Issue 71
Hi everyone
It's been a few weeks since the last newsletter but it's back and with a new site behind it. After some thought, I've decided to base the newsletter around its own domain. So, over the last few days, I've moved the old newsletters to a new Archives section on perchology.com and changed email provider.
I think this will give me more flexibility and scope to develop the Perchology blog. More about that another time.
Anyway, this issue includes a great site example write-up, fab work with Perch admin themes, and some great tips that will help with your Perch sites.
I hope you are keeping safe in these difficult times. Take care.
Tips and Tricks
The else attribute and falsy values
The Perch templating engine has a number of ways that allows you to conditionally output content (and markup). One of these ways is the else attribute. It provides a quick and easy way to output a default if a field is empty.
Add-Ons
Pipit v0.5
Pipit v0.5 brings some form helper functions and makes it easier to submit forms to Perch via JavaScript.
Calendar Field Type
A datepicker field type for Perch based on Flatpickr.
Colour Swatches Field Type
A Perch field type to display a selection of color swatches for the editor to choose.
How Do I
Using the PerchCMS Factory pattern
An overview of the PerchCMS Factory pattern which is used to access data from the MySQL database
Prevent Staging and Dev Sites From Being Indexed by Search Engines
An easy way to stop dev and staging sites from being indexed by search engines by defining an extra setting in your config file.
Admin Themes
Admin Menu Icons
How to add icons to sidebar navigation in Perch admin.
Skill UI
An airy modern style and looks nice with blocks. It will turn all your radio buttons to toggle switches.
Site Examples
Lucie Mason Flowers
We built this site on Perch a couple of years ago and the client always wanted to add an online shop at a later stage. We got the go ahead to do that in January to be live in time for Mothers Day - the businesses busiest time of the year. We looked at Perch Shop but in the end decided to go with Roman Cart. All the content needed is added into a Perch template and passed to the Cart for payment. It does not have all the bells and whistles of an ecom store - and there are ecom florist stores in this niche. This site outranks them all for local SEO and the client loves it and the shop footfall the online presence brings. We hope the online shop will also keep her business going through the pandemic as people move en masse to on-line shopping.
Simon Cox - Developer