Tom McFarlin

Software Engineering in WordPress, PHP, and Backend Development

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Manipulating WP Admin Bar Styles with Events

I’ve mixed feelings about the WordPress admin bar, but that has to do with how third-party solutions add their options to it (plus, it can be disabled if you’re not a big fan of it).

Recently, I published a small plugin – meant primarily for developers – that allows users to toggle admin notices whenever they are working with WordPress (ideally in their local environment, though it can be installed anywhere WordPress is installed).

WP Admin Bar Styles: Toggling with Events

The plugin is simple:

  • It introduces an item into the WP admin bar,
  • When you click on an item, it will toggle any notices or messages that are displayed,
  • When you click on it again, it will toggle their visibility.

But there’s a small nuance that I think is worth covering and that has to do with manipulating the WP admin bar styles using client-side code.

All of this is covered in the initial post, but one aspect of the code that I think is worth sharing for those working with the admin bar and those working with JavaScript.

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How Do I Know When to Hire Someone?

Last week, I talked a little bit of how I schedule my time on a per week basis with a team of other people and the whole idea of “less, but better” from Essentialism.

When To Hire Someone: Scheduling Time Plays a Role

Though this isn’t a regurgitation of that post (because that’d be dumb 😇), it is a meant to show one way in which I go about doing that when there are some projects, project management, presentations, and other responsibilities all happening at the same time as I’m writing this post.

So what are we do to when our plate is full of things to do, and we’re not sure how to manage the time and responsibility? Perhaps that’s how we know when to hire someone.

Or maybe not.

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Where Do I Start With WordPress? (An Upcoming eBook)

A little over a year ago, I launched my first membership site which I called The First Version.

The idea behind the name wasn’t anything clever – it was the first time I’d tried something like this, it was the first version of the site, so the name was something that was quick and easy to register and set up.

Then, for the second iteration of the site, I called it Start Here under the idea of answering the question “where do I start with WordPress?”

Start Here with WordPress

The original “Start Here” landing page.

Anyone who has jumped into WordPress and begun to develop (or begun to try to develop) themes, plugins, applications, or any other type of solution for others knows that it can be difficult to know where to start.

Rather than offering another closed membership site, I’m going to be publishing an eBook called Start Here which still aims to answer “where do I start with WordPress” but does so in an easier and cheaper format.

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Find The Difference in Dates Using PHP (and WordPress)

Working with dates in PHP is one of those things that you either have a good handle on, you’re working on understanding, or you’re stuck in the rabbit hole of the documentation that’s in the manual.

Difference in Dates Using PHP: The PHP Manual

If you’re working with WordPress, though, the chance that you’re going to need to work with dates is quite high. Nearly everything that we publish has at least one date associated with it.

This includes post, pages, custom post types, revisions, drafts, and so on.

Furthermore, there’s a chance that custom work that you need to develop with require that you find the difference in two dates using PHP. And though there are multiple ways of doing this, there’s a process that I’ve been following for something.

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Insights for WordPress Themes by Freemius

Some time ago, I wrote about Freemius when the product was first introduced into the WordPress economy. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of talking with Vova Feldman – the CEO of Freemius – and even crossing paths with him at WordCamp US.

Vova Feldman, Carl Alexander, and Myself at WordCamp US

Vova Feldman, Carl Alexander, and Myself at WordCamp US

Since my initial post, Freemius has released a couple of products and just released a new product (for which WP Tavern has some coverage about it already).

Given my respect for them, and what they are doing in the WordPress economy for both plugin authors and theme developers, I wanted to share some in-depth information regarding their latest work project.

Insights for WordPress Themes

Thanks to some information and exchange with Vova, I’m happy to share some, ahem, insights on their latest product: Freemius Insights for WordPress Themes.

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