Category: Articles (Page 132 of 258)

Personal opinions and how-to’s that I’ve written both here and as contributions to other blogs.

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.

Advertisements via Postmatic

March 10, 2016 / Tom

Advertisements are one of those things that I’ve always been careful about introducing because I don’t want them to clutter the content or feel too, you know, intrusive as it relates to reading this blog.

To that end, I’ve generally kept them pretty minimal in terms of what’s allowed to display on this site.

People get their content in so many different ways now (email, Twitter, etc.), and the landscape seemed to have changed for some once Google killed Reader. Then again, some of us still use a reader (what’s up, Feedly? :) for the majority of our content.

For those who read this site in your browser, you’ve no doubt noticed the advertisements in the sidebar. As stated, they’re minimal by design:

No animation
No sound
No attempt to be more intrusive than the content itself

This is because so many advertisements on the web are obnoxious. At the same time, running a site and promoting content from other companies and individuals within the WordPress economy is something I want to do.

It also helps the site to be self-sufficient in that it covers the costs of what’s needed to run the site, so that’s something I greatly appreciate.

As of today, I’m adding a similar setting for advertisements via Postmatic to display in the footer of my emails.

The Perfect WordPress Development Stack

March 9, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

The “Perfect WordPress Development Stack” is one of those topics that comes up now and again in various blogs (and here it is again – how meta, right?), talks, tweets, and so on.

And I think it’s a good point of conversation. If you’re working with WordPress in a professional capacity, then you should have a stack that maintains some level of professionalism.

But what does that look like? It’s likely that some of you know where I’m going with us and the answer may sound like a cop-out.

It’s not, though. It’s generally what I’ve found to be true.