CategoryPlugins

May 29, 2015 — Building and maintaining a WordPress plugin can be a daunting task. The bigger the codebase, the harder it is to keep track of all the working parts and their relationship to one another. And you can add to that the limitations imposed by working in an antiquated version of PHP, 5.2. In this article we will explore an alternative way of developing WordPress plugins, using the lessons learned from the greater PHP community, the world outside WordPress. We will walk through the steps of creating a plugin and investigate the use of autoloading and a plugin container. Read more…

February 25, 2015 — I recently teamed up with Mat Marquis of the Responsive Images Community Group to help integrate responsive images into the WordPress platform. We decided to refactor a plugin that I had built several months ago, hoping that it would lead to a more useable and performant solution. Read more…

August 27, 2014 — Today, WordPress has released the first release candidate (RC) for the upcoming 4.0 version. According to the official version numbering, WordPress 4.0 is no more or less significant than 3.9 was or 4.1 will be. That being said, a new major release is always a cause for excitement! Let’s take a look at the new features the team at WordPress has been working on for us. Since I’ve always used WordPress in English, it took me a while to realize how important internationalization is. 29% of all WordPress.com installations use a non-English language which is huge and not that far from a quarter of all installations. Version 4.0 makes it much easier to get WordPress to speak your language. In fact, the first installation screen asks you to choose your native tongue. Nice! Read more…

August 25, 2014 — Scrolling effects have been around in web design for years now, and while many plugins are available to choose from, only a few have the simplicity and light weight that most developers and designers are looking for. Most plugins I’ve seen try to do too many things, which makes it difficult for designers and developers to integrate them in their projects. Read more…

March 21, 2014 — If you’ve searched recently for tips on optimizing WordPress’ performance, then you have definitely come across various techniques that people recommend. Read more…

March 7, 2014 — WordPress has come a long way since its genesis in 2003. Once reserved for humble blogs, it now powers websites for some of the world’s largest companies and is even being promoted as a platform to power the next generation of Web apps. Read more…

May 2, 2013 — A lightbox is one of those tools that work great on the desktop but often fail on small mobile devices. These days, finding a plugin that is responsive and that displays content right away is hard. For this reason, I created Magnific Popup, an open-source lightbox plugin focused on performance. Read more…

April 9, 2013 — There are several ways to make navigation responsive, and usually the solution we need is quite straightforward. But despite the apparent simplicity, there are many underlying factors which, when thought through and implemented properly, can make a simple solution even better without adding more complexity to the user interface. Read more…

March 26, 2013 — Emmet, previously known as Zen Coding, is the most productive and time-saving text-editor plugin you will ever see. By instantly expanding simple abbreviations into complex code snippets, Emmet can turn you into a more productive developer. Read more…

November 15, 2012 — WordPress is one of the most deployed content management systems around. One of the main reasons is the number of plugins available and the ease with which we can use the system. Read more…