bbPress Notices on Github Download

The post bbPress Notices appeared first on Pippins Plugins.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

<?php
/**
 * The main template file.
 *
 * This is the most generic template file in a WordPress theme and one of the
 * two required files for a theme (the other being style.css).
 * It is used to display a page when nothing more specific matches a query.
 * For example, it puts together the home page when no home.php file exists.
 *
 * Learn more: http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy
 *
 * @package WordPress
 * @subpackage Twenty_Thirteen
 * @since Twenty Thirteen 1.0
 */
get_header(); ?>
        <div id="primary" class="content-area">
                <div id="content" class="site-content" role="main">
                <?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
                        <?php /* The loop */ ?>
                        <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
                                <?php get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() ); ?>
                        <?php endwhile; ?>
                        <?php twentythirteen_paging_nav(); ?>
                <?php else : ?>
                        <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'none' ); ?>
                <?php endif; ?>
                </div><!-- #content -->
        </div><!-- #primary -->
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

The template file clearly sets up the HTML structure of the main content section of the site. One of the most important points to notice about this template file is that it is semantically easy to understand. Let me translate for you:

GET HEADER
	HTML
		IF WE HAVE POSTS
			FOR EACH OF THE POSTS WE HAVE
				HTML
			END FOR EACH POST SECTION
		END THE IF WE HAVE POSTS SECTION
	HTML
GET SIDEBAR
GET FOOTER

A user that doesn’t understand a single bit of PHP, and perhaps just minimal HTML, can clearly read my translation above and understand what is happening.

Notice that the template file is using the following conditional / loop notation:

if( something ) :
	
	while( something ) :

	endwhile;
	
else :

endif;

While most developers really do not like this, it is very semantically clear. In English, it says:

IF CONDITION

	WHILE CONDITION

	END WHILE CONDITION

END IF CONDITION

Developers usually prefer this method:

if( something ) {
	
	while( something ) {

	}
	
} else {

}

There are several reasons developers prefer working with this latter style of notation:

1. It’s shorter

When you write a lot of code, less can often be better. Bracket notation takes much less time to write than the alternative.

2. Syntax highlighting

Any decent code editor will automatically highlight opening and closing brackets when you select one, which makes it exceptionally easy to see where a conditional or loop starts and where it ends. This is especially useful when working with nested conditionals that go three, four, even five levels deep.

Very few code editors, however, support syntax highlighting for the longhand notation.

3. It’s more “standard”

The majority of coding standard guides will recommend the use of bracket notation, so for those of us that believe strongly in keeping with standards, this is really important. Note that the WordPress coding standards handbook instructs developers to use brackets.

There are all three very good reasons to use brackets, so why am I strongly advocating against the use of brackets in template files? It’s all about the users, not the developers.

Templates files should be built for users

A template file is built so that the layout and presentation of data can be controlled, with minimal interaction with the code that actually retrieves the data. Look back to the Twenty Thirteen index.php again. Do you see any direct calls to the database? Or any calls to functions like wp_list_pluck()? Or any PHP arrays? No, all you see is a set of very semantic functions for have_posts() and the_post(). There are others as well, such as get_template_part(), but they are not important for this discussion.

One of the single most important aspects of user-friendly template files is semantics. A file that is easy to understand in English (or whatever your language – simply spoken/written word) will always be easier to understand and modify.

Brackets are not semantic, not even remotely.

Where, except perhaps advanced math or science, have you seen brackets that mean “start something” and “end something”? I champion you to try and think of a single example that the daily user encounters frequently, and frequently enough to the point where comprehending the meaning doesn’t take any thought effort at all.

IF — this is semantically easy to understand.

ENDIF — this is semantically easy to understand.

IF { — this is . . . wait, what’s that squiggly thing?

} — this is . . . WTF is that curly thing doing just sitting there?!

There is nothing inherently semantic or easy to understand about brackets for non developers.

Remember what non-developers don’t know

Users often want to make minor tweaks to template files, sometimes in order to add an image, add some text, or a variety of other small modifications.

As developers we often take it for granted what makes sense to us. We (developers) have no problem following something like this:

$protocal = is_ssl() ? 'https://' : 'http://';

A non developer will look at this and maybe understand that there is some sort of conditional check going on, but a complete grasp of exactly how this works is usually beyond someone that is not a developer. That’s not to say non-developers don’t have the capacity to understand this, it simply means this sort of syntax has not been introduced to them.

A non developer, however, will have very little difficulty understanding the general concept of this:

if( is_ssl() ) :
	$protocal = 'https://';
else :
	$protocal = 'http://';
endif;

It is very clear what is going on. A user doesn’t even need to understand what a variable is, or how to set one up, to understand that there is a conditional check happening for SSL.

Now, let’s be clear: code like this (checks for the protocol and such) should never exist in a template file, if at all possible.

Developers can use both notations

While developers have no difficulty reading / writing both forms of notation (even if begrudgingly), non-developers on the other hand struggle immensely with bracket notation. Even if (the person) reading this is a non-developer and you have no problem understanding bracket notation, I assure you that you are in the minority. I love that you understand them, but very few non-developers have your level of understanding in this area.

Template files are the first place non-developers experience code

The very first experience a non-developer will have with code, whether it be HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, or any other, is usually a theme’s template file, at least in the realm of WordPress. As a user, they download a theme, install it, then decide they wish to modify a few parts of it. They will do this in a variety of ways:

• Start by just opening the template files and exploring (brave user!)
• Ask the theme developer how to do it and then open single.php (for example) upon instruction by the theme developer
• Open a template file after reading online a basic guide about how to tweak a theme

We can help users have a better experience with their first code experience by writing our template files in a semantic, easy to understand / follow (for users!) method.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Not all of WordPress core uses brackets. All of the default theme actually avoid the use of brackets entirely inside of template files. Do you think this is an accident? Perhaps just an inconsistency that needs to be corrected? If you do, I’d strongly suggest you think about it a little longer.

