Developers Desk

…well I like to think so.

Recently I have been bragging about this website achieving top rankings from two online test tools, GTMetrix & Pingdom.

Here are the original results:
Pingdom – 100%
GTMetrix – A-99% A-100%

Well, someone pointed out that my site is pretty simple and not running any plugins or extras that could affect the site score.

Challenge accepted, I have added a Soliloquy Slider to add some CSS & JS files, a couple of WooCommerce Products to add more script and featured images.

Here are the new results:
Pingdom – 99%
GTMetrix – A-95% A-97%

Now the challenge is to identify these new scripts and image issues, minify some files via W3 Total Cache and re-test the site…

Third party website testing is a fast growing sector in web development. With all of the fancy scripts and large visuals that power today’s websites providing a good user experience is critical to achieve online success. Clean code and fast page loads are also something Google takes very serious.

Recently a client forwarded an email from their host that pointed out a possible security breach in the popular sharing plugin JetPack for WordPress.

The concern is with the email share function, spammers could use this function to send unsolicited bulk email via your website.

Looking into this issue raised the question of why do we even need an email sharing function? Does anyone actually use it? With all the popular sharing platforms available today like Facebook, Twitter & Google + do we really need email share? is the risk worth the reward? For those afraid to use the public sharing platforms I am confident they could simply copy & paste your URL into a regular email created via their local email program or online email like Gmail.

This possible security breach resulted in giving other social plugins a second look, if Jetpack, which was created by the great people at WordPress, is vulnerable, how safe are the others?

After consultation with a few clients we chose to disable the email share functions of other plugins, better safe than sorry.

A great plugin I have used and liked because of the way it handles sharing your website post title, images and properly links back to your site is Social Sharing Toolkit by Marijn Rongen. No problem, will just login the client’s site Admin and disable the email sharing function. We’ll, was I surprised, appears my go-to sharing plugin has been sold by the developer to another company. LinksAlpha. No big deal, their website claims they will continue development & updates as well as provide support moving forward.

So on the settings page I find a button for LinksAlpha and attempt to click and disable this feature… but nothing happens, the option is there but does not function. No big deal, let’s jump over to the WordPress to see what is going on.

Normally a calm & cool web developer I must say that what I found caused the blood pressure to rise dramatically. http://wordpress.org/support/topic/linksharereally

Seems the new owners chose to inject their own new function, basically a multi platform sharing option that includes their name and link. I can understand that they want to promote their business and other products but to just add their link button to everyone’s site without warning is wrong. Maybe an email or upgrade notice could have been tolerated but just injecting their button with no option to disable it is bad business.

I was lucky that this deceitful action did not break the layout on any of my client’s sites but still left me feeling I have let my clients down.

I have reviewed several fixes to make the shameless self promotion button disappear but unsure if I can continue to use any products from this company as the trust factor has been violated beyond repair.

For all of my client’s affected by this I will be reviewing new solutions and reaching out to offer a fix or replacement based on individual needs.

Do you tap your desktop screen with a finger? Do you click a mouse on a mobile device? The needs of desktop and mobile users are different and the old solution was to provide a copy of an existing site to provide mobile features for mobile users. This was so 2011, maintaining two websites so your mobile users were not frustrated and quick to click away from your site.

Introducing the new one-size-fits-all approach to web design. We have combined a variety of features and controls to allow site owners to create one site that will adapt and adjust for any screen size. Using responsive design we can achieve this, when a visitor loads your site the backend code checks what screen size they have from a widescreen desktop or laptop to the smallest phones, and displays your site re-sized to fit nicely.

Flexible and Responsive Web Design

Now we can make a site display properly but what about controls? Mobile device users do not use a mouse and pointer to click links or navigate around your site, they simply use tap or touch features built in to many mobile devices. This creates a problem for the one site does all approach as often when a site layout scales down for small screens the text links are too small to tap with a finger. The solution is to include media queries in the site design to detect what the visitor is using to view your site. If they are on a tablet or phone the regular navigation bar will convert to an expanding tap to view menu optimized for touchscreen devices.

Content For Touch Screens vs Desktop Screens

Another issue that arises is that often you will want to display different content or change the layout of content for the mobile users. This is accomplished with media inquires as well. Using css stylesheet selectors we can display or hide site elements to achieve a best case scenario where mobile features appear for mobile users or desktop features hide or display as needed.