Tag: WordPress (Page 23 of 219)

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

Why WordSesh 2019 Is Worth Your Time

May 16, 2019 / Tom

Ask anyone who’s been to a WordCamp and one of the things that you’re likely to hear that has the most benefit is “The Hallway Track.” The’s debatable on if it’s the most benefit, but it offers a lot.

For those who’ve never been to a WordCamp, then think of it this way: WordCamps are usually divided into tracks throughout the day.

These may include (but aren’t, of course, limited to):

Development,
Design,
Business,
and more.

The Hallway Track, though, is an unofficial name given to the time spent in between sessions where you get to meet people, see people you already know, or talk more about the things you’re working on, you’re learning, or just find out about new things that are happening in the various facets of the WordPress economy.

What does this have to do with WordSesh, though? Considering not everyone can make it to a WordCamp (for a variety of reasons), quite a bit.

Using Direct Database Queries to Quickly Update Data, Part 2

May 10, 2019 / Tom

This is the second, and final part, in a series about – as the title suggests – direct database queries. Specifically, it’s about changing post statuses (but it’s relevant to more than that).

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

From the previous post:

This is yet another post that’s going to be an illustration of how to use $wpdb to quickly update information based on metadata.

And the code provided in that post works but if you’re looking to make it more object-oriented, then there’s more work that can be done.

Before jumping into the actual post, though, it’s important to note that when it comes to object-oriented programming, there’s a lot of work that can go into the class design and creating levels of abstraction.

At some point, you have to draw the proverbial line between when you’re going to use interfaces, how granular your classes are going to be in terms of what they are abstracting, and the like.

And the purpose of this post is to help provide a better object-oriented design but it’s not an exercise is making this as optimal as possible. I do discuss topics like this in another series of posts.

But keep that in mind when reading through the code throughout the rest of the post.

Using Direct Database Queries to Quickly Update Data, Part 1

May 7, 2019 / Tom

This is not the first time I’ve mentioned this, but one of the challenges that come with talking about writing direct database queries to update information in the WordPress database is that you leave yourself open to something like:

Yeah, but there’s an API to do something just like that.

And, in many cases, that’s right. I’m a big fan of using ’em, too. But there are times where direct, parameterized database queries can be a more optimal choice.

No, it’s not a database but wouldn’t it be awesome if they looked like this? Photo by Tobias Fischer on Unsplash

This is, of course, contingent on the environment in which you’re working the requirements of your project.

So this is yet another post that’s going to be an illustration of how to use $wpdb to quickly update information based on metadata (without using something like WP_Query or WP_Meta_Query to handle it).

WordCamp Atlanta 2019: Web Apps with WordPress

May 2, 2019 / Tom

I’ve enjoyed speaking at WordCamps since my first back in 2013. You can see a short list of the ones at which I’ve spoken here:

And this weekend is officially WordCamp Atlanta 2019.

WordCamp Atlanta 2019: Web Apps with WordPress

I took 2018 off of speaking for several different reasons, and I’m not planning to do much in 2019 (especially with another kid making her debut later this year ❤️).

But given the work I’ve been doing with WordPress over the past few years, it seemed fitting to apply to at least speak at my local WordCamp.

Using Functions in Place of Globals: get_post_field

April 24, 2019 / Tom

As PHP has continued to move forward and WordPress (and its developer-economy) works to begin using more of the more modern features, one of the things we still see happening is the use of globals within WordPress.

To some degree, it’s inevitable: Significant parts of the application were built using globals when that was the facility that was a primary feature; other parts, though, have moved forward by providing classes or functions that prevent us from needing to do that.

Case in point: get_post_field is a solid alternative to using the $post global that provides much of the same information in a slightly more modern (and arguably safer) way of reading the data.