John Hughes | Torque

The Beginner’s Guide to Writing Your Own Custom Shortcode

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Beginners, Featured

Published

June 26, 2017

31 Comments

Shortcodes are a popular feature included in many plugins and themes. However, if you’ve never built your own shortcodes before, you may have no idea how to add them to your own WordPress projects. Thankfully, WordPress’ Shortcode API makes it fairly simple to create your own shortcodes. Doing this will enable users to take advantage of your plugin or theme’s features from any text-based area on their WordPress site. Including shortcodes in your projects is an easy way to build on the functionality you’ve already created, so you get the most bang for your buck. In this article, we’ll talk a bit more about how shortcodes […]

The Newbie Developer’s Guide to WordPress’ PHP Coding Standards

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Community

Published

June 19, 2017

4 Comments

Part of WordPress’ success stems from how easy it is for new developers to contribute to the platform. However, on this type of collaborative project it’s particularly important for coding styles to remain consistent. Without set guidelines, the code can quickly become unmanageable. The WordPress PHP coding standards emerged to help address this problem. Following these standards results in code that is easier for contributors to read, update, and manage. As an independent developer, learning standards like these will help you write stronger code as well. In this article, we’ll introduce you to the WordPress PHP coding standards and explain why […]

How to Remind Users to Upgrade to PHP 7 Using the WHIP Codebase

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Community

Published

June 12, 2017

No Comments

PHP 7 has been around for well over a year now, and yet only 4.5% of sites have made the upgrade from PHP 5. With users and their hosts lagging behind, a large number of sites remain more vulnerable to hacking and performance issues than their updated counterparts. As a WordPress developer, you hold much more sway and influence than you might think. Brands such as Yoast are asking you to use that power to help upgrade the internet as a whole. You can do this by adding nudges to your plugins using Yoast’s WHIP framework. This helps you inform the user […]

An Introduction to Baseline Security for WordPress Theme Developers

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Community

Published

June 5, 2017

No Comments

If you publish WordPress themes, it’s important to develop them with the security of your users in mind. However, the WordPress Theme Review Team recently showed that many theme authors eschew this at an alarming frequency. We understand: getting a theme and its elements to simply work is much easier than worrying about any security aspects. Even so, themes can be a huge security risk, so this is something you must concern yourself with. In fact, there are a number of security mistakes that crop up time and time again, and the good news is that fixing them in your own code […]

4 Fun Ideas for Using Blog in a Box to Push the Boundaries of WordPress

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Community

Published

May 22, 2017

No Comments

Thanks to the REST API, WordPress is rapidly evolving into a full-fledged development framework. However, few have actually begun using it to carry out every day tasks – even though this is now entirely possible. Blog in a Box is a relatively new project that enables you to quickly install WordPress onto a Raspberry Pi machine. We’ll cover exactly what these are in a moment, but it means you can integrate WordPress with almost any program on a Linux-based machine. Since WordPress comes with its own API framework, you can quickly turn any data you collect with your program into an app. […]

5 Key Plugins for Fixing and Updating Your WordPress Site

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Featured, Plugins

Published

May 15, 2017

2 Comments

WordPress is a powerful and reliable platform, but it’s not immune to technical problems. From time to time, you may find yourself facing issues that stem from updates, poor compatibility between themes and plugins, and miscellaneous errors. Knowing how to fix these issues is critical to keeping your site safe and running at full speed. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools you can use to keep your WordPress site in top shape without having to dig into the platform’s core files. Installing a plugin is often easier – and faster – than opting for the manual route. In this article, we’ll introduce […]

3 Compelling Reasons You Should Make the Switch to PHP 7 for WordPress

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Featured

Published

May 8, 2017

1 Comment

Though it’s the most widely used web programming language, PHP has taken a lot of flack in development circles. However, after a long period with no major updates, PHP 7 has finally been released with many great new features – and it will also help you keep your WordPress website in tip-top shape. Simply put, PHP is at the heart of the WordPress core, and to get the best possible performance for your site, you should always use the latest version. However, while some hosts are being proactive, you may need to give your particular host a nudge if they’re dragging their […]

4 Ways You Can Start Using the WordPress REST API Right Now

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Featured

Published

May 1, 2017

10 Comments

The REST API is finally integrated into WordPress’ core, yet so many developers seem to be at a loss for how to use it in their real world projects. We get it – interacting with APIs can be an intimidating step! However, the REST API opens up a world of opportunity for developers of all skill levels. By offering API access to the WordPress infrastructure, anyone can build an application using that data. You can take advantage of this by incorporating it into your themes, plugins, and even implement completely unique integrations. In this article, we’ll discuss why the REST […]

How to Make Switching Domain Names Easier With a Simple WP-CLI Trick

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Featured

Published

April 24, 2017

3 Comments

Whether you’re switching to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or changing domain names entirely, it can be a daunting task to use MySQL to try and replace all of the old instances of your domain name. For example, should you search for a reliable plugin, or directly manage the database with software such as phpMyAdmin? There’s actually a third way: you can use the WordPress Command Line Interface (WP-CLI) to change domain names in under a minute within your console. You don’t need to know anything about MySQL, and as long as you’re okay with the idea of using the command line, this is […]

How You Can Help Speed Up the REST API’s Adoption in the WordPress Admin

Author

John Hughes

Filed Under

Community

Published

April 17, 2017

2 Comments

There are so many ways to contribute to WordPress. More specifically, the Core development team recently announced they need help speeding up the adoption of REST API within the WordPress admin. Why not get involved? If you’ve been thinking about finally jumping in and becoming a WordPress contributor, now is the time. Even if you only contribute one line of code, you will have still helped make WordPress a better project. This is also a great opportunity to get hands-on with the REST API and see what’s possible, with all the support of the WordPress community behind you. In this […]

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