Sarah Gooding

  • How to Install WordPress Plugins Directly From Github

    How to Install WordPress Plugins Directly From Github

    It’s amazing how much WordPress code is available on github. Many developers choose not to place their plugins on WordPress.org for one reason or another, but this makes their code less convenient for others to find. Using a plugin from github traditionally requires you to visit github, search for the plugin, download the zip file…

  • WordPress Core Developers Release Plugin To Test Automatic Background Updates

    Over the weekend, WordPress developers Andrew Nacin and Dion Hulse released an official WordPress.org plugin that enables users to test their sites’ compatibility with the background updates feature, introduced in WordPress 3.7. Background Update Tester is an official plugin, released under the WordPress.org account. It was created to help users diagnose problems that prevent WordPress…

  • WordPress Distraction Free Writing Mode Enhanced

    It’s easy to get distracted while writing posts. You’re in a browser and you probably have a few other tabs open with notifications beeping at you from every direction. On top of that, the WordPress post editor has a ton of meta boxes competing for your attention. With all of this going on, how can…

  • How to Configure Automatic Core Updates for WordPress 3.7

    Today following the release of WordPress 3.7 many users are wondering where the settings page is to configure these options. The answer is that there is no settings page in the WordPress admin. If you upgrade to WordPress 3.7, the default behavior is that you’ll be automatically upgraded for security and minor releases. The fact…

  • WordPress 3.7 Released: WordPress Now Updates Itself

    WordPress 3.7 has been released and the big news is that WordPress now has the ability to update itself. This begins a new era of automatic background updates for security and minor releases. Web hosts around the world have been eagerly awaiting this release and are cheering its arrival. The upgrade process has been greatly…

  • Add Your Meetup Group to the Central WordPress Account on Meetup.com

    If you run a local WordPress meetup, you’re invited to move it under the central WordPress account on meetup.com. Jen Mylo created a form where meetup coordinators can submit their meetup to be included. The awesome benefit is that WordPress will cover the meetup.com dues for your listing. Jen posted a number of simple guidelines…

  • Jarvis: A Free Quicksearch Tool for the WordPress Dashboard

    If you’ve ever used a WordPress site with thousands of posts and/or hundreds of pages, you might have found it a challenge to quickly navigate to the content you’re looking for. Jarvis is a new dashboard quicksearch plugin that addresses this very problem. Created by the folks at The Web Development Group, the Jarvis plugin…

  • Pulse: An Example WordPress Plugin Using the Heartbeat API

    I’ve long been a fan of WordPress developer Jeffrey Pearce, better known online as Jeffikus. He’s created several educational resources for WordPress over the past few years. Today he released Pulse on github. Pulse is an open source plugin that will help developers get started with Heartbeat API development.

  • WordPress Host WP Engine Will Not Support Automatic Background Updates

    Managed updates have always been one of the main selling points for WP Engine’s WordPress hosting packages. Customers have the luxury of never having to update their own sites because WP Engine keeps them on the cutting edge: We keep your site secure without you having to think about it. Whenever WordPress issues a security…

  • Monitor WordCamps Online with WP Armchair

    David Bisset may have been the first person to coin the term “Armchair WordCampers”, referring to those who live vicariously through WordCamp attendees via Twitter. The concept sparked an idea for him and he decided to create WP Armchair for this very audience. His first version was actually created for the WordPress 10th Anniversary, a…

  • WordPress 3.7 Introduces Advanced Date Queries

    WordPress 3.7 should be arriving any day now. Everyone is excited about WordPress’ new ability to update itself for security and minor releases (and even themes and plugins, if you’re adventurous). The new password strength meter is highlighted on the About page for the release with a live demo that users can play with after…

  • BuddyPress Theme Development Book Now Available on Amazon

    If you want to grow in your BuddyPress skills, there’s a new book on the market that you’ll want to get your hands on. BuddyPress Theme Development has just hit Amazon. The digital version is out now and you’ll be able to get a printed copy on October 24th, 2013. Packt will also have a…

  • Seamless Integration for WordPress and Magento

    Believe it or not, there are a lot of WordPress fans in the Magento community. While Magento provides supremely robust e-commerce capabilities with support for complex product variations and multiple shipping options, it’s entirely lacking in CMS features. As a result, many sites merge WordPress and Magento in order to take advantage of each platform’s…

  • WordPress 3.7 Automatic Upgrades Proving to Be Reliable

    The first WordPress 3.7 Release Candidate was sent out into the wild last Friday. So far it’s been testing very well. The flagship feature of this release is the ability for WordPress to automatically update itself, as highlighted in the customary haiku: WordPress three seven A self-updating engine Lies beneath the hood Automatic background updates…

  • New Grid View Coming to the WordPress Media Library

    Your experience in the WordPress media library is about to get a whole lot better. Very soon you’ll have the option to display media items in a grid view. An exciting project to enhance the media library is well underway and will eventually be added to the WordPress core. The good news is that you…