Page 200 of 427

Pulling Back From Progressive Enhancement

September 1, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the terms we hear a lot in web development is “progressive enhancement.” If you’re new to web development, Wikipedia defines it as follows:

Progressive enhancement uses web technologies in a layered fashion that allows everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a web page, using any browser or Internet connection, while also providing an enhanced version of the page to those with more advanced browser software or greater bandwidth.

Perhaps another way of looking at it is you introduce a basic feature such that it functions without any of the newer-ish technologies – such as Ajax – and then progressively enhancing the feature so it works a bit more smoothly (or flashier, because that’s a proper term).

Ultimately, it should improve the user experience without compromising the feature for those who don’t have access to newer technologies.

But there’s a challenge those who have been in development for a while tend to face.

What Is the Vendor Directory?

August 31, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

With the rise of package managers, build tools, and other similar software being brought to WordPress, we’re seeing more advanced directory structures in both our themes and our plugins.

Some of these tools have been around a long time – at least in one form or another – as it relates to software development, but it’s still relatively new with respect to WordPress.

If you’re new to WordPress development or you’re new to some of the various tools we have at our disposal for working on these types of projects, then it’s easy to get overwhelmed with some of the organizational choices of said projects.

Relax: that’s normal. It’s a natural part of the learning curve.

Though there’s a lot that can be talked about with respect to all of this, I thought it might be worth tackling just one aspect of it in this particular article.

Live Code Reviews at WordCamp Tampa

August 28, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

At the end of September (September 25th – 27th, to be exact), there are going to be a lot of great people at WordCamp Tampa.

Code Reviews at WordCamp Tampa

As of now, the schedule is still being put together, so I don’t know any more details than what you can find on the website; however, there is one event that I think anyone who is coming. should consider attending: A live code audit.

In short, it’s your code in front of a panel of other people critiquing it in front of all of your peers. Sounds scary, right?

Years ago, I used to think so – but then I realized just how great code reviews can be and I urge anyone who is writing code for a living to have someone else review their work.

Quick Tip: Searching Custom Post Types

August 27, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Say what you will about the built in WordPress search functionality – sure, it could stand to be improved (personally I’m a fan of SearchWP) – but not all projects warrant the same requirements, right?

Sometimes, the built-in search functionality works just fine out-of-the-box. It gets a little more involved if you start introducing, say, custom taxonomies or custom post types, though.

That is, say you’re working on a project or have a client who needs help with modifying the built in search functionality so that it allows for searching custom post types. There’s actually a lot of flexibility provided in how you tailor the search results, but for this case it’s pretty easy. Continue reading

Managing Tab Events in Bootstrap 3

August 26, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Yes, there are a lot of front-end frameworks that are available for use in WordPress development, and no I wouldn’t say I have a favorite (though I tend to use Bootstrap or Foundation for most of my work, at this time).

At the time of this writing, I’m currently working on a project in which I’m using Bootstrap 3.3.5 to handle the front-end.

Bootstrap

Part of the project calls for use of the tab functionality in such a way that you can, y’know, tab through several panes of information without actually leaving the page.

If you’ve ever used Bootstrap, you know it’s easy to setup and integrate into a project; however, if you’re looking to introduce more complicated functionality such as having to make asynchronous requests whenever the pages tabs change and then you need to update the DOM accordingly, it can actually be a little frustrating in nature.

Sure, there are some ways in which you can track which tab is active – class names, using hidden fields, etc., but depending on how you’ve architected the front-end and what’s happening with the Ajax response, you may actually end up with needing to do something a little more advanced than that.

Generally speaking, whenever I’m working with JavaScript and I’m trying to handle an asynchronous event (or even synchronous events, for that matter), I want to use exactly that – events.

But when it comes to needing to handle when a tab has been changed to toggle a pane in Bootstrap, what event do we use? again hanks

Tom McFarlin

Pulling Back From Progressive Enhancement

What Is the Vendor Directory?

Live Code Reviews at WordCamp Tampa

Quick Tip: Searching Custom Post Types

Managing Tab Events in Bootstrap 3