Author Archives: Jamie

Solving a custom field query quandry

By Jamie | Published: July 20, 2009
Storing the details of a rideshare offer / request lends itself well to custom fields, especially when More Fields is used for data capture. I found a solution to a complex display challenge: How to display a set of posts based on multiple custom field values? This post demonstrates get_post_meta_multiple, a function you could include in your theme to allow you to filter based on an infinite number of custom field key / value pairs.
Posted in Wordpress | 1 Comment

The Power of Custom Fields

By Jamie | Published: July 20, 2009
Custom Fields are the way of enabling authors to store meta-data against an individual post / page in Wordpress. If you are doing more than just basic data storage / display with custom fields in Wordpress, the list of links in this post will be of great interest to you.
Posted in Wordpress | 1 Comment

Template – Retail Locations

By Jamie | Published: July 9, 2009
Learn how to capture and display custom fields in a template using More Fields, a plugin that "enables you to define post types, which are custom Write/Edit pages that contains a pre-defined set of boxes"
Posted in ICE, Tutorials, Wordpress | 3 Comments

Wordpress Developer Pub Night

By Jamie | Published: July 3, 2009
Tuesday July 7th, 2009 will be the first Ottawa WordPress Developers Pub Night. Location and time are subject to interest from the community. Current theory is a start time of 8pm at Shoeless Joe’s at 3049 Carling Ave which has cheap wing night on Tues and very nice booths. The two best ways to let them know you're interested in attending are either post a comment on their blog or follow and tweet to them on Twitter - @wdgo. I know there are more than a few people in Ottawa who use Wordpress for great things including myself. I look forward to meeting them for a few pints to talk about what we would all like to give / get from a community developer group for our platform of choice.
Posted in Wordpress | 2 Comments

Template – Frequently Asked Questions

By Jamie | Published: July 1, 2009
Want to create a Frequently Asked Questions category template for your Wordpress site? This tutorial covers everything from installing ICE, template design with video, step-by-step instructions and code.
Posted in ICE | 8 Comments

ICE v1.2 now available

By Jamie | Published: June 16, 2009
I have updated Idealien Category Enhancements to support the recent release of Wordpress 2.8. In addition to support for 2.8, this update includes support for child themes / theme frameworks. Find out all about it in this release note post.
Posted in ICE | 5 Comments

Getting social with Virtual Eyesee – Part 3

By Jamie | Published: June 7, 2009
In the third and final part of an interview with Natasha, we discuss ways the Canadian government has / can / should invest in the concepts and technologies of Social Media over the next 12 - 18 months.
Posted in Social Media | 4 Comments

Feature Prioritization for ICE v1.2

By Jamie | Published: June 4, 2009
The first version of ICE was released to support Wordpress 2.6 (2.6.2 to be exact). After a few weeks of fighting an authentication issue on the SVN repository for plugins, I started to share it via the Wordpress plugin gallery on Oct 18, 2009. Since that time almost 800 people have downloaded it and almost 2,000 visits have been logged to my site looking to learn more about it. It was also recently featured as one of 40 exceptional "CMS Enabling" Wordpress plugins by Noupe. I have been slowly adding more features / functionality to ICE and hope to release an update within 1 - 2 weeks of the pending release of Wordpress 2.8. The following is a list of items which are already either implemented or on track to be for that timeframe.
Posted in ICE | Tagged , | 2 Comments

I will never try to build a perfect website again!

By Jamie | Published: June 4, 2009
In exploring the approach to development I had for my own website, I recognized that I was serially redesigning it and proverbially spinning my wheels. The unfortunate part of this vicious cycle is that it was all manufactured by me - the site, the content and perception that the obstacles were insurmountable. So last weekend I decided to leverage what I could from my existing efforts (css, images, javascript) and start fresh building on top of a strong theme framework base - Thematic. I did so with a new approach to the design, development and writing for the site. In this post, I explain why for my own personal sites / projects I have come to the conclusion that I will never try to build a perfect website again.
Posted in Process | Tagged | Leave a comment

Getting social with Virtual Eyesee – Part 2

By Jamie | Published: June 3, 2009
In the second part of an interview with Natasha, we discuss examples of companies using social media effectively and how individuals can do the same to boost their own career.
Posted in Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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  • What is an Idealien?

    The word Idealien originates from the word "idea" or "ideal" and conveys my principle philosophies of business:
    • I will always strive to build the ideal solution for my clients - if they aren't happy, I'm not.
    • I am always interested in new ideas or ways to solve a challenge more efficiently.

    Pronounced like chameleon
    the more you say it,
    the better it sounds!

    Since building my brand around this concept it has amazed me how many times I hear people say, "The ideal thing to do would be..." and then pick a different course of action. An Idealien solution is one that is:
    1. Cost-effective
    2. Easy to use and maintain
    3. Helps you meet your business goals
    4. Can scale as your business grows
    5. Engages your customers
    When you combine that with the word alien, in reference to the little blue alien which is the base of my branding, you get Idealien!