Author: Tom (Page 203 of 430)

What Is the Vendor Directory?

August 31, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

With the rise of package managers, build tools, and other similar software being brought to WordPress, we’re seeing more advanced directory structures in both our themes and our plugins.

Some of these tools have been around a long time – at least in one form or another – as it relates to software development, but it’s still relatively new with respect to WordPress.

If you’re new to WordPress development or you’re new to some of the various tools we have at our disposal for working on these types of projects, then it’s easy to get overwhelmed with some of the organizational choices of said projects.

Relax: that’s normal. It’s a natural part of the learning curve.

Though there’s a lot that can be talked about with respect to all of this, I thought it might be worth tackling just one aspect of it in this particular article.

Live Code Reviews at WordCamp Tampa

August 28, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

At the end of September (September 25th – 27th, to be exact), there are going to be a lot of great people at WordCamp Tampa.

Code Reviews at WordCamp Tampa

As of now, the schedule is still being put together, so I don’t know any more details than what you can find on the website; however, there is one event that I think anyone who is coming. should consider attending: A live code audit.

In short, it’s your code in front of a panel of other people critiquing it in front of all of your peers. Sounds scary, right?

Years ago, I used to think so – but then I realized just how great code reviews can be and I urge anyone who is writing code for a living to have someone else review their work.

Quick Tip: Searching Custom Post Types

August 27, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Say what you will about the built in WordPress search functionality – sure, it could stand to be improved (personally I’m a fan of SearchWP) – but not all projects warrant the same requirements, right?

Sometimes, the built-in search functionality works just fine out-of-the-box. It gets a little more involved if you start introducing, say, custom taxonomies or custom post types, though.

That is, say you’re working on a project or have a client who needs help with modifying the built in search functionality so that it allows for searching custom post types. There’s actually a lot of flexibility provided in how you tailor the search results, but for this case it’s pretty easy. Continue reading

Managing Tab Events in Bootstrap 3

August 26, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Yes, there are a lot of front-end frameworks that are available for use in WordPress development, and no I wouldn’t say I have a favorite (though I tend to use Bootstrap or Foundation for most of my work, at this time).

At the time of this writing, I’m currently working on a project in which I’m using Bootstrap 3.3.5 to handle the front-end.

Bootstrap

Part of the project calls for use of the tab functionality in such a way that you can, y’know, tab through several panes of information without actually leaving the page.

If you’ve ever used Bootstrap, you know it’s easy to setup and integrate into a project; however, if you’re looking to introduce more complicated functionality such as having to make asynchronous requests whenever the pages tabs change and then you need to update the DOM accordingly, it can actually be a little frustrating in nature.

Sure, there are some ways in which you can track which tab is active – class names, using hidden fields, etc., but depending on how you’ve architected the front-end and what’s happening with the Ajax response, you may actually end up with needing to do something a little more advanced than that.

Generally speaking, whenever I’m working with JavaScript and I’m trying to handle an asynchronous event (or even synchronous events, for that matter), I want to use exactly that – events.

But when it comes to needing to handle when a tab has been changed to toggle a pane in Bootstrap, what event do we use? again hanks

Pressware and Self-Employment Accounting

August 25, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Some of the developers and designers who I admire the most in the wider development community are really good about being open about various aspects of their businesses. Sometimes they talk about their challenges, sometimes they do financial reports, and other times they cover different topics.

I’ve slowly been trying to share some of my own experience as it relates to self-employment. It’s not meant to be prescriptive or meant to be a guide on how you should do anything, but it’s something that I hope proves useful if for no other reason than to show what’s worked for me.

So in this post, I thought I’d share how I’ve gone about managing my books – or how I’ve done self-employment accounting – since working out of Pressware.