Tom McFarlin

Software Engineering in WordPress, PHP, and Backend Development

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How To Concatenate JavaScript Files with CodeKit

Of all the various build tools that are available right now (such as Gulp, Grunt, and others), I still find myself using CodeKit. I’ve been a fan of it for a long time, and it still fits well into my workflow.

Concatenate JavaScript Files with CodeKit

It’s not that I’m making a case for you to use it, but if you are using it, then there are some that it offers that aren’t immediately evident. Things that other build tools tend to make a bit easier to achieve.

For example, when I’m working on a project for WordPress that will focus on a single area of the application, such as the administration area, then I prefer to take all of the various JavaScript files I’m writing and then concatenate them into a single, minified file.

CodeKit makes this possible in two ways: Through the GUI and directives in an individual file.

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What to Expect With Start Here For WordPress

Earlier this summer, I talked about Start Here for WordPress which is a closed and limited membership site for those who are interested in becoming WordPress developers but aren’t sure where to, you know, start.

Start Here for the aspiring WordPress developer.

The site is going to open officially on Friday for registration, and though the mailing list has been active for a few months, I’ll be sending out two more emails before registration.

To that end, I thought it would be worth sharing some information about those who have been helpful in sponsoring the mailing list as well as the site, and highlighting what to expect if you opt to sign up for membership.

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How To Perform Unit Testing with Pressmatic

I’ve been using Pressmatic for some time now, and I’m enjoying it. I’ve written about it in several posts (many of which you can see here). And one of the things that I dig the most about the software is that it comes with WP-CLI out of the box.

Unit Testing with Pressmatic and WP-CLI

From the homepage:

Simple root SSH access to individual sites. WP-CLI provided. Simply type wp after opening site SSH.

I’m currently working on a project in which I want to do some unit testing with Pressmatic. And though WP-CLI comes with the software, I need to do two type of testing:

  1. Unit testing with PHPUnit that does not require any WordPress scaffolding,
  2. WordPress-specific tests that does require the WordPress scaffolding.

Because Pressmatic uses a virtual machine setting up the necessary software is a little bit different than when you’re using something such as MAMP.

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The WordPress Framework (It’s Not a Framework)

Those who are heavily involved in development of WordPress often times refer to “the WordPress framework” or “WordPress as a framework.” Perhaps you’ve heard this – it’s used in terms of building sites and creating blogs and things like that.

And I try not to be too pedantic about terms, jargon, and so on but there are times where I think it’s important to distinguish the terms that we’re using.

Conan O'Brien

I mean, who wants to be the person sitting there with their pointy-rimmed glasses far down on the bridge of their nose, pushing them up slightly, pointing into the air, and with as much of a nasal voice as possible, saying:

That’s not really true.

But I’ll be that person (except I don’t wear glasses and I don’t have a nasal voice).

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A Simple Class For Ajax in WordPress

Ajax in WordPress is something I’ve discussed a few times on this site. For example, I’ve touched on:

But you know how it goes: Over time, things change. WordPress matures, we grow as developers, and techniques and methods that we might have used yesterday (or last year) aren’t necessarily the best way to achieve the same thing as today.

Ajax in WordPress

And Ajax in WordPress is one of those things. Although the actual API may still be the same, the way in which we can build object-oriented solutions that communicate with it can be refined a bit more (at least in contrast to what I used to do).

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