Restaurant review: Fusion Cafe, Bistro

Posted on with No Comments

Fusion CafeOkay, so who doesn’t love a good meal out, hmmm? I’m not much into writing restaurant reviews or anything, so I thought I’d give it a go with the restaurant I ate at last night -Fusion Cafe- and share my thoughts and experiences at the restaurant. I’ve been walking past the restaurant and not going in for a few months now, on the way to other restaurants, and was pleasantly surprised when I decided to finally have a meal there.

Fusion Cafe is a sports bar/restaurant hybrid. The sections are separated by a perpendicular walkway which allows visitors to eat in the restaurant and not be disturbed by rowdy sports fans, if they’re looking for a quiet meal. The division between the two is subtle yet just right to be convenient for virtually any visitor. Continue reading →

This entry was posted in General.

Enhancing the comments list in WordPress

Posted on with 2 Comments

With the introduction of the wp_list_comments() function, WordPress enabled users to easily list comments on the websites without having to manually run a series of loops and queries to get the comments into neat XHTML. This function outputs default code with a selection of options for how this code is structured. Today we’ll be customising how comments are displayed in our WordPress theme, and adding a few extra enhancements to our comments while we’re at it (one of them being the Twitter username we added before). Lets start with the callback, shall we? Continue reading →

Storing a Twitter username with comments in WordPress

Posted on with 13 Comments

Follow me on TwitterWe’ve all seen this before when commenting on a blog post we’ve just read. The standard comment form on a WordPress-driven website asks for a user’s name, email address (not published), website address and their comment. What if we could get some other information from the user*, and later integrate that into their comment? Why not get their Twitter username and link back to their Twitter profile as well as to their website? This tutorial will explain how to do just that.

* While this tutorial uses a Twitter username as an example, virtually any additional information supplied by the user can be stored along with their comment (a rating, a selection of their social media profiles, etc). Continue reading →

South African bands and why they rock

Posted on with No Comments

I love South African music. There’s something unique about the South African music industry, the culture behind the bands and the unique dedication and passion with which musicians and industry folks go about things. I’ve been listening to some really excellent South African bands lately and the other way, while in the car, it occurred to me that the band I was listening to released the album almost 6 years ago. Despite having released subsequent albums and having grown astoundingly as a band, the album I had on still sounded amazing. This notion lead me to the topic of this blog post- bands I’ll most likely still be listening to in 10 years time and why.

A few months ago, I posed the question of “is it the bands or the musicians?“- this question repeats itself here. It is said that a song, when played in a particular context, can trigger memories and feelings from a point in your history. Below is a list of several South African bands, what they do and what they mean to me. These are just some of the bands that have fueled my love for South African music. If you haven’t heard of several of them, I recommend you try and check them out (well, those that are still around). Let’s kick things off, shall we? In no particular order… Continue reading →

My (updated) WordPress Plugins Toolbox

Posted on with 5 Comments

Blue WordPress logo, courtesy http://wordpress.org/about/logos/Last year, I wrote about my WordPress plugins toolbox, a series of WordPress plugins I find myself using day in and day out. Since then, the list has grown and developed further to adapt to my varying needs when constructing WordPress-driven projects. Below is an updated list of the plugins I find myself using almost always, in addition to the custom tweaks and widgets I’ve written to accommodate my needs within WordPress. Continue reading →

A quick word on Freedom Day

Posted on with No Comments

Wow, good morning everyone. Yes, I’m up, sleepy-eyed and fighting back yawns, to blog. It feels great!

Today is Freedom Day in South Africa… yes, yet another public holiday in April. This day is, however, more than just another of the many April-based public holidays. Freedom Day remembers the first post-apartheid political election, held on this day in 1994. For South Africans, this day was truly one of a unique nature, as for the first time in a South African election, the entire nation was truly free to cast their vote as they wished… or to even cast their vote in the first place.

If you were in the country at the time in 1994, try to think back on how things were at the time, and before. However you choose to spend today, please set aside a moment to think about the concept of freedom and what it truly means.

A quick word on inspiration and driving output

Posted on with No Comments

What is inspiration? Where does it come from? How can it drive productive output? These are all valid questions.

At this moment, it’s a little misty outside my window. It’s early and I’m almost on my way to a nice hot cup of tea. This doesn’t seem related to the post at all, does it? It is. All of these factors are instrumental in driving productive output from within me. A relaxed environment with average, slightly overcast, weather conditions and the want for a soothing cup of tea. Continue reading →

Theming for Magento — Part 04 – How it all works

Posted on with 6 Comments

Wow, part 4 already? This is where the real fun comes in, folks. Today we’ll be opening up some *.phtml and *.xml files, looking at what’s going on under the hood and finding out how the theme files all tie together. Lets get started, shall we?

Before we get to those files…

Folks, before we dive into the files, lets get some concepts down that are crucial to understanding how the Magento theme files play together.

Magento themes consist of, aside from styling assets (CSS, images, Javascript, etc) a collection of *.phtml (essentially, XHTML files that can execute PHP) and *.xml (Extensible Markup Language) files that make the theme work.

The *.xml files define blocks and regions, which template files get used for which blocks & regions as well as various attributes and parameters for each if these definitions, where applicable.

While the *.xml files tell everything where to be and what to look like, the *.phtml files contain the actual XHTML code required for each block and region.

  • At the time of writing this tutorial, I have upgraded my Magento installation to Community Edition 1.4. All further tutorials, as well as this one, will be  referencing Magento Community Edition 1.4 unless otherwise stated. Please be sure you have the latest version.

Continue reading →