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Bankruptcy on Block Editor Blocks (But It’s Not What You Think)

April 21, 2023 / Tom

In August 2022, I started a series on Learning to Build Block Editor Blocks and I continued it for several months. The last thing I wrote in the series was the following:

So as I continue with the series, we’re first going to look at what’s required to implement a custom block that includes:

a heading,

a paragraph,

and an input field to help guide the ultimate output.

We’ll continue to use the customization options we’ve outlined in this post and show how we can apply them to what the user provides and how to ignore them for what we, as the developer, provide.

After that, we’ll look at adding an input to the frontend of the site as well as incorporating a SlotFill.

And though I had intentions to follow through starting at the beginning of the new year, I obviously never followed through with the series. In all of the years that I’ve been writing, sharing code, and generally participating in all things PHP, WordPress, and development, I don’t think I’ve ever simply declared bankruptcy on an actual series or even just on the consistency of blogging in general.

But that’s what I’m doing in this post.

Quick Fix: Module ‘imagick’ already loaded

April 7, 2023 / Tom

When working with multiple version of PHP installed via Homebrew, there’s a chance you’ll encounter error messages like this:

PHP Warning: Module 'imagick' already loaded in Unknown on line 0
PHP Warning: Version warning: Imagick was compiled against Image Magick version 1809 but version 1808 is loaded. Imagick will run but may behave surprisingly in Unknown on line 0

Granted, the version number may be different but the rest of the message will be the same. When I’ve experienced this, it’s when I’ve a set up like this:

I have multiple versions of PHP installed (anything from the earliest build in 7 up to the latest version in 8),
I swap among versions in my ~/.zshrc file depending on the project,
When I attempt to run code that’s on an older version of PHP after installing and using the newer or latest version of PHP, I see the above error.

To fix this, there are two things you can do:

Locate the version of the php.ini file for the version of PHP you’re currently using,
Update the php.ini file for the version to disable the version check on Imagick.

Using Custom Tables for ACF Data

April 6, 2023 / Tom

In my previous post, I showed you how to import programmatically defined ACF data. However, I also mentioned that there are some issues you may encounter when dealing with large datasets, such as those that use the Repeater field.

The Repeater field provides a neat solution for repeating content – think slides, team members, CTA tiles and alike.

This field type acts as a parent to a set of sub fields which can be repeated again and again. What makes this field type so special is its versatility. Any kind of field can be used within a Repeater, and there are no limits to the number of repeats either (👨‍💻 unless defined in the field settings).
Repeat, ACF Manual

The Repeater field allows you to create a set of fields that can be repeated an unlimited number of times. While this is great for flexibility, it also means that there is no limit to the number of rows or fields that can occur. As a result, you may run into the upper limit of what the database can store.

For those who are familiar with the implementation of the Repeater field, you know that each time a new entry is added to the post that the Repeater is attached to, a new set of records is added to the postmeta table. Over time, this can become a scalability issue.

That is, the post table will hold the post to which the repeater is attached. Then every time a new entry is added to said post, a set of new records will be added to the postmeta table.

Overtime, this won’t scale. More specifically, you’re going to hit a point as to where adding a new row in the repeater won’t work. And this is where the alternative solutions for custom data tables tables for ACF comes into play.

How To Import Programmatically Defined ACF Data

March 30, 2023 / Tom

For as nice and as powerful as ACF is, it’s not without it’s shortcomings (but I guess that could be said about any software). For the purposes of this post, though, this is the software about which I’m discussing.

Specifically, I’m talking about the following scenario:

You have a repeater field that’s defined programmatically and thus doesn’t show up in the WordPress administration area,
The data contained within the repeater field is so much that it exceeds the amount of data that can be efficiently stored in the postmeta table.

I was going to cover each of these in one post but given that they aren’t really related, it seems to make most sense to separate the content.

In this post, I’m going to cover how to import a programmatically defined ACF group. And in the next post, I’ll talk about solutions for migrating data into its own table.

The Architecture Astronauts of WordPress

January 20, 2023 / Tom

One of the things I read – and learned – early on in my career was the term Architecture Astronaut. It was coined by Joel Spolsky (as far as I know) and it goes something like this:

These are the people I call Architecture Astronauts. It’s very hard to get them to write code or design programs, because they won’t stop thinking about Architecture. They’re astronauts because they are above the oxygen level, I don’t know how they’re breathing. They tend to work for really big companies that can afford to have lots of unproductive people with really advanced degrees that don’t contribute to the bottom line.
Don’t Let Architecture Astronauts Scare You

I really liked the definition because then, just as I am now, I am surrounded by incredibly smart people from whom I can learn.

And for those of us in this field, it allows us all to:

learn great engineering techniques,
the reason why engineers write code a certain way,
and how to approach problem solving in a pragmatic way (pragmatic being the keyword here, but more on that in a moment).

But that’s not how it always is, is it? Not in other fields; not in WordPress. And the more segmented WordPress is becoming between frontend technologies and backend technologies, the more different these discussions are becoming.

For the purposes of this post, the whole architecture astronaut thing is something I hope all backend engineers pay attention to regardless of where they are in their career. (Let’s avoid architecture astronauts of WordPress.)

And here’s why.

Tom McFarlin

Bankruptcy on Block Editor Blocks (But It’s Not What You Think)

Quick Fix: Module ‘imagick’ already loaded

Using Custom Tables for ACF Data

How To Import Programmatically Defined ACF Data

The Architecture Astronauts of WordPress