Month: June 2019

Affordable Logo Design by After Dark Grafx MM Customs

MM Customs Logo Design by After Dark Grafx

MM Customs needed a new logo design for their company. This startup knows that strong brand recognition and a a logo that conveys the company’s core competency was forefront in their decision to choose After Dark Grafx as their design and development partner.

Affordable Logo Design by After Dark Grafx MM Customs

Do you need a custom logo designed? Contact us today! 

What does a logo typically cost?
Answer: It depends on the style of the logo and the time it takes to create the logo to your specifications. If you are sure of the style and color that you are looking for, we usually get it right within the first 5 to 10 versions. We then will make changes to the final logo to tweak it. Pricing starts at $250.00 and up.  There are some agencies that charge thousands of dollars for this same service and call it a “Brand” instead of a logo and allows them to charge insane amounts of money for the same product. We don’t believe in this. We would rather have you as a client for years to come! 

Kingfisher Woodworks - Shopify - After Dark Grafx

Kingfisher Woodworks – Shopify Setup, Design & Integration

After Dark Grafx announces the launch of  KingfisherWoodWorks.com !  After Dark Grafx offered a simple design approach to emulate but not copy the previous website. They setup and integrated Shopify payments, Shopify shipping and offered a Custom Shopify Development and coding solution to optimize our product pages.

Kingfisher Woodworks initially contacted After Dark Grafx to consult on their existing Miva Merchant Website. After discussing the pros and cons of each platform, billing methods as well as ease of integration with other apps and systems, we chose to move and re-build the entire website into the Shopify Platform.

Kingfisher Woodworks - Shopify - After Dark Grafx

Kingfisher was able to easily add, reorganize and update their custom-made wooden swords for Japanese Martial Arts product line after a short phone and screen share consultation.

“After Dark Grafx is a Shopify Setup Expert that was able to quickly integrate and setup our Shopify Store. They offered valuable insight on which free and paid Shopify apps to use. They used their custom Shopify Development skills to customize our product pages. We have over 1200 inscriptions that can be added to our wooden swords with a simple to use interface for our customers. They built a custom Shopify solution for use while utilizing one of the paid options apps to achieve what we needed for our product pages. Awesome!

With a simple, short, online consultation we were able to understand how the order and shipping process worked very quickly with Shopify’s simple interface.” 

We appreciate you choosing After Dark Grafx to design and develop your new Shopify website.

Visit them today at:  http://www.kingfisherwoodworks.com.

Wordpress Developer in San Diego

How Do I Fix Too Many Redirects Error WordPress with Godaddy

Recently, After Dark Grafx moved a website that was developed on our staging servers over to GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress Hosting– (yes, clicking the link is an affiliate referral). I couldn’t find “one” solution that worked for me, so I had to do some research and narrowed it down to the following.

My client’s website initially worked fine after the move to Godaddy. We moved the database and the files over and redirected and updated all urls for the site. My client then contacted Godaddy and had them install a Digital Security Certificate for the website. They should have consulted with us first before making the site secure. The website then went offline shortly after the SSL install. Godaddy does state “your website may go offline from 24-72 hours while the SSL is being installed and approved” by their system. This is not always the case. Sometimes it is faster or slower depending on the certificate. If your website is still offline after 3 days, you should contact Godaddy via phone to check it the SSL was installed correctly.

So, once the SSL was installed, we encountered the, “Too Many Redirects” warning. Godaddy stated they could fix this issue for a small fee.  Really?  You break my website, then you tell me you can fix it for a fee? No thank you.

Check to see if your website is secure here:  https://www.whynopadlock.com/  (not an affiliate link – just a great free tool to check your website security) the website was still not viewable or working on any device or browser on multiple operating systems.

I began by performing the following tasks:

BACKUP THE WEBSITE AND DATABASE: You should first log in to your control panel and back up your entire website, database, files, etc. Contact your current host for help with this before you start the process below. You have been warned!


CHECK THE WORDPRESS SITE URLS:
If you CAN access your WordPress Admin, you should check to make sure that the URLS are EXACTLY the SAME under the site settings located on the left of your admin.
SETTINGS —> GENERAL

If you CAN NOT access the WordPress Admin but you have FTP access to the website, you can download and edit the wp-config.php file. Be sure to make a backup of the wp-config.php file in case you make a mistake. If you make a mistake, you may take your website offline.Simply add the following code above the  /* That’s all, stop editing…. */   text within this file.

define(‘WP_HOME’,’https://www.YOUR-DOMAIN-HERE.com’);
define(‘WP_SITEURL’,’https://www.YOUR-DOMAIN-HERE.com’);

/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */
Save the file and re-upload it to your server.

Go to your website and refresh the page that was not working. Be sure to add this variable ?junk=1 after your website url link like this (  Example: https://www.YOUR-WEBSITE-HERE.com/index.php?junk=1 ) since WordPress Managed Hosting on Godaddy uses Varnish Caching (meaning, it is server-side caching to speed up the website so refreshing the browser cache without the variable added above to end of the url does nothing so you will still see the old page and errors. Once you add this variable, it will show you the newest page.
You don’t have to make it ?junk=1  you can call it whatever you like  ?mytexthere=1
).

If you have a contact page and the url is https://www.YOUR-WEBSITE-HERE.com/contact-us/   then the url would be https://www.YOUR-WEBSITE-HERE.com/contact-us/?junk=1

If site still doesn’t load, add this to the top of the wp-config.php file.

define(‘FORCE_SSL_ADMIN’, true);
// in some setups HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO might contain
// a comma-separated list e.g. http,https
// so check for https existence
if (strpos($_SERVER[‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO’], ‘https’) !== false)
$_SERVER[‘HTTPS’]=’on’;

This will force the WordPress site to use SSL for all of its’ connections. So be sure that you are using https not http for all of your website urls.

