Tag: WordPress (Page 187 of 219)

When it comes to introducing custom functionality into a WordPress project, the debate between functions.php vs. plugin usage is nothing new.

Generally speaking, I think of themes are presentation and plugins as functionality that transcend whatever theme or themes with which they’re installed.

But sometimes, this delineation isn’t so clear. For example, let’s say that you’re working on a theme that needs to introduce a custom meta box – or several – into the post editor screen.

Though this is presentation related in that it will impact what’s displayed to the users, it’s also a bit of custom functionality but it’s only relegated to this particular theme.

What then?

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The conversation about the ethics of what it means to copy WordPress plugins, theme, applications, and more isn’t new. In fact, just the other day, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about what competition looks like in various marketplaces.

Based on my conversation with him (and a number of others, for what it’s worth), there tends to be two schools of thought on releasing products into a marketplace that can be summed up in the following two statements:

• If a similar product already exists, don’t do it.
• If a similar product already exists, do it.

Sure, that’s an oversimplification of the idea and there’s a lot to be said about both; however, I’ve seen this same thing discussed in the context of both WordPress theme and plugin development.

Specifically, the quote I read was as follows:

1. Check the plugin repository to see if similar plugin exists.

2. If so, don’t reinvent the wheel.

Initially, I categorically disagreed with this perspective. Continue reading

I’ve written at length about the dilemma of supporting WordPress plugins and looking at various support systems both of which generated some good discussion on offering WordPress plugin support.

Over the past few months, I’ve been [slowly] mapping out exactly where I want to take the direction of the work that I do on plugins (as well as other projects), and how I want to offer support.

Last week, I took the first step and began directing all of the support requests for my current plugins into my inbox.

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Unless you’ve been working to avoid anything and everything related to WordPress over the past month or so, then you already know that we’re about to celebrate the WordPress 10 Year Anniversary.

The neat thing is that meetups are happening all of the world tonight in honor of our favorite publishing platform.

In fact, my team and I are hosting the Atlanta meetup at the 8BIT / WP Daily Office.

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