Author: Tom (Page 47 of 427)

Adding Multiple Coding Standards with Composer

July 24, 2019 / Tom

It’s one thing to be using PHP CodeSniffer manually but if you’re using a utility such as GrumPHP to check your work before committing it to the repository, then you’re likely going to want to use the version that you’re installing with your project.

This assumes that:

You are installing PHP CodeSniffer local to your project,
You want to install a specific set of coding standards to run against your code.

Remember, this is also done in the context of wanting to run automated scripts during the commit process and in a local environment (versus a global setting) with Composer.

Use Meta Box to Create a FAQs Page in WordPress

July 17, 2019 / Tom

This post is brought to you by Meta Box and the work they are doing to make working with custom meta boxes easier for all WordPress Users.

A FAQs page, as many of you know is short for Frequently Asked Questions, is a commonly used page to provide quick answers about a product or service. They’re common to us all, but it’s important to note the role they play when establishing a relationship with the customer.

Furthermore, if you run a site built on WordPress, you may also find it helpful to know how to build a custom FAQ template, as well.

In this post, we will share an easy way to create a FAQs page in WordPress by using the Meta Box plugin.

My Unplanned Halftime (A “What’s Up?” Post)

July 16, 2019 / Tom

I’m not one to usually start a blog post with “it’s been a while since I’ve last blogged” because it’s usually followed by an apology as if the people who consistently read the blog or follow the blog have been waiting with bated breath for the next post to come out.

But is that ever really the truth? I can’t imagine that scenario.

That doesn’t mean I’m not doing that with this post, though. Because it has been a while since I’ve blogged. I’m not going to be making any apologies for it, though.

Instead, how about a few updates as to what’s been going on and what I’m planning to do with the rest of the year?

How To Remove Images with DOMDocument

July 9, 2019 / Tom

I’ve written about DOMDocument in a few other posts (1, 2, 3 to share a few) but I continue to find it useful in different ways.

Remember, DOMDocument is a class in PHP that allows us to manipulate the HTML document before rendering it in the browser.

From the manual:

Represents an entire HTML or XML document; serves as the root of the document tree.

Whenever I think of working with the saveHTML function, I think of needing to serialize the new information into a file or other output stream before sending it to the browser.

But we don’t have to do that. It can be done in memory.

The Difference in cURL and WordPress Requests

July 1, 2019 / Tom

cURL is a very popular PHP library that I’ve referenced in several posts other posts (1 and 2, for example). And it’s one that I think should be reviewed, explored, and possibly used by anyone working in PHP (yes, even those working in WordPress).

But because of the native WordPress APIs, we do have a level of abstraction that allows us to achieve much of the same functionality (if not the same functionality).

Specifically, I’m talking about wp_safe_remote_get.

This function is ideal when the HTTP request is being made to an arbitrary URL. The URL is validated to avoid redirection and request forgery attacks.

I specifically mention the safe variant of this function for the definition above (there is another variant, but it’s important to take precautions against arbitrary URLs for security reasons).
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