The Ghost open source blogging project had an interesting path to get to where it is today. John O’Nolan, the project’s creator, originally introduced the idea of his pure blogging platform as a “WordPress-lite fork.” After a great deal of deliberation, O’Nolan decided not to fork WordPress and instead opted to built his application on…
Markdown has finally made its way to Jetpack after it was added to WordPress.com a couple months ago. The new Markdown module in Jetpack 2.8 gives you the option to write and edit rich text without having to write code or reach for your mouse. If you’re not familiar with Markdown, here’s what it looks…
If you’re like me, you can never remember the shortcodes you have active on your WordPress site. This inevitably leads you to stop what you’re doing and hunt down the documentation for the feature you’re attempting to use. This is especially true when it’s a shortcode that can be configured with multiple attributes. What if…
In the show we talk about the ten plugins that John installs on every client site and why simplicity is often the most difficult concept for clients to grasp. So pull up a chair, grab a cold one and join me in my conversation with John Overall.
There’s nothing more fun than exploring different interface ideas for the WordPress publishing process. Over the past several months we’ve featured a number of plugins that are vying for the best way to edit content on the front end. Sir Trevor WP is a new plugin that presents an alternative way to edit content within…
As Matt Mullenweg predicted in the State of the Word address in 2013, this new year brings with it a growing excitement around building applications based on WordPress. The launch of AppPresser, the first mobile application framework for WordPress, produced a healthy buzz around the idea and now the community is primed for more. Ryan…
The WordPress Plugin Directory currently lists more than 29,000 plugins. It’s the first stop for any WordPress user looking to extend the capabilities of the software. With over 585 million downloads and a massive worldwide user base, it takes a dedicated team to monitor the quality and security of so many extensions. I had the…
There are many factors that come into play when deciding where to host your open source WordPress plugin or theme. Who is your target audience? How much support do you want to offer? Is the project open for collaboration? For many developers this choice often comes down to WordPress.org vs. GitHub. In the past, hosting…
CodePen has released an official plugin for embedding pens in WordPress. If you haven’t yet discovered CodePen, it’s basically a virtual playground for frontend developers and browsing the site can be addictive. It’s a place where you can write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code in your browser and then see an instant preview. Each collection…
The WordPress plugin repository hosts dozens of extensions for accepting donations and includes everything from plugins for creating donation forms to plugins that implement full-on CRM solutions for non-profits. But what if you just want to make it easy for supporters to buy you a coffee? tinyCoffee is a new plugin that caught my eye…
This week the WordPress Front-end Editor team posted its progress on the Make WordPress UI development blog. Front-end editing capabilities are being developed as a feature plugin and will hopefully be considered for inclusion in the core sometime this year. It currently looks a little something like this: The plugin has improved by leaps and…
Can you believe that there are already ten plugins available for customizing WordPress admin color schemes? This feature has been popular among plugin developers since the new admin design was added in the 3.8 release. We’ve selected ten plugins that offer a wide variety of ways to customize and control admin color schemes. Many of…
When OS X Mavericks was released, one of the new features added to the operating system was Safari Push Notifications. The notifications use the new Apple Push Notifications service to notify users of new events. Since the feature was added to OS X Mavericks, there have been a number of services built around it. Roost…
Google released its first plugin for self-hosted WordPress sites today. Google Publisher is now in beta and available on WordPress.org. The WordPress community is invited to test it out. So far, the plugin includes two main features: Easily add AdSense ads to your site to make money from advertising. Verify your site with Webmaster Tools…
While browsing the ThemeHybrid support forums, I came across an individual who shared a project he was working on called WP-Editor. While the plugin is not called WP-Editor, there are three plugins that make up the project that enhance the visual editor of WordPress. They are: WP Editor Boxes Add-on WP Editor Buttons Add-on WP…