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Finding Optimal Development Tools

August 22, 2016 / Tom

I have a tendency to talk about the importance of finding optimal development tools that work best for you, that fit your workflow, and that improve your productivity.

Cornerstone is the Subversion client that I prefer to use.

And I stand by those statements.

But sometimes I wonder if the things that I’ve said don’t come across as mutually exclusive (or even sometimes partially exclusive, if that’s a thing). This is true especially when I talk about things like why I switched from an IDE to a text editor to handle my development tasks.

Anything other than that is never my intent (though I can completely see how someone may interpret my perspective that way).

What I mean is this:

Whenever I share information about what I opt to use, I do so in a way where I mean to give information as to why it works for me.

Admittedly, sometimes I’m better at doing that than others.

Josh Pollock, WordPress Development, and the REST API

August 19, 2016 / Tom

This year, I’ve had the pleasure hearing Josh Pollock talk about WordPress Development with the REST API on several occasions.

Earlier this year, our paths crossed at WordCamp Atlanta and then later, we spent a lot of time hanging out at WordCamp San Diego. During the latter, I had a chance to hear him give his talk to a rather large audience specifically on how to use the REST API.

And before any of that, I had a chance to read what Josh had written about the WordPress REST API for his eBook that was published on Torque.

WordPress Development With the REST API

To say that Josh knows his stuff is an understatement. I know – that sounds a little bit “sales-like.” Though, I don’t mean it to be.

When sharing resources with those of you who read this site, I try to make sure that I only sure things I use or that I promote things from people whom I know and who I trust.

With that said, Josh is getting ready to begin teaching a session on WordPress Development with the REST API. Specifically, he’s going to be talking about how to build plugins using the REST API.

Before his sessions and workshops begin, I wanted to make sure you’re aware of what’s to come.

How (And Why) to Create a Repository Archive

August 18, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

If you’re someone who regularly develops software, sites, or anything with any code, you’re going to start using source code control at some point.

And when a project ends, you’ve got options when it comes to maintaining the source code:

Perhaps you’ll hand the code over to the client, and you will retire it,
Or maybe you’ll continue to maintain it for the client as part of an ongoing relationship,
Or there’s a chance you’ll be done with the project but still want to hang on to the source code.

For me, I’m partial to the latter option primarily because I like to have an archive of the things I’ve worked on throughout my career (no matter how trivial they may be) and because I’m a bit of a packrat when it comes to things like this.

Because if a client ever comes back for future work on a project, then I want to be able to spin up a copy of the development environment so I can get back to work. This assumes that I have an archive of the source, though.

But this assumes I have a repository archive.

Late Escape WordPress Data

August 17, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

When working with themes and plugins, it’s a common practice to escape WordPress data. Honestly, this is a standard practice in all web development:

Whenever you’re retrieving information from the database to display to the user, it should be validated and escaped so that nothing but clean, readable text is rendered to the user.

In WordPress, you’re likely to see this in one of two ways (or maybe both ways depending on your setup):

You’re retrieving information from the database via get_option and then displaying it to the user.
You’re retrieving information from the cache and displaying it to the user.

There may be other ways that you’re grabbing the information, but the specifics beyond what’s above are outside the purpose and scope of this post.

Instead, the point I’m working towards is that we should escape WordPress data in the context of a template file or a view rather than in the context of a function.

Why I Changed From Coda To Atom

August 16, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

Not long ago, I made the change from Coda to Atom though I never actually talked about the reasons behind this decision. Then, Bjarni sent me the following tweet a few weeks ago:

Interested to hear why you moved away from MAMP to @pressmaticwp and are you still using coda @tommcfarlin

— Bjarni Wark (@Bjarni) July 26, 2016

I’ll talk about the transition from MAMP to Pressmatic in a future post. In this post, I’m going to focus on the reasons and my thoughts on changing from Coda to Atom as it stands right now.

And for those who love a good software holy war, this is not the post fo rit.

Tom McFarlin

Finding Optimal Development Tools

Josh Pollock, WordPress Development, and the REST API

How (And Why) to Create a Repository Archive

Late Escape WordPress Data

Why I Changed From Coda To Atom