I mentioned before that I had rejigged my three blogs to use Weaver II.

I am currently in the process of designing another (for a friend of a friend) and am once again using Weaver II.

It has become a real challenge to see just how far I can go without changing any code whatsoever in the core Weaver II files.  So far I am really impressed.

One of the big features is the ability to insert snippets of additional HTML, CSS or Javascript into parts of the site just by entering those snippets in at the Admin area. 

So far I have been able to add CSS animation, customise a plugin’s display and to layout a complete page using CSS.  The latter was done by entering the various blocks (DIVs) on the page itself and then using custom CSS to handle those blocks.

I did come across a couple of areas though where in the bad old days I would have modified the raw code.  In particular I wanted to be able to place my own code in specific areas on pages.  For example, I wanted to insert some additional text onto the Comment form and also some Javascript (for Google Ads) onto posts.  The way around this was to install another plugin – Code Insert Manager – which does exactly what I want.  I realise there are plugins for Google Ads, but the Insert Manager does this and a lot more besides.

So far, I have managed to do everything without any file editing with one small exception – I use the CKEditor plugin for WYSIWYG comment editing and I wanted to modify the available buttons.  This isn’t possible from the admin area so I finally had to resort to tweaking the plugin’s file.

Weaver II also has its own plugin (Weaver II Theme Extras) which is essential as it contains an excellent backup feature.  All non-default settings and code additions to Weaver II are backed up to a small file which can be stored locally.  In the event of catastrophic failure the entire site can be restored using the standard installation files and then retoring all the various modifications using the backup file.

That’s assuming you have a backup of the database and images, of course!