

May was dedicated to increasing the speed of the sites, making as many optimisations as we could to get a speed increase without changing the design of the sites. We focused on optimisations to the page construction timing, moving all javascript to the footer of the site and introducing lazy loading so images (such as sponsor logos) are loaded only when the user looks at the image.

Early June we focused on security. With several key plugins updated and a few more introduced we’re covered.

Account Management Site

  • Fixed template redirect from breaking the homepage
  • Tweaked header logo url and footer text

Sponsors

  • Moved js to footer for async loading
  • Adjusted sponsor logos to use lazy loading
  • Added sponsor logos widget scripting migrated from the event settings plugin

Seminars

  • Stripped out any https links for the edit seminar session button
  • Inlined some css
  • Moved js to footer for async loading

Speakers

  • Lazy loading speaker images
  • moved js to footer
  • Fixed a few small bugs

Exhibitors

  • Added backlink for exhibitor profiles

Unyson Integrations

  • Removed lazy loading from the slider when images are used to fix bug with first slide not loading
  • Fixed bug with sponsor logos with no logo
  • Reformatted the slider once again for better lazy loading of images
  • Removed dev code from options
  • Fixed bug with sponsor groups not being assigned the correct ID

Sphere Theme

  • Removed comma. Paranoid about the comma
  • Removed the async plugin, too much trouble caused across other plugins / widgets etc
  • Removed the faint shadow around the content area as it bugged when the transparant background was used
  • Added the async js plugin
  • Added IE8 css to header again
  • Removed a lot of comments in the normalize css which was affecting the minification of the overall css files
  • Reconfigured a lot of elements to help page speed. This is a beta version ready for freetrial testing, not live
  • 404 page text now editable

Prism Theme

  • Added in extra check for exhibitor plugin prior to using the exhibitor template (belt and braces)
  • 404 Page text now editable
  • Header action bar js moved to footer

General

  • Countdown Widget: Moved js to footer
  • Added lazy loading for certain images such as sponsor logos
  • Removed Kraken api settings, moved to separate plugin
  • Removed some unwanted settings options from the admin menu for client logins. Namely Kraken, wpscss and asyncjs plugin menus
  • Added Kraken API Settings inserted by default
  • Added WP Heartbeat slowdown to try ease the server overload
  • Updated api keys for Kraken
  • Moved js enqueing to the footer area for async loading
  • delayed loading of meta desriptions (not sure why?)
  • Added 404 text as editable language
  • Removed sponsor logo widget scripting and moved to the sponsor plugin
  • New Plugin: Kraken API integrations
  • Redirection plugin
    • Added in a new option to force the redirection defaults into the database. This should help block the previous issue of the database containing infinite 404 logs as the initial settings were never saved
    • Added a call to the Redirection ‘Flusher’ which schedules in the clearance of old logs
    • Switched schedule to flush to make a more immediate effect
    • Reverted back to schedule, poor choice

Internal Tools

  • Added in backup funtion_exists code to help on development area where domain mapping doesn’t exist
  • Fixed bug with the domain mapped visit site button hitting an insecure warning
  • Tweaked the view site link to help avoid the ssl warnings

Marketing site

  • Stipped out the setcookie code which was causing a ton of errors in the nginx logs

Since launching the new page designer (a great preview of this is iotx.ae for Dubai World Trade Center) we’ve focused on supporting issues for this as well as bug fixes across our other functionality. Behind the scenes Prism+ is in Beta and getting ready for the Unyson update to fall inline with the Sphere+ theme.

Highlights: 

  • WordPress updated to 4.2.1, 608 beautiful bug fixes and amends provided by the open source community. In general this focuses on the underlying code, compatibility and optimisation. There is also a major security update so if your IT department start panicing about WordPress, you’re ok, it’s covered.
  • Live chat support option added to all admin areas so you can communicate directly to our support staff (mainly Jamie), this is currently a trial but we’re expecting it to stay.
  • The Customizer support for all themes!
  • Custom CSS We’ve added a css editor to the admin for all + sites.

