Tom McFarlin

Software Engineering in WordPress, PHP, and Backend Development

Author: Tom (Page 74 of 428)

Tools For WordPress Projects: Some of What I Use Daily

August 28, 2018 /

Developers are often interested in the way other developers configure their setups. And I get it.

That is, I assume it’s based on the idea of seeing what tools others are using to determine if you’re missing out on something, if you could improve what you’re currently doing, or if you’re comfortable with what you have.

Whatever the case, I’ll occasionally get emails, tweets, or ICQ messages (wait, what?) that ask what suite of tools for WordPress projects I typically use for each of my projects.

So I thought I’d share a rundown of each application that I typically use and a short description as to how I use each one of them in my day-to-day work.

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Triggering Angular Events with jQuery (As Weird As That May Sound)

August 23, 2018 /

One of the things that I enjoy about working with WordPress is the ability to bring in third-party libraries and tools with which to work.

This doesn’t mean they don’t come without their learning curve (they all do, right?), but it’s often fun – albeit frustrating, at times – to incorporate and then manipulate what you’re doing.

As far as third-party technologies go, I’ve seen people bring things in such as the Laravel Illuminate package with WordPress.

Triggering Angular Events with jQuery: Illuminate

And I know, especially in recent years, many have brought in components such as React and Vue.

Triggering Angular Events with jQuery: React

In one such instance, I’ve been doing some work with Angular. And if you’re used to ES6, vanilla JavaScript, or using jQuery, then triggering Angular events with jQuery can seem a bit weird at first.

Triggering Angular Events with jQuery: Angular

But once you understand the markup and how Angular handles its events, it’s not so bad.

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Now Offering Two New Benefits for Site Members (With More to Come)

August 22, 2018 /

One of the things on the backlog of things that I’ve been working to do is to put together a list of benefits for members. Here’s the thing, though: The WordPress economy is vast, so what one person can do or from what they may benefit is not going to be the same as what another person can do or benefits.

What’s to be done about that?

Regarding providing solutions for the site, the current state of memberships on this site is easy to define:

  • offer object-oriented introductions and practices,
  • practical tips for how to achieve specific tasks,
  • how to apply all the above in your day-to-day work.

But that’s not all I want it to be. In addition to all of that, I also want to provide members with access to software, courses, and more than help them get better at what it is you do on a day-to-day basis.

And that’s what today’s post is about: Finally announcing a couple of benefits for site members.

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I Don’t Know if Social Media is Good

August 21, 2018 /

Though I try to keep the topics on this site strictly limited to development of all things WordPress (and related technologies) that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes venture out into more personal things (such as taking time off of social media).

Usually, I find taking time off of these services helps me to focus on some different things, reflect on whether or not I like them, what they offer us as a whole, or simply take a break from the things social media brings with it.

But one of the things I’ve found myself thinking about over the last month – and not necessarily on purpose, but it’s something that’s emerged the longer I’ve spent offline – is the place social media holds in our society (I guess western society, as I’d categorize it for this post), and the role in plays in each of our lives.

This post is going to run down a list of thoughts I’ve had about it, though they don’t necessarily have a firm conclusion or even a place I’m trying to get everyone to agree on (which would be a fools’ errand, anyway).

Instead, this is my general thoughts, observations, and considerations on social media as it exists at the time of writing this post.

Maybe it resonates with you, maybe not.

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Installing Xdebug, Part 2: The IDE

August 16, 2018 /

Now that Xdebug is installed with your local installation of PHP, it’s time to wire it up to the IDE. This provides us with all of the advantages that Xdebug has to offer.

Installing Xdebug

That is, it allows us to:

  • set breakpoints,
  • step through our code,
  • and watch variables

All the while the program is executing. This means that while is a page is rendering, we’re able to set points in our codebase where we can see what the server is doing with our code.

So, sure, even though it’s called debugging to remove bugs, it can also give insight on how a WordPress-based application, theme, or plugin is executing and can help us gain a better understanding of WordPress core.

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