Tag: WordPress (Page 14 of 219)

Articles, tips, and resources for WordPress-based development.

Installing, Configuring, and Setting Up Xdebug in Visual Studio Code

January 5, 2022 / Tom

TL;DR: This is everything that needs to be done to install Xdebug with a Homebrew-based environment and to work with the software within Visual Studio Code.

Though I’ve recently become a fan of using Ray (1, 2) for much of my lightweight debugging, this doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s important to have Xdebug installed and configured in Visual Studio Code.

If you follow the steps I’ve outlined starting in the previous post, it’s relatively easy though it still requires a little bit of manual work to get started.

This is how you can set up Xdebug with a Homebrew-based configuration and Visual Studio Code.

Installing PHP 7.4 and PHP Monitor for WordPress Development

January 4, 2022 / Tom

TL;DR: How to uninstall PHP 8.1, install PHP 7.4, why you should do so, and one extra utility to helps manage PHP packages and modules.

When I wrote about how to fix WordPress, PHP, MariaDB, and Homebrew, I didn’t cover some of the other larger issues that I experienced when working backwards into the solution.

I need to give Ihor a hat tip here because he and I spoke about this more on Twitter regarding the relationship between WordPress, PHP 7.4, 8.0, and 8.1.

WordPress meets PHP 8.1 pic.twitter.com/QA1Mxf495t

— Ihor Vorotnov (@ihorvorotnov) December 28, 2021

I’d be remiss if I didn’t clarify the following:

I was running PHP 8.1.
WordPress is not compatible with PHP 8.1
WordPress is [allegedly] compatible with PHP 8.0 but I’ve not tested it or my tools against this version because I wanted to have full compatibility.
I downgraded my system to PHP 7.4.27 until I get my entire set up configured as I like. Then I’ll start upgrading components.

So if you’ve followed the aforementioned post, here’s a more complete set of things I’ve set up to make sure everything is working well together – including things I’m working on writing about 🙂.

Fix WordPress, PHP, MariaDB, and Homebrew

December 29, 2021 / Tom

TL;DR: If you find yourself setting up a new environment and you run into problems running WordPress, MariaDB, and PHP there are a few things to remember. Here’s what and here’s how to fix it.

I’m working on a longer post about how I set up my latest development environment but, in the mean time, hit a wall when working with the following requirements:

We recommend servers running version 7.4 or greater of PHP and MySQL version 5.7 OR MariaDB version 10.2 or greater.

Requirements, emphasis mine

Note that I use Homebrew to manage all of my packages and use Laravel Valet, WordPress, MariaDB, and PHP along with wp-cli. I’ll more on this in an upcoming post.

I’ve been talking with a few people on Twitter about it and it turned into a fun discussion.

Anyway, if you’ve followed any of this – or even if not and you’re experiencing this – then here’s a resolution for you.

The Good Old Days of WordPress (Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, Too)

December 28, 2021 / Tom

TL;DR: If you’re a drive-by reader coming from Google or another search engine, this probably isn’t the type of post you’re looking for (insert the Obi-Wan meme here). But if you’re someone who’s read this blog for any length of time, then feel free to stick with me for a bit.

I’m writing this post in the Classic Editor and it’s the first post in a very long time that I’ve used said editor.

I’m not anti-blocks,
I’m not anti-Gutenberg or FSE,
This isn’t a post that has an agenda for anything related to anything like that.

Instead, I just felt like using the Classic Editor. It’s comfortable because I’m used to it and it works really well. I also use the Block Editor which is a bit uncomfortable because I’m not as used to it and that doesn’t work as well because it’s still in its infancy [but it’s maturing daily and it’s going through more testing at a faster rate than the Classic Editor likely ever did].

Obligatory First Post, 3 October 2010. That permalink 😆.

And this is somewhat of a metaphor for what I’m going to talk about in the rest of the post. So if you’re ready for a little bit of a longer article than usual – and one that isn’t as technical – keep reading.

Advice From What I Know Now

December 2, 2021 / Tom

TL;DR: The rest of this stuff is just a short list of other things I would tell my previous self (or maybe someone else just entering the industry) if I were just getting started.

At the beginning of the month, I started writing a few articles rooted in the idea of if I knew then what I knew now as a software developer working in WordPress. And in the first post, I wrote:

So in the next set of posts, I’m going to talk about a few different things that I’d tell my past-self – or The New Class of WordPress Developers – on what to expect or how to process things when working in this industry.
WordPress Then, WordPress Now

If you’ve not read any of the other posts, you can find them all here:

And this will be the last post I write in this series (and if you’ve been subscribing to the podcast, then it’s going to be the last episode for this ‘season’ of episodes).