The why behind the change

While there are many reasons behind this change in direction for matthewrpritchett.com, the main reasons is that my wife and I would like to travel more and get out of debt quicker.  We are firm believers in getting out of debt and staying that way. We don’t use credit cards, pay cash for cars, and would like to pay cash for our first home.  With all this in mind, we have a long way to go before achieving all of that.  So we are looking to diversify our income streams and really create a better future for both ourselves and our children.

Things we will be talking about

We will be talking about how we are progressing a lot in the coming days.  You will probably see some posts from Cindi, my wife, in the coming days as she seeks to share her side of this new journey we are embarking upon.  We also hope to share our travels, as they begin to occur.  One big dream that we have is to travel all the way around the world stopping in such cities as London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Frankfurt, Venice, Bangkok,  Sydney, and somewhere in Fiji.  The tickets we have been pricing start around $4000, and we would need two.  But we also are committed to getting out of debt and building at least 6 months savings before we start spending money on wants and travelling.

What about you?  What are your goals financially and in the business world this year?  Know any good deals on around-the-world flights?

Go ahead and click on over to Youth Plannr’s website and sign up to be notified about it’s launch!  Might even through in a few freebies to those that sign up in advance!

Skills Needed:

• Intermediate HTML
• Basic CSS
• Basic-Intermediate PHP
• intermediate WordPress theme knowledge

Why post from the front end

There are various reasons to allow clients, users, or customers to post from the front end.  Everything from review sites to community blogging sites.  My personal use involved the creation of a HelpDesk for a client founded on WordPress.  Users needed to be able to login (as to prevent non employees from submitting), but the submission process needed to be quick and painless (I know, WordPress is just SO hard).  So I spent some hours on google and in the code and finally came up with a method that pleased both my own standards and that of the client.

Creating the Page Template

Assuming that you have a working knowledge of WordPress page templates (if not, check out this resource), go ahead and create a page template like the one below.

Next we enter the code necessary to submit the post itself.  This code wraps the rest of our code and tells it to submit to the database as a post.

<?php
if( 'POST' == $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] && !empty( $_POST['action'] ) &&  $_POST['action'] == "new_post") {

Next, we tell WordPress to do some minor form validation.

if ($_POST['title'] != '') {
		$title =  $_POST['title'];
	} else {
		echo 'Please enter the wine name';
	}
	if ($_POST['description'] != '') {
		$description = $_POST['description'];
	} else {
		echo 'Please enter some notes';
	}

After we validate some of our post information (to make sure that we have enough info to write a post), we proceed to storing the form inputs to our array ‘$new_post.’

 // ADD THE FORM INPUT TO $new_post ARRAY
    $new_post = array(
    'ticket_number' => $ticket_number,
    'room_number' => $room_number,
    'post_content'  =>   $description,
    'post_category' => array($_POST['cat']),
    'tags_input'    =>   array($tags),
    'post_status'   =>   'publish',           // Choose: publish, preview, future, draft, etc.
    'post_type' =>   'post',  //'post',page' or use a custom post type if you want to
     $emergency = $_POST['emergency'],
     $location = $_POST['location'],
     $problem_type = $_POST['problem_type'],
    );

	 //SAVE THE POST
    $pid = wp_insert_post($new_post);

	$update_post = array();   // create empty array
	$update_post['ID'] = $pid;   // set post ID to be updated
	$update_post['post_title'] = $pid;  // set new value for title in that post
	wp_update_post( $update_post );  // update the post

	add_post_meta($pid, 'emergency', $emergency, true);
	add_post_meta($pid, 'location', $location, true);
	add_post_meta($pid, 'problem_type', $problem_type, false);
	add_post_meta($pid, 'ticket_number', $ticket_number, false);
	add_post_meta($pid, 'room_number', $room_number, false);
    //KEEPS OUR COMMA SEPARATED TAGS AS INDIVIDUAL
    wp_set_post_tags($pid, $_POST['post_tags']);

    //REDIRECT TO THE NEW POST ON SAVE
    $link = get_permalink( $pid );
    wp_redirect( $link );

    } // END THE IF STATEMENT THAT STARTED THE FORM

    //Publish the post
    do_action('wp_insert_post', 'wp_insert_post');

?>

After we complete the necessary code to publish the post, we move on to the fun stuff, the meat of our form for posting from the front end! The form below is my form, but yours will look different. Feel free to copy and paste anything you need, or ask questions in the comments!

<div class="content_loop_ticket">
                    	<div class="content_loop_ticket_status">
                            <div class="content_loop_ticket_status_<?php $category = get_the_category(); echo $category[0]->cat_name; ?>">
                                <h3><?php $category = get_the_category(); echo $category[0]->cat_name; ?></h3>
                            </div>
                        </div>
                        <div class="content_loop_ticket_info">
                           <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><h2><?php the_title(); ?> | <?php the_author(); ?> | <?php the_time('m/d/Y'); ?></h2></a>
                        </div>
						<div class="content_loop_ticket_emergency_<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "emergency", true); ?>">
                        	<h3>EMERGENCY</h3>
                        </div>
                    </div>

WHAT IS RESPONSIVE DESIGN

Responsive Design could be seen as design that responds to the user.  So a website (much like this one!) will look slightly different in a monitor as opposed to a tablet or mobile device, while still possessing the same base HTML code and structure.  The key difference is the use of percentage based widths and removing the sidebar as the screen width gets smaller.

ETHAN MARCOTTE of A List Apart wrote an excellent article last year that showed both the excellence in using responsive design, and also it’s downfalls, chiefly the image issue and the lack of compatibility with IE 6-8.  But Ethan also resolves most of these issues through a clever series of jQuery uses, image hacks, and IE hacks.

WHY RESPONSIVE DESIGN IS HATED

Many feel that responsive design should never be used.  Both because of the problems presented in the article by Ethan Marcotte and other various reasons.  Several excellent points have been brought up by several people, including  Juan Pablo Sarmiento over atWeb Design Shock.  One of the main issues I personally have is that when using CSS to create responsive design, you may need to use display:none in order to block out certain content.  The problem with this is that the browser still loads the resource, using CPU resources, but it isn’t displayed.  What a waste!

CONCLUSION

Many people love the thought of responsive design.  It gives flexibility for multiple screen sizes, while not forcing the developer to build an outright web or dedicated app.  It also gives your site that extra professional touch that clients and users love!  There are also equal numbers of people who have major issues with responsive design and the concepts contained therein.

What about you?  Do you use responsive design?  Does responsive design drive you crazy?  Let us know in the comments below!

The design world is MOVING!  It is changing more this year than it ever has.  With tools like HTML5, CSS3 and CMS updates like WordPress 3.x, we are seeing more options for developers, which translates to more options for designers.  With the battle over responsive design reaching a new fury, there is much to learn and tinker with.  I personally believe that responsive design is a great thing, when used in the proper context.

The web is changing, it is growing cleaner, leaner, and…nicer.  The web has been known to be a place that rips you up and spits you out.  But with sites like Dribble, Pinterest, and forums where trolls are not welcome, it’s beginning to bloom as a place open to everyone!

Social

Social Media, from this corner of the world, is stagnating.  MySpace is gone.  Facebook is boring.  Twitter is something you use or won’t ever touch.  The new thing seems to be sites like Dribble and Pinterest.  Sites where you can bring together all your favorite things, show them to the world, and see your friends.  Those who can capitalize on this new interest of average web users can move forward with Social prowess.

Technology

Technology is…technology.  With the death of Steve Jobs we saw the end of an era.  But this is not the end of the “Golden Age of Technology,” as some are putting it.  Steve was a revolutionary, no doubt about it.  But that revolution is still ongoing.  He gave people the necessary motivation to improve, and that will never die.  With new progress in TV’s, PC’s, Blu-ray, and other emerging technologies, I am excited for what the future holds for us!

What about you?  What do you see from your corner?  Think I got something wrong?  Let’s hear it!

1. I am changing how I live and work.  Primarily I want to only work on things that I am passionate about, and chiefly, I want to live passionately.
2. With that being said, I am taking this site to be a personal blog rather than a corporate portfolio.  If you are interesting in seeing some of my work, please head over to Red Cloud Creative, which is launching January 1, 2011.
3. I will also be starting several new projects which I will be announcing over the next several months, so stay tuned!

I could have gone with several different designs that I had floating around, but instead I chose to go with the default WordPress theme, Twenty-eleven.  It’s clean, semantic, and works like a charm.  Which fit my desires for this new outpouring.