[ad_1] TL;DR: I’m tired of writing code without consistent standards (I often work on code that changes between WordPress or PSR2) so this is how I installed PHP Coding Standards via Composer and a few extra extensions for the project. This also details how to automatically format the code on save. Adding PHP Coding Standards I’ve talked about this in previous posts (or maybe several previous posts) but for the purposes of this project, I’m going to be using a certain extension within Visual Studio Code. Add PHPCS via Composer (and Running PHPCBF) First, I’m going to install it at the global level – or verify it’s installed at the global level and document it here for those who are following this series. To install it with Composer (and here’s how to install Composer), you can issue this command in the terminal (you can choose a different version but, at least a the time of this writing, this is what I’m using): $ composer global require “squizlabs/php_codesniffer=^3.5” Then, in the composer.json file located at the system level (if you’re on macOS, this will be something like /Users/your-user-name/.composer/composer.json, make sure it contains something like this: { “require”: { /* … */ “squizlabs/php_codesniffer”: “^3.5” }, “require-dev”: { /* … */ } } Then run: $ composer install And this will install PHPCS and PHPCBF which is the utility that will help format the code for any problems. Ultimately, I’m looking to make sure my output looks something like this. You can verify this works by entering the following command in your terminal: $ which phpcs And this should return: /Users/your-user-name/.composer/vendor/bin/phpcs You can also get information about the installed rules by running: $ phpcs -i And this will return something like this: The installed coding standards are PEAR, Zend, PSR2, MySource, Squiz, PSR1, PSR12 If you’ve gotten this far, then you’re ready to go with make sure Visual Studio Code has what it needs to use PHPCS. Add Support to Visual Studio Code First, I use the phpcs extension by Ioannis Kappas. This is where you can find it in the Marketplace. From the project page: This linter plugin for Visual Studio Code provides an interface to phpcs. It will be used with files that have the “PHP” language mode. phpcs Remember that it’s important to make sure this is installed Composer and you know how to access that path because the extension expects the binary to be available in the system. I keep it installed at the system level because I use it in some form across all of my projects. Next, Update the settings.json file for your project so that it contains the following two lines: “phpcs.executablePath”: “/Users/tommcfarlin/.composer/vendor/bin/phpcs”, “phpcs.standard”: “PSR2”, After doing this, then you should see errors show up in your code or you shouldn’t see anything different. If you’re writing PSR2-based code, you’re good to go; otherwise, you can easily fix it by using another extension. (Yes, you can use the terminal but automation can be a major time-saver here). Automatically Running PHPCBF Rather than writing a terminal command to do this, I recommend another Code extension called phpcbf. From the project page: This extension provides the PHP Code Beautifier and Fixer (phpcbf) command for Visual Studio Code. phpcbf is the lesser known sibling of phpcs (PHP_CodeSniffer). phpcbf will try to fix and beautify your code according to a coding standard. phpcbf Once you install it, you should be able to configure it very easily, again, in settings.json by doing the following: “phpcbf.executablePath”: “/Users/tommcfarlin/.composer/vendor/bin/phpcbf”, “phpcbf.enable”: true, “phpcbf.onsave”: true, “phpcbf.standard”: “PSR2”, This tells Code that where phpcbf is, to enable it, which standard to use, and to perform formatting whenever you save the file. You can also manually do it (as shown here). Until Part 6 With all of this in place, it’s now possible to make sure the code that’s being written is up to a consistent standard and to have the IDE actually take care of it for you automatically. Scattered Thoughts I’m thinking that some of the content in each of these posts would work well as stand-alone posts for things that others may be looking for (maybe some of the stuff here, maybe some of the stuff in other posts). I’m going to consider breaking some content out into separate posts. There’s no particular reason that I chose PSR2 over any of the other standards. I work with the rest enough and this is the one I chose just to keep on the up and up with said standard. (I’m not religious but what standards I use so long as I use an actual standard.) It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged about the work I’ve done on this project so the tone of this post is different than what I’ve done in previous posts. I know that. I ought to clean it up, but I probably won’t 🙂. I’m more concerned with information than the tone of the posts write now. [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingMonthly Archives: July 2021
