Exploring Modern
WordPress Development
Hi, I’m Brian!
I’m helping WordPress developers and agencies make the transition into the new era of the WordPress Block Editor.
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Grow Your WordPress Dev Skills
Every week I’m sharing the best links and my latest articles and videos about all things WordPress, with a big focus on mastering the block and site editor (“Gutenberg”).
✏️ All the Latest Everything
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Gutenberg: The Obligatory Review
The WordPress content editor has been, for a long time, the biggest achilles heel in regards to new WordPress users. I’m a huge fan of ambitiously designed articles, like the infamous NYTimes Greenland piece, which is now two years old. To achieve that effect in WordPress now is no easy feat, but the current focus…
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Writing vs Content Marketing
In the book Sick in the Head, a young Jerry Seinfeld is interviewed by an even younger Judd Apatow about the state of stand-up comedy in the 80s. They discuss the difference between comedians who view stand-up as the ultimate goal and comedians who use comedy as a tool to get fame, notoriety, or to get on a…
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Speaking at WordCamp OC 2017
I will be speaking at WordCamp OC 2017 on the topic of WordPress for Nonprofits. June 10 & 11 in Irvine. When I originally applied to speak, I remember filling out a few boxes, summarizing my potential speech in three lines or less. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what I wrote. I’m sure it was…
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Digital Spring Cleaning
As someone who makes digital content for a living (websites, blogs, etc), it is easy to believe that consuming digital content is just as important as creating it. But is it? For the record, I’m not a big “productivity” guy who feels the need to optimize every aspect of his life. Instead, I weigh every task against…
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A Beginner’s Guide to the WordPress REST API
A Beginner’s Guide to the WordPress REST API on Toptal.com I wrote a post for the Toptal.com blog. The article covers the WordPress REST API, as well as provides an introduction to REST APIs in general. I offer an example use case that you can follow along, and discuss some future potential of the project.…
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All My Embedded Links, a WP REST API Proof of Concept
I’m a big fan of the WordPress REST API. I’ve been writing about it here on my site as well as other places. I’ve been using it in production, including in the iOS/Android app NMO Resources which syncs to a WordPress-based website. It’s become a fun new way to interact with data, especially outside of the…
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Honoring a Son by Reaching Thousands
Honoring a Son by Reaching Thousands. Recently, I had the privilege to co-author a blog post for The Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation. The subject of our profile piece was Lisa McDaniel, a mother who lost her son to a rare auto-immune disease. She now spends her time educating and advocating in his honor. Honoring a Son…
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CMB2 & WP REST API Part 2 – Full Support
This article is a follow up to this previous post, which explored a method for adding CMB2 meta to the WP REST API. As CMB2 author Jason Sternberg mentioned in a comment on that post, WP REST API support was in the process of being built in at that time. Now that time has come.…
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Enabling SSL & HTTPS on WordPress
Encryption, the ability to protect data as it is transferred across the internet, has entered the public debate and it’s not going anywhere. In fact it’s becoming more and more clear that as we transfer so much of our lives online, we have to think about privacy and security in ways like never before. This is…
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How to Use Hosts.cx to Preview a Website
Update: It looks like Hosts.cx is no longer active. Here’s a decent alternative: https://www.skipdns.link When a website relaunch requires a migration, there’s one really iffy period that’s always given me the most trouble. You’ve drawn and designed, built mockups and prototypes, coded your site on a local server and even pushed it up to a demo…