Show Takeaways

You should sign up for Zac’s JavaScript for WP course!

Zac’s course will help you deeply learn JavaScript In WordPress. His course will cover JavaScript methods and principles that apply to all types of JavaScript rather than specific JS frameworks.

The course will teach you how to develop a JavaScript application using WordPress, the REST API and JavaScript.

Mentors are fabulous to help you make decisions when you’re writing an online course.

Show Notes

• Zac tells us how he first started using WordPress.
• We learn how long it used to take Zac to create, record and edit WordPress tutorials for Team Treehouse.
• 2016 is “The Year of The WordPress” course.
• We touch on a few LMS plugins.
• We chat about different JavaScript frameworks that Zac has used and the differences between them.
• We ask Zac when he first started using the REST API.
• Zac shares how choosing the best user authentication for the REST API is a difficult task.
• We chat about WordPress themes powered by the REST API and PHP fallbacks.
• Zac shares how important his WordPress mentors have been for helping make decisions with his course.
• What can a WordPress PHP dev expect to take away from Zac’s course?
• Tom pops in for some rapid-fire questions.

Get In Touch With Zac

You can find Zac on Twitter and you can sign up for Zac’s JavaScript for WordPress course.

Show Takeaways

Integration testing can be fun!

WP-API Course came about because there was nothing at the time, and Tim need to feed his family.

All 3 talk what it’s like as ManageWP moderators

Tim, the organizer of WordPress Leeds, the oldest WordPress user group in the UK, joins Tom and Jason to chat all things WordPress, the API, and WordPress hosting.  Tim is the WordPress Platform Lead and Developer Advocate at 34SP.com as well as author of the WP-API Online Course.

Show Notes

• Tim boosts that WordPress Leeds is the oldest WordPress group in the UK.  Beating out London by one week.
• Tim has been working with the JSON API for close to 6 years.
• Testing and “enterprise-y” sort of development has intrigued Tim for quite some time. As a result feels that these sorts of topics should be spoken about and learned by all developers.
• Codeception allows for human readable tests that can be written by anyone.
• We chatted about how jobs and life gets in the way of the greater good.
• WP-CFM manage and deploy WordPress configurations.
• Responsibility of a host vs customer in regards to their websites.

Get In Touch With Tim

You can find Tim on Twitter and on his website.

Show Takeaways

Caldera Forms makes designing responsive forms in WordPress easy especially when it comes to forms with split columns.

You should buy all the courses on the WordPress REST API!!!

Everyone has their own preferred JavaScript framework. Josh ❤️’s Angular JS!

Use Ingot for your WordPress A/B & multivariate testing.

In today’s episode we geek out with Josh Pollock about all kinds of WordPress goodness. You’ve probably seen Josh on loads of WordPress sites as he’s a developer of Caldera Forms, Ingot, he’s written a book on the WordPress REST API and he’s also releasing a WordPress REST API course!

Show Notes

• Josh tells us how he stumbled across WordPress.
• Josh tells us about how he started contributing to Caldera Forms.
• We learn how Caldera Forms is different from the other WordPress form builder plugins.
• Josh tells us about Ingot. A new WordPress A/B testing plugin that uses the WordPress REST API and Angular JS.
• We chat about the WordPress API infrastructure getting into core and the impact this has on plugins and projects.
• Josh tells us about his WordPress REST API course that’s being released soon. Sign up now and save $25!

Get In Touch With Josh

You can find Josh on Twitter and on his website.

Show Takeaways

Start the 3:40 mark where Tom and I discuss 2016 goals as there was some technical difficulties

Tom and Jason enjoy the social interaction maybe even more so than the sessions at conferences

Jason is looking at Snapchat as a source of engagement for other freelancers

Tom is looking for a potential opportunity in building a Raspberry Pi device to help people

On this episode Tom and Jason hang out because we had some major fails. Technical issues, video and audio quality, and some general rust that we need to shake off. Our intention is to have a series of guests to come on board to help us see the landscape of Javascript and WordPress. Scott Bolinger was supposed to be our first guest, however there were some difficulties and he dropped off the show. Tom and Jason took the ball and went off on a tangent of a few different things such as Raspberry Pi, Snapchat, selfie sticks, and other items that are linked up below.

