Over the last few weeks, in anticipation of the release of WordPress 5.2 and to test my GitLab-CI-based plugin deployments, I’ve made minor updates to several of my plugins.
Continue reading Recent Plugin UpdatesCategory: WordPress
Automating plugin releases to WordPress.org using GitLab CI
I got started in WordPress development as many do, by writing a plugin. It, along with nearly a dozen others that I’ve released in intervening years, don’t require much attention, so I’ve generally neglected even the most-basic of maintenance: confirming each is compatible with the latest WordPress release and updating the readme accordingly. I’ve felt guilty about this for some time now, but it wasn’t until this weekend that that guilt compelled me to action.
Continue reading Automating plugin releases to WordPress.org using GitLab CIUpgrading to PHP 7.1
Two weeks ago, I noted that I was preparing to switch from PHP 7.0 to 7.1. It took me a bit more time than expected, thanks to a segmentation fault that appeared in 7.1 when using OPcache.
Sorry VaultPress
PHP’s open_basedir
is one way I isolate the various PHP applications running on my VPS. Within the directory that holds this WordPress install, there exists a symlink from when I relocated my presentation slides from https://ethitter.com/slides/ to https://slides.ethitter.com/. VaultPress doesn’t particularly appreciate this:
PHP Warning: file_exists(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/.../network/public_html/slides) is not within the allowed path(s).
Letting VaultPress access the directory that the symlink points to would defeat the purpose of using open_basedir
, so instead, my VPS continually frustrates VaultPress.
That worked out well…
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started–WordCamp Orange County 2016
This morning, I delivered an extended version of this talk, which I first presented at WordCamp Winnipeg 2015. This session explored WordPress functionality that new developers often overlook, as well as some “gotchas” about Core behavior. As a 90-minute workshop, extensive discussion was encouraged, and successful–so much so that I only made it about halfway through the slides. But, as I said at the outset, the slides were more a suggestion to guide the discussion.
Continue reading What I Wish I’d Known When I Started–WordCamp Orange County 2016
Why I use an editorial calendar
Someone asked recently why I use an editorial calendar for this site, with its low volume and single author. The reason is simple, and slightly amusing: to avoid publishing too frequently.
I’ve tried blogging challenges, and I’ve worked to post daily and maintain a streak as awarded through WordPress.com notifications.
I also found that the streak induced substantial stress to post daily, even when I had nothing worthwhile to share. Thanks to Edit Flow‘s calendar, I ensure that I post on no more than two consecutive days, as a defense against needing to publish daily.
Laugh if you want to, but this strategy’s enabled me to publish regularly since December 2015. Previously, one post per quarter was my about average.
Fun with pagination
Paginate the page you’ve set in WordPress as your static homepage, and pagination links use the standard /page/%pagenum%/
format. 🎉
Redirecting to your latest WordPress post
I had some time recently, and the idea struck me, so I put together a basic plugin that redirects /latest/
to my site’s latest post. Try it out:
Called ETH Redirect to Latest Post, the plugin is on WordPress.org now, as well as GitHub and my GitLab instance.
The plugin is ready for latest to be translated, but more importantly, it adds a field to your site’s Permalinks
screen where you can set the slug.
Strangely, I couldn’t find a Core ticket for such a feature, and nothing turned up in the plugins repository, either.
Video: Introducing Linux distributions and LAMP stacks for WP, by Jim Reevior
My friend and former colleague, Jim Reevior, presented a talk at this week’s Boston WordPress Meetup titled “Self Hosting Beyond the Website.” It’s a great introduction to Linux distributions and the components that go into hosting WordPress without using a shared or managed host.