UK Genesis Meetup at WCMCR 2017

It was time, once again, to meet. Within the UKGenesis Slack channel there was talk of attending WordCamp Manchester and so this seemed a logical time to arrange a meetup. Tim from 34sp.com offered their meeting room for our use and kindly provided lunch and refreshments through the day.

So on a fine autumnal Friday, immediately before the WordCamp, over a dozen UK Genesis people descended upon 34sp.

After a good catch-up we settled down to some individual presentations:

Gary Jones was first up with his presentation on The Move to Modern PHP in WordPress – a talk he gave in more detail at WP London. Highlighting very clearly that any PHP pre 5.5 is not supported for WordPress. So not even security updates are made.
PHP 7x is also not as secure as we might expect; there are differing known vulnerabilites in all versions of PHP.
7.0 is actively supported until end of this year. 7.2 will be released on 30th November 2017

You want your host to be using PHP 7.0x as a minimum

There is a plugin (there is always a plugin) PHP Compatibility Checker to assist with checking for the PHP version required and used and all the PHP things.

Update as soon as new release. There will always be bugs, so just go for it.
You can see Gary’s slidedeck here https://gmj.to/modernphpinwp

Maciej Swoboda of WP Desk joined us from Poland and shared his favourite tools:

Caz Mockett wanted to get to know Genesis a bit before starting to work with it.

Recommendations included:

Knowthecode.ao – whole course on being a Genesis developer – not so much the basics
Look at the WordPress Codex
Visit and explore Sridhar’s website
Don’t be afraid of opening the Genesis core files and have a good look around to see what’s what. Genesis is quite well documented.
Genesis is a tool – clients are unlikely to care what you use.
Ask in the Genesis Slack channel
Play thoroughly with the Sample theme – practice everything you can think of on that and build your own boilerplate theme from this.
Mix that Sample theme with snippets from other Genesis theme.

Nick Wilmot on Working with Non-Profits

From experience setting up and launching toilettwinning.org – having raised over 5.6m for the charity.

Charities and non-profits do not want everything for nothing, but value for money is important.
They can often have a rich seam of experience brought to the organisation as people seek more worthy employment.
Often a more progressive attitude towards A11y and GDPR – they understand about rights.
The relationship can be easier as the people you work with are not directly paying for the project – not that you’ll waste it but when it’s not direct, things can be simpler.
When they have budget then need to get on with spending it. So more likely to get a shift on…
They are very good networkers, and so great for referring you.
More lasting relationship – once they like you they like to stay with you.
You’re doing something good, contributing to betterment.

Nick’s Top tips for Winning with Non-Profits

Passion matters. Know the cause.
Know the funding model.
Gather the decision makers. (Hardest part).
Talk about a11y and GDPR.
Own the process to avoid the mud!

Angie Vale of Purple Hippo helped us to consider GDPR – a useful starting point for us all start considering how we will comply. The pdf of her slides cover the basics of what we need to think about, such as: