*Things get older, we get older, websites get older, designs get older (like really fast)... We may not be able to control the first two, but we sure as hell can control the last two. Without further ado, I present to you my new website!*

## Overview

After almost two years, I thought it was about time to do an upgrade to my personal website. Those two years were different in many aspects. To begin with, I matured much as a person and I got into the mentality of doing things no matter how hard they are. Studying for a Computer Science degree, pushing harder in the gym, having a better sleep routine, learning to say no to toxic things and relationships are a few examples that come to mind. A part of my daily routine was invested in learning new web technologies. In a short timeframe, I was able to get a grasp on more advanced JavaScript concepts, Facebook's React.js, D3.js visualization, and now Next.js. Furthermore, I believe that my frontend design taste got better, isn't it? You are the one to decide on that.

## Ditching WordPress?

My previous website was using WordPress as the Content Management System (CMS) and I loved it. Honestly, I believe that WordPress is a very versatile platform to develop on. I did not ditch WordPress, I just found React and Next more suitable for this project. Creating web applications is very exciting and refreshing. The almost-instant asynchronous page transitions and the caching are just so cool things. Furthermore, I discovered [Frontify](https://frontity.org/), a React framework for WordPress. Essentially, you can keep using WordPress as a headless CMS to manage your content in the backend, and Frontify for the frontend. I did not got my hands too dirty with it, but I'm looking to implement it on my other WordPress websites (looking at you [Cryptopedia](https://cryptopedia.gr/)).

## All about Google's Firebase

This website uses Google's Firebase for everything. It stores and hosts all of the website's images. It uses Firestore schemaless database for post content. There is also an authentication system implemented with Firebase. Google's Firebase seems like a solid service, but I am still very newbie using it and I can not quite review it properly. Time and use will tell.

### Using Markdown

When I started using Firestore, I quickly got puzzled with the problem of how am I going to render HTML from the database string content. The answer was using Markdown syntax. Briefly, I store a post's content as a markdown string, then server render it with a react-markdown component and finally displaying the HTML format.

## What's next

I am writing this while the website is still under development, so there are many things to implement before wrapping it all up. I really hope that this website will provide you with a good user experience. If you want to connect with me or just say "hi" feel free to check the contact page and/or the icon links in the footer. Until next time!


There and back again, a Web Dev's new home

Review not ready yet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam suscipit lectus sed tortor tincidunt pellentesque. Aliquam eu dui sit amet tellus mattis luctus quis ac dolor. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Vivamus finibus elit in nulla tincidunt blandit. Nulla facilisi.

The Jealousy Man and Other Stories

## Intro

Bilbo Baggins is a casual and friendly hobbit that lives in Bag End at Hobbiton. One day, Thorin Oakenshield and a band of twelve dwarves appear at Bilbo's house. After an unexpected party and a few drinks, the band sings of reclaiming their ancient home, Lonely Mountain, which is occupied by the dragon Smaug. Gandalf shows a secret door to the Mountain, handles the key to Thorin and suggests to include Bilbo in the company as a "burglar". Thorin agrees and Bilbo joins despite himself.

## Main Part

The group is making their way to the Lonely Mountain, visiting many landmarks on their journey. They meet a small group of trolls, and get almost cooked until Gandalf arrives to save them. Then, they visit Rivendell, where Elrond reveals more information from their map. After Rivendell, the dwarves get caught by Goblins, while Bilbo manages to escape by becoming invisible with his ring. He meets Gollum and they play a game of riddles. If Bilbo wins, Gollum will show him the way out of the game, but if he lose, he will have to die. Meanwhile Gandalf arrives in time to save the dwarves and they all reunite at the entrance of the Goblin Cave. Running away from Goblins and Wargs, the company gets in a tight situation. Then, the Eagles arrive just in time to get rid of their enemies and save the company. The band starts moving again, going to a grassy field of huge mammals and bugs. There is a wooden house there, and a huge beastly man named Beorn who is of an ancient race that can transform into bear. Even though Beorn hates dwarves, Gandalf introduces them to him and narrates their so far story and goal. The dwarves rest for a while, eat and take their leave to the black forest of Mirkwood.

