Web Dev – Articles and Web Development guides

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 categories page.

• Previewing markdown in VSCode
  How to check your markdown in VSCode
• Why Java is still popular for Web Development in 2022
  Some of the reasons why Java is still a popular programming language
• Using nginx args helper to search for a URL param
  Using nginx args helper to quickly check for a param in a request
• What Are The Differences Between DevOps And DataOps?
  Do you know the difference between Dev and Data Ops?
• 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
• Best Books for Beginners in Java
  6 books that every Java programmer should read
• 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 VScode
  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
• 5 Simple Ways to Keep a Computer Safe and Secure
  You don’t need to be an expert to keep your computer safe and secure
• Best Web Development Courses for Students
  Some of the best web development courses to learn web development
• 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)
• What Kind of Jobs Can You Get with Java Programming Training?
  A discussion about the career path of a Java programming with appropriate training
• Removing Zoom
  How to completely remove Zoom from your Mac, including some of the stuff it leaves behind
• Python Tutor Help - A Way to Solve any Task in Programming
  Learn about a new offering from Assign Code about teaching Python
• 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
• Office 365 Security
  Office 365 is an incredibly popular product with some amazing security features
• 10 EdTech Apps Every Student Needs to Conquer College
  Lets talk through 10 apps and services that every student should be aware of
• 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
• 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
• Udemy Fail
  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
• iPhone photos not freeing up space when deleted
  An issue with the iPhone not freeing up space and how to fix it
• 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
• 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
• Facebook's Anonymous Login
  Some of my thoughts and worries on Facebook's Anonymous Login
• A beginners guide to ARIA
  Help to get yourself some quick semantic wins with ARIA
• Please don't actually use Retweet and Favourite for polls on Twitter
  These are not what these are supposed to be used for - don't do it
• 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
  A fun look at why the Space Invaders game gets progressively harder
• 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
• Marketing is More Important than Your Code
  Even with the best app in the world it will rarely be a success without marketing
• 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 to change to get notified of all interactions on Twitter
  How you can make sure that you are being notified of all your Twitter interactions
• 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
• Open a file in Github from your command line
  How you can use your command line to open a file in Github
• 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
• If someone does something really sucky, hit them in the Twitter
  Female developers are not a job perk on a job specification
• 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
• Deploying a branch to Engine Yard from the command line
  How to go about deploying branches from your command line
• Internet Explorer Version 999.1
  Here's a funny thing I found today that I thought I would share
• 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
• Speculation on why Google stopped blocking sites
  Here's my thoughts on why Google has stopped allowing folk to block sites
• Only Firefox honours !important in CSS animations
  A recent inconsistency I came across while working with CSS animations
• Good Surge Protecting Power Blocks
  The bad weather in Belfast has me worried about my electrical items
• 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
• Quick Tip for Reddit and Imgur and multiple sub-sections
  Something I wanted to share about Reddit and Imgur that you may find useful
• 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
• Getting Firefox OS on your Android phone
  How you can go about getting Firefox OS on your Android phone
• 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
• Every time you write non-standard or invalid code
  A rant on how you writing messy code makes another developers life a pain
• Setting up Redmine from a blank Ubuntu install
  How to go about setting up Redmine from the very start on Ubuntu
• 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
• The trigger that gets hit when you get a positive Twitter ratio
  Somethings that seem to happen when you have more followers on Twitter
• Facebook - The optimal size for posting an image to a page wall
  What I think is the optimal size for Facebook page wall images
• 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 if you need to with CSS
• Google should minify their 404 page
  How Google should make saving by serving a smaller 404 page
• How to search PayPal transactions by email address or name
  A quick guide to searching PayPal transactions that you mightn't know
• How I use MindNode to help craft blog posts
  How I use the brain storming tool MindNode to plan out my posts
• 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
• Chrome's Lord of the Rings Easter Egg
  Here's a Lord of the Rings Easter egg I spotted in Chrome
• 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
• Permissions issue with Iomega Home Media Network Drive
  A quick fix I found when I encountered a permission issue
• 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
• Updating PHP5.2 to PHP5.3 using apt-get
  How you can go about upgrading PHP to 5.3 from 5.2 - a guide
• 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
• Managing a Facebook development project
  How I think accessing historic Facebook pages should be handled
• Checking if a password field is present in Selenium
  How to use Selenium to check if the password field is present
• An open letter to EUKHost
  Here's some thoughts on the difficulties moving between providers
• Magento Auto Install
  A small script for helping automate installing Magento websites
• 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?
• My Feelings On Adobe Edge
  Here I share some of the feelings that I have with using Adobe Edge
• Disqus showing bullets
  How I went about fixing an issue I had with Disqus showing bullets
• Changing upload permissions in vsftpd
  The optimal solution for changing vsftpd upload permissions
• Getting Netbeans Working with OS X Lion
  How to go about getting Netbeans working on OSx Lion on Mac
• Soon I will be in the market for a new laptop
  Musing which type of machine I should pick up next for developing
• Using Git to create an archive of changed files
  A guide to creating an archive of changed files using Git
• Enabling telnet in Windows 7
  A guide to getting telnet to work in Windows 7 as it's not a default
• Uninstalling Lotus Notes Traveler from your Android Device
  How to go about removing Lotus Notes Traveler from your device
• 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
• Netbeans Redmine Integration Version 0.1 released
  An integration I developed for Netbeans and Redmine - a link
• Netbeans and Redmine Integration
  A plugin I created for integrating Netbeans and Redmine
• Yum not installing 7zip
  An issue I had with yum not installing 7zip on a CentOS machine
• Speed up Lotus Notes on a Mac
  A quick guide how you can speed up sluggish Lotus Notes on Mac
• Location of bookmarks.nsf on the mac
  A silly thing I am continually having to Google to remember
• Two excellent talks on Git
  Two great talks I watched on Git that I found very useful
• 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
• 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
• Clean up your variables
  How to go about cleaning up your variables to make your code safer
• PHP_DEBUG a very handy little constant
  A constant that I have found very useful for setting debug mode
• Uptime Robot
  Uptime Robot is an uptime monitoring tool I have started using
• Editing Git Repository Descriptions
  How you can go about changing the description of your git repos
• Switching between full screen modes in PuTTY
  How to quickly change between full screen modes when using PuTTY
• InFrame - Dynamic iFrame creation with jQuery
  A really cool tool that I am excited to continue working with
• Exploring Built In Functions
  My thoughts on the pros and cons of using built in functions
• Mapping the inside of buildings
  How I think Micello is a really interesting tool for mapping
• 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