Here's a list of our articles on Web Dev. Web Development is a huge topic so you will find a wide range of things here. Sorry if these articles seem a bit of a mixed bag, you may find something more specific on our articles page.
Check in with your database
It pays to take a step back and look at how your database is set up every so often. You will often find quick wins and hidden tech debt.
Keeping on top of website updates
Learn what website updates are, what they entail, why they are important, and how we can help
Select multiple lines in VS Code
How to select multiple lines to edit at once within VS Code
Move a line up or down with VS Code
A quick tip on moving lines up or down a file using your keyboard in VS Code
Purging DNS entries
I had no idea you can ask some public DNS caches to purge your domain to help speed things along
Moving from AWS to Render
How we moved a Rails application from AWS to Render, from code updates to DNS changes
Updating payment method email addresses in Stripe
You can't update the email address associated with a payment method in Stripe via their dashboard, you need to use the Stripe CLI
How we helped Turas
We've been helping a local charity improve their web presence, that often means more than code
Getting more out of Plausible
Some things we've done to up our Plausible analytics game
Creating draft posts in Jekyll
How to create and develop with draft posts in Jekyll
Configure VS code to only format changed lines
I used to format an entire file on save, but now I just format my changes, VS Code makes this easy.
Running Jekyll from inside VS Code
How to set up your VS Code to run Jekyll without needing extra extensions
Reducing Noisy JavaScript Errors with Rollbar
The docs didn't make it very clear exactly what I should do so here is my fix
Render's Support
I'm really happy with Render's support and will be recommending them for people to consider
Free tools to improve your website
There are lots of freely available tools to help get a sense check on how your website is doing and recommend improvements
Make time to address low-hanging technical debt
Making the time to address smaller bits of tech debt has been great for several of our projects.
Avoid forking dependencies
A common pattern is to fork a dependency to make a minor change, this should be a last resort, I will explain why
Using CSV files with Postgres on Heroku
How we can use CSV files to import and export data to Postgres databases hosted on Heroku.
Creating Docker images with M1 Macs
I ran into an issue with my Dockerfile when using it on a Linux machine, setting a platform fixed the issue
What does --no-owner mean in Postgres?
You have read a guide to doing Postgres exports or imports and seen --no-owner, this is what it means
What does --no-acl mean in Postgres?
You have read a guide to doing Postgres exports or imports and seen --no-acl, this is what it means
Restart the CodeDeploy agent after changing IAM profiles
The CodeDeploy Agent needs to restart to see new IAM profiles
How to add HTML into an iframe
Using srcdoc to add inline HTML into an iframe
Setting rel attributes in Markdown
Markdown can't do everything, including rel attributes. Use HTML for these links instead.
Where is everything? - Keeping track of project details
Quickly find where everything lives for a project with a little proactive documenting
Using nginx args helper to search for a URL param
Using nginx args helper to quickly check for a param in a request
What is the Aptfile
Do you use an Aptfile in your project? This is what it does
We are dropping our rates
We are dropping our rates for our friends in the charity and third sector
Setting a minimum TLS version with CloudFlare
How to set a minimum TLS version on CloudFlare and why you should consider it
Rebasing in Git - A Basic Guide
Some of the more basic commands I use when rebasing in Git
Setting up Permissions Policy with Rails
How to set up Permissions Policy HTTP header in your Rails app
Basic guide to Content Security Policy with Rails
The basics of setting up CSP with your Rails app
Previewing Markdown files with VS Code
How to quickly see if your Markdown files are formatted correctly
How to turn on invisible characters in VScode
A quick guide to turning on invisible characters in VScode
How to turn on invisible characters in TextMate
A quick guide to turning on invisible characters in TextMate
Cut and Paste in Vim
A quick and easy guide on how to cut and paste using Vim
Upgrading WordPress plugins on Lightsail with wp-cli
How we update WordPress plugins on a Lightsail/Bitnami install using wp-cli
Adding a service worker to Jekyll
Here is how we added a service worker to this very site
Running Commands On Heroku
How to run commands on Heroku locally and from their web interface
Essential non-programming skills for engineers
How soft skills benefited my career and can help your career too
Wildcard A Records
Wildcard A records are a big no-no unless you know what you are doing (I didn't)
How to completely remove the Zoom client from MacOS
How to completely remove Zoom from your Mac, including some of the stuff it leaves behind
Getting wireless printing working on Virgin Media Hub 3
A guide on how to get wireless printing working on Virgin Media if yours has suddenly stopped working
Testing DNS Speeds
Here are some quick scripts for testing DNS speeds and comparing the results
Setting up Rails to use PostgreSQL
A short guide to setting up your Rails project to use the PostgreSQL database
