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WordPress still needs a better shortcode parser.

WordPress 5.0 has now been released, with the new block syntax front and center. This data structure is completely new, and lays on top of all the existing structures that modify post-content, such as shortcodes, leaving many people wondering “why didn’t they just use shortcodes to store block data?”. There are several reasons for this, one of them being the Gutenberg team’s preference for HTML comments since they default to being un-rendered by browsers. However, the biggest reason for the switch that I can see is a bit more fundamental than that. Simply put, shortcode parsing in WordPress is terrible! read more »

If WordPress 5.0 broke your site, here’s how to fix it.

Posted on by gschoppe

WordPress 5.0 is launching tomorrow, and the internet is likely to be flooded with searches for this question when many people update to WordPress 5.0. Some users will be unable to edit pages that they have made, and others will be unable to even access their edit screen. There may even be 500 errors or white screens for some users. These issues will mostly effect WordPress sites running older or unsupported themes or plugins, but may affect some brand-new sites as well.

The process for fixing these errors is well known among WordPress developers, but for the many people who use WordPress as a tool and not a livelihood, this can be a major issue, and there isn’t currently a clear source for information on remediating the issue.

So, in order to make things simpler for these users, I’ve compiled a simple set of steps to get your site back up and running: read more »

Cross-Browser Responsive Honeycomb Grid

Posted on by gschoppe

As a developer who sometimes dabbles in designs, I can’t even begin to describe how sick I am of rectangles. Because of the limitations of CSS, almost everything in websites is wrapped in a rectangle that is wrapped in other rectangles. Even designs that incorporate circular images and content wrappers align them in rectangular grids. The css clip-path property will help somewhat, allowing rectangles to be masked into other shapes, but the fundamental grid remains rectangular. Until now. read more »

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Are all WordPress Plugins and Themes Open Source? It’s not a simple answer.

Posted on by gschoppe

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on reddit telling users that they can do whatever they want with WordPress themes and plugins, and demand or pirate free copies of paid themes and plugins, because they’re all GPL licensed. Unfortunately, this isn’t the whole story. I figure it’s time to clear the air about how this all works.

Note: I am not a lawyer, and one of the most important things to take away from this article is that you shouldn’t make your own legal interpretations without the support of a lawyer, specializing in intellectual property law. read more »