By: Ryan Kienstra on: January 5, 2015 in: WordPress VIP
Many of the WordPress VIP coding standards are meant to ensure that caching works. So these standards can help most sites that use caching. Batcache is the full-page caching system that WordPress VIP sites use. After a set number of requests for the same page, it saves a copy and serves it to new visitors. It […] Read more
By: Ryan Kienstra on: January 4, 2015 in: Security, WordPress VIP
Some of the coding standards for the WordPress VIP platform are similar to the normal WP standards. Developers with plugins and themes on wordpress.org will know them. But these become more important in the high-volume VIP multi-sites. These practices can improve security and performance of any WordPress site. Remote Requests Use the WordPress APIs, like […] Read more
By: Ryan Kienstra on: January 3, 2015 in: Security, WordPress VIP
Never assume anything. That’s a core principle of the WordPress VIP Standards. Don’t assume that data is secure. Even if it was validated on input. Even if an administrator entered it. Almost all PHP values should be escaped when they’re echoed. This will guard against malicious scripts. And ensure that the display isn’t broken by the […] Read more
By: Ryan Kienstra on: December 31, 2014 in: Security, WordPress VIP
Lessons From The VIP Standards All data entered on a site should be checked, no mattter who entered it. Even the administrator could click a malicious link. There are two methods of securing WordPress input: validation and sanitization. As with any security issue, use the most restrictive measure you can. Therefore, Prefer Validation to Sanitization Validation […] Read more
By: Ryan Kienstra on: December 23, 2014 in: Plugins, Programming
Starting a software project is exciting. But it’s good to uncover as many challenges as you can. Before you start. Here are my first steps in estimating WordPress development cost. Think of all possible challenges in your project, based on your use cases. For each one, ask: 1. What’s the challenge? 2. Can you solve it? 3. How hard is […] Read more
By: Ryan Kienstra on: December 8, 2014 in: Bash, Programming
It’s hard to remember all of the commands and snippets you use. And looking them up from a file takes you out of your “flow.” But if you’re at the bash prompt, here’s how to find your commands in 2 seconds. For example, I have a sed command that I use to remove the space before semicolons. By entering […] Read more
By: Ryan Kienstra on: November 14, 2014 in: Programming
As a development environment for WordPress, Varying Vagrant Vagrants has many tools. It also has the latest branches of the WordPress core. To get started, install VirtualBox and Vagrant if you need to. Even if your host machine runs Ubuntu, it’s best to install them from their websites. Ubuntu’s apt-get doesn’t have the most recent version of Vagrant. If […] Read more
By: Ryan Kienstra on: October 25, 2014 in: Marketing
See exactly what your email will look like before sending it. Here’s how to create, preview (2:06), and send (5:19) an email: When you log in to MailChimp, click “Create A Campaign.” Each mass-email is called a “campaign.” Select all of your options. When you get to the screen to edit your email, click the “Preview and Test” tab […] Read more