Brian Coords

WordPress Developer & Educator

Brian Coords

I’m sharing the best resources and tutorials for developers building in and on the block editor.

  • Don’t Fear the Auto-Update – Stay on Top of WordPress

    Recently I’ve noticed a new sort of FOMO in the online community, fear of missing out on breaking changes. Every time a new version of something is released, from iOS to WordPress, there’s a large chorus of ‘wait for the .1 release’ online. And I have to say that I understand the hesitance. Breaking changes and…

  • How to Successfully Use Visual Editors to Give Your Clients Control

    I used to be very skeptical about visual builders for websites, especially for developers. Perhaps I just never fully experienced the Dreamweaver era, though I have made a few Flash headers in my time. Or maybe there’s a sense of purity that comes from building something from ‘scratch’, even when ‘scratch’ includes the most popular…

  • Thoughts on Weezer’s New Summer “Session” Album

    When reaching for a beer these days, the choices are endless. The spectrum ranges from the ultra-watery Bud Lights and Milwaukee’s Bests to the kinds of beers that will make you lie down afterwards, the double, triple, and imperial IPAs at a 12+% alcohol content. Somewhere in between, however, is what’s known as the ‘session’ beer. A…

  • WordPress Tip: Quickly Import Posts via Google Sheets and JSON

    Recently, I found myself setting up a new WordPress site, but with an enormous legacy of content that needed to be uploaded in the form of posts and custom post types. We had about 1500 posts just in one category and a few hundred posts under different custom post types like ‘videos’ and ‘events’. To…

  • Data Organization Overall Concepts – Super Custom WP Part 1

    If you haven’t already, feel free to read the first post in the Super Custom WP series that introduces the topic and explores the concepts behind posts in more detail. One of the ways to take advantage of WordPress as a real infrastructure is through the use of Custom Post Types. Custom post types allow us to…

  • Super Custom WordPress – Series Intro

    As we enter the more advanced realms of custom WordPress development and client work, we want to find ways to make the entire experience easier for our clients. Most of our customers come to us to escape some outdated CMS where they’re copy-pasting chunks of HTML, always afraid that they’re going to break something because they’re…

  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Book Review and Notes

    I remember reading this book, but I don’t remember reading this book. Most critics point out that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is probably three or four books in one, and that each time you read it, you’re reading something unique. When I read ZMM ten years ago, it was definitely a book about philosophy and…

  • Weezer Promises that Everything Will Be Alright, Delivers

    If there’s anything to say about this record, I think the title does an adequate job. It’s alright. It’s not great- it’s not terrible. It’s just alright, and considering where Weezer’s been in the years since their first stumble, Make Believe, alright isn’t half-bad. This is an album that’s a clear Throwback Thursday, where the garage is…

  • Breaking the Time Barrier Book Notes and Review

    Mike McDermott’s Breaking the Time Barrier, a choose-your-own-price ebook, evaluates the value-based approach to pricing services through a fictional conversation between a professional and a curious amateur. Through their dialogue, the reader is introduced to the idea that we should determine the value of our services based on the potential return for the client rather than…