Stephen Burge's Blog, page 133

New Video Class: WordPress BackupBuddy

When it comes to safely and regularly backing up your WordPress site, there's probably no better plugin than BackupBuddy from iThemes.

In this class, Topher tours the features and provides step-by-step instructions on how to get the most out of this plugin.

Topher covers full or database-only backups, scheduling, off-site storage, single file or full restorations and more!



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Please Take the OSTraining 2015 Survey

Hi Everyone,

Once every year, we ask you for your opinion about OSTraining.

We ask for your feedback on 3 things:

What we're doing right at OSTraining.
What we can do better.
What new features and classes you'd like to see.


We value your opinion, but also your time. The survey is brief, and we have plenty of prizes for survey takers.

Everyone is welcome to take the survey. Even if you're not an OSTraining member, we have questions and prizes for you.

Click here to take the survey



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Talking with Andy Miller from RocketTheme about Grav

In August last year we reviewed Grav, a new CMS from Andy Miller and the RocketTheme team.

Andy's done great work over the years. RocketTheme needs no introduction: it was the first and best Joomla template club. It was inspirational for all the Joomla template clubs that followed and even WordPress sites such as WooThemes.

We first interviewed Andy back in early 2007 (shortly after he had designed the new admin template for Joomla 1.5) and then again in 2013.

However, Grav is a relatively unknown project. Six months after its launch, I decided to check in with Andy and Grav. I asked Andy about Grav, what it is and what his plans are for the software.



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The wp_mail() Function in WordPress

PHP has a built-in function called mail() that allows you to send email.  The advantage of mail() is that it’s very easy to use.  The disadvantage is that it’s also very easy to use improperly, and allow spammers to send rafts of email through your site.

Because of this, there’ve been many wrappers and libraries written to help prevent that abuse.  Most CMSs have their own built in methods, we’re going to take a look at WordPress’ in this post.



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Talking with Andy Miller from Rockettheme about Grav

In August last year we reviewed Grav, a new CMS from Andy Miller and the Rockettheme team.

Andy's done great work over the years. Rockettheme need no introduction: it was the first and best Joomla template club. It was inspirational for all the Joomla template clubs that followed and even WordPress sites such as WooThemes.

We first interviewed Andy back in early 2007 (shortly after he had designed the new admin template for Joomla 1.5) and then again in 2013.

However, Grav is a relatively unknown project. 6 months after its launch, I decided to check in with Andy and Grav. I asked Andy about Grav, what it is and what his plans are for the software.



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Show the WordPress Login Inside Your Theme

This week, one OSTraining member asked us whether it was possible to improve the login experience in WordPress.

The member wondered if they could make their login process easier to use in two ways:

Integrate a login page with their WordPress theme, rather than the wp-admin screen.
Redirect the user to another page they were reading before, rather than the WordPress dashboard.


Fortunately, there are 2 plugins that helps to achieve this customization in just a minute.

In this tutorial, I'll show you which plugins to use for this process.



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JSN PageBuilder, easy Drag-and-Drop Joomla Pages

JSN PageBuilder by JoomlaShine makes it possible to create custom layouts. It does this by turning an article into a page with customizable rows and columns. The process is so easy that anyone can do it.

In this tutorial, we'll introduce you to JSN PageBuilder and show you, with examples, how to build a page.



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When Time Began: The PHP Date Function

PHP has a wonderful function called date(). It simply returns a date, in the format you request, and you can either print it or store it in a variable for later. On its face the date() function is quite simple, but it can be incredibly flexible as well. Let’s take a look at some options.

The formatting of the date output is controlled simply by giving it some letters, like this:

{codecitation}<?php echo date( ‘j F, Y’ ); ?>{/codecitation}



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New Video Class: WordPress PHP Code Sniffer

WordPress and many other open source projects have coding standards for how developers should write their PHP code.

In our new video class, Topher, our WordPress teacher, shows you how to use PHP Code Sniffer to make sure your plugin code meets WordPress standards.

This class is the first in a new series on WordPress plugins, Github and coding standards.



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New Video Class: Editing Plugins with PHP Code Sniffer

In this class, Topher shows you how to improve and contribute to a WordPress plugin.

Beginning with a fork of the plugin on Github, Topher demonstrates how to use PHP Code Sniffer to find all the non-compliant code. Topher then shows how to fix the code and then submits a pull request to the plugin author.

This is a great class for people new to WordPress plugins, Github or contributing to the WordPress community.



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