Building My First WordPress Block Plugin – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Like most years, I spent this U.S. Independence Day cooped up with my furry friends. I closed all the windows, shuttered the blinds, switched on a couple of fans for white noise, and clicked the television on. My cats and I relaxed. It is my job to keep them calm while my — usually drunken — compatriots burn hundreds of dollars away in the night sky. It is my ritual, and I enjoy it. For this holiday, we re-watched Season 1 of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and I learned how to build a block plugin. This was not my first attempt. When the block editor launched nearly three years ago, I tinkered with a few block type ideas. However, I never got far. Documentation was sparse, and I had almost no experience with JavaScript beyond building trivial bells and whistles for front-end design. Leaving my day job as a developer to write for WP Tavern also meant limited time to learn block development. And, my free time for the last couple of years has been filled with other projects. Lately, I have had the urge to jump back in and start building things for fun once again. My extended sabbatical from development work gave me time to pursue other interests while allowing my well of creativeness a chance to refill. The break did me some good. With time to kill yesterday afternoon, I dove right in. After a couple of hours of reading docs, studying other developers’ code, and breaking things, I had a functional block for a breadcrumbs list. Custom block registered and ready to insert. Marcus Kazmierczak’s Copyright Block plugin helped me get over one of the initial humps. It was helpful to see real-world, non-example code written in vanilla JavaScript to get to the meat of how the system worked. My overall thoughts on building custom block types? It was easier than I thought it would be. Documentation is, at the same time, both overwhelming and limiting. It is tough to find the correct answer if you do not even know what you are looking for. The barrier to entry is much higher than when I built my first plugin in 2007. The Block Type API makes some things stupidly simple but complicates others. Successfully inserting my first block type into the editor canvas was gratifying. I don’t think that feeling ever goes away as a developer. Successful insertion and rendering of my first block plugin. I am excited about the potential for blocks, such as a breadcrumbs list, when the site editor launches. Many similar features do not make sense in the post editor. However, when users can make direct edits to their templates, it will open a world of possibilities. Learning Curve I know enough JavaScript to be a danger to myself and others. Having spent almost the entirety of my professional career in the WordPress realm has meant focusing on PHP. But, programming is programming. Once you have a strong understanding of one language, it not an impossible leap to piddle around enough to create a functional script in another. Most of the same foundational concepts are there. The hurdle is often with learning some new syntax. However, the biggest obstacle with “modern” JavaScript is setting up the build tools, bundlers, and more. It can be a tall order to even type out that first line of code. Sure, some of the documentation has vanilla JavaScript examples, but when you get into anything more complex than the basics, it is not so vanilla anymore. You will need a way to bundle JavaScript and transform JSX syntax. That means tools like webpack and Babel. WordPress has its own script for cutting through most of the complexity, but I recommend Laravel Mix. It is simple enough for even the least-savvy JavaScript programmers among us and has thorough documentation. It is a script made for folks who want to worry less about tooling and more about actually writing code. Block building is also a different kind of leap. Whether it was custom template tags, shortcodes, widgets, or hooks, traditional WordPress development has meant building those in a PHP environment. I suspect that most plugin developers have tons of features that they can bring to the masses via the block editor. They will often rely on server-side rendering. WordPress has a ServerSideRender component for actually handling this. One of the handiest features of registering block types is the block “supports” system. Want a background color option? Just one line of code will do. Want the user to access the font-size control? That is a single line too. With little effort, I extended my breadcrumbs block to include a ton of styling options for users. And, they adapt to the site’s active theme. Testing various combination of block-supported styling options. The list of block-supported features offers an array of standardized options at pretty much no development cost. Even the Customize API, previously the most advanced tool for building form fields, did not come this close. Building custom inspector controls was straightforward