Author: Tom (Page 198 of 428)

You Should Be Budgeting Your Business

September 16, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

A little while ago, I started writing about self-employment and some of the things I’ve experienced. Note, however, that none of the things I’m sharing are aiming to be advice.

I mean, I’m not saying “this is what you should do if you’re working for yourself” or anything like that. Instead, I’m offering my thoughts on things I’ve done, why I’ve done it, and if it’s something that works for you, great; if not, that’s no big deal.

A little over a month ago I talked about how accounting – specifically as it relates to taxes – is one of the best things I’ve done since working for myself. It’s freed up so much time, simplified things so much, and taken a major burden off of my plate so I can focus on the core of what I’m trying to do.

But there’s another side or a sibling or a cousin or whatever family member you want to use to account and that’s budgeting.

Custom CSS in WordPress (Does It Conflict with Child Theming?)

September 15, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

From a developer’s standpoint, I have mixed feelings about having a built-in editor for editing custom CSS in WordPress. On one hand…

It’s a really easy way to make quick changes to the theme you have installed so you get the changes you want.
Then again, it also completely bypasses and defeats the entire child theme process.

As I’ve tried to think this through, I realize each serves a different purpose I’ll try to explain in a moment, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder if it makes things for difficult for users or more difficult for other developers than necessary.

Sounds weird, I know. But hear me out.

Maybe I’m Over Commenting Code (Are You?)

September 14, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with a friend and a fellow developer about code, clarity, and generally over commenting code (how meta, I know).

The following statement was made about some of the code I write – and before I share it, I take no offense to this whatsoever. I dig these kind of discussions between peers.

Truth be told, I kind of agree with it.

I’m definitely less comment-y than you

When it comes to commenting code, I’m pretty verbose. This means I try to DocBlock everything from the server-side code to the the JavaScript and even add code blocks to my Sass (or even vanilla CSS) code.

Furthermore, I’ll comment on blocks of code that are used throughout my functions even though they may be only, say, 15 – 20 lines long.

This used to be something I constantly debated about myself, but I’ve stopped with it and accepted this is how I write code.

Importing A Large Database in MAMP

September 11, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

When working with WordPress databases, we’re pretty fortunate to have tools like WP Migrate DB Pro, phpMyAdmin, Sequel Pro, and so on. But there are times when importing a large database is a bit more demanding than the front-end utilities we have.

Perhaps we have to change up our PHP configuration, perhaps we’re dealing with hundreds of megabytes worth of data, perhaps we don’t have the kind of control on the environment that we need.

Whatever the case, we always have the command line. And if you’re working with WordPress, MAMP, and you’re faced with importing large databases, then you may need to stop tweaking your PHP settings and simply import the file via the command-line.

The WordPress Developers Club

September 10, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

For anyone who is involved in WordPress – be it running a business, contributing to plugins or to core, blogging about it or generally doing something really cool with the application – is bound to receive the following question:

How do I become an expert in WordPress?

Isn’t that a hard question to answer? Maybe not for some, but I always end up having to think through where to start the conversation.

I mean…

Do you want to get into design? If so, then perhaps themes are for you.
Do you want to get into extending the core program? Then maybe plugins are for you.
Maybe you should try both to see where your interest lies most and then follow that trail.

If a person has a background in software development, then that leads to an entirely different conversation than if the person hasn’t really written a lot of – or any – code up to this point.

Sure, there are some great resources out there and there are places in which we can refer people but I think it all depends on where they want to go and/or what they want to do based on their level of experience.

But if you’re looking for something that will lead a person from the ground up into WordPress development, then I recommend checking out the WordPress Developers Club.