Gandalf leaves the party, because he has other responsibilities, but promises that he will meet with them again sometime. In Mirkwood, Bilbo saves the dwarves from giant spiders but they get captured by Wood Elves. Once again, Bilbo finds a way to escape with the help of his ring and plots a plan to save the rest. And he does successfully.

The company is making their way to Esgaroth, upon the Long Lake. They meet Bard the Bowman, descended from Lord Girion of Dale. The people of Esgaroth are celebrating their coming because of the prophecy of the return of the king of Lonely Mountain. After a couple days of rest, the group departures for the Lonely Mountain.

The expedition reaches the mountain and finds the secret door. They try to force-break the door, due to the lack of a keyhole, with no luck. However, Bilbo finds the way and they get into the mountain. Bilbo is sent to scout the lairs where the dragon is laying. Smaug wakes up and starts smelling Bilbo. That was the time when Bilbo saw that there was a gap in the ancient dragon's hardened armour-skin. Smaug gets enraged as Bilbo is not answering how he and the dwarves got into the mountain. The dragon blames the people of Lake Town, and flies off to destroy them. Meanwhile, Bilbo informs a thrush of the weakness of the dragon. The thrush flies off to Lake Town, where it finds destroyed houses and fire. Bard is commanding a band of soldiers to attack the dragon, with no luck. He then fires arrows with his great bow but the skin of the dragon resists everything. While Bard is getting ready to fire his last arrow, the thrush arrives at his shoulder. As a human from Dale, Bard could understand the speech of thrust, informing him to aim at the empty gap of dragon's armour. Bard fires his last arrow, killing the dragon.

The dwarves reclaim the mountain and Bilbo finds Arkenstone, the most valuable piece of treasure for Thorin. However, Bilbo hides it in his pocket. Wood Elves and Lake Men arrive at the Mountain's Entrance and request compensation and their share of the treasure. Thorin refuses to give anything, so the Elves besiege the mountain. With the help of thrust, Thorin manages to send a message to his cousin Dáin Ironfoot of the Iron Hills. Dáin begins immediately with an army of 500 dwarves to aid Thorin.

While the dwarves were reinforcing their position in the mountain, Bilbo slips out and gives Arkenstone to the besiegers, requesting an end to this war. Wood Elves accept the offer and the next day Bard meets Thorin in the mountain. Thorin is refusing again to share anything. Bard then reveals Arkenstone and Thorin is getting informed by Bilbo, that the hobbit found it and gave it away. Thorin gets furious and banishes Bilbo while Dáin Ironfoot arrives with his dwarf army.

Battle seems unavoidable but Gandalf gets in the way warning everyone of an approaching army of orcs, goblins and wargs. Men, Dwarves and Elves band together to fight the threat. They almost lost that battle, but then the Eagles and Beorn arrived just in time to win the Battle of Five Armies (Men, Dwarf, Elves, Orcs of Dol Guldur, and Orcs of Mount Gundabad). However, Thorin gets fatally wounded and reconciles with Bilbo before he dies.

## Ending

Bilbo accepts only a small portion of his share of the treasure, having no need or way to carry more with him. He departs with Gandalf and Beorn. After a while, Beorn leaves the party and the hobbit continues with the wizard. Bilbo arrives home a very wealthy hobbit roughly a year and a month after he first left. After many years later, he decides to write a story of his adventures named "There and Back Again, a Hobbit's Tale".

## Final Thoughts

I absolutely loved both the book and the movies, solid 4.5/5. As a huge fan of Tolkien's world, I suggest everyone to at least watch the movies. This book was my first reading of Tolkien and I am looking forward to read the rest of his works.

