Author: Tom (Page 189 of 428)

Paperback By Array Themes

November 18, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Earlier this year, I talked about why I recommend Array Themes. I’m also proud to call myself a partner of theirs.

If you haven’t read the article, that’s okay (I don’t expect people to read everything here). The gist of why I’m such a fan and why I’ve selected them as my theme partner include the following:

They offer impeccable design for a variety of authors.
They have beautiful typography.
They follow the WordPress Coding Standards.
They sell within their own shop, WordPress.com, and ThemeForest.
They create themes for almost any niche of blogging.
They offer exceptional quality in a marketplace crowded by those with products that often fall flat.
…And more.

Additionally, Array offers a free plugin compatible with their themes that enhances native functionality.

So, if you’ve missed it, that’s why I’m proud to call Array a partner of this site. But that’s not what this post is about.

Instead, I’m excited to share their latest release (and offer you something special for it!).

Modifying the WHERE Clause in WordPress

November 17, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

When retrieving data, there times where you may want to change the WHERE clause in WordPress. That is, depending on what you’re retrieving, you may want to filter what it’s searching.

Using WHERE in WordPress to filter results

A favorite, but It’s not that kind of filter.

And that’s exactly what a WHERE clause does. But just as we’ve looked at content in other posts, we can alter the WHERE clause via the WordPress API.

In previous posts, I’ve covered:

Displaying the last query, which is useful when doing light debugging.
Selecting `DISTINCT` records
Performing a `JOIN` on two tables

Here, I’ll show how to use the API to change the WHERE clause so you’re not having to do so through a custom query.

Escaping Data in WordPress (And Why It’s Important)

November 16, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

You can read plenty of information about the importance of escaping information in WordPress via the Codex. If you’re new to the topic, I highly recommend it.

If you need a refresher, or are looking for a short description for why this is necessary, consider this the working definition:

For security on the other end of the spectrum, we have escaping. To escape is to take the data you may already have and help secure it prior to rendering it for the end user.

Clear enough, right? And WordPress offers plenty of functions to help with this.

How do we know which one to use, though?

JOIN Two Tables in WordPress

November 13, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

In a previous posts, I’ve talked about how to:

There’s a lot more to do than just viewing the last query and selecting distinct rows, though. For example, you can also JOIN two tables in WordPress without having to write raw SQL.

So to be consistent with some of the previous posts, I thought I’d share how to do this using the WordPress API .

Improved Ajax in WordPress: Procedural Programming

November 12, 2015 / Tom

Years ago, I wrote a series of posts for Envato walking readers through how to use Ajax in WordPress.

Then, not long ago, I provided an updated walkthrough of how to do so with better practices (thanks to @gmazzap for the code review on that one).

One purpose of this blog is to provide articles for others who are getting started in WordPress development. That is, I want to share the things I’ve learned to help shortcut others’ learning.

Sometimes, this requires updating old content. Or it requires providing new ways of doing things already discussed.

Case in point: Using Ajax in WordPress.