Universal

  • Added Keywords as a new option for page specific SEO setting
  • Fixed issue with the event settings menu vanishing when unyson is active
  • Reenabled the customizer for the wp 4.1 update
  • Sponsor System 
    • Cleaned up some notifications from the error logs
    • Belt and braces fix for the WEPower sponsors ‘continue reading’ oddities
    • Added size as an option to the sponsor shortcode
  • Speaker System
    • Fixed issue with 4.2 conflict with get_avatar_url function

Prism Theme

  • Fixed bug with the RSS ticker not displaying correctly
  • Fixed issue with the sponsor visit site button hovering with a poor color choice
  • Removed the layout tab for non-prism-plus sites
  • Housekeeping cleanup on a few redundent functions
  • Reformatted some prism plus functions to call the ‘is_prism_plus’ function which is more reliable than other methods
  • Removed the auto upgrade functionality as this has been covered with a plugin
  • Updated the header layout so that new sites built on prism (without plus) have the correct header order by default… creative, menu, ticker)
  • Fixed issue with the ‘plus’ status not being explicitly set and dishing out an intermediate version
  • Moved unyson shortcodes to extra plugin
  • Fixed: footer widgets vanished
  • Updated icons for unyson shortcodes
  • Customizer:
    • Removed the theme selection for wp 4.2
    • Fixed conflict with other plugins
    • Added auto update to remove other plugins doing similar functionality e.g. sphere theme customizer

Sphere Theme

  • Fixed bug with the sidebar widgets showing a box shadow
  • Removed extending h1’s after it caused a bug with the unyson extension
  • Fixed another wanky update with the image scaling on browsers
  • Removed double HTML statement in header
  • Removed doctype declaration inline with HTML5 requirements
  • Added HTML5Shiv to better handle the nav markup.
  • Fixed issue with IE being unable to handle the max-width
  • Added better mobile support for the new unyson Menu. Now dropdowns require a double tap to click through to the href, this gives user time to view the dropdown options
  • Added third tier support for unyson menu
  • Added an arrow to the dropdown options to indicate a second tier
  • Added the css editor plugin to the sphere plus config
  • Added custom fields back for superadmin
  • Fixed issue with plugins not being removed on sphere+ deactivation
  • Reformatted the exhibitor list for sphere
  • Fixed issue with sphere sites defaulting to plus
  • Unyson Integration added
  • moved all unyson shortcodes into a plugin so they can be shared with the prism theme
  • Added a (primarily for development) number counter on the taxonomy dropdown
  • added icon to show you’re on a sphere or sphere plus theme
  • Switched to SCSS
  • Added new formatting and styling for full screen pages
  • Added new templates for full width takeover
  • reformatted the header and footer areas to allow easier page template creation
  • Updated agenda, no longer runs full width of the bounding box. This is aimed at making less of an impact on the Unyson release update
  • Updated the extended plugins
  • Fixed bug with the header crop area not being selectable
  • Added the sphere customizer support plugin as a requirement
  • Customizer:
    • Removed the themes selection from wordpress 4.2
    • Fixed conflict
    • Added tool to auto deactivate the prism customizer plugin… (this should really be made into one plugin to handle both)
  • Page Builder
    • Added margin to the headeing options
    • Removed height from the media image, most styling ignores this anyway to support responsive layouts
    • New Icon Box shortcode
    • Added extra styling options to the textblock
    • Exhibitor list shortcode now conditional
    • Removed height from the slider functionality, wishful thinking at this point
    • Hooked up more elements of the speaker shortcode
    • Added slider and gallery shortcodes as separate options
    • styling tweaks
    • Fixed menu styling in unyson
    • Fixed aligning in the heading shortcode
    • Updated the heading shortcode to use inline styling rather than embedded, should fix the IE9 issues
    • Tweaked the menu shortcode styling for IE9
    • Fixed bug with the speaker shortcode images
    • Fixed bug with the speaker shortcode counts not displaying all under cirtain circustances
    • Reordered the taxonomy selection
    • Fixed bugs with the textblock h1 causing a scrollbar
    • Reformatted the image shortcode to include an alt tag and to fix the images not displaying in IE when the image widge hadn’t been set
    • Fixed bug with IE9 not loading the unyson CSS
    • Fixed bug with IE9 not loading the unyson CSS
    • Tweaked how the hover styling is handled for more intuiative dropdowns
    • Fixed bug with the textblock scrollbars always showing up
    • Added some extra validation for transition styles on the slider
    • removed dev code in slider
    • Added links as an option for the unyson slider
    • Rebuilt the slider shortcode from scratch for better design options