The Hobbit

Many times, e-shop owners need a flexible way to present WooCommerce shipping costs to their users depending on the weight or even the shipping zone. Even though there are many free and premium plugins out there that do an “okay” job, it is far more efficient to use plain WooCommerce’s features along with some PHP.

## Scene

Let’s make a scenario where we have 3 possible shipping zones:
- Hometown
- Ground Areas
- Island Destinations

With 2 possible pricing tiers for each zone:
- A fixed price up to 10kg total cart weight
- Fixed price plus an extra cost for orders with cart weight above 10kg

Fixed Costs (equal or less than 10kg):
- Hometown = 5€
- Ground Areas = 6€
- Island Destinations = 8€

Extra Costs (more than 10kg) :
- Hometown = 0.5€ / kg
- Ground Areas = 0.7€ / kg
- Island Destinations = 0.9€ / kg

## Solution on paper

To display the correct shipping costs we should:
1. Get the Cart Total Weight
2. Check user’s shipping zone
3. Check if Cart Total Weight is less or more than 10kg
    1. If Cart Total Weight is less than or equal to 10kg, continue
    2. If Cart Total Weight is more than 10kg, find how many extra kg
4. Apply either the fixed cost or the fixed cost plus extra cost – depending on Cart Total Weight

## Flat Rates on WooCommerce

To do that, we create 3 different shipping zones in WooCommerce as stated above. Then, we set a flat rate shipping method for each shipping zone. We make sure to set the cost for each flat rate to the appropriate fixed cost of the current shipping method (e.g. Flat rate of Hometown is 5€).

Then we need to get the flat rate ID codes for each of the 3 flat rates. To do that, we “right click” and “inspect” the name of the flat rate. On HTML element inspector it should highlight the code you’re inspecting, and if you check the parent elements you should see a data-id like this:

![Flat Rate ID of Shipping Zone](https://bldhvktnwlybjyondzmm.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/georgechond/posts/wc-shipping-cost-based-on-zone-and-weight/flatRateIDofShippingZone.jpg "How to find flat rate ID of a Shipping Zone")

Now, we should write down the slugs that we will use for shipping zone if-conditionals. To do that, we write ‘flat_rate:ID’ replacing ID with the IDs we got. So, after checking all my 3 flat rates, I have the following slugs:
- Hometown: flat_rate:9
- Ground Areas: flat_rate:1
- Island Destinations: flat_rate:4

## Adding the Code

Firstly, you should know that whenever the user inputs an area, WooCommerce automatically updates the cart and by default it applies the first available rate to it. So, for example, if I input an ‘Island Destinations’ area, WooCommerce will update the cart and apply the ID of the **first available rate**. So, if we have just one available rate (our flat rate), then the cart will have **flat_rate:4**. We are going to use that in if-conditionals to determine which shipping zone is selected.

In our functions.php we add:

~~~php
<?php // Don't copy opening tag

function variable_wc_costs( $rates, $package ) {
    // Store Cart Total Weight in a variable for ease of use
    $cart_weight = WC()->cart->get_cart_contents_weight();

    if ( $cart_weight <= 10 ) { // Equal or less than 10kg

        if (isset($rates['flat_rate:9'])) // Hometown
            $rates['flat_rate:9']->cost = 5; // We set the initial cost (e.g. 5€)
        elseif (isset($rates['flat_rate:1'])) // Ground Areas
            $rates['flat_rate:1']->cost = 6; // We set the initial cost (e.g. 6€)
        elseif (isset($rates['flat_rate:4'])) // Island Destinations
            $rates['flat_rate:4']->cost = 8; // We set the initial cost (e.g. 8€)

    } else { // More than 10kg
        // How many more kg?
        $extra_kg = $cart_weight - 10;

        if (isset($rates['flat_rate:9']))
            $rates['flat_rate:9']->cost = 5 + $extra_kg * 0.5; // + 0.5€ extra cost per kg
        elseif (isset($rates['flat_rate:1']))
            $rates['flat_rate:1']->cost = 6 + $extra_kg * 0.7; // + 0.7€ extra cost per kg
        elseif (isset($rates['flat_rate:4']))
            $rates['flat_rate:4']->cost = 8 + $extra_kg * 0.9; // + 0.9€ extra cost per kg

    }
    return $rates;
}
add_filter( 'woocommerce_package_rates', 'variable_wc_costs' );
~~~

And we are done!

