Install gem

First things first, open your gemfile located in your rails root directory then add the following to your gemfile. Though this tutorial is fairly new I recommend checking the latest version to see where rmagick is currently at.

gem 'rmagick', '2.13.1'

Install Homebrew

When getting your mac you notice mac’s come without tons of programs which means you have to install them manually. After you have added rgmagick to your gemfile go to homebrew homepage.

Open your terminal and add the following code:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)"

After running the above command run this command. Should start installing imagmagick this take a bit of time.

brew install imagemagick

Permission issues

If you get an error in rails saying

Errno::EACCES: Permission denied - /Users/path
An error occured while installing rmagick (2.13.1), and Bundler cannot continue.
Make sure that `gem install rmagick -v '2.13.1'` succeeds before bundling.

Go to the path where rmagick is(gems folder) and pull the folder to your desktop then create a new folder with the same name and finally copy the content from the first folder to your newly created folder. After you have successfully done so you should now have full permission. Finally go into your terminal and run bundle install command and everything should work from there. Happy coding!

As as front end developer I tend to write an abundant amount of HTML and even more css. When I used to write code as a young developer I tend to put all of my styling properties anywhere and did not have a style for my css stylesheet. If you’re wondering what I mean by that I am referring to my sloppy code writing in css. Since my css code was not well organized I used css tidy software’s to tidy my css code and boom there it was, nice clean code. As time evolved I started getting into css3. After working with css3 for 1.5 years I loved it and it was amazing. As usual I would have sloppy css code just because I am lazy sometimes when writing it and do not feel like having everything neat. So what do I do? I return to my good old pal css tidy. I insert my code into the css tider and what do you know. It does not recognize some of my css3 syntax. I’m sure you have had prior experience with something like this. So there I was stuck, thinking to myself what can I do? I did not want to go through over 2000 lines of css code and re-arrange it all.

The Solution

If you’re reading this line first you probably could care less about what I have to say and would like to just get to the solution. Nothing wrong with that !

So if you’re a web developer you often used a tool called firebug. If you’re are not familiar with firebug it is a debugging tool that saves you a ton of time when developing websites since you can real time edit and it is just a cool plugin all around.

So once you have firebug installed right click>>Inspect element then select the css tabs. Now you will see your css in a neat and nicely formatted way.

So the next time you’re writing css and you have sloppy or messy code just open up firebug and re-copy your css. Also the benefit of doing it this way is if you’re using css3 it will not remove your web properties so that is awesome. The downfall is it adds things like scroll to your code but you could remove that with ease. If this method helps let me know by leaving a comment below.

First Solution

If you’ve evered worked with wordpress you probably have not worked with the walker el function. The walker el function for WordPress allows you to use a description text or alt text for your WordPress menu items.

For the code below you can copy and paste it into your functions.php file. You can change the class nav-description to what ever you would like.

add_filter('walker_nav_menu_start_el', 'bg_description_in_nav_with_qtranslate', 10, 4);
function bg_description_in_nav_with_qtranslate($item_output, $item, $depth, $args){
$desc = __($item->post_content); return preg_replace('/(<a.*?>[^<]*?)</', '$1' . "<span class="nav-description">{$desc}</span><", $item_output);
}

Second Solution

The second solution is a bit more but you have more customization over your menu nav(That is if you’re looking for more options).

Copy and paste the code below into your functions.php file. If you do not know what you’re doing do not tamper with the code below or else it can cause errors.

class My_Walker extends Walker_Nav_Menu
{
	function start_el(&$output, $item, $depth, $args) {
		global $wp_query;
		$indent = ( $depth ) ? str_repeat( "t", $depth ) : '';

		$class_names = $value = '';

		$classes = empty( $item->classes ) ? array() : (array) $item->classes;

		$class_names = join( ' ', apply_filters( 'nav_menu_css_class', array_filter( $classes ), $item ) );
		$class_names = ' class="' . esc_attr( $class_names ) . '"';

		$output .= $indent . '<li id="menu-item-'. $item->ID . '"' . $value . $class_names .'>';

		$attributes  = ! empty( $item->attr_title ) ? ' title="'  . esc_attr( $item->attr_title ) .'"' : '';
		$attributes .= ! empty( $item->target )     ? ' target="' . esc_attr( $item->target     ) .'"' : '';
		$attributes .= ! empty( $item->xfn )        ? ' rel="'    . esc_attr( $item->xfn        ) .'"' : '';
		$attributes .= ! empty( $item->url )        ? ' href="'   . esc_attr( $item->url        ) .'"' : '';

		$item_output = $args->before;
		$item_output .= '<a'. $attributes .'>';
		$item_output .= $args->link_before . apply_filters( 'the_title', $item->title, $item->ID ) . $args->link_after;
		$item_output .= '<br /><span class="sub">' . $item->description . '</span>';
		$item_output .= '</a>';
		$item_output .= $args->after;

		$output .= apply_filters( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', $item_output, $item, $depth, $args );
	}
}

Now that you have the function in your functions.php file you now have to call it via your header.php file. Copy and paste the code below into your header.php file.

     $walker = new My_Walker;
	wp_nav_menu(array(
	        'echo' => true,
		'container' => '',
		'theme_location' => 'primary',
		'menu_class' => 'grid-10 omega',
		'walker' => $walker
	));

Conclusion

If you were looking into adding text under your menu navigation then the above code should work for you. As for styling you will have style it yourself but that shouldn’t be very hard. If you’re haveing trouble check out this tutorial: Create A Speaking Block Navigation Menu Using Pure Css , it will help you create a two tier menu navigation. I hope this has helped you and saved you a ton of time from looking into the wordpress codex.

First off I like to say the event location was phenomenal! It was located at the Willis Tower in Chicago IL. When arriving to the event I and a friend were looking around, checking out the views and greeting people. The people there were very friendly and had great advice.

Carol Roth

Carol Roth was one of the event speakers that I was looking forward to hearing. She has a tremendous story and stated that she has raised over 1BILLION dollars and capital funds for companies ranging from small size businesses to corporate businesses.

My Thoughts

Listening to Carol speak was great and I love her story but I felt as if she was holding back on the good information, which I do not blame because she has probably told us about it in her new book. As an individual who is looking to become a business owner, I expected to learn how to run or build my business from ground zero and not halfway there. Carol benefits a lot of business owners who are already successful or already running a business partially successful IMO. She was still great and a great speaker.

Barry Moltz

Barry Moltz was a guy I knew just a tad bit about. I knew he was an entrepreneur and a successful business owner who has failed and succeeded with his business. With over 15 years of experience with business’s Barry is ready to speak to people and tell them how he has made it through a recession and his experience going through it all.

My Thoughts

Barry was a great speaker. Unlike many successful entrepreneurs, he had a sense of humor. Throughout Barry’s speech he talked about how to run a business of your own and things you should consider when running a business. He was a great speaker and was a great person to listen to.

Barbara Rozgonyi

Barbara is the founder of Social Media Club (SMC) and it is always a blast when I go to an event of hers (I’ve been to 2). She is a great speaker herself and has a lot to speak on whether it’s getting a job via linkedin or tackling social media websites. Usually I would feel uncomfortable at events like such but not at hers considering the community is very friendly. To keep up with Barbara check out here news feed via twitter @wiredprworks.

It was a great day I and my friend and I am pretty positive everyone who attended had a great time. I look forward to many more SMC meet ups and future gatherings. To see photos from the event check out the SMC Chicago Flickr Photo’s