Wedge Theme

Despite being officially unsupported due to it’s ageing code, we’ve had to make a small update for customizer support as this was blocking the WP 4.2 upgrade.

February saw more testing and groundwork for the Unyson and Prism+ concepts. All live Prism sites have been shifted to ‘Prism+’ enabling a lower price bracket for the ‘Prism’ theme without the extra aesthetic features.

The biggest new feature to shout about is in the exhibitor section. You can now select the exhibitor list to show only certain categories of exhibitors making it possible to have a track dedicated to a certain section of speakers, seminars and exhibitors.

You can also have multiple exhibitor lists on a single page, with each one working independently of the other.

Sphere Theme:

  • Fixed issue with first seminar session displaying the wrong top padding when highlighted
  • Updated footer credit to mira.cx

Prism Theme:

  • Updated the exhibitor list css to target the exhibitor list class
  • Added the simple css editor as a required plugin for all Prism+ sites
  • Added unyson integration plugin to list of required plugins (for future release)
  • Removed Unyson admin menu for the administrators. Will require activating across the network
  • Fixed issue with action bar buttons turning pink after dev work
  • Added several improvements to the handling of required plugins and when downgrading
  • Added new function for prism plus
  • completed primary work on the prism plus arrangement
  • added supporting functionality for the new Plus concept with a single option used to make the more advanced design features available

Platform Event Settings:

  • Added some warning text for the custom css editor plugin
  • Updated news feed to mira.cx
  • Updated the jquery ui version to a custom version more appropriate to CW

Exhibitors:

  • Removed the uncatagorized tag from the dropdown
  • Updated all tables to work alongside another table.
  • Added option to restrict exhibitor list by category
  • Fixed issue with the exhibitor stands on the single-exhibitor template
  • Tweaked compatibility issue with the exhibitor list styling
  • Removed the ‘Featured’ option on exhibitor list as this hasn’t yet been hooked up
  • Fixed issue with the exhibitor list not showing the stand number correctly.

With the winter break in the middle this is a combined dev diary for January and February. A lot of the public facing work has been small increments with bug fixes or tweaks. Behind the scenes we’re working on the next major update which involves a new homepage builder for some more dramatic designs, layouts and enhancements (referred to Unyson in the lists below). We’re still a few months from release but would hope to start Beta testing with a select group of clients by the end of February.

Platform Wide

– New login styling with branding change to mira.cx
– Updated export filter to add hidden fields when a form has an ‘export’-marked field
– Moved the seminar highlight to the seminars plugin
– Updated jquery ui styling to a newer version with higher contrast
– Added CSS class check to determine which fields should be exported (defaults to existing if none).

Platform Wide – Speakers

– reformatted to use the metabox.io format to register meta boxes.

Platform Wide – Sponsors

– Added option to order by random each time
– Tweaked the shortcode to accept a ‘per_page’ number of logos

Platform Wide – Seminars

– Fixed bug with sessions ordered by time but not then alphabetically, fixes cases with multiple tracks starting at the same time e.g. track A track B
– Work done on helping the plugin survive outside of the cw platform

Prism Theme

– Updated footer credit to mira.cx
– Added support for the new font weight option in the action bar
– Removed dev tag
– Unyson framework amends
– Fixed styling for calendar button
– Fixed bug with unwanted mixins stylesheet being called
– fixed bug with the rounded corners not showing (part of a much larger bug I created yesterday)
– This is a development copy of the Prism theme with unyson framework.
– Vast amounts of work after a full 8 hour day of testing, new features and improvements
– Updated to fit new Unyson plugin
– Updated styling on horizontal speaker list to tidy up speaker name and job titles
– Added unyson framework shortcodes in preparation for unyson upgrade

Prism Theme – Action Bar

– Added support for changing the font weight on buttons
– Added support for setting the link target to _blank

Accounts Website

– Migrated all Less files to Scss
– fixed styling issues with list of blogs
– restyled the ‘unassigned’ blog type for annual sites to look good
– Updated site branding to new miracx logo
– Fixed issues with css hitting errors when compiled
– tweaked annual signup text
– tweaked next subscription date to show month in text form
– Cleaned up the subscription summarry to handle annual clients
– replaced monthly subscription note with billing date to handle annual sites
– Added blog name for annual sites

 

November mainly followed general support across all themes and functionality. The API got it’s first client use as well as some of the first Prism sites going live.

Systemwide

Speakers

– Fixed issue with custom ordering on the speaker widget
– Added filter to the default avatar

Misc

– Storage space limit upgraded systemwide

API

– Tweaked the seminar title output
– Cleaned up the post title from displaying raw HTML
– Unhooked the activate/deactivate filter

Sphere Theme

– Added lineheight styling to sponsor excerpt
– Added heatmap plugin as a required plugin

Prism Theme

– balanced cta styling in sidebar and actionbar
– Added activation for the heatmap plugin
– Fixed issue where rounded corners broke the dropdown navigation :S
– Added font dropdown back to admin, was previously hidden on a discontinued admin page.
– Adjusted size of footer widget titles
– Tweaked actionbar double link to a larger font size

Action Bar

– Added ability to link the static image using the ‘media link’
– Added ability to link the slider images using the ‘media link’
– Added url parsing to detect if link is external, if so it opens in a new tab

Customizer

– Added handle for the hover colors to show live updates
– Fixed issue with live colours not updating
– Added warning message for the nav hover colour to remind user to refresh once set as it’s not possible to update the hover css

This month we officially launched the ‘Prism theme’ so a lot of development was based around this.

Event Settings (Platform Wide)

  • Fixed issue with iframe placement
  • Fixed issue with iframe edit buttons not being visible
  • Fixed issue with the theme customizer unexpectedly reappearaing in wp4
  • Removed the new BWP sitemaps plugin admin menu as it’s not required
  • Added theme name and version to admin footer for clients
  • raised priority on admin menu cleanup function to try fix bugs with menu items magically re-appearing
  • Removed the shortcode helper plugin from the admin for administrators
  • Images now compressed to a maximum of 2000 pixels rather than the originally restrictive 1000

Prism Theme

  • Work on the mobile version mainly the footer widgets styling
  • Major cleanup of css / scss files
  • Temporary version for nav amends after major bug with dropdown found
  • Fixed speaker horizontal layout bug on the single sidebar layout where the image was the wrong proportions
  • Fixed issue with sponsor logos overlapping content on single sidebar layout
  • Tweaked the shortcode config for the teaser block renamed image block shortcode
  • Added PSD’s from certain image files
  • Added new required plugins for redirection tool
  • tweaked footer styling for footer widgets
  • Fixed styling issues in the footer area for sponsor logos widgets
  • Fixed styling of menu widgets in both the sidebar and footer areas
  • Fixed issue with the sidebar menu widget placing buttons too wide for the sidebar
  • Fixed issue with the nav menu appearing too wide in the sidebar
  • Fixed issue with slider floating over the navigation when it was the first element in the content area
  • Added filter to enable the customizer on the main admin menu
  • Fixed broken links on appearance overview
  • Added theme overview page content
  • New screenshot and some updated commenting in functions.php
  • CSS reformatting
  • tweaked required plugins
  • tweaks to required plugins
  • Test to confirm the git repository rename and migration was successful
  • Renamed theme to ‘Prism’ after the collapse of the MiraCX dream
  • Prepare for bugs, lots of tweaks and bits finally pulled together

Sphere Theme (previously cw-theme-2014)

  • Added Redirection and Redirection Overview as required plugins
  • Cleaned code in fn-includes.php
  • cleaned code in misc peices
  • Renamed theme to ‘Sphere’ in line with new product line updates