WooCommerce Shipping based on Zone and Weight

Advanced Custom Fields is a versatile and powerful plugin that – when used right – can fulfill each and every need of a customer. Recently, I had to restrict the payment methods of WooCommerce for specific zipcodes. I could easily use jQuery and hide/show the requested zipcodes but what if the customer wanted to do that himself? ACF comes to the rescue!

## First things first

First of all, create a private Wordpress page. Then, create your custom field and assign the display of the field to the private page you just created. Navigate to the private page url, hit F12 and check the classes of <body>. Mark the Page-ID somewhere. In my case, it is 8625:

![The current page ID](https://bldhvktnwlybjyondzmm.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/georgechond/posts/edit-acf-field-from-dashboard/page-id.jpg "How to find current page ID")

## Adding Custom Widget to Dashboard

In your functions.php:

~~~php
<?php // Don't copy opening tag

// Add Zipcode dashboard widget.
function add_custom_dashboard_widget() {
	wp_add_dashboard_widget(
		'zipcode_widget', // Widget ID
		'Restrict Payment Methods', // Title of Widget
		'dashboard_widget_function' // Callback Function
	);
}
add_action( 'wp_dashboard_setup', 'add_custom_dashboard_widget' );
~~~

## Registering an ACF Form

Don’t forget to replace below info with your own. In your functions.php:

~~~php
<?php // Don't copy opening tag

// Create ACF Form that holds our Field
add_action('acf/init', 'custom_form');
function custom_form() {

    // Check function exists.
    if( function_exists('acf_register_form') ) {

        // Register form.
        acf_register_form(array(
		'id'       => 'custom_form', // This is the ID of our form
		'post_id'  => '8625', // REPLACE WITH PAGE ID
		'fields' => ['field_612c9ee492047'], // REPLACE WITH ACF FIELD KEY OR ID
		'submit_value' => __('Submit Button Text', 'acf'),
		'updated_message' => __('This is the message you get after updating!', 'acf'),
        ));
    }
}
~~~

If you save and check your dashboard, it should display a new widget. However, the widget is empty because the callback function (dashboard_widget_function) is not set. Let’s add it:

## Callback Function that links ACF Form to Custom Widget

In your functions.php:

~~~php
<?php // Don't copy opening tag

// Callback Function of the Custom Dashboard Widget.
function dashboard_widget_function() {
	echo acf_form_head();
	echo acf_form('custom_form'); // The ID of the form we want to display
}
~~~

Navigate back to Dashboard and your custom widget should display the custom field that you set. If you change the value and update, the changes will be applied to the corresponding page. You could use that field to multiple pages/posts and by passing just one Page-ID like we did, all of them should get updated – right through the dashboard!

If you found this post helpful, smash that heart button!

Edit ACF Field from Dashboard

Lately, I was modifying a WordPress website for a client and I had to find a way to display the stock status of every variation of a variable product in WooCommerce. It was the first time I messed up with WooCommerce’s actions and filters. Here is the solution, without using a plugin. All code goes in functions.php file.