once I got the hang of how the block edit piece of the puzzle worked. For now, I have a simple toggle option for enabling/disabling a feature. Often, the hardest part is just finding what you are looking for. WordPress has a massive library of components to choose from. At this point, I have a basic block on the client (editor) side. Most of the complexity is handled on the server via PHP. If I could build this in an afternoon while attending to nervous cats, it should not be a stretch for more plugin authors to hop aboard this train. There are thousands of shortcodes and widgets that developers can convert to blocks with minimal code. I am not ready to release my breadcrumbs block into the wild just yet. There is still some fine-tuning left to do and a few advanced features to implement. Also, a breadcrumbs list is primarily needed in a site
Continue readingHow to Disable Comments in WordPress: A Complete Guide
[ad_1] WordPress started life as a blogging platform. Years later, it’s now a Content Management System (CMS) that is used with over 40 percent of the web. Along the way, some of classic blogging staples have fallen out of favor. This means there are many sites that want to disable comments in WordPress. Despite this feeling surrounding commenting, there are a lot of benefits to letting users engage with your content. Still, if you want to cut out the comments, there are a few ways to do so. As such, this post is going to show you how to disable comments in WordPress. We’ll look at the different places within WordPress you can change settings, and also discuss some extra techniques to complete rid your site of comments. WordPress’ Relationship With Commenting In 2003, WordPress was a blogging platform through and through. It had all the hallmarks you’d expect: theming, blog-specific settings, and commenting functionality. Comments are a key part of a blog, and it’s fair to say that they have become more prominent as WordPress has evolved and grown. We’ll discuss more about the benefits later, but it’s also fair to say that as WordPress has evolved, some site owners have pushed back against commenting. This is because of the gradual change from blogging platform to CMS. As WordPress became adept at creating other types of site, comments weren’t as central to some users. Because of this, the platform has functionality in place to disable commenting on your site. Again, we’ll get into this in more detail later. The Value of Comments Within WordPress Before we get into how to disable comments, it’s worth talking about why you’d want to have them for a business-focused site. It’s easy to consider them superfluous to requirements, but this isn’t the case. In fact, comments can offer more value than other forms of engagement, for a few reasons: You’re able to gauge interest in your products, services, and content direct from your users. You can see how potential customers engage with you, and pivot your offerings. Users can become part of a community, which builds brand loyalty. It can also have an impact on visibility, and your affiliate network (if you have one). While there are more benefits we could mention, this is beyond the scope of the article. Still, if you thought comments were only for a blog site, it’s worth rethinking that mindset. Comments can be a valuable marketing arm, and cultivating a readership with them is a solid strategy. Why You’d Want to Disable Comments in WordPress We’ve covered what’s good about comments, but this doesn’t mean they’re always necessary. Here are a few points on why you wouldn’t want comments on your site: Comments require moderation to stop spam and off-topic discussions. While there are plugins to help with this, it’s not always going to be a prime solution. If you’re not able to dedicate time to essential comment moderation, it makes sense not to implement them. You may like to cultivate discussions elsewhere, such as a forum or even on social media. We think there are drawbacks to this approach, but if it’s right for your business, asking for engagement direct on your blog posts will dilute the engagement on other channels. If your content marketing is not central to your promotion, asking for engagement might not be beneficial. As such, no comments are better than handfuls of unanswered entries. If you’re writing informational posts, such as news items, they may not warrant comments. Here, you have flexibility to disable comments on a site-wide basis, or only for individual posts. It’s also worth noting that there are ways to cut down on the amount of moderation and engagement you do across your site’s comments. Solutions such as closing comments after a certain period of time, and removing comment URLs are an alternative to disabling comments in WordPress altogether. Still, if it’s something you’re set on, we have the methods coming up next. How to Disable Comments in WordPress (2 Ways) For a task that’s simple on the surface, there are a lot of options for disabling comments in WordPress. Taking a broad