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Speaking at WordCamp Atlanta 2016

March 18, 2016 / Tom

This weekend, I’ll be speaking at WordCamp Atlanta 2016. If you’re in town for the conference, then let’s aim to say hey or to hang out a bit at the conference.

WordCamp Atlanta 2016

There are a lot of great speakers and a lot of great sessions from which you get to choose. And, if you’re a beginner, don’t forget to check out the beginner’s workshop that will be later today (at the time of this writing).

This year, I’ll be talking on Sunday at 11:00 am so if you have a chance to fit it into your schedule, then I hope to see you there.

Specifically, I’ll be talking through a few things that aim to give people a primer on professional WordPress development practices.

Easier Excerpts For WordPress

March 17, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

Easier Excerpts for WordPress is a simple plugin, the first for Pressware Plugins actually, that we recently released.

When you think about combining the tediousness of blogging couple with the proverbial low-hanging fruit, this seemed like a natural choice for a first product. Plus, it falls in line with our goal of trying to help make a better blogging experience.

But if you’re like me, then you like reading some of the back-stories that go into projects like this. So here’s some more information on the plugin, specifically for you bloggers, and then a back-story as to why we chose it, how we chose it, and what’s up next.

Debug WordPress Projects

March 16, 2016 / Tom

I’m of the opinion that being able to debug code is one of the must-have skills of any professional developer so it stands to reason that I think if you’re working with WordPress in a professional capacity, you should be able to debug WordPress projects.

It doesn’t matter if you’re working on the server-side or the client-side; if you’re writing code, then you need to be able to:

set breakpoints,
watch variables,
step into functions,
step out of functions,
step over functions,
change values,
…and so on.

Though debuggers are common place in practically every programming environment, I recently wrote a short tutorial and filmed a short video for Envato that walks users through how to debug WordPress projects.

Escaping Strings For WordPress Database Queries

March 15, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

Escaping strings for WordPress is something that developers should be doing at any place in which the user can be sending information across the wire to the database.

Core offers some nice API functions for this. But if you’re writing a raw database query using $wpdb (which is something that I recommend only when an API doesn’t offer what’s needed), then there are still options, but you may need to fall back to a native PHP function.

Case in point: mysqli_real_escape_string.

My Experience with a Standing Desk

March 14, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

Standing desks have been relatively commonplace for a few years now. I would say that it seems to be more prevalent in technology than anywhere else.

But I know better. I’ve read other more general blogs talk about them, as well. So, you know, technologists aren’t that unique after all. Who would’ve thought?

Generally speaking, they seem to be common for anyone who tend to work in a more sedentary environment.

There are plenty of articles all over the Internet about their advantages, but there are also articles that talk about how standing desks can do more harm than good.

What else would you expect, though? I’ve been using a standing desk for a little while now, and I thought I’d share my thoughts thus far.

Tom McFarlin

Speaking at WordCamp Atlanta 2016

Easier Excerpts For WordPress

Debug WordPress Projects

Escaping Strings For WordPress Database Queries

My Experience with a Standing Desk