Show Notes

• Tom and Jason talk about how they don’t really set yearly resolutions, but set out the year with some general goals in mind.
• Scott has some technical difficulties and pulls his chair away from the table at around 16:15 mark.
• WP Dev Table’s schedule of guest – Josh Pollock, Tim Nash, and Zac Gordon all talking about WordPress, Javascript, and some other fun things.
• Are we going to attend WooConf, Pressnomics? Which WordCamps we plan on attending?
• Engaging and meeting people at conferences that you work with virtually.
• Tom bought a selfie stick for himself. And a laptop battery that seems really cool.
• Jason has started using Snapchat for telling the story of his business, showing behind the scenes of his work day, and giving valuable tips and tricks for freelancers to shape their business. Follow him on Snapchat: jasonresnick
  
• Tom has been thinking about getting into the hardware space with Raspberry Pi to help folks with disabilities know what phone calls need to be made and have been made. Anyone know if there’s a product like this out there? Please let us know.
• Mod an Aeropress to help the action of pushing it down.
• Amazon Echo and automating Todos.

Get In Touch With Jason and Tom on Twitter

Show Takeaways

Take a look at Bourbon and Neat instead of Foundation or Bootstrap for more control over complex grids

Bronson shared about how to use Node for manipulating Posts and Meta

Everyone working with WordPress can offer up and help WordPress and the community

On this episode we hangout and chat about what we’ve been up to lately on the heels of WordCamp NYC where Tom and I spoke and Tom helped with organizing it and running Contributor Day and Bronson has travelled the world working on client sites.

Show Notes

• Jason talks about why he shut WP Field Guides down and opening it up for the community.
• Jason runs his own mini-marathon prior to speaking at WCNYC.
• Bronson talked about an interesting Joomla migration into Site Origin Page Builder widgets.
• Tom shares his experience organizing WCNYC and speaking there.
• Tom has been working with Underscore and Mustache.
• We chat about Continuous Integration and the various tools like Travis, Deploybot, and Jenkins and how we all are using them in various capacities.
• Gulp vs Grunt
• Should BDD and/or Integration Tests be more of a practice within WordPress with things like Codeception?
• Jason has done some branding and got stickers as well….if you want one, just ask.

Get In Touch With Us

You can find WP Dev Table on Twitter.

Show Takeaways

Pods has over 30,000+ active installs and is actively maintained.

Developing a Fields API for WordPress is hard because so many plugins and developers have created their own custom fields APIs.

Having a WordPress mentor like Helen Hou-Sandi is very beneficial for Scott and this Feature Plugin.

You should test and give feedback for the WordPress Fields API.

On this episode we hangout with Scott Kingsley Clark who works for 10up. Scott’s been maintaining and championing the WordPress plugin Pods and also leading the WordPress Fields API feature plugin for possible inclusion in WordPress core.

Show Notes

• Scott tells us about his history and how he got into WordPress.
• Scott tells us about the WordPress plugin Pods and how the Drupal CCK that started the plugin.
• Plans for Pods Version 3 and integrating it with CMB2.
• We talk about the WordPress Fields API project and how a mentor helps with Feature Plugins for WordPress core.
• Scott talks about the goals that need to be meet to make Core Fields a success.
• We talk about repeatable fields and various ways to store this meta in a performant way.
• Scott wants your feedback on the WordPress Fields API project.

Get In Touch With Scott

You can find Scott on Twitter.

Show Takeaways

Drupal and WordPress can co-exist

Throw right into the fire and work it out as a group (for transitioning platforms)

Don’t have preconceived notions to which platform is best and let the client requirements decide which one will work out

We hung out with Ethan Hinson, Senior Architect from Blue Tent. Blue Tent started out as a Drupal shop however found some inefficiencies with the theming layer for some client projects. Ethan took it upon himself to explore WordPress for the company and laid out a product to sell to potential clients built on WordPress.

Seeing as he is the principal architect for Blue Tent and managing developers and projects in both platforms, we thought we’d bring him on the show to chat.

