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WordCamp Raleigh 2017 Speaker – WordPress Devevlopment for Beginners

Posted on by Evan Mullins

Although the schedule is not yet out(The schedule is here), I’m happy to announce that this year I’ll be speaking at WordCamp Raleigh 2017 . I’m preparing an intro to Web Development for WordPress users talk. We’ll cover all the crazy acronyms people forget to ask what they mean and help (I hope) attendees at least test the waters in the development pool. There’s a learning curve which some would say is increasing with all the complexities in the Web world these days. This will be my second trip speaking at WC Raleigh, since speaking last year as well as WordCamp Raleigh 2016. I’m excited to see some familiar faces.

So you wanna dev? Join the team!

WP Dev/tools for beginners: ftp, git, svn, php, html, css, sass, js, jquery, IDEs, themes, child themes, the loop, hooks, APIs, CLI, agile, bootstrap, SEO, slack… etc.

We’ll discuss the language of programming and various acronyms and buzzwords used by devs in this crash course introduction to the developer’s world. The session will be an overview of primary development processes and terms as well as what software is needed to play the game. We’ll cover what you need to go from zero to developer and hopefully how to have fun on the way.

 

Why do I want to talk about this?

fortran- the original hanging chadI know what it feels like to be drinking from the firehose. I remember all too well how mystical the development world looked from the outside. I studied Art throughout high school and college. While I have a Fine Art degree from UGA, I was always interested in technology as well, but more along the lines of what I could do with Photoshop. I wasn’t (and still am not) into building computers or fortran coding or spending much time in my terminal. I was studying digital media art and computer animation and ended up taking a web design for artists course – and it changed my life.

I was introduced to HTML& CSS, WordPress blog, and ActionScript in Flash. I enjoyed the flash days and that experimentation really helped spark my interest in programming. I continued to update my WordPress site and learned a lot programming just from wanting to make my own site better. Then eventually, until I was took the plunge into development full-time.

love actionscriptI still remember feeling elated when I loaded up a project in the browser to see it live. Also when I finally understood for loops and the other weird symbols and keywords in programming. It’s great how you can build something and moments later, have it online and accessible to the whole (connected) world. A lot has happened to/in web development and there is a much larger more complex puzzle to sort out when getting started today vs a decade ago. It really is like learning a new language, along with a whole way of thinking. I am hoping to help guide you through it .

Get your ticket

Last year, at WordCamp Raleigh 2016, I presented in the developer track discussing the WP REST API. This year it will be interesting to present to the non-developer attendees and see if I can bring any into the fold. So, go get a ticket for this year! I’ll see you there!

Speaker at WordCamp Birmingham – More WP REST API

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I am excited to be a speaker at WordCamp Birmingham 2016. I’ll be speaking on October 29th – just a couple weeks away and now that they have announced the #wcbhm schedule I’m announcing my participation as well. I’ll be opening up the developer track for the day at 10am. I will be presenting more about the WP REST API. A lot will be taken from my WordCamp Raleigh presentation on the same subject, but as usually happens, once you do present, you realize a few holes in your slides and have some additions, suffice it to say, this won’t just be a repeat presentation.

wordcamp-birmingham-badge-speaking

WP API, What is it Good For? Absolutely Everything!

I am very excited about the WP API and am tracking it’s progress closely. There are big discussions as to when it will be rolled into core and all and we’ll discuss these details in the presentation, we’ll also discuss things we can do with the API. It allows us to further separate the data from the code. Because WordPress is a great CMS we can use it to manage our data and then via the API access that data to power whatever we like. We’ll touch a handful of examples and explore an iOS app pulling all it’s data and assets from a WordPress site via this API. We’ll discuss authentication and terms to bring API beginners up to speed on what it’s all about!

So if you’re anywhere close, I encourage you to go get yourself a ticket (just $20) to WordCamp Birmingham and check it out. There will be many other presentations worth checking out as well. I hope to see some familiar faces in Birmingham!