Wedge Theme (previously cw-theme-2012)

  • Renamed theme to ‘Wedge’ in line with new product line names.
  • Added screenshot to match

Sponsors (Platform wide)

  • Added clearfix to widget
  • Updated CSS after the radio fields markup was changed in the core event settings plugin

Redirection (Platform-wide)

  • Initial commit

Exhibitors (Prism Only)

  • Initial commit
  • Reshuffle of file names

Customizer (Prism Only)

  • Added the navigation hover color
  • Renamed plugin and files accordingly
  • Initial Commit

Action bar (Prism Only)

  • changed bitbucket host name
  • Fixed issue with an empty slider hitting a fatal php error

Teaser Block (Prism Only)

  • Initial commit for the teaser-block/image-block functionality. Currently only for the Prism theme

CW Overview Plugin

  • Switched to a datatables js / css and it is amazing
  • Better everything!
  • Tweaked output so it’s filterable
  • added link to network admin bar
  • added tablesorter and tweaked information

Most of the development time in September has been dedicated to our new theme ‘Prism’ to be launched in October. There are a number of functionality improvements which come along with this and are bundled into the theme.

Conference Websites Major updates

  • Upgraded to WordPress 4.0
  • New media library experience with the grid layout.
  • Updated text editor to expand as you type, also ensures the toolbar follows you down the page

New: Prism theme

  • Beta Testing: Just launched the open beta!!!

New: Exhibitors

  • Alpha Testing: currently in alpha testing, hoping to be available for release in October!!!

Sphere theme (formerly the 2014 CW Theme)

  • NEW anchor shortcode added. Use [anchor id=”example”] to create an anchor point
  • Added opengraph declaration to header file, should fix sharing issue with linkedin
  • Renamed theme to ‘Sphere’ in line with new product line updates
  • Fixed issue with the fixed links on ipad and other tablets
  • tweaked the text widget css

Wedge theme (formerly the 2012 CW theme)

  • Updated: WordPress 4 support
  • Renamed theme to ‘Wedge’ in line with new product line names.
  • Added screenshot to match

Site Admin

  • Removed the shortcode helper plugin from the admin for administrators
  • Updated Images now compressed to a maximum of 2000 pixels rather than the originally restrictive 1000
  • Fixed issue in certain cases where the ‘discourage search engines’ setting was not being honored
  • Updated admin menu reconfig so that it’s filterable

October is aimed at bug fixes and tweaks as well as polishing and improving the new functionality tied in with the Prism theme such as exhibitor lists.

The developer diary let's you in on the behind the scenes of the conference websites product. As a monthly section we'll aim to keep you up to date on the full list of amends that take place across the platform so you can keep up with what's fixed and what we've been working on.

July and August have merged into a long run of developments. With new secretive functionality just over the horizon (to be announced soon) we’ve been busy behind the scenes. Whilst we’ve been working on a lot of structural changes in the foundations of the code we’ve also been able to dish out a new round of functional and aesthetic features for this new version.

Conference Websites Major updates

2014 Theme

  • NEW anchor shortcode added. Use [anchor id=”example”] to create an anchor point
  • NEW supporting CSS for the new CTA button tool
  • NEW new option to adjust text color of the footer disclaimer
  • NEW options set for the editable thumbnails. Hides all image sizes by default, then adds required ones.
  • NEW new search engine optimisation fields for pages, can now edit page description/title
  • NEW support css for gravity forms Poll’s extension plugin
  • NEW support for exhibitor single pages ( not relevent right now 😉 )
  • NEW Support for the Post Thumbnail Editor plugin including default option values
  • NEW noIndex setting to pages. This also hooks into the sitemap to remove the page from the sitemap
  • Fixed bug with the taxonomy templates not pulling in the correct data
  • Fixed shortcode edit links broken in wp 3.9
  • Tweaks to sidebar nav styling, allows the word conference to fit into a single half width button
  • Tweaks to mobile navigation to allow longer sublinks.
  • Tweaks made to the rounded corner settings on sidebar widgets (now keeps a square corner top left if there is a title)
  • Updated: mobile version spacing and padding
  • Updated: Re-Enabled the iframe shortcode admin as this had been blocked
  • Updated: Sponsor logo size increased in sidebar widget
  • Updated: reworking of the media upload script to allow gallery selection in preparation
  • Updated CSS for footer content to ensure disclaimer and nav can sit side by side.
  • Updated styling and layouts of taxonomy pages to allow more content to be added without breaking aesthetic
  • Updated seminar time picker to allow full 24 hours
  • Removed hardcoded meta data from <head>. It’s now added using wp_head hook from plugin
  • Removed code flipping the holding theme back on in odd circumstances
  • Removed redundent admin columns from media and pages view in preparation for the media library plugin

