Tag: WordPress (Page 76 of 219)

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

Talking WordPress as a Web Application Foundation

December 1, 2016 / Tom

I’ve been interested in using WordPress as a web application foundation for some time now (to the point where I’m almost annoying myself when talking about it).

But with features like the REST API being made available – via plugin or inclusion in core – and with WordPress continuing to grow market share, I think that it’s viability as such continues to make sense.

Maybe it makes more sense now than it did years ago.

Regardless, I had the opportunity to talk with Cloudways earlier this year in a relatively in-depth interview and the topic of WordPress as a web application foundation was part of the interview.

Web Application Foundation

Since it’s something I’ve been talking about, I thought why not include some of that content here?

Using Namespacing and Autoloading in WordPress

November 30, 2016 / Tom

It’s not hard to find criticism about namespacing and autoloading in WordPress, and lack thereof. As much as I’d like to see it, I think it’s important to take a practical look at the software as a whole, the requirements, and realize that implementing such organization would require a lot.

Specifically, it would require applying object-oriented programming throughout the entire codebase (which would last longer than a release cycle in and of itself).

It would also require that all hosts who support WordPress on any level (yes, even those supporting legacy versions) can handle the new features.

In short, it’s not an easy task and it’s important to recognize the practical challenges that come with doing so in 13 year old software powering approximately 25% of the web.

It’s not that it can’t be done, that it won’t be done, that people don’t want it done. But it’s requires exceptional planning, execution, testing, and support from a wide array of situations that I don’t know if I can even fully grasp.

With all of that said, though, this doesn’t mean that we can’t use namespaces and autoloading in our WordPress projects.

WordCamp US 2016, Post Status Publish, and Instagram

November 28, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

This post is going to be weird:

It’s a deviation from my normal content, it’s going to cover WordCamp US 2016, an event prior to that, and social media.

I said it was weird. But hang with me.

I’m not an avid user of Instagram in that I don’t really, you know, post pictures or anything like that. At least not right now.

I have, however, been using the story feature a little bit (much like Snapchat but without the absolutely terrible UI and pathetic stories shared by “news” outlets).

It’s also fun to follow along with those who do share photos and stories. I just don’t have that much to share given that I work out of my house, live in my house, and generally hang around my house during the week.

WordPress Deals for Black Friday 2016

November 25, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

This is that day of the year where everyone is offering deals for different products and services at a discount. It’s a pretty sweet deal, isn’t it?

It’s also one of those times where a lot of people try to build up affiliate links to make some extra cash along with promoting said products and services. I don’t necessarily think there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s not my style.

So I thought I’d try something new for this Black Friday: Earlier this week, I asked anyone and everyone I knew to share the sales they had going on, so I’ve listed what I’ve found below.

None of the links are affiliate links – they are just responses (or tweets) or emails I’ve received over the past week.

Buffering WordPress Content with PHP

November 23, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

I know: If you’ve been working with WordPress for any amount of time creating themes or plugins, then you’re probably familiar with filters. Even if you’re not really sure how they work, you’ve likely worked with something like the_content.

And by that, you’ve likely written a line of code that looks like this:

It’s enough to work with, too. Usually, this is used whenever you want to modify the content before sending it to the browser to render.

But I recently had to work with it in a somewhat unusual way that required the usual of this filter, a template file, and PHP’s output buffer such that I was buffering WordPress content.