Speaker at WordCamp Raleigh – WP REST API

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I’m pleased to be a Speaker at WordCamp Raleigh as well this year. It will be all about the WordPress REST API! WordCamp has been a quick turnaround in Raleigh, it’s already coming up this weekend, September 24-25th, and my speaking time is Saturday afternoon at 4pm. I’ll discuss the forthcoming API, which is partly integrated into WordPress core, but in order to use still requires we install the feature plugin. I’ll recap the history so we know where the API came from, talk about what it means to the WordPress ecosystem, and the web as a whole, that every site will have an API built-in. We’ll talk about routes and endpoints and authentication as well as look at some brave examples that are using this beta feature in production! Get your tickets (there are still about a dozen available) and come out out to Raleigh, North Carolina for WordCamp 2016.wordcamp-raleigh-hero-2016

WordCamp Presentation

WP API, what is it good for? Absolutely Everything!

See the Power of the WP API. Now that every WordPress website has (or will have) an API built-in, what can you do with it? It allows us to further separate the data from the code. Use WordPress to manage our data and then via the API easily access or update that data to power whatever we like. We’ll touch how to set it up and a handful of examples and then explore an iOS app pulling all it’s data and assets from a WordPress site via this API.

banner-772x250

This will be geared for developers with some “how to” but also for everyone interested in the power of WordPress and where things are heading.

  • Learn how to spell WP-API
  • Learn about the power and flexibility it brings to WordPress
  • See it working in a live app

I’ll update this post with slides and links and notes and maybe one day even a video of the presentation as WordCamp Raleigh. I’m excited to meet the Raleigh WordCamp enthusiasts and share what I can with them as well as the WordPress community as a whole. It’s been quite a busy year as far as speaking and especially this fall, as in 2 weeks I’ll be down in Orlando for another WordCamp.

Speaker at WordCamp Orlando – Intro to WordPress Development

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I’ll be a WordCamp Speaker in Orlando this year. WordCamp Orlando is October 8th and my speaking time is Saturday afternoon. My presentation topic will be a crash course intro to development for beginners. I’ve given some presentations similar to this at work and have even had pieces of this presentation in parts of other talks I have given, but it will be nice to just focus the whole time on the intro for attendees that feel dev presentations get too deep too quickly.orlando-wordcamp-hero

So You Wanna Dev? Join the Team!

“WP Dev/tools for beginners: ftp, git, svn, php, html, css, sass, js, jquery, IDEs, themes, child themes, the loop, hooks, APIs, CLI, agile, bootstrap, SEO, slack… etc.
We’ll discuss the language and various acronyms and buzzwords used by devs in this crash course introduction to the developer’s world. Overview of primary development processes and terms and what software is needed to play the game. We’ll cover what you need to go from zero to developer and hopefully how to have fun on the way.”

I’ve been a WordCamp Speaker in the past, but it’s been specific to Atlanta. Orlando will be fun and I’m excited about the KidsCamp sessions they have going too!

WordCamp parents can now usher in the next generation of WordPress builders at our first annual KidsCamp! Parents attending WordCamp can bring their junior builders along and enjoy a day of parent-child learning under the tutelage of some of our WordPress Master Builders!

WordCamp Orlando 2016 will be at the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management in south Orlando! So get your tickets and bring the kids. I may or may not be stopping in to Harry Potter World while I’m in town. =)

Speaking at WPCampus

Posted on by Evan Mullins

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be speaking at WPCampus! It’s the conference “Where WordPress Meets Higher Education”. My presentation is titled ‘The Modular Web For WordPress’.

WPCampus 2016 is the inaugural conference for the WPCampus community, a gathering of web professionals, educators and people dedicated to the confluence of WordPress in higher education. The concept for WPCampus is an education focused, non-profit event which will allow people to share and learn about WordPress in the world of higher education. So if you’re into WordPress and/or higher education and/or the web in general, it’s the place for you come July. Get a ticket to a wealth of knowledge and ideas.

wpcampus-speaker-confirmation

I will be presenting on a topic that I’ve thought a lot about and have become pretty passionate about. I’ll discuss Modular Web Development and specifically how to integrate a modular development mindset into a WordPress development workflow.