brush, here are the two primary ways of getting the job done: Use the core options within WordPress to disable comments. Choose a suitable plugin to disable comments across your site. When we dig into these options, we’ll also detail specific settings to help you disable comments and leave no trace. To finish the article off, we’ll note how to disable media comments, and how to delete existing ones. 1. Use WordPress’ Built-In Options The first port of call to disable comments in WordPress is the platform’s own settings. To find them, head to the Settings > Discussion page within your WordPress dashboard: There are a wealth of options here that can help you. In fact, we recommend heading here when you first set up your site. The main option you’ll want to consider here is Allow people to submit comments on new posts. Unticking this will turn off commenting on a site-wide basis. If you’re working on a brand new site and you don’t want comments, your journey ends here. Though, for existing site owners, this will only turn off comments for future posts. The rest of this post will help you get rid of pre-existing comments on your site. Disable Comments for Individual Posts Although WordPress provides a full bank of options for handling comments, you can also work with them on a per-post basis. There are a few ways to do this, and the most straightforward is to access a post’s Block Editor screen. Here, click the Post menu on the right-hand side, and scroll down to the Discussion settings. The checkboxes here will let you disable comments for the post in WordPress: Note that if you don’t see this box, you’ll need to enable it from the Preferences screen accessed from the ‘traffic light’ menu in the Block Editor: This
Continue readingBest WordPress Download Manager Plugin? (2021)
[ad_1] If you offer file downloads on your WordPress website, you’re probably searching for an efficient way to manage, track, and control access to those files. Although WordPress makes it simple to add downloadable files to your pages/posts, it doesn’t give you enough features to properly manage your assets. Fortunately, dedicated download manager plugins exist to help you better organize and monitor the downloads. WP File Download is a powerful download manager plugin that offers drag-and-drop file management functionality. You can use it to upload files and categorize them for easy access from within your WordPress CMS. Great, but how does it work? In this WP File Download review, we’ll take a closer look at the plugin and discuss how to utilize its different features. Overall, I enjoyed using this plugin and found the user interface easy to navigate, as the download manager is integrated into the WordPress dashboard. Let’s dig in! WP File Download Review: A Quick Look at the Features WP File Download is a one-stop solution to organize and manage all your files. It lets you: Upload new files and delete existing ones Import files you uploaded via FTP Tag files for organization Drag and drop files from one place to another Restrict file access Search files by the date they were created View version history Download files remotely As a download manager, WP File Download allows you to: Access download statistics, including data for custom date ranges Receive email alerts when certain files are downloaded Add download buttons to your front-end content Additionally, WP File Download offers third-party builder integrations. You can integrate it with Elementor, Divi Builder, Themify Builder, and more. Article Continues Below Hands-On with WP File Download Now that you have an idea of WP File Download’s features, let’s go hands-on with the plugin. WP File Download Set Up First, install the plugin by going to your WordPress dashboard and choosing Plugins → Add New. Now upload the plugin’s zip file and click Install Now. Once you install and activate WP File Download, it will ensure the plugin is compatible with your server configuration. Next, you’ll be choosing a theme from a choice of four: Next, you’ll get options to customize the theme according to your preferences. You can make some tweaks like changing the color of your download link or skip this part and proceed ahead. WP File Download Settings Before we look at the plugin’s interface, let’s go through its settings. First, open settings by going to your WordPress dashboard and click WP File Download → Configuration. Doing so will redirect you to the Main Settings tab where you can modify various settings. This includes controlling what types of files could be accessed with the frontend viewer, tracking user downloads, and more. Other settings include: Search and Upload: This setting allows you to configure the search option to make it easier to locate files. You can also use it to generate the upload file shortcode. Themes: If you want to replace or modify your existing theme, use this setting option. Email Notification: Here, you can choose to receive email alerts when a new file is downloaded or added. Next, I’ll show you how the different