Tag: WordPress (Page 39 of 219)

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

Tools, Processes, and More for The Independent WordPress Developer

June 13, 2018 / Tom

One of the things that the Internet has made possible that we couldn’t have seen even a decade ago is the proliferation of self-publishing that would happen.

And in this instance, I’m not talking about blogging. I’m talking about self-publishing in the form of eBooks and the like. I mean, looking at anyone with a Kindle that has targeted advertisements (I had a previous version like this), you can see offers for books that are being published by those who have no publisher other than themselves.

I’m not here to argue whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a thing, and it’s something that I think is worth looking to especially in our space.

The Independent WordPress Developer: Tonya Mork

I mean how many people do you know that have self-published material in some way? Off the top of my head, I know Tonya Mork has published material as has Chris Lema.

The Independent WordPress Developer: Chris Lema

It’s kind of neat. And I suppose this is the part where I’m supposed to say something like:

And coming in just a few weeks, I’m going to have my own eBook published!

But that’s not [exactly] where I’m going with this. Instead, I want to talk a bit about memberships on this site and what we may call the independent WordPress developer, the independent WordPress freelancer or the indie WordPress developer or whatever term you like the most.

Adding a Body Class Based on a Template

June 7, 2018 / Tom

Working with templates in WordPress is something that’s not uncommon. Everything is a template of sorts – from the main page template, single page template, 404 template – all the way to custom templates.

Sometimes, though, you may want to apply a class to the body element based on the template that’s being used so that you can style this particular template a bit differently than the rest of the site.

Body Class Based on a Template

Though you can do it in a number of different ways, to do it we all have our methods so I thought I’d share mine.

Working with Custom Rewrite Rules and Page Templates in WordPress

June 6, 2018 / Tom

The WordPress Rewrite API is a solid API assuming that you’re comfortable with regular expressions.

Rewrite Rules and Page Templates: The Rewrite API

And, honestly, even if you’re not, tools like PHP Live RegEx make it really easy to test your code before dropping it into the add_rewrite_rule API call.

Rewrite Rules and Page Templates: PHP Live RegEx

However, there are times where you may find yourself in a situation in which you need to work with rewrite rules and page templates. And when that’s the case, it’s not always as straightforward as making a simple call with a single regular expression.

The reason? If you have multiple pages using the same template, then you’re not always going to have the page located in the same index in the query that runs on each page.

To that end, we to have to handle it in a slightly different way than, say, simply accessing a numerical index of information in the global query.

Is It Really Worth Debating jQuery Versus ES6?

June 5, 2018 / Tom

When building WordPress plugins for myself or others, several of the things I take into account – as we all should – is the level of maintainability, scalability, and support for the plugin as WordPress continues to move forward.

Specifically, I’m talking about client-side development (or, more simply, JavaScript).

As the support for ES6 continues to rise, jQuery continues to move forward with development, and the desire to use new APIs to build out our solutions, I believe it’s worth asking the question:

Do we really need to stick with jQuery?

Does WordPress Hold You Back as a Developer, Really?

May 22, 2018 / Tom

One of the commentaries that we often read or hear about WordPress is its “low barrier to entry” and why this is good for the web.

The counterpoint to this is that it prevents developers (or “would-be developers,” as some may say) from embracing more modern technologies because WordPress doesn’t require them.

Does WordPress Hold You Back?

To be honest, I’ve even seen some go as far as to say that if someone says they are a PHP developer who has primarily worked in WordPress for their career, then you should subtract, say, three years from their “real” PHP experience.

Yikes.

I see reasons for this – I’m guilty of some of the “older” practices – but does that mean that WordPress prevents us from becoming high-quality, object-oriented programmers?