If this doesn’t work, proceed to “CHECK WORDPRESS PLUGINS” below.


CHECK THE PLUGINS:
I logged in via FTP and changed the name of the plugins folder located in the WordPress installation typically here wp-content/plugins to plugins_back. This will not destroy your website, just rename it back to plugins when you are finished testing. I then refreshed and cleared my browser history and tested the site again. Site still did not work.Sometimes there are plugin conflicts or the plugin itself is to blame. If your site loads and the error is gone after renaming the plugins folder, then you know it is a bad plugin that caused the issue. You would then rename the plugins_back folder back to plugins and then rename each of the plugin folders to selectively disable them. I typically just put a “z” in front of the folder name. Do this for ALL of the plugin folders within the plugins directory. Then, rename the first plugin folder by removing the “z” so it is now the original name of the plugin folder.

Example:  plugin folder is named    contant-contact-plugin  I would rename this to zcontant-contact-plugin then test to see if the site loads.Go to your website and refresh the page that was not working and don’t forget to add this variable ?junk=1 after your website url link like this (  Example: https://YOUR-WEBSITE-HERE.com/index.php?junk=1 ) since WordPress Managed Hosting on Godaddy uses Varnish Caching (meaning, it is server-side caching to speed up the website so refreshing the browser cache without the variable added above does nothing so you will still see the old page and errors.You don’t have to make it ?junk=1  you can call it whatever you like  ?mytexthere=1 ).

You would then go back to your FTP program and rename the next plugin. And repeat the steps above, except when you get to the website url, change it to ?junk=2  – You have to change the number after the equals sign each time you want to refresh the latest changes that you made, so that the Varnish Cache refreshes and shows you the newest page / code so you can see if it fixed the issue or not.

If you you have 10 plugins and you get to #5 and the website starts to work correctly, then you know it is one of the plugins – so you should do the same steps above for each of the plugins that you need to use for your site in the plugins folder to determine which plugin was causing the conflict.


CHANGE URLS IN DATABASE: 
In some cases, you may have to double check that all of the urls are pointing correctly and using the correct url.  If you moved your site from https://www.MY-DEVELOPMENT-SERVER-URL.com and now it is on https://www.YOUR-WEBSITE-NAME.com then you have to make sure that all references to images, code, etc. are updated in the database and any custom edited files in php.

If you are able to login to  PHPMYADMIN: (see this tutorial)

Press on SQL section in phpMyAdmin and enter the following code:

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = replace(option_value, 'oldurl.com', 'newurl.com') WHERE option_name = 'home' OR option_name = 'siteurl';UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = replace(guid, 'oldurl.com','newurl.com');UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = replace(post_content, 'oldurl.com', 'newurl.com');

UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = replace(meta_value,'oldurl.com','newurl.com');

This code will replace all instances of oldurl.com to newurl.com. For example if your current WordPress address is oldurl.com, it will be changed to newurl.com. Also note, that some developers change the PREFIX for the wp_options and wp_posts – so be sure that you are using the same tables in this SQL request. Example:  if they called it  rs_options and  rs_posts  instead, you would change these in this SQL request.

IMPORTANT! Do not forget to replace oldurl.com with your current WordPress address and newurl.com with your new WordPress address.

IMPORTANT! Download the original SQL WordPress Database before you begin making any changes. Simply select the database name on the left of the screen then select EXPORT —> GO  and make sure SAVE TO FILE is selected on your screen. Some hosting companies have this set by default. Sometimes you will have to click on the ADVANCED link on the export page to see all of the options.

CHECK THE CODE:  If your site was created by a developer, ask them to edit the custom pages of your website that may have direct, absolute links to images or links (http://www.YOUR-SITE-HERE.com/wp-content/uploads/01/YOUR-IMAGE.jpg). Notice that this url is NOT secure using https. Have them fix all of the references to http or just tell them to make the site secure for you.

If you do not have a developer and are still experiencing issues, you can also contact After Dark Grafx.

Some developers are lazy and will place a direct image reference like this in your header.php, footer.php or other page or pages of your website to make it work for their development.After performing all of these tests, and then adding the directives, the site should work correctly.

.HTACCESS: In some cases, you will need to make changes to your .htaccess file. This is the file that controls what your website will do in terms of forwards, redirects, denying access, etc. Some plugins add data to this file that can ultimately conflict with your website. We are not going to cover this file as it is “host-specific” and needs to be analyzed before making any adjustments.

If you are still experiencing issues, you can also contact After Dark Grafx. Toll Free: (888) 578-8300.

RockStar Martial Arts - Website Design by After Dark Grafx

RockStarMartialArtsFranchise.com – WordPress Design Development

After Dark Grafx announces the launch of  RockStarMartialArtsFranchise.com !  We appreciate you choosing After Dark Grafx to design and develop your new website.

Rock Star Martial Arts is located in Frisco, Texas.

Rock Star Martial Arts Franchise - WordPress Developer San Diego After Dark Grafx

James Boecker has trained in Martial Arts for over 30 years. He has been in the business for over 25 years and built and ran the largest Martial Arts organization in Texas, then selling the organization in 2013. He continues his passion of martial arts through continuous training and has helped 100s of other school owners reach their fullest potentials

Shiva Boecker started her Martial Arts training in 1998. She managed the corporate and largest location of James’ organization for 7 years. James and Shiva opened RockStar in 2014 after noticing the need for luxury martial arts centers.

They offer:
– An Award Winning Anti-Bullying Program™
– Unique Interactive Virtual Training System – RockStar University™
– Small Studio Sizes  and more.

Visit them today at:  http://www.rockstarmartialartsfranchise.com