Justin Tadlock » WordPress

WordPress for iOS

Justin Tadlock — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:02:21 +0000

I just got a new iPhone 4s, so I’m testing the WordPress for iOS app. It’s pretty cool. Any other recommended apps?

Theme Hybrid version 3.0

Justin Tadlock — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:20:08 +0000

Theme Hybrid is sporting a shiny new coat of paint today. The site has been completely revamped and restructured. There’s also an announcement post with the details.

Custom Classes: WordPress Plugin

Justin Tadlock — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:39:33 +0000

For a recent project, I needed a way to add custom post and body classes on a per-post basis. Sure, I could have used a category or tag to style each post, but I hate creating custom categories and tags for the purposes of styling a post. So, I created a small plugin to let me add custom classes for individual posts.

How the plugin works

The plugin adds a custom meta box on the edit post screen for any public post type called “Classes” as shown in the following screenshot.

The meta box allows you to enter a custom class for a post (used by the post_class() function) or a custom body class (used by the body_class() function).

The following screenshot shows what your class will look like in the source code on a single post.

All you have to do is style your posts via CSS using the custom classes you’ve addded.

Download the plugin

You can download the latest version from the WordPress plugin repository: Custom Classes Plugin. I hope you enjoy it and find some use for it in your projects.

Please do not ask support questions in the comments below. If you’re in need of plugin support, head over to the Theme Hybrid support forums, which is where I handle support for all my plugins and themes.

One multi-task plugin vs. several single-task plugins?

Justin Tadlock — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:57:47 +0000

Recently, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the debate over whether it’s better to develop larger plugins that handle many related tasks or smaller, mini-plugins that handle extremely specific tasks. There’s merit to both arguments, but I wanted to give my readers a chance to discuss this and help me come to a decision about how I developer some of my future plugins.

The biggest reason for this article is that I’ve been trying to make a final decision on how one (or multiple as the case may be) of my plugins will be developed. Other plugin developers might also find this discussion useful in helping them make decisions.

The example plugin

I want you to have an example of what I’m asking you to discuss, so I’ll give you a few details on the plugin(s) I’m developing. It is a set of extensions to how comments are handled in WordPress. Some of these extensions include:

Moderate all non-Enlish comments.
Automatically delete spam on a schedule.
Turn on/off comments for specific post types by default (like with posts).
Moderate all trackbacks and pingbacks.
And more.

The plugin currently has several options like the above. Basically, it’s just an extension to the “Discussion Settings” page in the WordPress admin. It’s easy to see how some users might only want to use one or two of those settings rather than all of them.

Advantages of a single, multi-task plugin

The following is a list of some of the advantages to running a single plugin:

You only have to run one plugin. Many people live in fear of running “too many plugins” because it might somehow break their site. Realistically, running too many large or poorly-coded plugins would be more of a problem. While you can’t really have too many plugins, this fear from users is something to consider.
Fewer things to manage. No one likes to update plugins every day. The more plugins you have, the more likely you’ll have to update them frequently. Having to only update a single plugin instead of several is easier.
Fewer translation files. Translators would only have to update and maintain a single translation file for one plugin as opposed to multiple translations for multiple plugins.

Advantages of multiple, single-task plugins

The list below is some of the advantages of using several plugins.

You don’t have to load code you don’t need. Using mini plugins means that you only have to load and run code that you absolutely want. With a single plugin, there may be several parts of the plugin that you don’t want to use.
There’s generally fewer bugs. Less code in a plugin means there’s less chance of bugs arising. It also makes it easier to find and fix bugs more quickly. Thus, allowing plugin developers to quickly get out new releases when they’re needed.
Fewer database options. With multiple plugins, sometimes you don’t need an option at all. The plugin simply works. With a single, large plugin, each setting might need to be enabled/disabled.

What are your thoughts?

Think about the example plugin I mentioned early in the post. If I allowed you to make the final decision on whether you’d like to see this developed as a single plugin or multiple plugins, which would you choose?

Now, think about the plugins you currently have installed on your site. Are there some that you’d like to see broken down into smaller plugins that only handled specific tasks?

Are there any other advantages or disadvantages you’d like to share?