Here is the official session description:

WordPress the CMS, meets the Modular Web. We need to stop thinking about a website as a collection of pages and templates, but as a set of modules and a system to manage them. Modules, like Legos, are interchangeable and can be combined fairly quickly to create an infinite number of results all while both showing variety and remaining consistent. With this modular paradigm shift, our workflows improve, our websites improve and our very well-being improves. Let’s explore how to use WordPress to manage site content using modules. We’ll see what this does for our development process and programming as well for our content management via the admin. We’ll discuss how to build and maintain a module library, and use it for every site you build. These principles have been immensely helpful in each team or project where I’ve put them into practice, so we’ll even take a look at a few examples and point out where to learn more.

legos

While this may not be a topic specific to higher education, I think it very relevant in that having a smart process helps projects be more flexible, more on time and more on budget. I’m happy to be able to contribute to WordPress in education as well as WordPress ideas in general. I will be speaking on Friday, July 15th (I’ll try to update this with a time once it’s decided and announced). As I said, tickets (early bird even) are available now so go get yours. And if you’re interested check out my other presentations.

Recapping WordCamp Atlanta 2016 – Day 0 – The Dev Workshop

Posted on by Evan Mullins

Just off a busy but enjoyable weekend of WordCamp Atlanta @wordcampatl. I was able to attend the friday developer workshop and the Saturday sessions of the conference. Though I was a speaker at WordCamp Atlanta in 2012 (From Photoshop PSD to WordPress Theme), 2013 (Your firstborn child theme. Child themes 101+2), and 2014 (Custom Post Types or Choose Your Own Adventure), I couldn’t make it in 2015, I wasn’t selected this year as a speaker. However, I was also able to volunteer to help out and to take some photos and staff the Happiness Room. I also volunteered a couple weeks ago to speak at a WordPress meetup group (Modifying Your Theme’s Design – Learning CSS), so I feel like I was able to still give back.

2016-03-18 12.46.19

Overall

TLDR; It was a great conference and like always, talking to people was the best part, though there were some great informative and even entertaining sessions I attended.

Beginner WordPress Development – Workshop

Micah Wood & Aaron Reimann

2016-03-18 09.16.25

The workshop was a great way for many to get started with WordPress development. Micah and Aaron went over from the basics of development through child-theming. I stepped up to help others get started, since we were all installing mamp to get a local wordpress install setup. Even with the famous 5 minute install it was taking most people a long time to get setup, though we can blame the wifi for most of the issues I believe. We then cloned Micah’s child theme demo from github into our theme dir and he get started through the demo. Follow along by reading his blog post length commit messages. It was great to help out! I even learned a few tricks about some WordPress hooks, the loop and template hierarchy.

I’ll share one tip many might not have realized when dealing with child themes. The difference between get_template_directory_uri and get_stylesheet_directory_uri.

I’ll post an update on Day 2 when I’ve had time to digest some more of the great presentations.

 

Modifying Your Theme’s Design – Learning CSS: Atlanta WordPress Users Group Presentation

Posted on by Evan Mullins

Here’s my presentation for the Atlanta WordPress Users Group to continuing their discussion on theming. The meetup gives you a first hand look at modifying your Theme’s look and feel. We’ll be showing you how to make typical changes to existing themes. We will not be showing you how to create your own theme from scratch, though we will have a meetup later in the year to do that.

During this meetup we discussed:

• What is CSS and why do we use it?

• What are ‘typical’ modifications to themes and how to make them

• Using ‘inspect element’ and/or ‘firebug’ to find and test

• Correct way to change Fonts

• Simple color theory and design

Here’s the slide deck for the presentation

The presentation overviews the internet, teaches us how to spell HTML and other web programming “languages” that come together to form a WordPress website, like HTML, CSS & PHP. We even discussed web development tools like FTP clients and which text editors to use. We went over what makes up a wordpress theme and then the concept of child themes. Discussed the process of creating your own child theme with just a couple files and that you can create a child theme for any theme out there. We demoed how to view source and dissect any website, but more importantly, how to inspect elements on your site and live-edit the css for any element. Then to write these CSS rules to our theme to lock in the edits in your child theme.

If you have any further questions that you would specifically like reviewed, leave them in the comments below and I’ll respond.

