Author: Jonathan

WordPress Plugin Development Best Practices

This morning I presented a workshop at WordCamp Johannesburg. Here are the slides for that workshop Here is the GitHub repository If you want to see the updated plugin code, with the security fixes, you’ll need to switch to the feature/more-secure-plugin branch.

The Process of Writing

The Process of Writing

The general recommendation to becoming a better writer, is to write every day. Besides high school creative writing, I am mostly a self taught writer. I’ve never completed any official copy-writing courses, even though I have three purchased on Udemy from about 2 years ago. I generally don’t understand the finer details that would take… Continue reading The Process of Writing

The two worst things you can say to your freelancer.

Frustration

I’ve been freelancing full time for just over three years now, having spent 10 years developing for either digital agencies or small to medium sized businesses, in various roles. In the 3+ years since I switched to freelance development, the two sentences that I’ve heard/read the most from clients, and the ones that illicit the… Continue reading The two worst things you can say to your freelancer.

A Quick Hack to Writing Testable Code

Write Testable Code

I’ll be the first to admit that I am fairly inexperienced in the practical application of unit testing, or any kind of automated testing. That’s not to say I don’t understand what these things are. I was first exposed to the concept of unit tests back in 2008 and automated browser testing in around 2012.… Continue reading A Quick Hack to Writing Testable Code

Unit Tests for your WordPress plugin using WP CLI and PHPUnit

Unit Tests for your WordPress plugin using WP CLI and PHPUnit

Often when I write a blog post, part of the reason I write it is to document things that I tend to forget. This is one of those times. Requirements: PHPUnit: At the time of this writing, WordPress only supports the latest stable 7.x version of PHPUnit, and recommends installing it globally. wget https://phar.phpunit.de/phpunit-7.5.9.phar chmod… Continue reading Unit Tests for your WordPress plugin using WP CLI and PHPUnit

The Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.

Don't Panic

Today, I turned 42. If you’re a fan of sci-fi, specifically Douglas Adam’s “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, you’ll understand both the importance of this number, and the reference in the title. I do think it’s sort of apt that the number 42 was used in this context. When I hit 40 I felt good… Continue reading The Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.