THE PENDING DRAFT

WP REST API – Core Merge Proposal

September 22, 2015

In case you missed it: WP REST API is finally being officially proposed to merge into WordPress Core. The idea is to first integrate the infrastructure of the API in Version 4.4 and then merge the endpoints in Version 4.5 as a second step.

What’s also great is that the Team working on the API used GitHub during Development and the experience they gained could lead to a tighter integration of GitHub for the work on WordPress core too, which would be a great side effect.

Make WordPress Core – WP REST API Merge Proposal

Improving Code Quality

July 9, 2015

If you’re building things with WordPress, it’s important to deliver quality code. Especially if it’s going to be released to the public or used by a client. There’s a good post on the WPMUDEV Blog covering many aspects from HTML/CSS, JavaScript or PHP to the WordPress Coding Standards or Accessibility.

It’s a great starting point if you are unsure how to improve your code but also a good reminder for experienced developers.

Stop Cowboy Coding: 10 Tips for Improving the Quality of Your WordPress Themes and Plugins

W3C Mobile Checker

June 28, 2015

The Mobile Checker is a tool for Web developers who want to make their Web page or Web app work better on mobile devices.

The W3C released a tool to check your mobile websites. Pretty sweet.

W3C Mobile Checker

Sanitize Text Field with Multiple Lines in WordPress

June 26, 2015

I recently ran into a problem where we had a text field in a metabox, that was meant to be able to hold multiple paragraphs of text, but still be properly sanitized.

The text sanitization (sanitize_text_field) removes all tags, including line-breaks, so i had to find a workaround. This is the best solution i found:

$pdr_multiline_text = implode( "\n", array_map( 'sanitize_text_field', explode( "\n", $_POST['pdr_text_field'] ) ) );

Basically, what it does is breaking up the given string into smaller chunks on line-breaks (Implode on "\n"), then sanitize those smaller strings using sanizite_text_field() and then put them back together (explode on "\n").

Stackoverflow – How to sanitize multi-line text from a textarea without losing line breaks?

Xdebug with WordPress

June 24, 2015

Proper debugging and unit testing are both very high on my list of things i need to get my head around and implement into my development workflow as soon as possible. Luckily, there are people like Jonathan Christopher who wrote this great introduction on how to use Xdebug for WordPress Development.

He goes into great detail on how to install and configure Xdebug with MAMP (Pro) and use it with either a separate application or right inside an IDE.

Monday by Noon – Improving Your Process: WordPress Development Using Xdebug

Code Examples by WordPress Theme Review Team

June 18, 2015

The WordPress Theme Review Team released a library of code examples on GitHub. The first section is all about the Customizer and they plan to add more code snippets in the future. If you build themes and want them to meet the guidelines for the official WordPress.org Repository, you should definitely keep an eye on this.

GitHub – Code Examples

Scott Bolinger on the WordPress Theme Business

June 2, 2015

Scott Bolinger on the challenges running a WordPress Theme Business, how it changed over time and about the differences between selling Themes, Plugins or a SaaS Product.

Keep in mind SaaS is not free money, it comes with lots of unique challenges. My experience with Reactor has been that SaaS is a more difficult business model in the short-term, but the revenue potential is higher long-term.

A very good read for anyone thinking about entering one of those markets.

The WordPress Theme Business, Then and Now