Software Engineering in WordPress, PHP, and Backend Development
When retrieving information from the WordPress database I prefer to avoid using direct database queries, but there are times in which they can be useful (and it’s important that it’s done right).
One use case in which it might be helpful is when you need to retrieve a set of data of a single type. Case in point: Say you need to load all WordPress custom fields.
At the time of this writing, there’s no function of which I’m aware that will do this, so here’s how I query the database to do so.
Since bringing on a couple of contractors, one question that others ask is:
oWhat is it like to go from working on projects by yourself to working on projects with a team?
Or, more simply, what’s it like having contractors? The short answer is that I dig it because it affords some advantages:
The other side of this, though, is that I feel like I have to learn what it’s like to start a business all over again.
Like starting with a blank slate.
This, by no means, is a bad thing. It’s the opposite. But when you go from working on projects on your own and developing your setup, then there’s a period of adjustment that happens.
I’m still experiencing this and working through it. It requires both conversations with your team and a bit of introspection to determine if what you’re doing is still right for the way you work or if you should adjust it.
I don’t write much about blogging on this site because it’s a bit meta and because I try to focus on WordPress development and related topics.
Talking about blogging is a bit meta, isn’t it?
But one of the questions that I receive from fellow developers who are interested in blogging has asked this question enough times that I thought it might be worth providing a short answer here if for no other reason than I have a place to which I can link them when others ask me.
Occasionally, when working on a project there are times in which it’d be nice to have an API function to help achieve whatever it is that needs to be done. Case in point: the ability to retrieve a taxonomy by term ID.
Granted, it’s not a hard thing to do, but having the ability to retrieve the information from pre-existing functionality is always nice.
But when that’s not possible, we write our own way to do it, right?
In all of the years that I’ve been writing content for this blog, I don’t think I’ve ever detailed – let alone briefly covered – identifying or avoiding project scams that small business owners and freelancers can deal with when it comes to the emails we get.
This isn’t to say larger businesses don’t – because they do – but they also tend to have greater resources to fight that kind of stuff when it happens. Plus, smaller businesses are likely more of the target of petty crimes.
Even still.
Over the last few days, I’ve been corresponding with someone who had looked to hire Pressware for some work. It seemed like a scam from the beginning, but I opted to take the bait and to see how far it would go.
Ultimately, the point was to help others in our business with identifying and avoiding project scams (not to waste time).
I have small scale business which i want to turn into large scale business now
Usually, these things will converge to a point where they need some type of help with money, credit card charges, or the infamous use of Western Union (which I’ll cover later).
So for the sake of having this documented for others, I’m sharing all of this – and similar posts I found around the same type of scam – in this post.
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