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Sanitizing URLs in WordPress with Its API and Built-In PHP Functions

June 14, 2018 / Tom

Working with user-centric fields in WordPress – such as input elements, textarea elements, or any type of field in which a user can supply their own values is a place that should always be a target of sanitization.

Sanitizing URLs in WordPress with Its API

Fortunately, the WordPress API provides a number of functions to help with this. Depending on your use case, you may need to do one of the following:

And those are all well and good but there are also ways in which you can work to sanitize the data using functions provided by PHP.

Sure, sometimes regular expressions are the way to go but, other times, you may want to use facilities that are built into the language, easier to understand, and easier to follow.

When writing my own code (and when reviewing others) I try to keep that in mind. So with that said, here’s a process that you can use that may make your efforts easier when working with URLs in WordPress.

Tools, Processes, and More for The Independent WordPress Developer

June 13, 2018 / Tom

One of the things that the Internet has made possible that we couldn’t have seen even a decade ago is the proliferation of self-publishing that would happen.

And in this instance, I’m not talking about blogging. I’m talking about self-publishing in the form of eBooks and the like. I mean, looking at anyone with a Kindle that has targeted advertisements (I had a previous version like this), you can see offers for books that are being published by those who have no publisher other than themselves.

I’m not here to argue whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a thing, and it’s something that I think is worth looking to especially in our space.

The Independent WordPress Developer: Tonya Mork

I mean how many people do you know that have self-published material in some way? Off the top of my head, I know Tonya Mork has published material as has Chris Lema.

The Independent WordPress Developer: Chris Lema

It’s kind of neat. And I suppose this is the part where I’m supposed to say something like:

And coming in just a few weeks, I’m going to have my own eBook published!

But that’s not [exactly] where I’m going with this. Instead, I want to talk a bit about memberships on this site and what we may call the independent WordPress developer, the independent WordPress freelancer or the indie WordPress developer or whatever term you like the most.

Ship It or Die (With or Without Quality, Though?)

June 12, 2018 / Tom

One of the ideas that intrigue me is the “ship it or die” mentality. Regarding what it’s called, there are variations thereof, but the idea behind the phrase is simple:

If you have an idea, get it from concept to product as quickly as possible.

Sure, the idea of getting to concept to a product may also be called “concept to cash” but there’s never a guarantee that you’re going to generate cash, right? There is a guarantee that you can get it into a tangible product, though.

And in software development circles, there’s always a lot that a person can argue for or against the idea. Off the top of my head, the two pros and cons that come immediately to mind are:

Pro. Getting something done quickly that works and that [potentially] generates revenue.
Con. Weak architecture, maintenance, scalability, testability, and so on.

In short, there may be a tradeoff between how fast you can get ship something for a market and the architecture behind the project. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn’t. Generally speaking, though, I think it’s safe to assume the former.

Furthermore, some may see the former as the easy way out, some may see the latter as an exercise in YAGNI or, even more simply, that the problem can be addressed whenever it comes up.

But what does this have to do with anything at the moment?

Adding a Body Class Based on a Template

June 7, 2018 / Tom

Working with templates in WordPress is something that’s not uncommon. Everything is a template of sorts – from the main page template, single page template, 404 template – all the way to custom templates.

Sometimes, though, you may want to apply a class to the body element based on the template that’s being used so that you can style this particular template a bit differently than the rest of the site.

Body Class Based on a Template

Though you can do it in a number of different ways, to do it we all have our methods so I thought I’d share mine.

Working with Custom Rewrite Rules and Page Templates in WordPress

June 6, 2018 / Tom

The WordPress Rewrite API is a solid API assuming that you’re comfortable with regular expressions.

Rewrite Rules and Page Templates: The Rewrite API

And, honestly, even if you’re not, tools like PHP Live RegEx make it really easy to test your code before dropping it into the add_rewrite_rule API call.

Rewrite Rules and Page Templates: PHP Live RegEx

However, there are times where you may find yourself in a situation in which you need to work with rewrite rules and page templates. And when that’s the case, it’s not always as straightforward as making a simple call with a single regular expression.

The reason? If you have multiple pages using the same template, then you’re not always going to have the page located in the same index in the query that runs on each page.

To that end, we to have to handle it in a slightly different way than, say, simply accessing a numerical index of information in the global query.

Tom McFarlin

Sanitizing URLs in WordPress with Its API and Built-In PHP Functions

Tools, Processes, and More for The Independent WordPress Developer

Ship It or Die (With or Without Quality, Though?)

Adding a Body Class Based on a Template

Working with Custom Rewrite Rules and Page Templates in WordPress