Using the WordPress Heartbeat API

WordPress 3.6 introduced a new API called the “WordPress Heartbeat”. This is the API that behind a lot of the improvements in WordPress 3.6, including better revision tracking, user’s session management, and more. I’m going to show you a quick example of how you can use the API to perform “live” actions. What is the…

User Follow System – Part 5

This part of the User Follow System tutorial series will focus on writing the necessary javascript for trigger the follow/unfollow actions. When a follow or unfollow link is clicked, the javascript will trigger an ajax action that then talks to the server and tells it which user is being followed or unfollowed, and which user…

Build a Search Logging Plugin

Knowing what your users are searching for can be extremely useful and important. In this members-only tutorial we’re going to look at how to create a simple search logging plugin that will record every search query performed on your site. We will be using the WP_Logging class that I released a week or two ago…

Stripe Integration Part 8 – Working with Invoices

The Stripe invoice system allows us to easily add charges to our existing customers subscriptions, such as one time sign up fees, extra monthly charges for new features, or anything else. Just like every other feature in the Stripe API, it’s extremely simple to use, and in this part of the Stripe Integration tutorial series…

WP_Logging – A General Use Logging System for WordPress

WP_Logging is a general use logging system that I have written for WordPress. It was first written for my Easy Digital Downloads but I have adapted it for general use. The main idea behind the class it to provide a simple solution for logging events, actions, errors, etc, inside of your WordPress plugins or themes.

User Follow System – Part 3

In the previous part of Creating a User Follow System, we looked at the basic shell functions that we need to write for our plugin to function. Now we are going to get into actually writing those functions. We will go one by one and write each one from scratch. Also note that we will…

User Follow System – Part 2

Part 1 of the User Follow System series looked at laying out the main structure of the plugin. For part 2, we’re going to continue that and lay out the main skeleton functions that we need for our plugin. These will include the functions for following a user, unfollowing a user, checking if a user…

Writing a Simple Google Maps Short Code

In this advanced tutorial we’re going to walk through the process of creating a simple short code to display Google Maps. The concept is simple, but we’ll be using advanced techniques and tools for displaying our maps. All maps will be cached using transients and all requests to Google’s API services will be done with…

User Follow System – Part 1

In part one of the Creating a User Follow System tutorial series, we are going to take a quick look at how our final product may be implemented into a real live site, and the basic functionality it will contain. This entry is part 1 of 7 in the Creating a User Follow System Plugin…

Introduction to the WP Filesystem

I’ve spent a lot of time lately dealing with a little known, under-documented but extremely useful class in WordPress called WP_Filesystem. WP_Filesystem is used throughout WordPress to handle core/plugin/themes updates and various tasks that require writing files to your webserver. The WP_Filesystem class is a base class that has many extensions depending on what ‘method’…

Stripe Integration Part 6 – Payment Receipts

The Stripe API includes a system called “webhooks”, which are used for notifying your site of events happening in your Stripe account, such as received payments, account creation, customer cancellation, etc. One of the first features you will find webhooks are useful for is sending payment receipts, both for one time payments and recurring subscription…