## Filter to remove/add columns in products page

~~~php
<?php
add_filter('manage_edit-product_columns', 'rearrange_columns', 15);
function rearrange_columns($columns){

   // Unsetting = removing the column with a specific ID (e.g. 'product_tag')
   unset( $columns['product_tag'] );

   // We add a column with ID 'var_stock_status'
   $columns['var_stock_status'] = __( 'Stock Number of Product\'s Variations');

   return $columns;
}
~~~

## Action to actually display our variable stock status

~~~php
<?php
add_action( 'manage_product_posts_custom_column', 'variable_stock_status', 10, 2 );

function variable_stock_status( $column, $postid ) {
   // We run this function only on our custom column
   if ( $column == 'var_stock_status' ) {
      // We get the product object info
      global $product;
      // We continue only if the previous product object is a variable
      if ($product->is_type('variable') ) {
         // We get an array of all available variations
         $avail_vari = $product->get_available_variations();
         echo '<div class="var_stock_box">';
         // Start a loop to get and format array's data
         foreach ($avail_vari as $key => $value) {
            // Store variation's ID to a variable
            $vari_id = $value['variation_id'];

            // Use this if you want to display the NAME of the filter
            // Change this to your desired filter using pa_ (e.g. "pa_age", "pa_source" etc.)
            $taxonomy = 'pa_color';
            $meta = get_post_meta($value['variation_id'], 'attribute_'.$taxonomy, true);
            $vari_color = get_term_by('slug', $meta, $taxonomy);
            $vari_color = $vari_color->name; 
            sort($vari_color);

            // Use this to display the SLUG (or value if it's a number) of the filter
            $vari_size = $value['attributes']['attribute_pa_size'];
            sort($vari_size);

            $vari_obj = new WC_Product_variation($vari_id);
            $vari_stock = get_post_meta( $vari_id, '_stock',true );
            $sum+= $vari_stock;

            if ( $vari_stock > 0 ) {
               echo "<span>{$vari_color} {$vari_size}: {$vari_stock}</span>";
            }
         }
         echo "<span>Sum: {$sum} product(s)</span></div>";
      }
   }
}
~~~

## Styling the column with CSS (through PHP)

Since the column is in the backend, we can’t use the style.css file to apply our changes. We must call an action to pass the CSS to WordPress’ Admin Head Area.

~~~php
<?php
add_action('admin_head', 'var_stock_status_css');
function var_stock_status_css() {
   echo "
     <style>
       /* Add your CSS */
     </style>
   ";
}
~~~

We are done! If you find it useful, smash the heart button!

WooCommerce Variable Product Stock Status in Backend

## Intro
Catch me if you can is a true story about Frank Abagnale who managed to get millions of dollars with illegal ways, scamming banks. There is also a movie about this book, with Frank being depicted by Leonardo Di Caprio, which I really enjoyed. All in all, the book was okay, though not of my taste.

## Main Part
Abagnale lives with his father and mother in New York. While he was young, his father used to be very successful. After a tax problem his father had with the IRS, the family is starting to experience financial difficulties. Frank's mother starts seeing one of his father's friend, leading to a divorce. Frank did not get that easily and he run away from his home. Without money, he begins to scam other people and companies. He impersonates a pilot of Pan Am Airline, getting monthly salary checks and free travelpass from the company.

Frank's crimes are getting more and more public reaching the ears of FBI and Agent Carl Hanratty. Carl begins tracking Frank. Even though he finds him, Frank manages to trick Carl that he is another agent with the name Barry Allen. Frank then manages to escape before Carl realize that he got fooled.

Then, Frank begins impersonating a doctor. He falls in love with Brenda, a hospital worker. He even gets to know her parents, asking her hand in marriage. In Frank's and Brenda's engagement party, Carl tracks Frank but once more Frank manages to escape through a bedroom window, telling Brenda to trust him and meet with him later. That was the first time Brenda understood that Frank was lying. When Frank goes to their meeting spot, he realizes that Brenda gave him up on the police.

Later on, Carl catches Frank and sentence him to 12 years in a maxium-security prison. Occasionally, Carl visits Frank in the prison. One day, Carl realizes that Frank is very skilled with Bank frauds on payment checks and he manages to convince the FBI to allow Frank to serve the remainder of his sentece working for them. Frank agrees but after a while he grows restless of office work.

