Blog

  • Powering WordPress with Gmail

    Improving email deliverability from WordPress is best handled with a 3rd party service like Mailgun. That said, setting up Mailgun requires technical knowledge. You need to add new DNS verification…

  • Email Triggers for Simple History

    Getting notified when critical plugins are updated is something I sometimes get asked about after a bad plugin update takes place. While there are many ways this can be accomplished,…

  • Local Lightning and Upgrading to WSL2

    If you’re a web developer and using Windows, then WSL2 is an exciting upgrade. It’s Microsoft’s completely new Windows subsystem for Linux and comes with some pretty fantastic performance improvements.…

  • Experimental Stackable WordPress Mode

    WordPress can be configured as a standalone site or a multisite network. Ever since I wrote about Dynamically Load WordPress Database, I kept wondering if that method could be used…

  • Extracting Compressed Files from the Command Line

    Spend enough time on the command line and your bound to memorize a few common commands like zip -r backup.zip wp-content/ and unzip backup.zip. Compressing files and extracting them is…

  • Performance Enhancements with Kinsta

    I host over 1000 WordPress sites with Kinsta and am a huge fan of their hosting services. Performance related issues with Kinsta are almost always plugin and theme related. Kinsta…

  • Common WordPress Maintenance Woes

    Keeping WordPress running smoothly requires some routine maintenance. Most of the time that’s easily handled by regularly installing routine updates. However in rare cases routine maintenance can be a battle.…

  • Using Phpseclib Instead of Disallowed PHP exec

    Many web hosts disable a handful of built-in PHP functions like exec for security sake. And for good reason. If your website would ever run harmful PHP code, having access…

  • Preserving Customizer Settings

    Most themes utilize the WordPress Customizer in order to config and setup the website. Unfortunately, many of these settings are specific to whichever theme you are using. That means if…

  • Self-hosting Jitsi Meet with Digital Ocean

    Video conferencing usage is increasing exponentially. Google Hangouts has been my preferred tool however Google’s plans to phase it out in favor of their paid product Google Meet. Meanwhile Zoom…