Blog

  • Preloading Advanced Custom Fields Pro license key

    Most paid plugins require a key to run. Some popular plugins also allow you to preload their key from the wp-config.php file. The following is an example of preloading keys for Akismet, Gravity…

  • XML Import using WP-CLI

    The built-in XML import and export is often overlooked, and for good reasons. It’s not meant to migrate an entire website. It won’t migrate anything from the customizer, menus or…

  • The Need for Uptime Monitoring

    One part of keeping your WordPress website healthy is using an uptime monitor. I use a free one called Jetpack Monitor. Jetpack Monitor is very basic. It checks your website every…

  • Beanstalk Git Deployments with Kinsta

    I use git locally whenever I’m doing development. If you’re using WP Engine, you can simply push directly to their repo and they’ll auto update your web server. Recently I was…

  • Reusing Plugin Slugs

    Have you ever noticed that WordPress.org plugins folder names never change? For example Yoast SEO is under a folder called wordpress-seo while Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights is within google-analytics-for-wordpress. While plugin names can…

  • