To develop themes and plugins, I use the @wordpress/scripts package to do the build work. It comes with pre-defined webpack configs which work well for creating blocks and working within the requirements of the block editor. This post will assume you have familiarity with setting up your dev environment to make use of @wordpress/scripts. Recently […]

I was building a component for the block editor which accepts user input (i.e. a text search) and searches for matching posts. For various reasons I couldn’t use the <URLInput> component and needed to roll something more custom. I got stuck on this because when using the useSelect hook triggered by changes from a text […]

I’m a git user, and I always forget how to use SVN to update my WordPress plugins for the official plugins repository listing. Here is a reminder to myself. This assumes you have svn installed on your system already. The first thing is to make the updates in the git tracked folder. Don’t make them […]

Finding just the right sounds or music to listen to while doing web development can be tricky. Sometimes downtempo house music is called for. Other times a noise generator will do nicely. Then there are days for Megadeth or Bach’s solo cello suites. Here are some of my most-used offerings with music and/or sounds for […]

Creating a full-fledged Vue.js application inside a WordPress plugin takes a little bit of special setup to the two code libraries working together. Here I’ll show the way I’ve been solving this, though I’m sure it’s not the only way. I’m going to skip a number of prerequisites: I’ll assume you already have the vue-cli […]

I often listen to Soma FM internet radio while at work, but I do not like their radio UI. So this seemed like a good opportunity to stretch my Vue.js muscles. This is a project I’ve been working on little by little for some time. I invite you to try it out and let me […]

Check out my latest article series on the Bates Web Technologies site:

I just posted a new plugin to embed New York Times bestseller Lists on your site. It’s geared towards libraries, but it will work well for any use. Check it out, it’s cool! This was also my first experience listing a plugin in the WordPress plugin directory, which was interesting and not at all the […]

Today, on February 9, 2018 at 1pm EST, I say goodbye to my first real developer laptop. A MacBook Pro from 2014. The keyboard is the best I’ve ever used (like typing on hard butter) and I will miss it greatly. Barely ever had an ounce of trouble with this beauty. We’ve been through so […]

Recently, as a fun way to work on my Vue.js skills, I built an interface for the library catalog of our local libraries. Sadly, the system that the libraries use doesn’t have an API component (meaning a javascript interface like what I built would have no way to digest the data from the catalog). So […]