Seminars

  • Fixed issue with wp 3.9 with shortcode edit buttons breaking the text editor
  • Fixed issue with the speaker role reordering (this issue is a TB fix from several months ago – code has been tested and works fine but worth watching for any future issues incase this wasn’t finished code)
  • Tweaked the default speaker avatar on the seminar list
  • Removed seminar quick edit functionality as it no longer worked and looked awful anyway. No usability loss.

Speakers

  • New Editable speaker thumbnails for more precise control over the images
  • Updated added specific editable image size for featured speaker thumbnail to the featured speaker layout
  • Fixed issue with shortcode edit buttons on wp 3.9

Sponsors

  • New sponsor logos sizings. Width increased to 200px
  • Fixed issue with shortcode edit buttons not working in wp 3.9

Conference Websites 2012 Theme

This theme is currently on a ‘support only’ status, as you can tell we’re not giving it the full backing of the 2014 theme, the reason is that the frame of the system is too dated, so we built a new theme (2014) which users can upgrade to for free by contacting us.

  • Fixed issue with wp 3.9 with shortcode edit buttons breaking editor
  • Removed quick edit functionality as it no longer worked and looked awful anyway. No usability loss.
  • Fixed issue with the speaker role reordering
  • Tweaked the default speaker avatar on the seminar list

June Developer Diary

The developer diary let's you in on the behind the scenes of the conference websites product. As a monthly section (starting today) we'll aim to keep you up to date on the full list of amends that take place across the platform so you can keep up with what's fixed and what we've been working on.

Mike joined the team as a specialist in PHP development and an immense knowledge of server setup and optimisations.

Throughout June Mike and Dom have been paying a lot of attention to the server setup. Readjusting some of the foundations of Conference Websites. This should give a tighter hold on our development environment as we’ve switched our version control hosts but also some optimisations on the server. Whilst there isn’t any immediate reward on this switch it will mean bugs and new features can blast through development much quicker in future.

Due to the nature of the server work it’s blocked the product development in June but we’ve still managed to get some vital fixes and tweaks through.

Changelog

New Features

  • NEW Product highlighter added as a standard feature across 2014 theme sites.
  • NEW anchor shortcode added. Use [anchor id=”example”] to create an anchor point

Updates / Changes / Fixes

  • Updated: seminar time picker to allow full 24 hours
  • Updated: Fixed issue with the initial splash theme creating a site with the new template
  • Fixed: issue with the speaker role reordering
  • Fixed: Missing image for the the default speaker avatar on the seminar list
  • Removed: quick edit functionality to adjust session times as it no longer worked. Due to the new taxonomies added this feature has become bloated so decision was made to remove as it’s no longer quicker to use the quick-edit.
  • Updated: Clean up in seminar coding to avoid clash with main events plugin.

AboutUs

Tunbridge Wells Leading WordPress Website Design & Branding Experts with eighteen years of specialised experience creating websites for conferences and events, we are a highly creative website design and branding agency, uniquely placed to provide our clients with the right technical advice and the very best design work. We pride ourselves on being friendly and approachable; creating long lasting relationships with our clients to ensure continued success.

MakeContact

MIRAMEDIA LTD.

The House
29-31 Monson Road
Tunbridge Wells
TN1 1LS

(+44)1892 711144
info@miramedia.co.uk