Web Development
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Why I Spent 16 Months Turning 400+ Holiday Cottages Into WordPress Blocks
TL;DR: I rebuilt kate & tom’s, a 400+ property holiday cottage site, from Advanced Custom Fields flexible content into a native WordPress block theme. The client can now build pages from patterns instead of waiting on me to code a new widget every time. The hard part was migrating 10,590 widgets out of post meta…
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From WordCamp and 120 Pizzas to a Block Theme Launch
What a contrast a week can be. Last weekend I was at WordCamp, surrounded by a group of WordPress and open source enthusiasts, all buzzing about the same stuff I get excited about. The sort of weekend where you come home full of ideas and convinced you’re going to change how you work. Then the…
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Behind the Scenes of My Latest YouTube Video: AI, WordPress, and Late-Night Editing
I’ve just uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel where I test how well Claude Code can build a WordPress block theme and honestly, I’m surprised by how good the results were. The video’s called Build a WordPress Theme with AI, and it follows my process of using Markdown context files inside a project…
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The Perfect WordPress AI Builder Secret Most Developers Miss
Watch the full tutorial in my latest YouTube video above Example Git repo with various markdown files If you’re using Claude Code for WordPress development, you’re probably leaving performance on the table. The difference between mediocre AI assistance and game-changing productivity comes down to one thing: context. Why WordPress Needs Special Attention Unlike simple applications,…
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Website Menu Navigation vs Mega Menu Navigation: Why Simplicity Still Wins in 2025
Menus have always had one job… to help people find their way around a website. Like a door handle or a table of contents, they’re functional by design… simple, expected, and effective. But over the years, we’ve gradually distorted their purpose. In the ongoing debate of website menu navigation vs mega menu navigation, too many…
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Migrating Legacy WordPress Content to the Block Editor: A Real-World Case Study
When WordPress introduced the block editor (Gutenberg), it revolutionised content creation but left many existing sites with a challenge: how do you migrate years of legacy content, custom widgets, and meta fields to the new block-based system? There’s is a tool called try-wordpress that converts HTML into blocks, but it only works with content stored…
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Why AI Tools Slow Down Development
The Day AI Convinced Me to Order a Cinnamon Peach Gin When All I Wanted Was a Simple Fix. Why our AI-powered future might not be as efficient as we think. The Setup Yesterday started like any other dev day. Coffee brewing, IDE warming up, ready to tackle some PHP logic. But then I hit…
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WordPress Block Theme Development: Understanding the theme.json File
If you’re diving into WordPress block theme development, one crucial file you’ll come across is the theme.json. It plays a key role in configuring your theme’s settings and styles. But, as with most things in web development, there’s more to it than meets the eye. What is the theme.json file in relation to WordPress block…
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Extending WordPress Core Blocks
I’ve noticed a growing discussion about extending WordPress core blocks and whether it’s necessary to create a custom block when you can often extend existing core blocks. Generally, it’s better to extend them rather than reinvent the wheel IMO. In February 2024, I faced a situation where I needed to convert an old site into…
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