Hiding Secrets in Terraform
Let's discuss how you can hide secrets in Terraform. There are several methods, some more dangerous than others
Jekyll Raw Code Block Syntax
A guide to formatting code blocks using the Jekyll raw syntax
How to escape backticks in Markdown
How to escape backticks when you're trying to write inline code blocks with Markdown
Simple Postgres Commands I always forget
Here are some simple Postgres commands that I almost always forget
Quick and Easy CSS Minification Using Atom
A guide to quick and easy CSS manual minification using Atom. Sometimes you don't need a build step
Adding Author to Jekyll Posts
This is how I added the notion of an author to my Jekyll posts. Author information helps people who who wrote the post they are reading
Reducing Image Size for better page load times
The ultimate guide to reducing image sizes for more performant web pages
How I try and accelerate my learning
How I try and accelerate my learning by setting projects for myself and focusing on concrete tasks
Lead Developer Conference Reading List
My Reading list have the Lead Developer Conference in London recently
Code Review
My thoughts on Code Review, when code review should happen and what to review during it
Nginx Cache Busting Rewrite Rule
Following on from an excellent guide on cache busting, we see how you can accomplish this in nginx
List of Countries without a Postcode
If Stripe doesn’t always expect a postcode, it is because some countries don’t have them – here is a list of countries that don't
Posting to Slack with PHP
Posting to Slack with PHP is incredibly quick and easy, here is how you can
Tracking AdWords Conversions within JavaScript
How you can track Adwords Conversions from JavaScript callbacks, AJAX requests etc.
Close proximity leads to ideas being shared too soon
Does sharing a close proximity with someone lead to ideas being shared too soon? I think so
Fix for OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError on RestForce / Faraday
Fix for OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError on RestForce / Faraday. Hopefully this will save you some time if you see this RestForce error
What to do when things go wrong
Steps to take when something goes horribly wrong with a website or app that you are building
The EU Cookie Law
A backup of the EU cookie law website which used to live at theeucookielaw.com, the content is hosted here instead
Debriefing Development Teams
11 Best Practices and Tips I borrowed from an article aimed at intensive care situations
Setting up Moat and DFP
Setting up Moat and DFP isn't as straightforward as I would like. Here is a guide to getting it done
What I have learned about roadmaps
What I have learned about roadmaps and the process of roadmapping
Why a cold email from Udemy didn't hit the mark and what to do better
Udemy sent me some crappy marketing to try and get me to promote a crappy page of theirs (spoiler, it didn't happen)
Finding the List ID for the Marketo API
Here is how you find the LIst ID when using the Marketo API
Come play Codewars with me
Codewars is a great tool for learning fundamentals, you should try it out
Good habits for student developers – Time Keeping
Here I talk about good time keeping, how to do it and why it's important
What to do when refactoring a large codebase without tests
Some things that can make refactoring easier when you have no tests
What I would look for in a junior developer
Some things which I think are good qualities in a junior developer, if I seen these shine through in a portfolio or CV, I'd be happy!
How the technical direction of a project can be influenced
How outside and internal influences can change project direction
Squash br inside contenteditable
A fun CSS hack I recently discovered that I thought I'd share
Good Habits for Student Developers - Backups
Here is an overview of backups, how to do them and why to care
A beginners guide to ARIA
Help to get yourself some quick semantic wins with ARIA
Hearthstone APIs
Here is an overview of Hearthstone and some of the APIs available
Divs still have their place
Despite being abused by some folks they do have their uses
View Markdown Files in your Terminal
How you can view Markdown files in your terminal easily
The correct way to markup an image and caption in HTML
How to use figure and figcaption for semantic HTML gains
Some stumbling blocks I hit following my first Swift tutorial
Here I detail some difficulties I encountered with my first go at Swift
Quick Semantic Wins
Here's a list of things that can quickly give you some semantic wins
Accessibility and SEO are tightly linked
How both these things are tightly linked and how accessibility benefits SEO
What the header element can be used for
A conversation with Derek Johnson got me thinking about the header element
Gender Neutral Swear Words
We use too many gendered swears - here are some which aren't so bad
Every developer makes mistakes all the time
We all make mistakes no matter the level and that's okay
Backblaze is part of a great backup solution
My thoughts on Backblaze and how it's really helped me out
Kill off any process on a particular port - An explanation
I've written about this before but felt it needed a little explanation
Space Invaders and the fun reason it gets progressively harder
This is one of my favourite examples of something that starts life as a bug but becomes a feature
WhiteHat Aviator Phoning Home?