features of WP File Download work. Managing Files in WP File Download To manage your files, you must add them to WP File Download. Article Continues Below First, click the big New button to make a new category. WP File Manager lets you create different categories so that it’s easy to retrieve files in the future. You can put files in different categories depending on your project. Click the Select Files button to upload new files or drag a set of files straight from the desktop to WP File Download’s interface. Once the files are uploaded, you’ll see them in the interface, along with some additional information (like date added). From this point onwards, organizing your files is as simple as drag and drop: The plugin also allows you to bulk manipulate files like on a desktop. Use Ctrl + click or click Select All, then drag all the files together or use the bulk options to move your files. Editing a File WP File Download gives files their own settings. You’ll see them in the collapsible sidebar on the right. The settings let you: Change the title Add a file description Modify the published status Change the file type View download statistics Assign file to multiple categories Upload new version of the file And more Editing a Category As for files, the plugin lets you edit more detailed settings for each individual category. You can: Change the category’s order Modify the visibility Use a shortcode to show the category on the front-end File Search in WP File Download Finding files is super easy with this plugin. You can search for files by their names and choose whether to search all categories or just a specific one: Offering the Download Option for Files Coming over to the exciting stuff, WP File Download makes it easy to display a download option for files on your website. Just grab the shortcode of any file and place it on any page to allow your visitors to download that file on their PC. Article Continues Below You can also make categories available for download. This can be done by generating the shortcode for an entire category and inserting it on a webpage. In this case, users will be able to download multiple files as a zip from that category. If you’re on WordPress 5.0 and have access to the Gutenberg block editor, things are much easier. With WP File Download, you get two blocks, one for individual files and the other is categories of files. ‘ Insert these blocks and voila, you’ve created downloads without leaving the editor. Using the Classic WordPress editor? No problem. WP File Download also offers buttons in that editor to make inserting file downloads just as simple: How Downloads Look at The Front-End After
Continue reading7 Best Podcast Hosting Platforms Reviewed for 2021
[ad_1] Are you looking to start a podcast? If so, choosing the right podcast host is one of the first steps you’ll need to take. There are a lot of options out there, but we’ve narrowed it down to just the best of the best. It’s impossible to recommend one as the best for every podcaster, because your needs may be different than someone else’s. After the description of all of the hosts, you’ll see our recommendations for different scenarios. With the details found here, you’ll be able to make an informed decision. 🎧 Best Podcast Hosting Platforms Read on to learn more about each of the top choices and what makes them unique. 1. Buzzsprout Buzzsprout has been in the industry for a long time (founded in 2009) and is a solid option for any podcaster. While Buzzsprout has advanced capabilities, the simple and well-designed interface also makes it simple for beginners. With Buzzsprout, your episodes will be automatically submitted to the top podcast directories. If you have your own website, you can easily embed your podcast episodes (including a WordPress plugin). Your visitors will be able to access your episodes through the beautiful and user-friendly interface. And if you don’t have your own site, you can use one created by Buzzsprout. You can even use your own domain for the Buzzprout website if you’d like. Just some of the features offered by Buzzsprout include: Magic mastering (additional fee) automatically optimizes the quality of your audio files. Chapter markers that allow listeners to skip to certain segments of your episodes. Integrated transcription options to get text versions of your episodes. Affiliate marketplace to monetize your podcast with affiliate offers. Advanced podcast statistics to see how your podcast is performing. Unlimited team member logins so you can outsource to a VA or have others working on the same podcast. Manage multiple podcasts from the same account. Buzzsprout offers a free plan, but it comes with some significant limitations. You can only upload 2 hours of audio per month and episodes are only hosted for 90 days. After 90 days, your audio files will be deleted. While the free plan could be an option for getting started, having your episodes hosted for only 90 days is not ideal. Paid plans start at $12 per month, which allows you to