November 13, 2017

October 23, 2017 — Drew Poland is a freelance WordPress developer in the Baltimore area specializing in custom theme design & development. He is also a regular WordCamp speaker.

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August 15, 2017 — Using ready-made plugins can make your website more effective and efficient. But do you sometimes find it overwhelming to pick a plugin that is right for your situation?

The panelists will address issues about including new functionality in your project using various plugins.

Questions from the audience are encouraged during the plugin panel session.

Examples:

Are there any “best practice tips” to find right plugins?
Can a site ever have too many plugins?
Are premium plugins always better than free plugins?
What is the best way to get support for a plugin?
What happens to a site when an installed plugin is deactivated?
Can the code be changed in plugin files without breaking it?

August 12, 2017 — Developers have spent countless hours working on a plugin that seems to be built just for you, just for this moment. If only it wouldn’t… This is a problem nearly every developer faces at some point during a project. Knowing how to safely customize functionality is key to building products that will stand the test of time (or major updates.)

This talk will cover the following topics:

Tips for diving into a large codebase (like WooCommerce or Gravity Forms)
Hooks
Filters
Overwriting functions
Modifying returned content
Requesting a change to a plugin

August 6, 2017 — Plugins are what lets WordPress power so much of the web – all kinds of customizability in only a few clicks! Let’s talk about the WordPress Plugin ecosystem, learn how to identify good plugins from bad ones, and compare paid versus free plugins. I’ll also share my top list of awesome plugins to push WordPress way past a simple blog.

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July 17, 2017 — One of the most confusing (and exciting) features of using WordPress is Plugins! But how do you know for sure which ones you absolutely need and which you should avoid at all costs?
In this session, Christina Hills will walk you though, step-by-step, the various types of plugins you might need as well as how to properly evaluate and install them. Discover which free plugins are essential and know when and if you should upgrade to the Pro version. You’ll also learn the exact steps to take when a plugin goes “bad” so your website is up and running in no time.
Attend this session and you’ll walk away fully understanding the Wonderful World of WordPress Plugins!

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April 29, 2017 — The best thing about WordPress can sometimes also be the worst thing about WordPress: Plugins and Themes. Lucy will give you the tools you need to understand why your site breaks, how to find the cause, and how to fix it.

April 14, 2017 — Hai mai pensato che lavorare con WordPress sia qualcosa che solamente gli esperti di tecnologia possono fare?
Pensi che il tuo essere principiante totale con WordPress non ti permetta di essere d’aiuto agli altri?

Vorrei condividere la mia esperienza su come ho iniziato a lavorare per una società WordPress, lottando contro la mia sindrome dell’impostore eppure riuscendo ad aiutare le persone rispondendo alle loro domande tecniche.

Sono sempre stata un’utilizzatrice standard di WordPress: la mia esperienza si limitava ad avere un blog su WordPress.com
Ma un giorno, dopo essere riuscita a risolvere un problema tecnico grazie al supporto di un agente Automattic, mi sono chiesta: come ha fatto questa persona a trovare lavoro con WordPress?
Sono così andata a curiosare la pagina ufficiale degli annunci di lavoro WordPress e ho trovato un annuncio di WP Media che cercava un agente di supporto multi-lingue da remoto per uno dei loro plugin.

Non avevo mai lavorato in ambito IT, eppure ho deciso di provarci lo stesso. Ho offerto la mia esperienza di lavoro nel servizio al cliente e la conoscenza di diverse lingue: ma non avevo nessuna conoscenza del codice e sapevo a malapena leggere HTML.
Come potevo essere capace di lavorare nel servizio al cliente per un plugin di cache?

Eppure i miei compagni di WP Media hanno voluto darmi fiducia. Sono entrata nel gruppo sentendomi inadeguata, come la Penny di The Big Bang Theory, circondata virtualmente da nuovi colleghi che mangiavano WordPress per colazione.
La parte più difficile è stata rendermi conto che non conoscevo veramente WordPress e che dovevo approcciarlo da un punto di vista totalmente nuovo, partendo dal back-end.

È così che ha inizio il mio percorso “impara WordPress da zero”, fatto da lezioni di PHP, video-chiamate quotidiane con i miei colleghi e centinaia di domande sul nostro canale Slack.

Da poco ho celebrato il mio primo anno di lavoro con WP Media e quasi non riconosco la Alice che non capiva le domande tecniche dei clienti e aveva paura di rispondere ai loro ticket di supporto su HelpScout.

Siete curiosi di conoscere il resto della storia?

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April 14, 2017 — WordPress Plugins are powerful tools that let us extend WordPress and turn it into whatever we want. What’s their secret? Join me if you want to know more about them and get started developing your own Plugin! I’ll tell you a story about magic, dangerous pirates, brave bowmen and ancient castles…

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April 13, 2017 — A dive into the mistakes we as developers make and the best practices we can employ in object-oriented programming and design. We start with an example plugin and remove issues addressed using the STUPID principles. We then apply the five basic principles of SOLID design ending up with a word class WordPress plugin.

STUPID: (Singleton, Tight Coupling, Untestability, Premature Optimization, Indescriptive Naming, Duplication)

SOLID (Single Responsibility Principle, Open/Closed Principle, Liskov Substitution Principle, Interface Segregation Principle, Dependency Inversion Principle)