The WordPress core team takes standards very seriously and decisions about formatting, notation, etc, are not taken lightly. It was a completely intentional and well thought out decision that resulted in the default theme template files using non-bracket notation for loops and conditionals.

I’m a developer and I approve of the use of endif, endwhile, etc, in template files.

Update
Ultimately disagreement about what is easier and better is completely fine. The important thing is that you (speaking generally) as a developer consider very seriously what is and what is not best for the users, both those that have development experience and those that do not.

The post Please Consider Not Using Curly Brackets {} in Template Files appeared first on Pippins Plugins.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

$_SESSION['cart_items'] = array(
	array(
		'item_id'   => 43,
		'item_name' => 'My Product Name'
	),
	array(
		'item_id'   => 22,
		'item_name' => 'My Second Product Name'
	)	
);

or

1

$cart_items = ! empty( $_SESSION['cart_items'] ) ? $_SESSION['cart_items'] : false;

With WP_Session, you can perform the exact same type of actions with a nearly identical syntax:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

global $wp_session;
 
$wp_session['cart_items'] = array(
	array(
		'item_id'   => 43,
		'item_name' => 'My Product Name'
	),
	array(
		'item_id'   => 22,
		'item_name' => 'My Second Product Name'
	)	
);

and

1

$cart_items = ! empty( $wp_session['cart_items'] ) ? $wp_session['cart_items'] : false;

Eric has made the implementation of WP_Session extremely simple with his WP_Session Manager plugin, available for free from WordPress.org.

I recently used Eric’s WP_Session class in Easy Digital Downloads with excellent results. Because I wanted to integrate it directly into my plugin, without relying on the installation of a second plugin, I included the WP_Session library as part of EDD and then wrote a wrapper class to handle the setting and retrieval of session data. You can see my wrapper class on Github.

When I want to store some session data in Easy Digital Downloads, such as when a customer adds an item to the shopping cart, I simply do this:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

$cart = array(
	array(
		'item_id'   => 43,
		'item_name' => 'My Product Name'
	),
	array(
		'item_id'   => 22,
		'item_name' => 'My Second Product Name'
	)	
);
 
EDD()->session->set( 'edd_cart', $cart );

And when I want to retrieve the session data:

1

EDD()->session->get( 'edd_cart' );

When Easy Digital Downloads was first written, it relied on $_SESSION for cart storage, as well as several other pieces of session data necessary for the plugin to operate. This resulted in a rather large number of support tickets from users that experienced problems due to the lack fo support for $_SESSION on their servers. By switching to WP_Session, we reduced the number of tickets related to session data problems by probably 90% or more.

Have you used WP_Session? What was your experience? I am personally a big advocate for it and would strongly encourage you to give it a test.

To read more about why Eric created WP_Session, and the types of problems it solves, read his original proposal.

The post Storing Session Data in WordPress without $_SESSION appeared first on Pippins Plugins.

The post Test Your Plugins with RTL appeared first on Pippins Plugins.

Whether you want to build a simple “Subscribe to Our Newsletter” form or an advanced project proposal form that includes a Campaign Monitor signup, this extension for Ninja Forms can take care of you.

The post Campaign Monitor for Ninja Forms appeared first on Pippins Plugins.

To learn more about Pull Requests, read the Github tutorial on them.

Github is one of the best tools you can utilize to encourage community collaboration, and it is also the tool that makes it exceptionally easy for new users to give back to the plugins they love.

Note: this tutorial shows how to use the inline code editor available on Github. I do not recommend using this for major edits. If you plan to make large contributions to plugins, it is highly recommended that you take some time to learn how to use Git so that you can make your edits on your local machine and then push them up to your forked copy of the repository.

The post Submitting Your First Pull Request to a WordPress Plugin on Github appeared first on Pippins Plugins.

Easy Digital Downloads is a complete e-commerce plugin for selling digital goods in WordPress.

This is an extension that integrates the two plugins and allows you to create automated discounts that give your paid subscribers a special discount on all Easy Digital Downloads purchases.

Want to give your “Platinum Level” subscribers a 10% discount on all shop purchases? That’s easy. Want to give a 5% discount to all “Gold Level” subscribers? That’s easy as well.

$15 – Purchase

The post Restrict Content Pro – Member Discounts for Easy Digital Downloads appeared first on Pippins Plugins.

The video shows everything in-depth, but here are some of the highlights of the plugin:

• It’s completely free from WordPress.org
• Easily create forms with a drag-and-drop interface
• It’s really light weight
• Reusuable fields
• Developer friendly
• Can be extended to be even more awesome

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The post Review: Ninja Forms Plugin appeared first on Pippins Plugins.

Whether you want to build a simple “Subscribe to Our Newsletter” form or an advanced project proposal form that includes a MailChimp signup, this extension for Ninja Forms can take care of you.

The post MailChimp for Ninja Forms appeared first on Pippins Plugins.

• add_menu_page() – For adding a top level page
• add_submenu_page() – For adding a sub menu page to an existing, top level menu
• Additional helpers for adding sub menus to core menus added by WordPress core

The post Plugin Development 101 – Introduction to Adding Dashboard Menus appeared first on Pippins Plugins.