Order Bender 0.6.0

Posted by in WordPress > Plugins

The previous version of Order Bender stopped working with recent versions of WordPress due to a change in the underlying functionality of the get_the_terms filter. This release rectifies that issue. Note, however, that this version requires WordPress 4.2 or newer.

I know I said this on the last release, but eventually, Order Bender will make it into the official WordPress.org plugin repository so everyone will get update notifications. Until then, you’ll have to manually update (by first deleting and then re-installing).

Installation is quite easy:

  1. Download the Master branch zip archive from GitHub
  2. In your WordPress Dashboard navigate to the plugin uploader (Plugins > Add New > Upload)
  3. Upload the zip archive
  4. Activate and enjoy!

You can keep up with day to day development via the Order Bender’s GitHub Repository.

-John Havlik

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Breadcrumb NavXT 5.2.2

Posted by in WordPress > Plugins

This is the second, bug fix release of the 5.2 branch of Breadcrumb NavXT. It fixes a bug, introduced in 5.2.1, where the current item would only use the internal default breadcrumb templates rather than the correct breadcrumb template from the settings. Additionally, the set of translations that ship with Breadcrumb NavXT were updated to include all current translations with 90% or higher completeness. Finally, a bug in the logic for the multisite settings mode warning in the settings page (when BCN_SETTINGS_USE_NETWORK is defined) has been fixed, previously it would throw PHP warnings.

As always, you can grab the latest version of Breadcrumb NavXT from the Breadcrumb NavXT page. If you experience any issues with this version of Breadcrumb NavXT, please leave a comment on this post detailing the issue.

-John Havlik

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Breadcrumb NavXT 5.2.1

Posted by in WordPress > Plugins

This is the first, and hopefully only, bug fix release of the 5.2 branch of Breadcrumb NavXT. Four bugs relating to the breadcrumb trail for attachments were fixed, a bug relating to support for search pretty permalinks, a bug relating to how empty URLs are handled by Breadcrumb NavXT, and a bug in the text domain and domain path in the plugin header were fixed.

For the attachment bugs, attachments to the front page and the page post type now have the proper breadcrumb trail generated, without PHP warnings. Additionally, media that has not been attached to a post/page now have proper breadcrumb trails generated.

As always, you can grab the latest version of Breadcrumb NavXT from the Breadcrumb NavXT page. If you experience any issues with this version of Breadcrumb NavXT, please leave a comment on this post detailing the issue.

-John Havlik

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10 Years Using WordPress

Posted by in General

Ten years ago, this blog was created. Sure, I had written a few posts on another platform. However, it was ten years ago that I made my first post within WordPress (version 1.5 at the time). JD had just setup a WordPress install for me on Weblogs.us, and the post was a simple “This is my new blog” type post (no longer available).

Since then, I adopted and rewrote a plugin that is now approaching 2 Million downloads and an estimated 300k active users. By no means was this my first plugin, and it is not the last one I will create (something new will be arriving late this summer). While I had been playing with (x)HTML and CSS for years before WordPress even existed, I learned PHP through extending WordPress—some purists may cringe at the thought, but that is not my problem.

Additionally, I have had the opportunity to be a server administrator for Weblogs.us, starting back when we still ran Apache on Windows. Since that time, we’ve moved to Gentoo/Funtoo Linux VM guests on top of the hardware. And, in late May, we will begin migrating select Weblogs.us users to new Nginx+PHP-FPM setup running on top of some new hardware.

Lastly, I’ve attended 6 WordCamps, and have presented at 5 of them on 6 different topics in 8 sessions. This includes all 3 times WordCamp Minneapolis has been held, thus far. This year, I plan on attending more WordCamps than I’ve been able to in the past (really want to get to Austin and out to the West Coast). Not only are they a great excuse to see new cities, they are a great place to meet members of the WordPress community in person.

-John Havlik

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I’m Speaking at WordCamp Minneapolis 2015

Posted by in Announcements

My presentation titled “Writing (more) Secure Plugins” was accepted into developer’s track for WordCamp Minneapolis 2015. This presentation aims to enlighten WordPress plugin developers of common attacks and preventative measures that should be taken within any WordPress plugin.

Topics covered include: Plugin security best practices, data sanitization (and validation), action authorization, and permissions. As always, this is a non-exhaustive list of the topics I’ll cover but it should give a feel for what I’ll be talking about.

-John Havlik

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