All things related to web development, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and C# MVC. Get the latest updates faster by subscribing to the Web Development RSS Feed.

thealmostengineer.com Update to Bootstrap 5

3 minute read | posted on 2026-01-02

Problem My website had not been updated from a graphical or visual perspective for some time. It was still running Bootstrap 4, which was no longer supported. In addition,...

Created RSS Feed for My Static Website

5 minute read | updated on 2026-01-02

One of the issues that I do not like about how social media has evolved, is that the social media platforms do not show you the content that you really want to see. They...

MVC Going Forward

1 minute read | posted on 2024-12-28

One thing that I have learned over the past several years, is to be good at a particular thing or set of things. By doing this, it will allow you to succeed and brand...

Update Page URLs on WordPress

4 minute read | posted on 2024-05-24

I received a request to provide an estimate of what it would take to restructure a website. the website is based on Wordpress. I will be leaving the website on that...

Building a SAAS, Light Show Guard

2 minute read | posted on 2024-02-07

I run a Christmas Light Show at my house each year. One of the things that I implemented this past year was to create a website that allows users to select the song that...

Light Show Guard

1 minute read

Problem Hobbyist that run Christmas and Halloween Light Shows, often have to be at home to monitor their show for any and potential issues. One of which is when rain or...

Learning about Command and Query Handlers

1 minute read | posted on 2023-11-15

Background I created the Light Show Extender application as a project to add functionality to my Christmas Light Show. The problem that I have is one that is similar to...

Automating HDHomeRun Updates

1 minute read | updated on 2025-11-28

One thing about the HDHomeRun that I do not like is when there is an update available for the device, that it does not notify you. Instead, I have to periodically go to...

Getting Free Icons

3 minute read | posted on 2023-04-20

Background I received an email that referenced one of my existing posts. I have received similar requests in the past, but this time I decided to do something different....

Light Show Extender

3 minute read

Problem While having a Christmas light show is fun, having one that the viewers can interact with is even better. I created this project to allow users to pick the song...

Enums with String Values in C#

1 minute read | posted on 2023-01-30

I have been working on getting through completing a phase of the Video Processor Application, I ran into an issue. I wanted to have a enum with string values. Those of you...

thealmostengineer.com

1 minute read

Problem Earlier version was hosted on Blogger. The problem with using a platform that was provided by someone else, is that you are limited to what you can do on that...

Thoughts on "Stop Using “extends” in PHP"

2 minute read | posted on 2022-12-06

I was browsing and reading up about PHP. It has been some time since I have done a PHP based project after I stopped running the websites that I managed on Drupal, so I...

Home Automation with C#

1 minute read

Problem There are limitations that exist with Home Assistant. One of those limitations was that I had issues with my home router and the wifi going offline due to system...

Drupal Version Upgrades

3 minute read | posted on 2022-09-30

Background A lady reached out to me recently requesting help with the Drupal-based website that she was working on. She needed to upgrade it from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9. I...

Understanding Domain Driven Design

5 minute read | posted on 2022-09-28

When I have some free time, I look into the other ways to build software. By doing this, it helps me to expacd my existing knowledge and understand newer and better ways...

YouTube Embed and PageSpeed Rating

4 minute read | posted on 2022-08-28

SEO company calls, says my business website is slow and needs to be improved. I know where this going because I've had similar calls in the past, but I got time today so I...

Loading Configuration in .NET 6 Worker Service

3 minute read | posted on 2022-06-12

I was updating the Falcon Pi Twitter project from .NET 5 to .NET 6. As part of this upgrade, I created new projects so that I could use the templates that were designed...

Scoped or Transient Service with Hosted Service

1 minute read | posted on 2022-04-24

I created an API application that allows a temperature sensor on the network. By doing this, this allows Home Assistant to access the data and control the air conditioning...

No Blog Comments Here

3 minute read | posted on 2022-02-25

Those have have followed this blog over the years, or have viewed it using the WayBack Machine, know that at one point that I did have commenting turn on for my blog when...