We created a child theme for twentysixteen

We created our own child theme and discussed the benefit to creating a child theme over other ways to modify a WP theme. Our twentysixteen child theme did wonders for the look:

Screenshot 2016-03-10 08.32.56

We explored the code to create our own WordPress child theme

Here are the code snippets for review


<?php
function theme_enqueue_styles() {
$parent_style = 'parent-style';
wp_enqueue_style( $parent_style, get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/style.css', array( $parent_style ) );
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'theme_enqueue_styles' );
?>

view raw

functions.php

hosted with ❤ by GitHub


<?php
/**
* The template for displaying the header
*
* Displays all of the head element and everything up until the "site-content" div.
*
* @package WordPress
* @subpackage Twenty_Sixteen
* @since Twenty Sixteen 1.0
*/
?><!DOCTYPE html>
<html <?php language_attributes(); ?> class="no-js">
<head>
<meta charset="<?php bloginfo( 'charset' ); ?>">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<meta name="who" content="is your daddy">
<link rel="profile" href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11">
<?php if ( is_singular() && pings_open( get_queried_object() ) ) : ?>
<link rel="pingback" href="<?php bloginfo( 'pingback_url' ); ?>">
<?php endif; ?>
<?php wp_head(); ?>
</head>
<body <?php body_class(); ?>>
<div id="page" class="site">
<div class="site-inner">
<a class="skip-link screen-reader-text" href="#content"><?php _e( 'Skip to content', 'twentysixteen' ); ?></a>
<header id="masthead" class="site-header" role="banner">
<div class="site-header-main">
<div class="site-branding">
<?php
$description = get_bloginfo( 'description', 'display' );
if ( $description || is_customize_preview() ) : ?>
<p class="site-description"><?php echo $description; ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if ( is_front_page() && is_home() ) : ?>
<h1 class="site-title"><a href="<?php echo esc_url( home_url( '/' ) ); ?>" rel="home"><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></a></h1>
<?php else : ?>
<p class="site-title"><a href="<?php echo esc_url( home_url( '/' ) ); ?>" rel="home"><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></a></p>
<?php endif; ?>
</div><!– .site-branding –>
<?php if ( has_nav_menu( 'primary' ) || has_nav_menu( 'social' ) ) : ?>
<button id="menu-toggle" class="menu-toggle"><?php _e( 'Menu', 'twentysixteen' ); ?></button>
<div id="site-header-menu" class="site-header-menu">
<?php if ( has_nav_menu( 'primary' ) ) : ?>
<nav id="site-navigation" class="main-navigation" role="navigation" aria-label="<?php esc_attr_e( 'Primary Menu', 'twentysixteen' ); ?>">
<?php
wp_nav_menu( array(
'theme_location' => 'primary',
'menu_class' => 'primary-menu',
) );
?>
</nav><!– .main-navigation –>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if ( has_nav_menu( 'social' ) ) : ?>
<nav id="social-navigation" class="social-navigation" role="navigation" aria-label="<?php esc_attr_e( 'Social Links Menu', 'twentysixteen' ); ?>">
<?php
wp_nav_menu( array(
'theme_location' => 'social',
'menu_class' => 'social-links-menu',
'depth' => 1,
'link_before' => '<span class="screen-reader-text">',
'link_after' => '</span>',
) );
?>
</nav><!– .social-navigation –>
<?php endif; ?>
</div><!– .site-header-menu –>
<?php endif; ?>
</div><!– .site-header-main –>
<?php if ( get_header_image() ) : ?>
<?php
/**
* Filter the default twentysixteen custom header sizes attribute.
*
* @since Twenty Sixteen 1.0
*
* @param string $custom_header_sizes sizes attribute
* for Custom Header. Default '(max-width: 709px) 85vw,
* (max-width: 909px) 81vw, (max-width: 1362px) 88vw, 1200px'.
*/
$custom_header_sizes = apply_filters( 'twentysixteen_custom_header_sizes', '(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 81vw, (max-width: 1362px) 88vw, 1200px' );
?>
<div class="header-image">
<a href="<?php echo esc_url( home_url( '/' ) ); ?>" rel="home">
<img src="<?php header_image(); ?>" srcset="<?php echo esc_attr( wp_get_attachment_image_srcset( get_custom_header()->attachment_id ) ); ?>" sizes="<?php echo esc_attr( $custom_header_sizes ); ?>" width="<?php echo esc_attr( get_custom_header()->width ); ?>" height="<?php echo esc_attr( get_custom_header()->height ); ?>" alt="<?php echo esc_attr( get_bloginfo( 'name', 'display' ) ); ?>">
</a>
</div><!– .header-image –>
<?php endif; // End header image check. ?>
</header><!– .site-header –>
<div id="content" class="site-content">