Show Notes

Drupal

• With PSR-0 namespacing, modern PHP coding standards, and that Drupal is committed to RESTful web services coming, it’s an exciting time in the Drupal comunity
• Blue Tent is using Drupal building mobile applications by using Ionic
• Drupal will be used for the foreseeable future due to a 12 year investment to a proprietary piece of software

WordPress

• Early adopters of the API using 1.x branch moving to 2.x branch doesn’t seem daunting
• Ethan highly recommends learning Bourbon and Neat
• Day #1, deployment, continuous integration and provisioning happens with all projects
• Use Jenkins to handle all the automated processed for setting up staging sites, ticket resolution, etc
• Use Behat for behavioral driven tests rather than Unit tests
• Talk about the Fields API and some existing faults with the current solutions

Transitioning from Drupal to WordPress

• Developers weren’t kicking and screaming to use WordPress, but the sales and account managers were
• Loads of education for the developers, alongside the rest of the company
• Just get into it and see what happens then share experiences

Get In Touch With Ethan

You can find Ethan on Twitter and Blue Tent website.

Show Takeaways

WordCamps, APIs, and Beer – what more can a developer ask for in a show

“Excited for all the newcomers due to the growth of the API”

Today we had the pleasure of hanging out with Julien Melissas from Craftpeak and one of the organizers of WordCamp Asheville.

Show Notes

WCAVL

• Big growth within the community
• Julien’s favorite session was being a part of a dev panel talking about the WP API
• Having so many choices in which tool you are using, makes for interesting conversations, but also makes for new people to join in that may have not done so in the past

WP API and Fields API

• Julien likes using Ember with the API but identifies some pain points
• Sometimes it’s best to just choose what fits best with the project and then move forward
• Hopefully the Fields API will take a look at CMB for some aspects that work nicely

Get In Touch With Julien

You can find Julien on Twitter and on his website.

Today we had the pleasure of hanging out with Jason Cosper from WP Engine.

Show Notes

Jasons day to day role

• There is no such thing as a typical day.
• Jason joined WP Engine as employee number 5 almost 4 years ago.
• Jason recently traveled to WC Orange County where he got to talk about HHVM.
• Related Posts plugins are fantastic at being non-performant.

WP Engine Hardware, Software & Tech

• Elasticsearch is currently available in beta on WPE and may be coming to a site near you in the not so distant future.
• GeoIP allows sites to display different content based on a users location.
• Mercury is WPE’s neat HHVM platform and Vagrant install.
• Git on WPEngine.

Get In Touch With Jason

You can find Jason on Twitter and on his website.

Show Takeaways

Get your developer into the conversations about the project as early as possible.

“We are all working together for a successful and beautiful project”

Collaboration is key

Today we are excited to hangout with the very entertaining and passionate Mike Kelly.  Mike works as a consultant for his clients, bridging the gap between developers and designers.  He’s also the man behind The Grumpy Developer Podcast in which he brings on designers, developers, and project managers who share their journey, experiences and knowledge.

Mike is a very passionate guy as you can see in today’s show. We are lucky to have him on as this is his very first show where he’s the one in the hot seat.

Show Notes

Working with Developers

• Bridging the gap between design and development can be avoided by communication early on in the project.
• Being able to speak to designers and business folks as a developer is critical to understanding the thoughts and goals behind the designs.
• Developers are not all grumpy people eating cheetos!
• We all want to work on beautiful projects; we are all on the same team.

The Grumpy Developer Podcast

• Mike’s target is to broadcast every weekday. Already shifted gears with the format, but the goal is to remain a 5-day a week show.
• Ask for help! The show takes a tremendous amount of work and there’s no reason to not bring on others to manage parts of the show.
• The goal is to share experiences of the web as it grows with a wide audience. As the web grows, everything seems to come together and cross paths.

Web Professionals Guild

• A collaborative effort of professionals to communicate and share their expertise with each other.
• A beta will be released in August.

Get In Touch With Jeremy

You can find Mike on Twitter, Podcast or you can contact him through his website.