## Ending
One day, Frank decides to impersonate a pilot again but he gets interrupted by Carl. Carl decides to allow Frank to carry on his act, making sure that no one will chase him. After this final act, Frank returns to his work. As stated on real Frank Abagnale's website, the skills he used to scam hundreds of thousands of dollars eventually made him millions.

There are many who believe that this story is made up and fake. I can not tell for sure, but I surely believe that Banks were too naive back in the day. Still, scamming companies and banks multiple times that easily, as well as working for the FBI, is really questionable.

Catch Me If You Can

## Intro

The Kingdom started out as an ‘OK’ story and ended like “Come on! I need more of that!”. In the first chapters of the books, I felt a nice cozy feeling as the writer was trying to portrait the world with enough detail to not bore the reader. Even during the first crime scenes, it felt pretty cozy and laughable. I had zero anxiety as I kept reading through the new murders and I was like “Well okay, I guess that’s what this book is all about after all. The “Dexter” series in a book.”.

## Main Part

After reading a bit more than half of the book, things changed. Previously, any crime or murder scene was “here we go again..”, but after the 400th page drama got engaged. The first 300 pages had minimal drama, adding piece by piece to the total pool. Then, onward from 400 page, every crime had a linked story from the first pages. Every murder had a realistic reason behind it. Most of the times, I felt the anxiety of the protagonist choosing between his options. Those moments were very enjoyable.

## Ending

The ending was very intense. Many things happened too fast and even though that might be a good thing for some readers, for me it felt a bit rushed. A few things were thrown like bombs in my mind and I did not find the answers. I guess that this is a nice thing, again, since your imagination can form the answers that you seek, but I really wanted a bit more clarity for some statements.

## Final Thoughts

Summing up, the Kingdom by Jo Nesbø is a really nice and solid 4 out of 5 read. Besides the story, there are many educational aspects on the book. It starts slowly, but it really rewards the reader long-term. The ending is a bit rushed but does not ruin the feelings you drag through the story. Last but not least, you will find yourself getting surprised many times, especially in the later chapters.

The Kingdom

## Intro
The Last Night at Tremore Beach is a book I bought years ago and never read it. When I purchased the book, I was going through a moody period and this was one of the main reasons I selected this particular book. Last Night at Tremore Beach is a fictional, suspense thriller that revolves around the main protagonist, Peter Harper, a soundtrack composer and piano-player who recently divorced and moved in an isolated house near the Tremore Beach in an effort to find his lost inspiration about music.

## Main Part
The main part of the book was a bit slow. Sometimes there were too many details about places and people that it felt confusing. There was a gentle suspense but nothing about to be marked as thriller. My urge to continue reading the book was diminished. It was a constant fire and rain, with days of me waiting impatiently to read the next chapter and days feeling extremely bored after the first 2-3 pages. But I kept going…

## Ending
…and I suddenly got that chill feeling of fear out of nowhere! A bunch of paper pages that actually made me wonder if there was someone in MY house. The Ending was the best part of the book with the most suspense and thrill. As usual, many smaller informative pieces of the main part were putting together a bigger puzzle that “exploded” in the later chapters. I could feel the fear and the worry of the protagonist and I had positive and negative feelings about the other characters that involved. When everything was said and done, in about the last 10 pages, the author revealed many things that were a mystery since page 1. In a very good written letter form of 10 pages, you could read the complete story of the book filling the empty spaces you might had, even though this was a bit of a turn off for me.

## Final Thoughts
To sum up, the Last Night at Tremore Beach by Mikel Santiago felt an “okay” book with a score of 3 out of 5. The beginning felt okay, the main part felt okay and the ending is where it shined. For me, filling all the missing pieces to a story in the form of a “last-letter-that-explains-everything” was a turn off and I would rather had all that information dosed little by little in the course of the main part even though that would have killed a bit of the suspense.

This is the place of stories