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header.php

hosted with ❤ by GitHub


/*
Theme Name: Child of 2016
Theme URI: http://example.com/twenty-fifteen-child/
Description: Twenty Sixteen Child Theme
Author: Evan Mullins
Author URI: https://circlecube.com
Template: twentysixteen
Version: 1.0.0
License: GNU General Public License v2 or later
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Text Domain: twenty-sixteen-child
*/
.site-branding .site-title a {
color: cyan;
font-size: 4rem;
// border: 1px solid red;
margin: 50px;
padding: 50px;
}
.site-description {
text-indent: -999rem;
background: url(img/logo.png) center center no-repeat transparent;
background-image: url(img/logo.png);
display: block;
width: 500px;
height: 500px;
background-size: contain;
padding:0;
}
.entry-date {
font-size: 10px;
}
.entry-footer,
.entry-footer a {
color: pink;
}
.entry-footer a {
color: pink;
}
a {
color: tomato;
}
a:hover {
color: rgba(130,203,45, .8);
}
a:visited {
color: #00cc33;
}
.widget_meta {
display:none;
}
.widget_recent_comments {
padding: 1rem;
margin: 1rem 0 4rem;
}
.widget_recent_comments .widget-title {
background: black;
color: pink;
padding: 1rem;
}
.site-info .site-title {
font-size: 3rem;
}

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style.css

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

How to Add a class to the WordPress comments submit button

Posted on by Evan Mullins

This WordPress feature slipped by me, but since the release of WP 4.1 there is a great and simple new filter that I’ve been watching for a number of years here. Interestingly this ticket was opened 5 years ago today, so some have literally been waiting years! The commentform.php file now has a couple more options available as explained in this changeset.

add_filter( 'comment_form_defaults', 'circlecube_comment_form' );I have been using foundation and bootstrap on sites and have struggled with the best way to add a button class to this button since I wanted it to inherit the frameworks styles for a button. I’ve seen a few ways to go about doing this, like using javascript (ug), or adding an extra button and hiding the original button with css (meh). But now it’s a simple little filter to add to comment_form_defaults.  Just add your desired class value to ‘class_submit’ in the args. I’ve put it into a simple little gist to add a ‘button’ class to my input type equals submit:


function circlecube_comment_form( $args ) {
$args['class_submit'] = 'button'; // since WP 4.1
return $args;
}
add_filter( 'comment_form_defaults', 'circlecube_comment_form' );

view raw

functions.php

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How to fix “The called constructor method for WP_Widget is deprecated since version 4.3.0!”

Posted on by Evan Mullins

Have you updated WordPress recently to find notices warning you of something related to your Widgets? These notices will show up if you have your site in debug mode (which you should in your local environment, but not on your production website) with the setting in wp-config.php.

Notice: The called constructor method for WP_Widget is deprecated since version 4.3.0! Use

__construct()

instead. in /wp-includes/functions.php on line 3457.

Screenshot 2015-09-17 13.19.49

Here is an example of what you likely have currently in your functions.php file to register your existing widget(s) (in old functions.php on the bottom) and then an example of how to update the widget class with the _construct update (in new functions.php on the top).

Every Browser is the New IE (to me) – daverupert.com

Posted on by Evan Mullins

Maybe one day the Web will be perfect and complete and I will not need to reach for polyfills. However, if that happened I think I’d stop being interested the Web because it would then be a stagnant pond and not a surfable ocean.

Source: Every Browser is the New IE (to me) – daverupert.com

Screenshot 2015-08-03 08.19.16

Dave brings up that as web developers, we’re quick to complain that that shiny new feature doesn’t have enough support to rely on it and that there should be some sort of global consensus or priority of features so that the most important new features are added to browsers and make all our lives easier. That quote at the end hits the nail on the head though, if it were easy and uniform, then we’d collectively get bored. We thrive on solving problems so much it seems we’ve created more problems.