Category: Articles (Page 133 of 258)

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

Sharing GPL Code and Its Ethics

March 2, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

“Sharing GPL Code” sounds like such a loaded title because the topic is forever hot. But hang with me because the purpose of this post has nothing to do with actually arguing for or against the GPL or code around it.

I know the simple answer is that all GPL code, by very nature of its license, it’s available for sharing, but there’s another aspect that plays into this I want to discuss.

Sharing GPL Code can be more about collaborating on code, right?

And that’s this:

What is the ethics of sharing the code for a project that you’ve built for someone else even if it maintains the GPL?

For the most part, I think it’s fine. But when you’re running a business and you’re building solutions for clients, there’s a little more to it.

At least, that’s my experience.

The Right Hook To Initialize WordPress Plugins

February 29, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

When I first started working on WordPress plugin development, I used to obsess over the right hook to initialize WordPress plugins. That is, I thought there was one hook that would sit above all other hooks and prevent me from needing to go looking through the Codex or other source code to find the right one.

But that’s not the case.

To be clear, this isn’t to say that there aren’t some strategies and some hooks that work better than others in many, many cases, but there are times where whatever you’re used to using isn’t going to work. This depends on how you’re structuring your plugin, and I’ll talk more about that in a moment, but there’s isn’t one hook to rule them all when you want to initialize your WordPress plugins.

By now, you likely know the whole deal about the one ring, right?

Instead, you’ve got to find the one that suits your needs best for the functionality you’re introducing.

Building Quality into WordPress Projects: A Practical Example

February 25, 2016 / Tom

Building quality into WordPress projects is a topic that sounds a little subjective or maybe even a bit esoteric.

To be honest, I think it certainly helps to have a level of experience in general software development as well as with the way WordPress does things, but it’s something that anyone can learn.

I’d go as far as to say that many people who care about building quality into WordPress projects are people who are consistently learning new ways to go about doing so.

Anyway, in a recent article for Envato, I cover exactly this.

Quality Code and Bloat in WordPress Projects

February 24, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

Quality Code and Bloat are two topics that I see a lot of developers either discussing and/or mentioning on the landing pages of their project pages.

I think the conversation around quality code is something that should always be happening. We should always be aiming to get better at what we’re doing, there is always someone who can help us, and there is always someone we can help.

It’s not that I think bloat is something we should accept, nor is it something that I think we should settle for in our projects (or those to which we contribute for that matter). But does it have as an objective definition as quality code?

It’s important to define clearly quality code and bloat as it relates to you, your team, and the solutions you’re providing for others. And I think this is true if you’re working for yourself, in a shop, for an agency, or even as a hobby and you’re building solutions for other people.

How to Get Started With WordPress

February 22, 2016 / Tom

For those who have been working with WordPress for some time, it’s easy to forget how to explain to others how to get started with WordPress.

That is, we take for granted what it’s like to set up a web server, database, PHP, install the software, find a theme, and install a few plugins. And I know: None of that has much to do with development, per se, but it can be a gateway drug for many.

I know more than a handful of WordPress developers who got started by just installing the software, writing a few posts, and finding out what it could do.

In an attempt to revisit the basics and help usher in a new class of people who may end up contributing to the community, I’ve written a series of posts geared directly to people like that.