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Reached.space - a blog and directory

Violet

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Violet Full Member

Violet

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screenshot_500_square.jpg.5472a3ad955a0d297633782441b7da09.jpg

Here I'm writing up about my first ProcessWire site, Reached.space, a blog and directory about shops which offer international shipping. 

I'm from The GrayFly Group, which is the registered trade name for GrayFly Stationery, LLC, a limited liability company registered in the state of Kentucky, USA. You might ask, why is a stationery company creating websites?! Well, in a way both activities are very similar: both activities have the goal of getting written messages across in a pleasing manner to the reader.

With that out of the way, let's move on and explain what went on behind the scenes of the Reached.space site:

Template

I used a free CSS-based template from W3CSS at https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/w3css_templates.asp , using mainly the "Architect" template as the basis and modifying it as needed.

Pagination

The pagination feature of ProcessWire was very helpful here; I kept the home page to just two blogroll articles so that the reader was not overwhelmed, but upon pressing "more articles" the remainder of the blogroll is paginated with 4 articles to a page.

Screen reader

I made adjustments to my usage of the template to make it screen-reader-friendly. I used the Google Chrome extension to test out how the site would be handled with a screen reader.

Security

Security is always important, so I was thrilled to find a great all-in-one-place security guide in the ProcessWire docs at https://processwire.com/docs/security/ - I simply went through the guide and did what it said, using it as a checklist.  

Modules

As far as I'm aware, the only additional modules I used (that were not already activated by default in standard PW install) were the Upgrade and Upgrade Checker modules. The main reason for this was security considerations, but it was also an added convenience and peace of mind to have it check for updates every time I logged in.

However, I did use additional software that was not modules, as described below.

Other software - Simple HTML DOM

Here I was very fortunate to receive help from the ProcessWire community on the forum. Due to the site's monetization model being affiliate marketing, I wished to make all my external links nofollow and target _blank by default. User @Robin S was instrumental in showing me how to do this using Simple HTML DOM in the forum post  https://processwire.com/talk/topic/17295-solved-how-to-make-external-links-nofollow-and-target-_blank-by-default-if-using-source-code-toggle-in-editor/

Other software - Google Analytics cookie manager

My site requirements for GDPR were specific enough that I felt I would rather develop my own code to handle Google Analytics tracking, which I'll describe here. I wanted to be certain GA tracking was disabled by default requiring opt-in, instead of opt-out. I also included in the Cookie Manager some written info about third party cookies (these are placed when clicking on affiliate links) and how the user can avoid such tracking (turn off third party cookies in their browser settings). 

I also disabled front-end PW cookies as described here: https://processwire.com/talk/topic/15270-session-storage-and-lifetime/ 

Google Analytics cookie settings

The Google Analytics cookie setting code was done using JavaScript. I used a session storage variable to indicate whether the user had a) accepted GA tracking cookies b) declined them or c) had not made a choice yet. I also had to make some changes also to the <head> code to ensure Google Analytics cookies were not set unless the user had accepted them. 

Efficiency - optimizing 404s

I used the guide at https://processwire.com/blog/posts/optimizing-404s-in-processwire/ to sinkhole bot-driven 404 requests to a static 404 file. 

Back office pic

Below is an image of how ProcessWire allows helpful field descriptions and displays them when used in templates, so that when I come to actually use or enter content in fields I created months ago, I know what the ramifications are. Very helpful. Also, when using the back office I found the Reno admin theme to be very pleasing, efficient, and easy to use.

Screenshot-custom-fields-and-notes.thumb.png.892235de9ce4ae9296d421af3c0e4322.png

 

Edited by Violet
added screenshot of site
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Violet Full Member

Violet

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Update Jan 2019: I'm a little puzzled as to why I don't see my site submission in the Processwire site directory yet. Maybe my site didn't satisfy some criteria?? Or does it take a long time between submitting the site to the PW site directory and it being added? I submitted my site to the directory back in November of 2018.

If anyone can make a guess as to which of these issues is likely, please feel free to comment here. I'm a little puzzled.

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adrian Hero Member

adrian

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1 hour ago, kongondo said:

Maybe @adrian knows. Let's get his thoughts.

Sorry guys - I was never given site submissions approval and I actually don't have a login for the website backend anymore either so I'm afraid I can't help with this one. Maybe just an oversight by Ryan, but I really don't know.

 

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Violet Full Member

Violet

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Thanks so much @kongondoand @adrian for responding. So far, I'm in two minds between a) simply assuming my site didn't meet some criteria, or b) wondering if it's worth re-submitting the form in case it somehow slipped through the cracks during a busy holiday season and some big changes to the way the PW site directory is displayed, or in case I did something wrong in it.

When I submitted the original form back in November 2018, it gave me some code to add to my site pages, and I did it, so at least that part went OK.

For now, I'll just leave it alone.  Maybe I'm just not doing anything unusual enough or different enough with the building of my site (to be included in the directory I mean) ? and I would certainly understand if that is the case. Thanks again everyone, and I very much appreciated the time taken for responses.

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adrian Hero Member

adrian

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26 minutes ago, Violet said:

For now, I'll just leave it alone.  Maybe I'm just not doing anything unusual enough or different enough with the building of my site (to be included in the directory I mean)

I doubt that Ryan has rejected you for any such reasons. I would PM him and see what he says

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Violet Full Member

Violet

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I realize I never updated about this, sorry. It was all OK in the end - I reached out to Ryan, and it just looked like something had slipped through the cracks - my submission was made around the time that they changed they layout of the PW site directory. It got added in fine after I resubmitted. Thanks all for the input!

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Violet Full Member

Violet

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Sorry, but can we please remove this site (https://reached.space) from the showcase? I have been running it for 3 years now, but sadly it has not done as well as some of my other sites and I haven't had as much time to devote to it as I would have liked. I have therefore had to make the difficult decision to shut it down in the next few weeks.

From about 30 days from now it will no longer be running, and the domain name will no longer be in my control.

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