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Labs

Labs are hands-on coding projects that you build along with Tonya as she explains the code, concepts, and thought processes behind it. You can use the labs to further your code knowledge or to use right in your projects. Each lab ties into the Docx to ensure you have the information you need.

Each lab is designed to further your understanding and mastery of code. You learn more about how to think about its construction, quality, maintainability, programmatic and logical thought, and problem-solving. While you may be building a specific thing, Tonya presents the why of it to make it adaptable far beyond that specific implementation, thereby giving you the means to make it your own, in any context.

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PHP 101: Gentle Introduction to WordPress Programming

Why and how does WordPress use PHP?

Let’s talk about why and how does WordPress use PHP. Why does it use it? Because it’s a solid programming language for web development. It’s very popular and prevalent and powers the majority of websites. WordPress uses PHP to do all of its processing including figuring out what the URL’s web request is, what to go grab from the database, what files to load and when, validating user permissions, checking options, fetching post metadata, calling plugins, and calling the theme. It uses it to process form fields, image and document uploads, and so much more. It uses it to build […]

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PHP 101: Gentle Introduction to WordPress Programming

What is PHP? Why use it?

In this episode, you will learn why we use PHP as well as what it does. We’ll talk about what a programming language is. We’ll talk about its role in general terms. You’ll see that WordPress is built on PHP. That’s why each file has a .php file extension on it. PHP is a programming language that runs on a web server. We use it because it’s a popular language for web development. We use it because WordPress is built with it. PHP does the following for the web pages on our websites: Processes Builds Sends out to the browser […]

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PHP 101: Gentle Introduction to WordPress Programming

Lab Introduction

Let’s talk about the goals of this lab and what we are going to do. This is a gentle introduction to PHP for WordPress theme customizers, theme developers, plugin developers, and anyone who wants to get a basic understanding of the PHP programming language. In this episode, you’ll walk through setting up the test website that you’ll use in this lab. We’ll call this site: php-sandbox.dev. I’ll walk you through using DesktopServer, which is the local web server. You can download the free version to use in this lab. It literally takes about 60 seconds to spin up the new […]

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Let's Build the Collapsible Content Plugin - Part 1

Get the Element’s Index

The way we setup the HTML markup, the elements line up one-to-one. Therefore, if we grab the index of the clicked element, then we will be able to grab each of the needed elements. This strategy allows us to reduce our code as well as minimize hits to the DOM. We can go fetch the elements we need when the page loads and store those into a variable. That means, we don’t have to traverse the DOM on every click event. You’ll also get a quick explanation of this in JavaScript.

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Plugin Architecture

Let’s discuss the plugin architecture and build the folders and main files. We’ll think about the intent of the structure and each component. We’ll talk about why you want to build your code in modular format that complies to Single Responsibility Principle. Let’s build our file structure.

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Let's Build the Collapsible Content Plugin - Part 1

Lab Introduction

Let’s get you started on the right foot. This episode will introduce the lab to you. You’ll spin up a Sandbox development website and get UpDevTools installed.

Coming Soon

Collapsible Content Plugin with OOP

Collapsible Content Plugin with OOP – Part 4

The best way to learn OOP is to build convert something that you already know from procedural to OOP. That will make the thought processes and methodologies more relatable for you. In Part 4, you will convert the Collapsible Content Plugin from procedural to Object Oriented Programming (OOP).

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Ins and Outs of PHP Namespace for WordPress

Ins and Outs of PHP Namespace for WordPress

PHP Namespace gives you the means to encapsulate your code modules to improve readability and prevent code naming collisions. In this hands-on lab, you will migrate from prefixing convention to PHP namespacing. You will learn the ins and outs of namespacing.

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Yoda Conditions: To Yoda or Not to Yoda

Tonya explains the Yoda conditions programming style. She discusses its intent and the problem it seeks to solve. A handy guide and litmus test are included to help you decide when to use it in your programs. Both PHP and JavaScript examples are provided to test your knowledge.

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Let’s Build a Blog Intro Custom Plugin

Sanitize the Contents

Anything out of the database is not safe. It has to be sanitized before it is rendered out to the browser. Let’s talk about how to sanitize and which sanitizing function to use for the plugin. In this episode, you will see some nefarious code in action. Then you’ll try out two different sanitizing functions: esc_html wp_kses_post

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