upload 3 hours of audio per month. Episodes are hosted indefinitely with any of the paid plans. Try Buzzsprout 2. Podbean Podbean is another popular podcast hosting service. Like Buzzsprout, Podbean will also submit your episodes to the leading directories and provide you with a website if you don’t have your own. The Podbean websites can be customized to suit your needs. You’ll also be able to use an embeddable player to intergrade your podcast with your existing website or blog. Podbean offers a free plan that allows you to upload up to five hours of audio. Of course, most podcasts will reach this five hour limit pretty quickly, so you can think of this plan as a free trial so you can use Podbean before making a decision to purchase. Unlike Buzzsprout, Podbean does not restrict the amount of audio you can upload on paid plans. All of their paid plans come with no limits on storage space or bandwidth. Instead, Podbean uses different pricing tiers to determine the features that will be accessible to you. While the features will vary depending on the plan that you choose, here are some of the features available through Podbean: Support for video podcasts. Ad marketplace to help you monetize your podcast. PodAds, technology to dynamically insert your own ads into episodes. Premium sales to sell your audio or video. Patron program, which allows you to make certain content available only to paying members. Email integration to send your new content to your email list. Live streaming to reach your audience in real-time. Visual statistics to check on the performance of your podcast. The paid plans for Podbean start at $9 per month (if billed annually). This plan does not include video capabilities or some of the monetization features. Try Podbean 3. Blubrry While Blubrry isn’t as feature-rich as some of it’s competitors, it does stand out in two key ways: Blubrry offers support by phone, as well as by email. If you want to speak to a human on the phone, that’s possible with Blubrry. Their PowerPress plugin makes it easy to integrate your podcast into a WordPress-powered website. With the help of the PowerPress plugin, you can easily and conveniently manage your podcast right from your WordPress dashboard. In addition to PowerPress, Blubrry even includes a free WordPress-powered website in its plans, in case you don’t already have your own site. Other features include: Powerful statistics to track your progress. Unlimited bandwidth is included with every plan. Custom embedded player for putting the podcast on your site. Free file migration if you’re moving from another provider. Blubrry does not offer a free plan. However, you can get the first month free as a way to try it out. Plans start at $12 per month, which includes 100 MB of storage. Try Bluebrry 4. Transistor Transistor’s interface is well-designed and user-friendly. One of the ways that they stand out is by allowing you to host multiple podcasts as well as both public and private podcasts from the same account. This opens up a lot of possibilities and could save you some money depending on what you’re trying to do. The other features of Transistor include: Distribute your podcasts to all of the major directories. Embeddable player to use on your own website. Create your own website with Transistor if you don’t already have one. Detailed analytics to see how you’re doing. The most significant drawback of Transistor is the fact that their plans place a limit on the number of times your episodes can be downloaded per month. There are no limits as to what you can upload, but the download limits
Continue readingCastos Picks Up $756K in Funding from Automattic and Joost de Valk to Expand Services in the Private Podcasting Market – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Castos, a WordPress-powered podcast hosting provider, announced a $756K pre-seed fundraising round today from Automattic, Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast SEO, and other individuals. The company raised money from all the investors in this round via a SAFE note, which founder and CEO Craig Hewitt said is a fairly standard investment vehicle for companies at Castos’ stage of growth. “On both the individual and corporate investor side I think the investors see the vision that we have for what the Private Podcasting market can mean for Castos and want to help us achieve that potential,” Hewitt said. Private Podcasting is a growing trend where creators and organizations broadcast to supporters in a more intimate format that isn’t open to the public. Hewitt likens them to membership sites, except in audio format. It is often used by people who are running membership sites, courses, or online communities as a way to stay connected with members. “The other application is companies wanting a way to connect with their employees in audio format,” Hewitt said. “Podcasting is perfect for that because it’s mobile-first, on-demand, and can be consumed asynchronously. We call it the Step Away Experience. Companies that are