HTTP/2 on Apache – Quick Installation and Configuration

HTTP/2 requires a secure server connection. Although encryption is not a requirement introduced by the HTTP Working Group, all browser support HTTP/2 only if the site is encrypted (using TLS or silmilar protocol).

If your site doesn’t have HTTPS enabled, head over to the previous article explaining how to obtain and install a free HTTPS certificate.

The good news is that most modern browsers already support HTTP/2.
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Free HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt client

It’s an important landmark for the entire web: Let’s Encrypt has entered public beta offering free HTTPS certificates. Never has it been so easy for the developers and system admins to obtain an SSL certificate.

This guide has been tested on Debian v. 8.2 running Apache v. 2.4.
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Installing WordPress on Google Cloud Platform using Compute Engine

Google Cloud Platform is Google’s response to highly popular Amazon’s AWS platform. I decided to give it a go and see how easy it is to set up a fully fledged Virtual Machine using Compute Engine.

Google Cloud Platform is a premium service but it offers a free trial including $300 of credit to spend on all its services over 60 days.

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Using AngularJS and JSON API to retrieve WordPress content

AngularJS removes the boundaries a standard html website had and opens up a wide range of opportunities making it easier and faster to build dynamic web applications. Marrying it with WordPress and its REST API makes perfect sense whether you want to utilize existing contend within your application, dynamically pull data from various websites or build a dynamic AJAX-driven WordPress theme.

The purpose of this tutorial is to analyze the process behind requesting and importing WordPress posts. The same method could easily be used to retrieve a wider array of details such as comments, categories or users.

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WordPress 4.3 update “Billie” is here

The good

Menu editor

WordPress has just been updated to version 4.3. What does it mean for casual editors? At first you will notice further improvements to the front-end customizer. After a widget editor added in WP 3.9 and improved in version 4.0, now is time for a long awaited menu editor. You no longer have to restore to editing a menu in one browser tab and refreshing the front-end view in the other. All happens within a compact and easy-to-use user interface. You might find this feature particularly handy if you are editing multiple menus at once out if you want to tweak the word length to achieve the desired visual balance.

Markdown

Next comes a welcome change to the text editor. Markdown shortcuts for adding lists and headings.

Insert “##” at the beginning of a new line to create a heading, use “-” to insert a list and “>” to start writing a quote.

Favicon

Originally introduced in the Jetpack plugin this feature has been merged with the WordPress core now. You can upload a min. 512×512 px image via the Customizer and WordPress will take care of serving the right fav image to the browser or a mobile device.
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CSS: Viewport-Based Measurement Units for Modern Websites

Vw, vh, vmin and vmax are viewport-based measurements units. Jonathan Snook and Chris Coyer covered them in their blog articles over 3 years ago and while these units were not well supported at the time, nowadays we can use them with higher confidence.

The Basics

Vw and vh are viewport-percentage lengths. 100vw equals the viewport width and 100vh equals the viewport height.

Vmin equal the smaller of vw or vh and vmax equal the bigger of two.

These units are similar to percentage-based measurements. The main difference in between % and vh/vw is that % is relative to the parent element while vh/vw takes into consideration only the browser’s viewport.
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