The WordPress Heartbeat API, introduced in WordPress 3.6, simulates a pulse and is responsible for revision tracking, session management, and more. The pulse is around 98 Bytes in size, but it can cause performance issues in certain situations. If you’ve been notified by your webhost that your account is using too many resources and cite…
The WordPress plugin directory has nearly 35k plugins and discovering new ones that have been tested and downloaded a few thousand times is difficult. Users can browse the directory for newest, recently updated, most popular, and highest rated plugins. With the exception of the recently updated category, there’s no way to discover plugins in the…
Have you ever wondered what CMS and eCommerce system Shark Tank contestants use? WP Engine used BuiltWith and looked at the websites of each contestant appearing on the show between seasons 1-5. They also manually investigated each site to determine some of the more complex setups. Factors WP Engine looked for include: if the site…
For over six years, the Google Earth API has enabled countless developers to build 3D mapping applications in the browser. Those days are over as Google announced on its developer blog that the API is deprecated and will officially retire December 12th, 2015. The Google Earth API is built on the NPAPI plugin framework which…
If you’re brand new to bbPress, you may not know about some of the ways it can be extended beyond being a simple forum. Additional functionality can be added with plugins, its output can be manipulated through CSS, and development is easy to keep up with. Even though bbPress has a getting started guide available,…
In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I discuss what it would take for WordPress to lose its dominant market share position. We both agree that WordPress isn’t going anywhere soon but it’s something to be mindful of. We share our thoughts on the recommended plugins tab coming in WordPress 4.1 and whether…
bbPress is a 10 year old project that’s supposed to make it easy to attach a forum to WordPress. On the day after Christmas in 2004, Matt Mullenweg spent an entire weekend coding an alternative to miniBB, from the ground up that at the time, powered the WordPress support forums. bbPress was stand-alone software until…
Developed by Mike Jolley, Download Monitor is an eight year old plugin with over 600k downloads. Download Monitor provides an interface for uploading and managing downloadable files including support for multiple versions, inserting download links into posts, and logging downloads. It has been rewritten 4 times, seen well over 100 releases, and been downloaded 600,000…
Coen Jacobs, who works as a backend developer, published a short video explaining why he doesn’t work with WordPress full-time anymore. It’s not that he doesn’t like the project but rather, he’s gained a fresh perspective since stepping outside of the WordPress bubble. WordPress used to be the holy grail for me, I made everything…
Earlier this year, CEO and Envato Co-founder, Collis Ta’eed, spoke at The Sunrise conference in Sydney, Australia. The Sunrise is a conference where founders of Australia’s iconic startups describe the early years of their business. The presentation is 15 minutes in length with 30 minutes dedicated to questions. There’s a lot of great information in…
WordPress is 11 years old and used on over 20% of the web. Its popularity is made up of many facets including, the community, themes and plugins. In the realm of open source content management systems, nothing comes close to what WordPress has accomplished. Although it’s the market leader, its dominance won’t last forever. Mike…
The content recommendation service nRelate, announced it will shut down its service December 31st. Launched in 2009, nRelate has provided billions of recommendations to over 100k sites. The service is shifting its assets to support its internal reference-style content properties. If you use nRelate, there is a farewell FAQ available which has instructions on what…
If you run a WooCommerce store with a lot of products and want a nice way to tell customers whether an item is new, on sale, or sold out, check out the Woo Stickers plugin by Webline. Created by Webline India, Woo Stickers makes it easy to provide visual cues on products. Stickers indicate whether…
In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I discuss the news of the week and interview the founder of HappyJoe.org, James Dalman. Happy Joe is a 501 c3 non-profit organization that helps U.S. veterans with entrepreneurship and employment opportunities. Dalman shares what inspired him to create the organization and the role WordPress plays…
On the Add New plugin page in WordPress 4.0, there are two different tabs to help users discover new plugins: Featured and Popular. What if WordPress could recommend plugins based on the ones you have installed? Thanks to a recent update to the API, users will be able to access a list of recommended plugins…