Category: Tutorial

BuddyPress: The Lowdown on Loop Filtering

BuddyPress has default components that add extra social functionality to a WordPress install. Sometimes you will want to customize what each component displays and that is done through loop filtering. Continue reading if you want to learn more about customizing the output of...

Using wp_cron (or “How to cron a cron that’s not really a cron”)

One extremely confusing set of functions within WordPress is the concept of “wp_cron“. For those of you unfamiliar with it, is a scheduling tool on Unix systems and, in itself, is not without its own confusing elements. Let’s take a more user-friendly example...

5 Tips for Managing Projects Efficiently

Every project tends to be unique in requirements, goals, and size, but you can manage almost every project using a similar process. The key is finding ways to managing your projects efficiently. You aren’t always going to have a project manager available to you; maybe...

Releasing Plugin Updates and Handling Security Vulnerabilities

In my last article, I walked you through getting your plugin up and running on the WordPress.org plugin repository. In this follow up article I want to talk about releasing updates and new versions of your plugin. I will also touch on the...

Making Developer-Friendly Themes and Plugins

As every newbie knows, when you’re starting out it’s much easier to download or purchase a theme or plugin than to make your own. However, as you grow into WordPress, you find these ‘commercial’ themes/plugins cumbersome to edit or extend. In this...

The Fundamentals of Writing Clean Code

Writing “clean” code is something we talk about a lot in software development. Developing for the web is no different in the pursuit of code that is “clean” than any other type of programming. It’s also something that you could write a book...

How to Submit a Plugin to the WordPress Repository

The WordPress.org Plugin Repository is the canonical location to find plugins for WordPress. There are many good reasons to add your plugin to this repository–the primary being that the built-in “Add New Plugin” search capabilities are linked directly to the WordPress.org repository....

How To Create an Auto-Updating Widget Using WP-API

In my last post, I gave you an overview of WP-API. Read through that post if you need a primer on the capabilities of WP-API. For this post, I will offer an example of API usage and how it can benefit site...

Using MailPoet to Power Subscriptions & Newsletters

With all the options available today for sending out newsletters and allowing visitors to subscribe to your content, choosing one can be daunting. MailPoet cuts through all the headaches and makes the pain go away by providing a neat solution that is...