Self portrait where I'm only visible from the eyes-up and hanging upside down from the top of the frame.

From the Desk of Brian Richards

A collection of thoughts and Ideas from Brian Richards, creator of WPSessions.com

Category: Development

  • Conditionally change JetPack Infinite Scroll trigger to “click” or “scroll”

    Earlier today I was trying to change the “type” for JetPack’s Infinite Scroll behavior to use “click” only for the front page. For all other archives I wanted JetPack to use the standard “scroll” type (you know, the namesake for Infinite Scrolling). I think the infinite_scroll_has_footer_widgets filter is the right choice, but is_front_page() isn’t yet…

  • Serve Missing Media from a Production Server via Apache/Nginx

    When working on a website locally, it can become quite tedious to pull down all media from a production environment – particularly if you just need to spot-check one or two key areas. In some cases, the production sites I work with have media folders that are more than 1GB (!!) in size. In fact, it’s not…

  • Becoming a Better Developer: Week 1 Review

    This past week has been absolutely packed with new knowledge. I’ve distilled it as best I can for now. I hope future travellers will benefit from this as much as I have. Getting Started This past week I read the first four chapters of Clean Code and several relevant blog articles: The Case Against Singletons in…

  • Becoming a Better Developer: Week 1 Schedule

    This week marks the beginning of my 16 week “Becoming a Better Developer” course. Starting today I’ll be reading the first four chapters of Clean Code: Clean Code Meaningful Names Functions Comments I’ve looked ahead, and I’m really excited by some of the excerpts I’ve read. I’m particularly enthused by Uncle Bob’s strong emphasis on…

  • Becoming a Better Developer

    As I stated last week, for the next four months I’m putting myself through code school. Objective and Plan In order to do this right, I’ve outlined a 16 week plan that has me reading 5 books and recording what I’m learning. Every Monday I’ll write about the chapters I intend to read and what…

  • Becoming a Better Developer: Precursor

    Here are a few posts I’ve read recently that have helped get me in the frame of mind for the semester of learning I’m designing for myself. How to Become a Better Developer: Straight Talk High Quality PHP Why Can’t Programmers Program? 7 Ways to be a Better Programmer in 2014 Deliberately Practice Programming How…

  • Back to Basics

    This year, my goal is to become a better developer than I was last year. Now, that’s no different than my goal in previous years, and if you’re a developer it should be pretty high on your list of goals as well. However, this year I’m approaching the goal in a measurable, tangible way. I’m…

  • Recommended Reading for Developers – Building a Better Bookshelf

    This year I want to become a measurably better developer. One way I hope to improve in that regard is by reading the best books that have been written on the topic of programming and development. Now, I would consider myself a web developer – I’ve been building websites for the better part of 17…

  • Developing for Success

    This post originally appeared on WPStartBox.com shortly after this event took place in 2011. I’ve resurrected it to include as part of my own blog. WordCamp Chicago 2011 I presented on “Developing for Success -or- Any Fool Can Do This”. The talk encompassed how I took a leap of faith and launched StartBox and all of…

  • Configuring a Local Apache/PHP/MySQL Dev Environment in OS X

    Update: If you’re just getting started now, I strongly recommend looking into Vagrant instead of rolling your own environment like I describe. I still use the exact environment I detail below, but am leaning towards Vagrant soon. If you’re a WordPress developer, specifically check out Varying Vagrant Vagrants (VVV) by 10up.   PREFACE These are…