After sitting on the magazine for the best part of two weeks, De\Code issue two has gone live to the masses today. Originally intended to be in print format for May, the magazine is once again in digital format only while ongoing print issues get resolved.

Not going to print aside, issue 2 picks up right where the first edition of the magazine finished and packs another raft of international and Irish music reviews, a look at theatre events taking place around the country, food bloggers turning published authors, the state of play at RTÉ and much more besides.

If you can, take the time to read the second issue. There’s plenty to feast your eyes on, brought to you by a very talented team of writers from around the country.

Hopefully, we’ll see the magazine in print format soon, but other alternatives are being explored. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, but that’s got to be part of the fun about it, right?

Note: I (Ken) am production designer for De\Code, Ireland’s newest arts & culture magazine.

Add Menu Support To Your WordPress Theme

To add menu support to your WordPress theme, you’ll need to add the following to your theme’s functions.php file. The snippet should be added inside your PHP tags.

add_action( 'init', 'register_custom_menus' );
  function register_custom_menus() {
  register_nav_menus(
   array(
   'primary-menu' => __( 'Primary Menu' ),
   'secondary-menu' => __( 'Secondary Menu' )
   )
  );
 }

With the snippet added in place, you’ll need to edit your header.php or footer.php file or wherever you would like the menu to be placed.

Don’t forget that if your theme supports widgets (which it should, really), that you can create menus anyway and insert them into any widget-ready area using WordPress’ own custom menu widget.

To insert the primary menu into your theme, using the following line wherever you want the menu to appear.

<?php wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'primary-menu' ) ); ?>

If you already have styles written for your pre-existing menu using older WordPress template calls, it should slot right in nicely. You can register as many menu locations for your theme by adding them to the array in the first snippet. WordPress itself will allow you create as many menus as you need from the Appearance > Menus location. When you’re finished, assign your menu to a menu location and you’re good to go.

<audio controls="controls" autoplay="true" src="http://insertyourstreamhere.com:0000/;"></audio>

This will render a native player for HTML5, adding standard controls for play / pause and will autoplay the stream you specify. If you’re using a Shoutcast stream notice the semicolon at the end of the stream, found we needed to add it for the stream to render.

If you want to apply your own controls with Javasript, you can leave out the controls parameter and simply run with the audio tags. Note that you do need a closing audio tag as well and don’t forget your HTML5 doctype declaration.

Ireland’s newest and latest arts & culture magazine, De\Code (@wewilldecode) has launched. Check the magazine here on issuu.com.

The magazine was originally set to kick off with some 5,000 print copies going for distribution last week and while the print run at the last minute didn’t work out, the digital format of the magazine has been released, with the print form set to hit shop shelves and stands for the May edition.

Event Media joined the De\Code crew as production designers for the first edition and we’re delighted to see the magazine out in the wild, or at least out in PDF format before we get some physical copies in our hands next month. As a note to anyone considering putting out a magazine in the future, you can never underestimate the roles of an editor and sub-editor in a magazine environment, print, digital or otherwise.

In a 36-page first edition you will find a string of Irish and international music reviews, a look at THISISPOPBABY’s Alice in Funderland, a roundup of Irish food festivals, book reviews, opinion pieces and features to beat the band. James Hendicott and Steve O’Rourke are at the helm of the magazine and it’s been great working with the lads to get the first edition of the magazine out the door.

You can read the magazine through the embed above, check wewilldecode.com, follow @wewilldecode on Twitter or stop by Facebook to let the De\Code team know what you think.

The last time EventMedia.ie had an overhaul would have been late 2009 in the pre-Christmas rush and that was in order to put some seasonal styling onto the site and give the portfolio a light update.

Flash forward the best part of three years and things have changed, dramatically. Partnerships have been formed, service offerings have expanded, the portfolio continues to grow and I (as in Ken) am delighted to get the new EventMedia.ie up and running.

I could tell you that there are great plans to keep you posted on what we’re working on both behind the scenes at at launch stage, and I wouldn’t be wrong. There’s an editorial calendar the stretches from one end of the office to the other in terms of content we’ll be releasing on the blog, as well as seven years web design, web development, logo design, advertising, audio and video production portfolio items that will gradually fill the showcase area above.

It’s the first of April, the first of the month, the first day of a new period of development for Event Media and, delightfully, it’s no April Fools.

Please do explore the site, the portfolio, learn what we do, read the blog posts and if you would like to talk to us about your next web project, drop us a line.

Now, back to work…