Tag: WordPress (Page 88 of 219)

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

Your Source Code (“This Could Be Better”)

August 23, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

I’d like to think that one of the struggles many developers feel when shipping code is a sense of “this could be better” before they push whatever button to send their code out into the world.

Yeah, okay, code review this.

It doesn’t necessarily matter if this is a hobby project, if this is a project for a corporate job, a freelance job, or if this is something that’s for an open source project. I say that because I think this is something that many of us feel with whatever it is that we release.

It’s a feeling of something is “not quite done” or “if I could just refine this a little bit more.” I know: This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this before, and it’s likely not going to be the last.

And the feeling is not without merit. Other developers can make us feel like we’re doing something wrong (sometimes we are, sometimes we aren’t). But in our industry, I think there’s more of a spectrum of optimal-to-suboptimal. Though some may not agree, a friend of mine recently said it best:

The software industry is too vast and too fast to keep up with it all. But because it’s now that way, people find their niches and think that it’s the “best” or “only” way to get something done.

The further I get into my career, the more I feel this sense of obligation to make things as pristine as possible before sending it to a client, user, or just out for the world to use.

And though I think this is important, it’s important to make sure that I (and we) are doing this for the right reasons.

An example of a wrong reason might go something like this:

It’s not because it doesn’t meet requirements and it’s not because it doesn’t fulfill what was requested by the client. It’s because how others might perceive the work when they do not have the proper context.

So of course, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to make your code base or your architecture as robust as possible. We should all strive for that. But I believe that it’s important to contextualize appropriately and adequately scope your sprints, milestones, work or however you group your tasks together.

Josh Pollock, WordPress Development, and the REST API

August 19, 2016 / Tom

This year, I’ve had the pleasure hearing Josh Pollock talk about WordPress Development with the REST API on several occasions.

Earlier this year, our paths crossed at WordCamp Atlanta and then later, we spent a lot of time hanging out at WordCamp San Diego. During the latter, I had a chance to hear him give his talk to a rather large audience specifically on how to use the REST API.

And before any of that, I had a chance to read what Josh had written about the WordPress REST API for his eBook that was published on Torque.

WordPress Development With the REST API

To say that Josh knows his stuff is an understatement. I know – that sounds a little bit “sales-like.” Though, I don’t mean it to be.

When sharing resources with those of you who read this site, I try to make sure that I only sure things I use or that I promote things from people whom I know and who I trust.

With that said, Josh is getting ready to begin teaching a session on WordPress Development with the REST API. Specifically, he’s going to be talking about how to build plugins using the REST API.

Before his sessions and workshops begin, I wanted to make sure you’re aware of what’s to come.

Late Escape WordPress Data

August 17, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

When working with themes and plugins, it’s a common practice to escape WordPress data. Honestly, this is a standard practice in all web development:

Whenever you’re retrieving information from the database to display to the user, it should be validated and escaped so that nothing but clean, readable text is rendered to the user.

In WordPress, you’re likely to see this in one of two ways (or maybe both ways depending on your setup):

You’re retrieving information from the database via get_option and then displaying it to the user.
You’re retrieving information from the cache and displaying it to the user.

There may be other ways that you’re grabbing the information, but the specifics beyond what’s above are outside the purpose and scope of this post.

Instead, the point I’m working towards is that we should escape WordPress data in the context of a template file or a view rather than in the context of a function.

Personal Involvement and Improvement in WordPress

August 12, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, a friend (who I finally had a chance to meet earlier this year) sent me two questions that I thought would best be covered in the context of this blog.

Specifically, the questions are around evaluating the skill of potential and existing employees in the context of personal development rather than if a person is worth hiring.

I’ll share the actual questions momentarily, but I think it’s important to note that my experience in doing this within the context of WordPress, let alone open source, is very different than when working in a corporate job working on a closed source application.

Involvement and Improvement in WordPress: The Original Cube Farm

No, corporate environments aren’t all like this. It’s fun to think of them that way, though :).

That in and of itself could probably be its post (and it’s not a bad thing any more than it’s a good thing), but I thought I’d offer whatever input I have with hopes of having others chime in via the comments.

Loading WordPress Assets, Part 1

August 11, 2016 / Tom / 0 Comments

Loading WordPress assets usually consist of making multiple calls wp_enqueue_script or wp_enqueue_style, but this makes for redundant calls and unnecessarily long methods.

So I’ve been experimenting with a variety of different ways to load assets. And though I’m not planning to layout the final version of the code for doing this in this post, I thought it’d be worth starting from the first pass at how we can improve our process.

After all, even if there’s one degree of improvement to make in your work, isn’t it something worth considering?