Birmingham Black Techies Presentation

2 minute read | posted on 2022-02-09

      Kenny Robinson Programmer Analyst @almostengr thealmostengineer.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/krobinsontech https://github.com/almostengr         Problem Live in...

University of Alabama Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers

1 minute read

Solution University of Alabama Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (UA NSBE) is a student organization at University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A...

NACCP, University of Alabama Chapter Website

1 minute read

Solution University of Alabama Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (UA NAACP) is a student organization at University of Alabama, in...

Tuscaloosa Area Black Chamber of Commerce

1 minute read

Solution The Tuscaloosa Area Black Chamber of Commerce (TABCC) serves to promote Black and minority-owned businesses in the 7th congressional district of Alabama and the...

Scrap Code Dump Blog

1 minute read

Solution This was the first version of by blog hosted on Blogger. In 2015, I moved the blog from Blogger to a dedicated site for a business that I was starting. That...

NSBE Montgomery Professionals Website

1 minute read

Problem The National Society of Black Engineers, Montgomery Professionals (NSBE-MP) is a chapter of NSBE. This project consisted of redesigning the previous version...

Home Automation with Home Assistant

1 minute read

Problem Solution Home automation is one of the latest trends in technology. Using Home Assistant, I have been able to automate several repetitive tasks within my home. I...

FarmOS NWS (National Weather Service) Drupal 7 Module

1 minute read

Problem FarmOS is a good garden and farm tracking software. One thing that I noticed with it is that it required that users buy sensors for tracking of data. Solution The...

Black Box Operations

1 minute read

Problem A friend and I ran a business called Black Box Innovation Technologies. One of the challenges that we had with the business was keeping track of customer...

Web and Software Development Resources

2 minute read | updated on 2022-09-30

Whether you are a seasoned programmer or beginner, these resources will help you with challenges that you may face when working on websites or software. .NET (.NET Core)...

JQuery Validator with Parameter

1 minute read | posted on 2021-08-12

I recently had some work that required me to extend the functionality of the JQuery Validator. The plugin does not have a build in method that will do date comparisons, so...

Creating MkDocs Template, Part 3

17 minute read | posted on 2021-06-22

In this video, I close out the video series about creating a templte for a MkDocs website. For more information about the template, check out the video. Transcript...

Creating a MkDocs Template, Part 1

1 minute read | updated on 2021-06-12

Coding Repository mkdocs-template Repository thealmostengineer.com theme

Refusing to Allow an OAuth App To Create or Update Workflow

3 minute read | posted on 2021-06-05

Problem I recently attempted to push some commits up to GitHub. One of the recent commits included a newly created GitHub Actions Workflow file. For those of you who are...

Ecobee Status Monitor

1 minute read

Problem Home Assistant would report that there was a problem connecting to the Ecobee servers when a change was made to the thermostat from Home Assistant. Home Assistant...

Calculating Read Time with Static Blog

1 minute read | posted on 2021-04-06

Increase Your Page Speed Score

1 minute read | posted on 2021-03-09

Website Coding Day 7, Engineers Week 2021

25 minute read | posted on 2021-02-27

Links https://github.com/almostengr/nsbe-mp.org Transcript (Unedited) continuing with the next step in the process what i'm going to be working on is to do the automated...

Website Coding Day 6, Engineers Week 2021

37 minute read | posted on 2021-02-26

Links https://github.com/almostengr/nsbe-mp.org Transcript (Unedited) i have the contact form created and the only way to access it is to click down here at the bottom i...

Website Coding Day 5, Engineers Week 2021

47 minute read | posted on 2021-02-25

Links https://github.com/almostengr/nsbe-mp.org Transcript (Unedited) welcome back i am continuing the process of the update on the website and i know you're probably...

Website Project for Engineers Week 2021

1 minute read | posted on 2021-02-23

During late 2020, I updated my NSBE chapter's website. During that update, I recorded a lot of the coding work that I had to update the website. In honor of Engineers Week...

How to Update My Static Website?

1 minute read | updated on 2020-12-19

If you have a static website, here is how to make those updates. Before making updates, please be familiar with the Markdown language. You can reference the Markdown...

