How to disable the “Synchronise repeater and flexible sub-fields positions in post translations” WPML ACF option

The Problem

If you use WordPress and have WPML with their Advanced Custom Fields Multilingual (ACFML) plugin installed you may have already spotted the following option below repeater fields:

Option to synchronise repeater and flexible sub-fields positions in post translations
(record drag-and-drop moves and do the same moves in other translations).

While this may seem like a nice option it’s turned on by default and not great for websites that use a repeater as the main content field and have pages with varying content for different languages. I often use the Flynt theme for developing custom-made WordPress sites, which uses the given setup.

The solution: disable the “Synchronise translations” option by default

Sadly I haven’t found a documented way to disable the option. While looking through the ACFML plugin however I’ve found the following solution in two easy steps:

1. Add the following lines to your `wp-config.php` file:

/* Disable ACFML's sync of repeater field positions across languages by default */
define( 'ACFML_REPEATER_SYNC_DEFAULT', false );

2. Most likely: update setting of existing posts

In your database select the “wp_options” table and look for a record with “option_name” = acfml_synchronise_repeater_fields. This record seems to contain the post IDs of existing posts with their corresponding boolean setting.

Rename the acfml_synchronise_repeater_fields column to something like acfml_synchronise_repeater_fields_backup in order to disable/unset the value for all existing posts. As soon as you set the setting for a post again this record will be recreated.

Feedback appreciated

If this solution helped solve the same problem for you it would be great if you could let me know that in the comments below.

HTML5 Video Autoplay in Mobile Safari

For autoplay to work on Mobile Safari with a native HTML video element you need to also set the “playsinline” attribute. Otherwise the video wouldn’t start to play automatically:

<video muted loop autoplay playsinline preload="auto">
    <source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
    Your browser does not support playing this video.
</video>

The playsinline attribute is actually a standard HTML attribute, I learned today. I did not encounter any problems with autoplay in other browsers besides within Mobile Safari though.

Next Steps: This Blog Now Has English and German Content

Maybe you have already noticed it (at least if you are an English speaking person 😉): this blog now has English articles and there is a language switcher on top.

I realized that I would like to write more in English but still want to keep the existing German content.

Generally I will keep the majority of articles, which are centered around tech and web development, in English and only write German if it’s something that is particularly relevant for Switzerland. Most likely I will not be translating articles from one language into the other, even though I would be technically able to.

If you should find any grammatical or spelling errors I would be happy if you let me know in the comments section below.

Fix error when committing Github Action Workflow files using Tower on Mac

Since the awesome Github Actions were launched I had the issue that I couldn’t commit workflow files to my Github repos using Tower, my favourite Git client.

The error I received was:

[remote rejected] master -> master (refusing to allow an OAuth App to create or update workflow `.github/workflows/cypress-tests.yaml` without `workflow` scope)

So it seemed clear to me what the cause of the problem: Tower didn’t have the workflow permission scope and so the request would be rejected. After talking to Tower support they said that it’s on their todo list but they do not have an ETA for it (for a while now).

As a temporary workaround I used Github Desktop to commit the workflow files. But changing Git clients just for this is a bit annoying.

Using Personal Access Tokens (PAT) to commit Github Action Workflow files today

A friendly Tower support engineer pointed out that to there is a solution for the problem if you use PATs instead of Oauth to connect to Github:

You should be able to work around this by switching your authentication method to Personal Access Token. To do that, simply to go Tower’s Services View (via the cloud icon on the top left, or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Cmd+S). Right-click on your GitHub service account in the left sidebar, and select Edit. Then, select Personal Access Token as your authentication method and enter your PAT.

…and it works perfectly 🎉

How to change your authentication method to PAT

Edit your Github account settings within Tower and change “Authentication” to “Personal Access Token”:

In your Github Developer Settings create a new Personal Access Token that that contains the original scopes which Tower needs. Then make sure to also include the “workflow” scope of course:

Use the displayed Access Token within Tower and everything should work out of the box.

My first impressions of macOS Big Sur

I quickly upgraded to the newly released Mac operating System macOS Big Sur and liked my experience in the first few days. I think it’s great that we get a refreshing look all over.

Adding widgets on macOS Big Sur — The plain desktop on macOS Big Sur

Overall it looks like the updates take some inspiration in mobile UI design with a bit more spacious, rounded elements. Still they feel very good to use with the mouse.

While the installation stalled for around two hours at the 100% progress bar it luckily still finished afterwards. I did not experience any technical or compatbility issues with the OS or third-party apps at all so far otherwise.

Update

The Verge just published their review of macOS Big Sur. It provides more insight into the update and also the changes that landed in Safari 14.