A concerned email and the response from WhiteHat and why Aviator phones home
Backing up an s3 bucket to another s3 bucket
How you can go about backing up your s3 bucket to another one
Force a CSV download from a WordPress Plugin
How you can go about forcing a CSV download from a WordPress Plugin
Nav Elements, not just ul wrappers
A great tip shared by Derek Johnson to make my site more accessible
How Much Does Your Website Cost You?
It's a good idea to know just how much your website costs you
Turning off the PiFace Control and Display
Here's how to go about making sure the LCD screen cleans up after itself
Kali Linux 32 bit mini ISO getting stuck on samba
Here's an issue I had with installing the Kali Linux 64 bit mini ISO
Removing Protected and Private from WordPress posts
By default WP will prepend Protected to any post title that is protected by a password and will prepend Private to any that is set as private, let's fix that
Copy and Rename multiple files in Linux
How you can go about copying and renaming files in Linux
Not able to cd or ls into drive mounted by s3fs
An issue I encountered with not being able to move into a drive mounted by s3fs
Quitting Postgres psql
I've just started using psql and had no idea how to quit - here's how
Setting I changed to up my Chromebook's internet speed
How I went about speeding up the internet on my Chromebook
My Chromecast Setup
Here I run through how I've gone about setting up my Chromecast
CodeIgniter - when to use get_instance()
How I learned when to use get_instance with CodeIgniter
Resources for getting up to speed with Redis
Here's a list of resources that will help you get up to speed with Redis
How to install the latest version of Redis on Ubuntu
A quick guide to installing the latest version of Redis on Ubuntu
Newbie Programming Resources
Here are some useful resources for folk new to programming
Values returned to ActiveMerchant by SagePayGateway during 3d secure
How to tie back values returned to ActiveMerchant by SagePayGateway
You should serve up assets without a protocol
Why and how you can go about serving up assets without a protocol
Things to remember to do before any video conference / online call
How to get set up for a conference call so you can have the optimal experience
Looking for Bootstrap's popover-inner?
Missing some of your popovers? Here's how to go about displaying them
Indenting Text using Vim
How you can go about indenting your text in the Vim text editor
GitGutter – A Sublime Text plugin for seeing changes in git
A short overview of GitGutter and how you go about getting it
Copy and Paste in Vim
A quick and easy guide on how to copy and paste using Vim
Right clicking inside Linux on your Chromebook
You might have issues right clicking in Linux, here's how I dealt with it
Getting Debian to recognise your UK Chromebook
How you can go about getting Debian to recognise your UK Chromebook
Automation is a lot like your windscreen wipers
Here's an analogy on how I think automation is a lot like windscreen wipers
Getting rid of text selection at the bottom of Sublime Text docs
Getting rid of annoying text selection at the bottom of Sublime Text documents
Stopping all instances of Ruby on Rails running on a certain port
How to find and stop all instances of Rails running on a specific port
MySQLslap - A quickstart guide
How you can set up MySQLslap quickly and easily - a guide
Web Developer Equipment
Here's some of my thoughts on how your equipment may or may not affect your work
Stack Exchange is winning the internet and this is not a good thing
Stack Exchange results tend to be the first ones on Google and this isn't always a good thing
Sublime Text reading SASS files as HAML
A fix for when Sublime Text is reading SASS files incorrectly
Safari on Windows doesn't like outline inside of :after
Here's a weird edgecase and a little detail on how this issue breaks down
Turn Off the built in apache on OSx
How to turn off and turn back on the built in apache on OSx
Only Firefox honours !important in CSS animations
A recent inconsistency I came across while working with CSS animations
Open all your browsers at once in OSx
Here's how to go about opening all your browsers at once
Different ways to undo in Git
Several different ways that you can undo things in Git and why you should or shouldn't
Big Wet Fish Get Marketing
How Big Wet Fish did a little gesture which got a lot of us round Belfast talking about them
Some command line tips for the web developer
Here are some command line tips that we think you may find useful
How to turn on invisible characters in Sublime Text 2
A quick guide to turning on invisible characters in Sublime Text 2
Update your Git install
You should really keep Git up to date and here's how I done it
Installing PEAR for PHP on OSx
A guide on how you can go about installing PEAR for PHP on OSx
What you need to make Firefox OS applications
A checklist of things you will need to learn to make Firefox OS applications
Using Mozilla's Mortar and App stub for Firefox OS apps
How to use Mozilla Mortar and App stub for bootstrapping
Using Stack Exchange to be better at what you do
Some tips on how to get the most out of yourself on StackExchange
Editing remote files locally in OSx
A quick guide to how you can edit remote files locally in OSx
Git branches seem to be case insensitive
A weird quirk with casing and Git and how to resolve it
Changing the font-style of placeholder text CSS