Github as Content Management System (CMS)

4 minute read | updated on 2020-09-22

Background Some time ago, I wrote about me converting my website from a database-driven Content Management System (CMS) website to a static website that uses a Static Site...

Select List of Times (10-minute increments)

36 minute read | updated on 2020-09-02

Background I needed a select list of times that was done in 10 minute increments. Previously, I had used a Kendo time picker. This meant that the selection was able to be...

CiviCRM Cron Job Script with Wordpress

8 minute read | updated on 2020-08-16

To make CiviCRM work in Wordpress, you need to have cronjobs scheduled on your system to run to certain intervals. Otherwise you have to manually run these task which will...

CiviCRM Configuration Checklist

13 minute read | updated on 2020-08-16

In this video, I talk about the configuration options that are available in CiviCRM and discuss each of them. The configuration of the system is one of the first things...

Reverse Sort for MkDocs

2 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Background MkDocs doesn't have much information about how to do modify or create templates on its websites. As a result, I had to search around on the internet to figure...

Drupal 7 to Wordpress 5 Database Migration

3 minute read | updated on 2021-06-13

Links https://wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WP-WP-MigratingfromDrupalToWordPress-05-PUB.pdf...

SLC.NET Presents: Steve Smith (ardalis) - Clean Architecture with ASP.NET Core

6 minute read | updated on 2021-05-25

Below are the notes that I took from this online presentation with Steve Smith. This presentation was done very early into the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to learn...

Coding Session with Java and Selenium Webdriver

1 minute read

Coding Session with Java and Selenium Webdriver This coming Sunday, March 22, 2020 at 6 PM Central Time, I will be hosting a live coding session to build Selenium...

Lacing Up My Bootstrap

8 minute read | posted on 2021-06-03

Background As some of you may know, I started a new job late 2019. Part of that new job meant learning technologies that was far different than what I was used to. This...

Previous and Current Blog Posting Process

6 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Background Recently, I switching from using Drupal 7 to MkDocs for blogging. Here are some of the main reasons for making the switch: Drupal 7 has been replaced with...

Google Search Console Reports 500 Errors

3 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Summary After converted my website from Drupal 7 to a static website, I received an email from Google that their Search Console was getting pages that mentioned 500...

Blog Conversion Steps

9 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Blog Conversion Steps If you read my previous post, you found out why I chose to migrate away from a CMS (Content Management System). The conversion that I did for my...

Switched Blog from Drupal to MkDocs

4 minute read | updated on 2021-05-06

I enjoy working with and building websites and web-based tools. However, like any piece of software, it has to be regularly worked on in order to stay up to date. Thus I...

Blog Reverse Sort with Mkdocs

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Blog Reverse Sort with Mkdocs The current implementation of Mkdocs, is that if you do not provide a navigation path in the mkdocs.yml file, that it will build the website...

Markdown My Words

2 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Markdown My Words Background When it comes to blogging, each blogger has his or her preferences in regards to the CMS (Content Management System) to use and his or her...

Drupal 8 Tutorial Series

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Drupal 8 Tutorial Series Over the next several weeks, I will be releasing a series of videos about how to install and set up a Drupal 8 website. Drupal is one of the most...

Automatically Publish Content with Custom Module

2 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Automatically Publish Content with Custom Module If you want to run a blog, one of the best time saving techniques is writing your content ahead of time and then it is...

Set up Gecko Driver on Ubuntu

3 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Set up Gecko Driver on Ubuntu Selenium WebDriver can be used to automate routine tasks and to perform regression tests. Currently I build automations using Selenium...

Selenium WebDriver Photo Uploader for Drupal 7

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Summary Custom built automation to upload photos from the local computer to a Drupal 7-based website using Selenium WebDriver. The purpose of this is to do bulk upload of...

Drupal 8 Tutorial Series

1 minute read | updated on 2019-05-05

Drupal 8 Tutorial Series Throughout the month of March 2019, I will be releasing a series of videos on Drupal 8. Drupal 8 is the latest version of this Content Management...

