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Author Archives: Ian Dunn
Attaching Uploads to Custom Post Types
I’m working on a plugin that implements a custom post type, and it doesn’t need the editor, but I do want to upload files. I setup the everything like you normally would, but I noticed that the files weren’t being attached to the post when they were uploaded. I couldn’t find anything online, so I dug through […]
Progressive Enhancement with Backbone.js
I’m mostly focusing on back-end development these days, so I’m a bit behind the curve on a lot of the recent front-end practices, but I’ve been playing around with Backbone.js a bit, and one of the things that’s been nagging me is the hard dependency on JavaScript for the core functionality of the site. Looking around for some […]
Is TDD Dead?
Is TDD Dead? is an insightful debate about the merits of test-driven development, and the pitfalls of following it dogmatically.
My favorite quote, from part 5: “Most people cannot just leave good ideas the fuck alone.”
Walled Gardens
Jeff Atwood makes a compelling argument that the ideology and values behind private social networks (e.g., Facebook) conflict with the core values of the Internet, and that they’re doomed to fail.
Preventing Clickjacking on WordPress Sites
WordPress already sends the X-FRAME-OPTIONS header for wp-login.php and the Admin Panels in order to prevent clickjacking, but it doesn’t send it on the front end because that could interfere with remote services that legitimately frame parts of a site. That’s only relevant for a small number of pages, though, so I’ve added a snippet to my functionality plugin skeleton […]
WordPress.tv Developer Presentation Roundup
I’m one of the mentors for WordPress’ SupportPress project in this year’s Google Summer of Code, and I wanted to put together a list of WordPress.tv videos to help introduce Varun to the WordPress community and some development best practices. I figured it’d be good to save it for future reference, so I’m also posting […]
PayPal Security Sucks; or, Why Two Factor Authentication is Worthless Without Strong Account Recovery Policies
Even though two-factor authentication isn’t the silver bullet many make it out to be, I’m still a big fan of it and think that it should be offered by any web service that wants to be taken seriously. It’s completely pointless, though, if the service doesn’t also have strong account recovery policies, or if their customer support […]
Challenges for the WordPress Community as it Matures
Mike Jordan’s post on the WordPress community has some great insight and challenging thoughts. The truth is, however, that our community does not have these rare traits simply because its members are just that awesome. The primary reason that our community is so approachable, is that for the first several years of its life we had to […]
Automatically Refresh Browser When CSS Changes
LiveReload is an app that will watch files on your local development environment and automatically update the browser when CSS changes are made. I can’t believe I didn’t hear about this years ago.
Hide PHP Warnings and Notices from Poorly Written Plugins
Update: Zack Tollman wrote a plugin called Ostrichize that does an even better job of this, so I’ve reverted my version out of my functionality plugin skeleton and will use his in the future. Pro tip: search for existing code before writing new code ;) * * * There are a lot of WordPress plugin and theme […]
The Values Behind Startup Culture
What Your Culture Really Says is a compelling peak behind the startup culture curtain.
This is not a critique of the practices themselves, which often contribute value to an organization. This is to show a contrast between the much deeper, systemic cultural problems that are rampant in our startups and the materialistic trappings that can disguise them.
Making Xdebug Pretty Not Ugly
Xdebug is an essential development tool for me, but, to be blunt, the default output style is kind of hideous. I looked for a way to customize it through xdebug.ini, but there doesn’t appear to be one. You can, however, use a browser extension like Stylish Stylus (FireFox) or Stylebot (Chrome) to override the default styles with CSS. .xdebug-error { width: […]
WordCamp Seattle Call for Speakers
We just posted the Call for Speakers for WordCamp Seattle 2014. If you’ve got some knowledge or experience you’d like to share with the WordPress community in Seattle, check it out.
WordCamp Dayton 2014 Slides
I’ll be speaking at WordCamp Dayton 2014 this Saturday about best practices for customizing WordPress plugins. If you’re attending and would like to follow along, you can check out the slides.
Sexual Harassment at WordCamps
It’s really disheartening to read stories like this coming out of the WordPress community, but kudos to Sarah for speaking out about it. We all need to be more aware of these issues and look for ways to prevent things like this from happening in the future.
The Right Way to Customize a WordPress Plugin
Video: I presented on this topic at WordCamp Dayton 2014. It’s very common for developers to customize and extend existing plugins to fit their own needs, which is one of the great advantages of using open-source software. They often do it by making their changes directly to the plugin, though, which creates a security vulnerability […]
The Importance of Taking Time Off Work
Seth Bannon’s article on taking vacations is a great reminder of how important it is to take time off, and that you should never feel guilty for it. I didn’t take enough time off last year, even though I could have, so I’m going to try and plan out some more time in advance this year.
The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming
The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming are very insightful, and worth revisiting from time to time.
New RSS Feed for WordCamp Announcements
WordCamp.org now has an RSS feed that announces when new WordCamps are scheduled.