Category: Notes (Page 32 of 50)

Notes on programming-related problems that I’ve encountered while working on various projects.

How To Enforce Adding a Single Widget in WordPress

August 8, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

For a recent project, I needed to introduce functionality that added a widgetized area to the header of the blog, but only allowed a single instance of a specific widget to be added: the “Search” widget.

Since the dashboard for the widgetized areas are driven the by jQuery and jQuery UI libraries, the implementation is almost completely written in JavaScript, and although I know there may be some criticisms about only allowing a certain type of widget in a widgetized area, here’s how you can enforce adding a single widget in WordPress.

Quick Tip: Disable Auto-Updating of CodeKit Settings

August 2, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

When it comes to CodeKit, there are normally global CodeKit settings that I use; however, a number of the projects that I work on often result in some minor deviation from my core settings.

For those who have used CodeKit regularly, you know that you can set per-project settings, but if you’re using a project that’s under source control, there’s likely one irritating factor that you’ve noticed.

The Dangers of Using pre_get_posts in WordPress

August 1, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

In the previous post, I talked a bit about using `pre_get_posts` and how to efficiently exclude categories from the main loop.

Of course, in posts like that, the code is meant to be a point of reference or a starting place for which more advanced functionality can be written.

But one thing that I failed to mention about using `pre_get_posts` in WordPress is that it’s not limited to the public facing side of the site.

How To Efficiently Exclude Categories From The WordPress Loop

July 31, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

When it comes to writing custom queries in WordPress, `WP_Query` is the API to use. And I could be mistaken, but I do see a lot of people urging developers to avoiding using `query_posts` in WordPress in favor this newer-ish API.

But the thing is that `query_posts` still has its place in WordPress development namely in modifying the results of the data queried for The Loop when rendering blog content; however, one of the the biggest caveats is the performance that `query_posts` can have on the performance of the blog.

I’ve recently been working on a plugin where I needed to exclude posts from The Loop based on the category. At first, I was going to use `query_posts` but I ultimately hit a few snags, so here’s an alternative way to exclude categories from the WordPress Loop.

Properly Setting Up WordPress Cron Jobs

July 18, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

As it relates to scheduling events in WordPress, there’s a lot of articles that already exist on setting up a WordPress cron job, but – and for what I believe to be a number of reasons – there’s a surprising lack of clarity around the topic.

Of course, I could be wrong – maybe I’ve just been looking in all of the wrong places.

Whatever the case may be, this is something that I’ve been dealing with in a couple of projects, and I thought I’d capture my notes here if, for no other reason, than to reference in the future.

How To Enforce Adding a Single Widget in WordPress

Quick Tip: Disable Auto-Updating of CodeKit Settings

The Dangers of Using pre_get_posts in WordPress

How To Efficiently Exclude Categories From The WordPress Loop

Properly Setting Up WordPress Cron Jobs

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