Austin Ginder

Austin Ginder

Extracting Plugin Configurations with WP-CLI

When managing many WordPress websites for others, a common task is dealing with plugins. Often it’s not enough to be able to bulk install and activate a particular WordPress plugin but also have that plugin preloaded with a certain set…

Fixing TGM Plugin Activation for WordPress Updates

TGM Plugin Activation (TGMPA) is a discontinued PHP library that some WordPress authors use to handle distributing theme-required plugins. TGMPA was last updated in March of 2016, and with that age comes a bit of baggage. The main issue comes…

Restoring WordPress Navigation from a Database Backup

Restoring an entire WordPress backup should be a last resort. A selective restore should be the default when something is missing or corrupt. Some things are easy to restore, like a deleted theme or plugin. If you know what you’re…

WordPress Maintenance Should Be FREE

Unpopular opinion: routine WordPress maintenance should be free for everyone. Before I talk about WordPress let’s talk about alternative website solutions, which are not open source. Products like Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, and plenty of others are all propriety website solutions.…

Hidden WordPress Plugins Running In the Background

When looking at the WordPress plugin page you’d assume you’re seeing all of your plugins. Well, that’s not always true. Some active plugins take extra effort to hide themselves from /wp-admin/ and also WP-CLI. Let’s look at a few…

The Best and Worst Kinsta Features of 2023

This will be a very dated post so I’ll start off by saying today is Tuesday, September 26th, 2023. A year from now my thoughts on Kinsta’s best and worst features will change. That’s because the development team over at…

Longterm Server Logs With Kinsta

Have you ever attempted to review server logs only to find out it was too late? WordPress sites with Kinsta keep the last few days of server logs. That’s great for fixing an immediate issue, however, it’s not a good…

Fixing PDF Previews with Kinsta

Back in 2016 WordPress 4.7 added PDF thumbnail previews, meaning any PDF uploaded to WordPress would generate an image thumbnail. This handy feature improved viewing the image library and was also useful on the front end. I’m not sure when…

BASH Your Way Into WordCamp US 2023

WordCamp US returns to the east coast at the end of August. That’s only 3 months away! This is the big yearly WordPress community conference open to everyone. It’s the one conference I’ve regularly attended since 2015. A huge value…

Using Github To Self-Host Updates For WordPress Plugins

I recently converted my paid WordPress plugin WP Freighter into a free plugin. Have I mentioned before that I really dislike license keys? As a free plugin, there is no more need for license keys or Easy Digital Downloads. This…