How to go about simply changing the font-style of placeholder CSS
Apache and PHP webserver version
Finding out what version of Apache and PHP a webserver is running when you have little access
Entering your email at the inbox is a bad idea
Why this is and what you can do to avoid having to do it
Setting up Apache on OSx Mountain Lion
A quick guide to setting up Apache in OSx Mountain Lion
CakePHP and htaccess caching funtimes
An issue I had with CakePHP and htaccess and how I fixed it
Styling Scroll Bars
How to go about styling scroll bars with CSS
Copying a CakePHP Project from Linux to Windows
A guide on moving a CakePHP project from Linux onto Windows
PHP - Turn UK Date into US Date
How to go about changing UK date to US date when using PHP
Things to check for in your htaccess file
Here is a list of things you should check before you go live
Printing on the web
A quick overview of some of the biggest sites on the web and how they fail at Print CSS
Validation in CakePHP 1.3
How to go about doing validation when using CakePHP 1.3
Deleting Magento Session Files
How you can go about deleting your Magento session files
Reducing Google Contacts storage on Android devices
How you can go about reducing storage on your Android device
CakePHP 2.0 Read Recursive
Something that caught me out when I was using CakePHP at first
Canonical and Base URLs
A guide to canonical and base URLs and why you should care about them
Having FTP in your IDE is part of a broken model
My thoughts on why having FTP in your IDE is not a good thing
Useful Web Developer Bookmarklets
Here are some bookmarklets I use on a regular basis that you may find useful
Get rid of var $name in CakePHP
How you can go about getting rid of var $name in CakePHP
Keeping on top of my to-do list
How I manage tasks that I need to get done/handling my to-dos
Proposal: Companies get your employees on Stack Exchange
Get your employees to answer questions on Stack Exchange and contribute to the community
An open letter to EUKHost
Here's some thoughts on the difficulties moving between providers
Netbeans Private Key Authorisation Problem
An issue that I encountered with key based authentication
MySQLTuner - An excellent free MySQL tool
Some thoughts on MySQLTuner and how to go about setting it up
Apache - [notice] cannot use a full URL in a 401
[notice] cannot use a full URL in a 401 ErrorDocument directive --- ignoring!
What I would change about the Computer Science degree course
Some of my thoughts on what I would've liked on my Computer Science course
W3C Web Application Privacy Best Practices - A Guide
The W3C have released Web Application Privacy Best Practices - What do we do with it?
Disqus showing bullets
How I went about fixing an issue I had with Disqus showing bullets
Using Git to create an archive of changed files
A guide to creating an archive of changed files using Git
IE7 td colspan width 'issue'
A thing which I believe IE7 have actually usefully gotten right
Git command to show files changed in a commit
How to see exactly which files have changed in a single commit
The importance of supporting OWASP
Security of the web is important and you should support it
Edit an option of a select menu using jQuery
How to edit an individual option of a select menu using jQuery
Getting the most out of StackExchange
Some tips and tricks on how to get the most out of StackExchange sites
Quick way to switch between folders in the terminal
How to move and forward between your present and previous directories
Importing a backup file from another MS SQL machine
How to safely import a backup file with no loss of data
Possible issue when using parseInt function
How to force integers not to be octals in PHP applications
PHP Security - General PHP setup Gotchas
My first post in a series dealing with security in PHP apps
MySQL snippet - Selecting from table a items that aren't in table b
How I found items that were present in one table but not another
Finding your SQL Server Version
How I went about finding out what my current SQL server version was
PHP - Quick Is Not Set Replace
An issue that I encountered when I updated PHP and how I fixed it
IE Cannot Open The Internet Site - Operation Aborted
An issue that I encountered when adding JavaScript into a page
What you actually do when you untar something
What actually happens when you untar something when you're using Linux
Find out which version of Ubuntu I am on
How I went about finding out which version of Ubuntu I was running
Allowing your own From header with sSMTP
How to go about setting your own From header using sSMTP
Useful Git Links
A useful list of resources for learning how to best use Git
Skipfish - No such file or directory
A play around with Skipfish to see if I can automate security scans
Replace ereg with preg_match
How to update to using preg_match on newer versions of PHP
Switching between full screen modes in PuTTY
How to quickly change between full screen modes when using PuTTY
Exploring Built In Functions
My thoughts on the pros and cons of using built in functions
Clean out your links!
Some of my thoughts on how you should sort out link building
Acronym and Abbreviation Tags
What they are and how they are useful for your folk using your sites
Internet Explorer 8 Checkbox Issues
Here I detail some of the issues with checkboxes in IE8
About Pages - Are they totally necessary?
My thoughts on whether about pages are necessary or not
Out of the box design
Some of the thoughts I went through prior to setting up this site