Tom McFarlin

Software Engineering in WordPress, PHP, and Backend Development

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Using WordPress as a Backend

These days, it’s hip to say that you’re either working with a framework or you’re working with a content management system.

And, for one reason or another, Team Frameworks frowns upon using a CMS for building a site because it doesn’t require writing code, and Team CMS laughs at the idea of writing so much code to do the same thing they’re able to do without said code.

This is why, in previous posts and in other discussions, I’ve often referred to WordPress as a foundation off of which to build web applications. By that, I mean that WordPress is a content management system and that it is not a framework like Rails, Laravel, or .NET. Instead, its API gives us the ability to extend the application far beyond what it’s able to do out-of-the-box.

And I know, I know. This is all stuff that someone else has said before, but the point that I want to make in bringing this up is how those who are curious about using WordPress as a solution for their data may be writing it off simply because of its branding.

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Questioning WordPress Theme Design

When talking about the difference in themes and plugins, it’s common for those involved in building projects for WordPress to know that functionality is usually left to plugins and that presentation is left to themes.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t some cross-pollination (or perhaps cross-contamination? :) where plugins introduce visual effects and themes offer more functionality than they probably should, but as a rule of thumb, I think it serves us well.

Sometimes, though, I wonder if we don’t think hard enough about what the presentation of content actually means when it comes to designing themes. Continue reading

My Suite of Apps: Boom2

One of the things that those us who grew up on Winamp had the luxury using every time we launched the application was the equalizer.

This was quickly one of those things that was easy to take for granted because as soon as you launched another audio player, you’d either find something that was subpar or you’d find nothing at all.

These days, as much as I love working on a Mac, it’s still hard to believe that one of the largest pieces of audio software on the planet – iTunes – doesn’t ship with an equalizer.

I don’t know why this is – perhaps it’s because it’s built into “everything just works” ethos, but for those who care about squeezing every bit of sound quality out of their speakers knows, the sound works but it’s not as nice as it could be.

Enter Boom2.
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Merry Christmas!

As is the case with many, Christmas is my favorite time of year. I know that thing in the world don’t stop turning, and things in the world don’t stop happening, but for those who are fortunate to have family and friends close by, it’s a great experience to be able to spend the day with them.

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How Would You Teach Yourself WordPress?

With tomorrow being arguably one of the largest holidays in the world, I thought that it might be a decent change of pace of the posts and offer up something a little bit shorter and a little more open ended in hopes of getting some feedback from the rest of you WordPress designers, developers, bloggers, and other users.

So here’s the deal: Back when you first became acquainted with WordPress, you started at ground zero. We all did.

Sure, there might have been a few things that we knew – like how blogging work, or how HTML and PHP worked together, but we weren’t necessarily familiar with WordPress templating nor the WordPress API (or any part of the API for that matter). Continue reading

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