Revisiting multi-column text
This set of features related to multi-column text is near and dear to my heart. I first researched this feature when I wrote about it for the Web Platform Documentation Project (since retired). The...
Using gulp-libsquoosh to replace Imagemin
All my Javascript projects include imagemin, a tool that allows you to convert images between different formats and do some level of processing to the images as it converts them. Unfortunately, the...
Creating epub3 content.opf file
One of the hardest files in an epub book is the content.opf manifest file. This file tells an epub reader what files are in a specific rendition of an ebook. There are three components to a...
Plugin Topics: JSON Block Configuration
Starting in WordPress 5.8, there is a JSON metadata file we can use to register blocks. The block.json file is the block-level equivalent to theme.json and is now the preferred way to register...
Plugin Topics: Meta boxes in the Block Editor
Meta boxes work in Gutenberg but they may not do so for a while or be the best solution for your needs. During the full migration to the Block Editor, WordPress Provides two compatibility flags. Most...
Color.js A CSS Color Tool in Javascript
CSS Color Module Level 4 and level 5 introduce a lot of new color features but unless you're really into the guts of working with colors on computers you probably wouldn't know how to use them. There...
Plugin Topics: Thinking about privacy
Privacy in the context of a web application like WordPress goes beyond legal requirements. It's also answering the following questions: What information we collect Why we collect it How we use it How...
Plugin Topics: Adding Plugin Admin Pages
If we want to allow users to configure our plugin, we can add menus to the admin pages either as a top-level menu or a submenu of an existing menu. When used with the settings and options APIs we get...
Plugin Topics: Meta Boxes and Cron
The next few items (Meta Boxes, and Cron) are nice to have, require a lot more work, and are not necessary for the majority of plugin projects. I include them here because I'm interested in what they...
Additional considerations for OOP plugin development
Rather than writing plugins (or any PHP code) procedurally, we can leverage Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) to write our plugins. OOP is easier to maintain and extend as the needs of the plugin...