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Navigation Menus

I recently ran into an issue where the Menus’ admin page (/wp-admin/nav-menus.php) was showing a 404 error. I had just added support for menus in the function file and figured that must be it. I deleted all my changes, still broken. I redid the menu 3 different ways, still broken.

I found this core ticket and tried a few things it mentioned ↓

Menus are sometimes limited in the number of items they can have – I had a LOT of pages and categories because I had imported the Theme Unit Test data – plus added content of my own. The default menu was pulling in everything which pushed the count way up. I went in to the Categories page and deleted all but 5, still broken. Then I deleted a bunch of pages, still broken.

I switched to the Twenty Eleven theme to make sure it wasn’t a theme issue, still broken.

Several comments suggested it could be a host problem, more specifically with the suhosin.post.max_vars and suhosin.request.max_vars setting which limits the number of variables allowed. I found my host php.ini file in the root directory and added:

suhosin.post.max_vars = 5000
suhosin.request.max_vars = 5000

The page was now giving me a Server Error instead of a 404 Error, different but still broken!

FINALLY I look in my database through PhpMyAdmin. I clicked on the wp_terms table and all of the category items I had deleted were still in the database. Huh! I manually deleted the terms I’m no longer using and headed back to /wp-admin/nav-menus.php → PROBLEM SOLVED!

Of course, it won’t always be possible to just delete pages and categories. Check out the comments on the core ticket I mentioned above – as well as ‘How to Fix the Custom Menu Items Limit in WordPress‘ on wpbeginner.com for a few different solutions.

Since I decided to switch up the content focus on Ahhh Design, I’ve thought a lot about what I want to write about specifically and who my readers are. That lead me to making this list of the people that I read and follow currently. Looking at my favorite blogs and podcasts it becomes pretty clear where my interests are right now. I’ll keep this list updated as I find new content as well. Hope you find something new!

Design, Development, Code

* Tom McFarlin – WordPress development
* Zoe Rooney – front-end development, WordPress, business
* CSS-Tricks – css, WordPress
* A List Apart – design, development, content, best practices

Business, Life

* Geek Girl Life – a blog by Natalie MacLees – WordPress, speaking, life
* Chris Lema – WordPress, business, life
* Tara Swiger – creativity, business, community, life
* & Kathleen – work, life, creativity, coaching, life
* Braid Creative and Consulting – branding, business
* Unicorn Free, Amy Hoy – business, products

WordPress News & Commentary

* WordPress.org Blog – WordPress news
* Planet WordPress – WordPress news
* The WordPress News Core – WordPress news
* Post Status – WordPress news
* WP Tavern – WordPress news, theme/plugin reviews

Podcasts

* WP Girlie Show – WordPress, glitter, video
* Let’s Make Mistakes – design, client services
* The Web Ahead – future of web
* Happy Monday – design, web
* The Big Web Show – web
* Hit the Mic with Stacey Harris – social media, community building
* Shop Talk – css, front-end web development

Do you have a favorite blog or podcast? Share it in a comment!

Next month is my 6-year anniversary of blogging. I started by sharing art and then DIY Planners quickly took over. I love creating free templates to share with you and I’ve also made a little money selling the DIY Printable Planner set through 2015, which is very awesome – if you purchased it thank you thank you thank you!

Here’s the thing though – in my real life, planners take up about 1% of my time/thoughts/energy. I have been a little better about using mine since I discovered discbound notebooks but really, you’re probably more into planners than I am. I want to blog more this year, but to blog as I have in the past means I need to be working on planners and templates and that’s just not what I’m into these days.

I’ve thought a lot about other topics. Being a new(ish) mom to a seriously fantastic kid is a huge part of my life – but when I wrote about that before it felt forced and too personal.

And then my direction shifted.

Last weekend, out of nowhere, it hit me that I enjoy working with clients more than I originally thought. I haven’t been accepting new clients for the past year but starting in April I’d love to work on some new projects. Want to work with me or discuss an idea?

Also, this morning I wrote an estimate for a potential client. I wanted to send her some links to get an idea of my style and what it’s like to work with me. Oh wait, I’ve never even written about it anywhere – WHAT?! Most of you probably don’t know that I’m a WordPress theme designer and developer that’s really stinkin’ great at balancing design AND code.

Something new.

wordpress-logoI still want to blog more this year but it’s going to be different. I want to write about WordPress because I love it. I’ve learned so much from other developers sharing their code, solutions and mistakes – I would love to help others in the same way, if even a little. I want to write about client work that I’m proud of and about my process and the tools I use. I definitely want to write tutorials to help you make your own websites too.

I’m very excited about all of this.

P.S. If you’re here because you love pictures of planners and free templates I still love you, and I’m not saying that I’m totally giving it up – not at all. I’m just changing things around a little. xo

Pinterest has a ‘Pin It’ button available for websites in the ‘Goodies‘ section now. It’s much like the Twitter and Facebook buttons you see EVERYwhere. I added a bit so you can use it in your WordPress theme.

With the following code this button can go on your index, single or archive pages – anywhere the WordPress loop appears. It will automatically pull the first image from the post to be pinned and link to the post’s permalink. The title of the post along with the website url will appear in the description field but can be edited before it’s posted.

Place this code in your template where you want the ‘Pin It’ button to appear – it should be inside The Loop.

<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=<?php the_permalink() ?>&media=<?php echo pinterest_image() ?>&description=<?php the_title(); ?> on <?php bloginfo('url'); ?>" class="pin-it-button" count-layout="horizontal">Pin It</a>

Place this script in your footer.php file, just before the closing tag.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script>

Put the following code in your functions.php file.

function pinterest_image() {
  global $post, $posts;
  $first_img = '';
  ob_start();
  ob_end_clean();
  $output = preg_match_all('/<img.+src=[\'"]([^\'"]+)[\'"].*>/i', $post->post_content, $matches);
  $first_img = $matches [1] [0];
  if(empty($first_img)){ //Defines a default image
    $first_img = "/images/default.jpg";
  }
  return $first_img;
}

You can change /images/default.jpg to whatever you’d like. This image will be pinned if there’s not an image in the post.

Be really careful in your functions.php file, it’s a little touchier than what you might be used to. The first thing I ever broke in one was putting a space after the closing ?> – it’ll break your whole site! Always back up your files before you start changing things.

Easy as that, happy pinning!

P.S. Before you ask a question about your WordPress theme please do a quick google or codex search – If you still can’t figure it out ask away and I’ll try my best to help when I can!

.

UPDATE!

Due to Pinterest’s huge popularity now, there are tons of plugins available that will do this for you. I just did a quick search and this one looks good. WP Beginner also shows a different method that doesn’t involve the function file.

Somebody needs to get busy! EEK! On your marks, get set… 3 days, 16 hours, 28 minutes, 32 seconds until the launch of birdthemes.com Follow @birdthemes on twitter for updates!

Cozy, quirky and weathered WordPress themes for small businesses, individuals and the soon-to-be married!

Sneak Peak:

Amanda Hawkins

Amanda Hawkins

Take care of little humans,
stare at tiny computer,
scribble on paper,
daydream.
Maker of DIY Planners and 🎨 artist; front-end web developer and designer well-versed in CSS & WordPress. Make music with RBK & as Love Morris. Check out littlebird.ahhh.co if you're interested in hiring me for WordPress dev. Subscribe to a newsletter I never send out. Connect on Instagram & Twitter.

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