From 57a3c55137a846fafb831ec0c95b4e33a045eb7e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ray Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2020 16:19:52 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] update content --- content/posts/stanthams.md | 25 ++++++++++++++++--------- 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-) diff --git a/content/posts/stanthams.md b/content/posts/stanthams.md index 89ec17e..7fc7a30 100644 --- a/content/posts/stanthams.md +++ b/content/posts/stanthams.md @@ -15,23 +15,20 @@ Charles Stantham are a firm of made up solicitors who decided they wanted me to The site is a fairly basic brochure site with no particularly special requirements. -And so, for this relatively simple site I decided that a 'site-builder' and a pre-made theme would be used. +And so, for this relatively simple site I decided that a 'site-builder' would be used. ## The Theme The one chosen was [OceanWP](https://oceanwp.org/). -This uses [Elementor](https://elementor.com/) and provides a ready made, general purpose theme that can be customised for a particular use. -There were some bits of minor customisation required that were not possible through the theme's interface and so a child theme was created. - -Reasons for choosing OceanWP and Elementor: +There were a number of reasons why using OceanWP is appropriate for a project such as this: * **Quick**. Using such solutions can cut development time considerably. This can be especially important for low budget sites. Instead of building a site completely from scratch, a general, existing theme can be highly customised. -* **Flexible**. Although not as flexible as a bespoke theme, Elementor, and therefore OceanWP, is highly customisable. +* **Flexible**. Although not as flexible as a bespoke theme, OceanWP is highly customisable. For features that can't be created or modified within the theme a child theme can be created and these features added on that way. -* **Extensible**. Many features are provided as extensions to the base of Elementor. +* **Extensible**. Many features are provided as extensions to the base theme. It is also not difficult to add custom functionality if needed. * **Lightweight**. There are a lot of popular page builders available for WordPress. Not all of them are, relatively speaking, as lightweight or well coded. @@ -53,9 +50,19 @@ So, when working with WordPress, a theme developed from scratch should always be However, this is not always possible given time or cost restraints and compromises may need to be made. In these cases a site builder may be the best option. +As there were some minor customisations required that were not possible through the theme's interface, a child theme was created. + ## The Plugins -Apart from Elementor, I used a limited number of plugins. +The main plugin used was [Elementor](https://elementor.com/). + +Elementor is a 'Page Builder' that provides component based building blocks that can be added to a WordPress site and customised. + +This has the advantage of speeding up development time considerably but brings disadvantages similar to those discussed above for using OceanWP. +Again, for this particular project, I felt the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. + + +Apart from Elementor, a limited number of other plugins were also used: * [Contact Form 7](https://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/). For a basic contact submission form, this is perfectly suitable. @@ -74,7 +81,7 @@ Apart from Elementor, I used a limited number of plugins. UpdraftPlus handles these very well. * [WP Fastest Cache](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-fastest-cache/). It is always better to use server side caching such as Nginx FastCGI cashing or Varnish. - However, in cases where this isn't practical, this plugin is a very competent solution. + However, in cases where this isn't practical, this plugin is a competent solution. * [WP Mail SMTP](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/). It can be tricky getting mail working when using WordPress within Docker containers. This plugin provides for a simple solution.