Prevent Password Reset WordPress Plugin

Justin Tadlock — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:36:15 +0000

Recently, I needed to build some functionality into a site that disabled the ability to reset the passwords of certain site administrators via the “lost password” form. However, I wanted to leave this option open for other users in case they needed to reset their password after forgetting it.

Thus, the Prevent Password Reset plugin was born.

How the plugin works

Prevent Password Reset is an extremely simple plugin. It adds a checkbox to the “Personal Options” section of each user’s profile page in the WordPress admin as shown in the following screenshot. Anyone who can edit the user’s profile can select this option for the user.

Once this option is selected for a user, their password cannot be reset via the “lost password” form. The following screenshot shows what happens when someone attempts to reset the password for a user with password preventing enabled.

Download the plugin

You can download the latest version from the WordPress plugin repository: Prevent Password Reset Plugin. I hope you enjoy it and can get some type of use out of it.

WordCamp Birmingham 2012

Justin Tadlock — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:47:12 +0000

I’ll be attending WordCamp Birmingham this upcoming weekend (Jan. 14–15, 2012). I’d love to meet some of you fine folks from the WordPress community, so I hope y’all are coming! So, if you want to get together for a beer or something let me know.

Pre-order WPCandy Quarterly #1

Justin Tadlock — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:21:08 +0000

If you’re a WordPress enthusiast, I highly recommend pre-ordering issue #1 of the WPCandy Quarterly, a print magazine for us WordPress folks. There will be quite a few interesting articles. Plus, I’m one of the authors in the first issue.

What’s going on with DevPress?

Justin Tadlock — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:31:08 +0000

For those of you who don’t know about DevPress, have you been living under a rock? Seriously, it is a WordPress business I began with Tung Do, Patrick Daly, and Ptah Dunbar. All of these guys are awesome at what they do and are great folks to work with.

The main goal of DevPress was to build an awesome WordPress plugin and theme community where everyone was welcome (and a lot more!). Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned in these past six months or so. Therefore, we had to make some tough decisions. In the end, Tung became the sole owner of DevPress.

Tung described our problem best in his official update on the DevPress blog:

DevPress managed to release high quality products and tease the community of buzz-worthy ideas, but what we needed most was consistency. If success is 80% just simply showing up well then we failed.

DevPress team members were all over the place. We never had everyone on the same page at the same time. We had too many ideas and projects that started but never got finished. This is a problem when you’re trying to kick-start a business venture.

The other issue that we ran into is the too-many-chiefs-not-enough-Indians scenario. Since we were all four the owners of the site (equal ownership), each decision had to be agreed upon. For those of you starting up your own business, take my advice: Elect a single shot-caller, one person to make most of the decisions and manage day-to-day operations. Bigger decisions can be made as a team, but smaller things need to be decided upon in a timely fashion so you can move on to the next thing you need to work on.

Tung will be moving forward with some great ideas he’s had for a long time. I’m happy he’s getting a chance to see them through.

Just so you don’t get any tabloid-like ideas about “what really happened,” just know that we’re all parting as friends. DevPress is changing directions because it was the best move for the business and the WordPress community.

I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything. I feel like I’ve made three great friends who I can rely on. Don’t be surprised if you find two or more of us working together in the future.

What does this mean for me?

For starters, JustinTadlock.com is once again the home of my WordPress tutorials. You can now find all of the tutorials I wrote for DevPress in the WordPress section of this blog.

Theme Hybrid members are getting a few plugins (DevPress plugins and unreleased plugins) as well as the News theme. I’ll be keeping members updated as I continue moving stuff over to the site.

Outside of that, it’ll be the same ol’, same ol’. I’ll just continue breaking WordPress while trying to do cool things with it.

WordPress 3.3: Sonny

Justin Tadlock — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:02:08 +0000

All the awesomeness that is WordPress 3.3 is finally here. Go ahead a grab a copy of the new version and have fun! I’m just thankful that we’ve got plenty of time to play around with it before Christmas.

My Life theme testing

Justin Tadlock — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:23:29 +0000

I’m currently testing out the My Life theme here on my blog. If you’re a member of Theme Hybrid, you can grab a beta copy of it from the Theme Hybrid forums to play around with it before release.