Install Drush on Ubuntu 16.04

1 minute read | updated on 2021-06-13

Background This tutorial shows how to install Drush on your Ubuntu server. Drush allows for you to make changes to variables, perform actions, create and edit nodes, and...

Kanban Board in Drupal 7

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Kanban Board in Drupal 7 This tutorial shows how to set up a Kanban board using Drupal 7 and contributed modules. No coding is required. Kanban is a project management...

Install Samba on Ubuntu 16.04

1 minute read | updated on 2021-06-13

Commands Install Samba on your Ubuntu desktop or server. If you have Windows and Linux based computers on your network, having Samba installed makes transferring files...

FarmOS NWS 2.0

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

FarmOS NWS 2.0 The purpose of this project is to allow FarmOS to use data from the National Weather Service (NWS) to allow it to make better decisions as well as to log...

Build Web Application without Coding Using Drupal 7

14 minute read

Presentation Information This presentation describes how to create a web-based application using Drupal 7 without doing any programming. Presentation given to HackMGM (a...

Run Drupal Cron via Bash with Drush

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Run Drupal Cron via Bash with Drush date DRUPALHOME=/path/to/drupal/site cd $DRUPALHOME drush cron date

Automate Drupal Update with Drush via Shell Script

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Automate Drupal Update with Drush via Shell Script date cd $HOME/bin . config.sh cd $DRUPALHOME # turn on maintenance mode drush variable-set --exact maintenance_mode 1...

Search Engine Optimization

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Search Engine Optimization If you search for your company’s website, is it the first result that shows up? If not, then your business’s website needs to undergo Search...

Installing Drupal 7 on 1 and 1 Web Hosting

3 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Installing Drupal 7 on 1 and 1 Web Hosting Unless you use the "click to build" tool that is provided by 1 and 1, Drupal 7 requires some knowledge to set up on their...

Don't Use "Click Here" in Links

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Don't Use "Click Here" in Links We have all seen it on a website. You read a sentence related to what you are doing and then it says to "click here" to do something. This...

Automatically creating new menu items Drupal 7

3 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Automatically creating new menu items Drupal 7 Menu breadcrumbs Drupal breadcrumbs implementation is a never-ending source of frustration for many website developers. A...

Installing Drupal 7 on 1and1 Servers

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Installing Drupal 7 on 1and1 Servers You will need a 1and1 hosted package that supports PHP 5.2+ and MySQL 5.xx to run Drupal 7 Download Drupal 7.xx Uncompress Drupal...

Use Session Variables in Grails Domain Class

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Use Session Variables in Grails Domain Class If you have tried using a session variable in the domain class of your Grails project, you clearly know that this will not...

Migrate Drupal Installation from Desktop to Server

1 minute read | updated on 2023-01-21

Well it is very easy to migrate drupal site which you have in your computer using WAMP. Just need to follow the following steps. You will have to upload all the files of...

Grails - Recreate Controller and Views for Updated Domain Class

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Grails - Recreate Controller and Views for Updated Domain Class I did some work with Grails (version 1.3.7) and Groovy today. I use SpringSource ToolSuite as my IDE. If...

Select List of US States

6 minute read | updated on 2022-08-30

Occasionally I post code snippets on the blog so that I can use them in my code in the future. One of the many snippets is a list of the states in the United States. The...

Above The Scroll - Web Design

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

Above The Scroll - Web Design "Above the Scroll" in the web design world is similar to "above the fold" in the newspaper world. You want the most eye-catching content to...

How to keep a form from losing focus - VB.Net

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

How to keep a form from losing focus - VB.Net If you want to keep a form from losing focus (i.e. options/preferences form) in your VB.Net program you can use the code...

ASP.Net Application Errors

1 minute read | updated on 2020-07-15

ASP.Net Application Errors I've been working with an ASP.Net application. After publishing the application and moving it to the server, initially I would get an error...

Every Developer Needs A Blog

1 minute read | updated on 2023-01-17

So after watching a video with Scott Hanselman speaking to a group of Microsoft developers, I decided that I would create a blog for code that I have developed and...

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