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Torque Toons: European Day Of Languages 2018
Torque Toons: Back to School for WordPressers
It’s back to school season. Time to hit the books and start learning PHP 7. Don’t forget to check out our other editorial toons!
How to Easily Check and Update the PHP Version of Your WordPress Site
All websites are running on code. In the old days, it was pure HTML, today it’s usually a mix of that plus CSS and JavaScript. However, that’s only once they are loaded. On the server, a different programming language is likely running the scene, especially if you have a WordPress website. We are, of course, talking about PHP. Most of the things you see on both the front and back end of your WordPress site exist thanks to PHP. You don’t only find it in your page templates, it also makes up the files that build the WordPress dashboard. The […]
Preparing Your Site for PHP 7.2.0
PHP has announced the availability of a third Release Candidate (RC3) for PHP 7.2.0. Currently, PHP 7.2.0 is in a development preview stage but is set to be released on November 30, 2017. With the prospect of a new PHP version on the horizon, you may be one of the many users who is wondering: Should I update? What benefits does this version offer? Is my site ready for the update? Before reading too much further, it’s important to note that 7.2.0 is a minor PHP release, which offers smaller tweaks and improvements. Larger releases include PHP 7.0, which is […]
How to Remind Users to Upgrade to PHP 7 Using the WHIP Codebase
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 […]
3 Compelling Reasons You Should Make the Switch to PHP 7 for WordPress
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 […]
What 2017 Will Mean for Your WordPress Workflow
2016 was a big year for WordPress, and 2017 is already set to be even bigger. With Let’s Encrypt changing the SSL landscape, Automattic changing the criteria of their recommended hosting solutions, and the REST API continuing its emergence, there’s a lot to consider in the months to come. So what does all of this mean for WordPress developers and users? In a nutshell, it means a lot! The new year will bring with it huge changes to the world of WordPress, which could take you by surprise if you’re not up to speed. In this post, we’ll dust off […]
Developer’s Checklist for PHP 7: 6 Things to Bear in Mind
Powering over 76 million websites and holding a 59% CMS market share, WordPress continues to dominate the web in 2017. However, with the new year comes new challenges. Since PHP 7 could be the minimum requirement for running self-hosted WordPress in 2017, updating your server’s version of PHP to PHP 7 could be a necessary step. In this post, we’ll cover why you should upgrade to the latest version, how to upgrade your server to PHP 7, any new features, inconsistency fixes, its overall performance, any backwards incompatible changes, the compatibility checker, and a note on PHP 7 benchmarks. Let’s […]
An Introduction To Return Type Declarations In PHP7
Last week, I wrote about type hinting, in PHP. Type hinting makes the intent of a function clearer and forces the values to show a specific type of value. While having a function that only accepts a certain type of value removes the need to check a variable’s type from the function, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to check that type first before calling the function. Passing a variable of the wrong type creates a fatal error. For example, get_post_meta() can return pretty much any type of data. If you’re using it in a way that you expect it to […]
A WordPress Developers Guide To Type Hinting In PHP 5 And 7
PHP started out as a simple language without a lot of the conventions of other C-like programming languages that make them challenging to learn and more difficult to write. Over time, as PHP matured, many of those features have been added as optional syntax. One example of this type of feature is type hinting. Type hinting gives you the ability to define the type of values that can be passed for each argument of a function or method. Type hinting is optional, but when used it forces parameters to be a certain type or an error is thrown. Doing so makes […]
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