Category: Articles (Page 252 of 258)

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

Include, Require, and get_template_part in WordPress

August 28, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the easiest mistakes to make as an early WordPress developer is understanding the difference in PHP’s include and require functions and WordPress’ built-in functions – such as get_template_part – for working with templates.

In my latest article on WPTuts+, I take a look at each of these functions.

Why I Contributed To Easy Digital Downloads, What I Learned, & Why You Should, Too

August 21, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

At the risk of sounding like a marketer rather than a fan and contributor of the plugin, Easy Digital Downloads is a free plugin for WordPress that makes it exceptionally easy to sell digital products through your WordPress-based site.

Though it’s available for download from the WordPress Plugins Repository, Pippin – the lead developer behind the plugin – open sourced the plugin on GitHub in order to get other developers involved.

This past weekend, I was able to contribute a couple of fixes. In light in the whole plugin conversion that’s going on within the WordPress Developer Community, I found several points worth mentioning with regards to getting involved with Easy Digital Downloads.

Improving WordPress Plugins

August 20, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

Improving WordPress Plugins

In some ways, plugins are kind of the “apps of WordPress” and they need to be treated as such. Many developers care about improving WordPress plugins and the associated experience, but there’s a long way to go.

Currently, it’s more like the Wild West than anything else: Anyone who can write code that does something with WordPress – regardless of if it follows any of the best practices – and can have their work added the plugin repository.

Last week, an impromptu discussion about the state of plugins grew into a much more serious talk. So much so that what started as a Twitter conversation moved to a Google Hangout then migrated to a blog.

Obviously, this touched a sensitive spot in the WordPress Developer community and a discussing ensued about what could be done to begin improving WordPress plugins and the associated process and repository:

Introducing Ajax in the WordPress Dashboard

August 17, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

Introducing Ajax in the WordPress Dashboard is a relatively easy thing to do as WordPress provides a standard set of steps to follow. Unfortunately, it’s not always done correctly.

In my latest set of articles over at WPTuts+, I give a Primer on Ajax in the WordPress Dashboard. Continue reading

Why WordPress Themes and Plugins Are Software

August 13, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

I’ve shared my thoughts on WordPress as an application framework, but I think that simply making a case for how the core application can be used for web applications isn’t enough to help others see that it’s a viable platform.

Lately, I’ve had several conversations with others who are skeptical (and rightly so). Themes are often viewed as “skins” for WordPress and plugins are often viewed as little ways to add new features to a blog. If anything, I’d say that one could make a stronger case for plugins being software rather than themes.

But to a point, I disagree. There are several reasons why I think both WordPress themes and plugins are software.