adopting Private Podcasting internally are giving their team members a way to consume their internal content without being tied to their computer on a Zoom call or glued to Slack.” Castos is developing a mobile app specifically targeted at the private podcasting market. Hewitt’s team is aiming to have the app become a place where people can listen to all of the private podcasts for which they have a subscription. Listeners would simply use the app instead of going through the process of manually subscribing to all their private podcasts via RSS feed. New episodes will appear automatically in the app for subscribers. “For our corporate clients, the ability to white label our app with their own branding/style is a big win,” Hewitt said. “It’s also a much more secure way to distribute private podcast content. There’s no RSS feed to share around, no files to download (our app is streaming only to offer more security to those files).” The pandemic ramped up unprecedented interest in podcasting when lockdowns were in place across the globe. Even with vaccines more readily available now, Hewitt said Castos is still witnessing strong growth in the podcasting industry. “There are all the new podcasters in the market now since so many launched podcasts during the pandemic, but now that people are traveling again and commuting to work we’re seeing listenership going up quite a bit,” he said. “This is a trend we expect to continue into the future.” In the past 10 months, Castos has grown to serve nearly 3,500 customers and the team has grown from seven employees to 13. The company’s Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin is used on more than 30,000 WordPress sites. Castos is actively hiring for several roles right now, thanks to the new round of fundraising. “All of the funds will go towards growing our team,” Hewitt said. “This will be pretty evenly split between product (designers and developers) and Sales and Marketing roles – more people, more energy, more great minds working on ways that we can better serve our customers.” Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWordPress Biratnagar Announces Plans for Ujwal Thapa Memorial Scholarship – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Earlier this week, the WordPress Biratnagar Facebook group announced a WordCamp scholarship in honor of Ujwal Thapa. The goal is to honor the legacy left behind by one of Nepal’s leaders both inside and outside of the WordPress community. Thapa passed away a month ago at age 44 from complications with COVID-19. He was a political activist, founding the Bibeksheel Nepali party, originally a peaceful movement against corruption and social injustice. He was the co-founder of WordPress Nepal, a group that has grown to 8,000 members. He was also a close friend and mentor to many in the community and helped many more launch careers in the IT industry. “After the untimely death of WordPress contributor and co-founder of WordPress Nepal Ujwal Thapa in 2021, due to COVID-19, the WordPress Biratnagar community decided on this scholarship,” wrote the WordPress Biratnagar team. “Ujwal was a dedicated patron to the WordPress community in Nepal, and the WordPress Biratnagar decided to pay applause to his memory in this way.” The scholarship will cover the following: Travel to Biratnagar from within Nepal. Hotel stay for the duration of the event. A ticket to WordCamp Biratnagar. Local transportation. Meals outside the official event. Nepal is still struggling with getting COVID-19 cases under control at the moment. The CDC lists the country as “very high” risk and recommends avoiding travel. There is no date set for a physical conference, and a WordCamp Biratnagar 2021 event is unlikely. The organizing team may not be able to grant a scholarship until next year at the earliest. WordCamp Biratnagar lead organizer Ganga Kafle said they are just waiting for the situation to return to normal but cannot be sure when that will happen. While there is no date for the next WordCamp, they are still holding regular meetups. The group is still discussing the details of the scholarship. Currently, they plan to consult with other community groups within Nepal and the global community. Any help creating and maintaining such a scholarship system would be welcome. The WordPress Biratnagar team did agree to some guidelines. Once submissions open, applicants must be Nepalese. “We believe that empowering community members is an excellent way to honor his memory and carry on his legacy,” wrote the team in its announcement. Group leaders mostly agreed to award the scholarship to those meeting the following criteria: People with disabilities. People from lower-income families. Women interested in WordPress. The group said the selection process would be completely transparent, and the awarded scholarship would be at the discretion of the current WordCamp Biratnagar organizers. Kafle said the scholarship would also be annual. The team plans to keep this going in honor of Thapa and paying respect to the man who helped jump-start many of their careers and involvement with WordPress. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWordPress 5.8 Release Candidate Available
[ad_1] Hey, WordPress fans. We are checking in with your latest dose of weekly WordPress news. This week, the first release candidate for WordPress 5.8 is finally available. While the new version is ready, contributors can still test WordPress 5.8 features before its final release slated on July 20. Beyond that, we share some articles about what to expect from WordPress 5.8. We also have awesome tutorials and roundups for you as usual. Let’s get to all of this week’s WordPress news… WORDPRESS NEWS AND ARTICLES TUTORIALS AND HOW-TOS RESOURCES [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingResources, Week of 27 June 2021
[ad_1] As I’ve shared in the last few articles for this category, I started sharing stuff on Twitter pretty regularly. But I don’t that much more either. So, given that I’ve started keeping a list of things in Apple Notes that I find useful, I thought I might as well return to form and share them here. They will probably have a much longer shelf-life and maybe reach more people between subscribers and tweeting out a link to the post. Week of 27 June 2021 Resources Now that I’ve been back on writing these posts for the last little while, this will likely be the last time I use a more-or-less canned intro to ease back into it. PHP Tools Articles and Questions Miscellaneous A few more than last week’s post, but still a bit more slim than I’d like. Nonetheless, there’s some cool stuff up here, right? 🙂 [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWordPress Green Lights In-Person Meetup Events for Vaccinated Attendees – WP Tavern
[ad_1] After considerable discussion, the WordPress Community Team is lifting the requirements of the in-person meetup safety checklist for meetups that gather fully-vaccinated attendees. The checklist is still applicable to all meetup groups but in places where vaccines are freely available, meetup organizers can now forego its requirements if they limit gatherings to those self-reporting as fully vaccinated. When Andrea Middleton proposed adding vaccination status to the checklist in mid-May, the idea was met with a wide range of concerns and strong opinions. WordPress’ global community has experienced the pandemic in different ways, living under a spectrum of local restrictions, with disparate access to vaccines and varying responses to available vaccines. Some participants in the discussions were concerned about organizers having to request information about vaccination status from attendees, which is illegal in many places. Middleton clarified that attendance would be based on the honor system, and organizers would not be requesting any health information from individuals. “The WordPress community team is not expecting or requiring local organizers to organize in-person events for fully-vaccinated people — we’re simply removing the barrier to doing so,” she said. The decision announcement includes a flow chart for the conditions that are now in place: Middleton characterized the proposal as contentious and something that may be an unpopular decision. Participants in the discussion got heated in expressing their opinions, which varied greatly based on each person’s unique pandemic experiences and convictions. While some think it overstepping to prohibit unvaccinated people from attending meetups, others think only allowing vaccinated attendees would create a “two-tiered” meetup program. “This proposal means that multiple groups of people will no longer be allowed to attend our meetings,” Taco Verdonschot commented. “They’re limited to the meetings that are streamed online. They’re basically second class citizens in our community now. They can’t join the party, they have to watch through the window. Just this idea makes me extremely uncomfortable.” Verdonschot cited several examples of people who might be excluded by the proposal to restart meetups for vaccinated attendees: People with a low income in areas where the vaccines aren’t provided for free Younger people in countries where vaccinations are administered to the elderly first, and only slowly make their way to the younger generations (like The Netherlands) People who cannot get a vaccination for medical reasons, for example, because of known allergic reactions to vaccinations Pregnant women People with a limited immune system People whose religion doesn’t allow them to get vaccinated “I realize there are some on the team who do not agree, and I hope that these guidelines are flexible enough that you are able to disagree and commit in this case,” Middleton said in the decision announcement. “While I agree that it’s only a matter of time when fully-vaxxed-only meetups are a thing of the past, I do think it’s important to make that possible for our communities.” Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
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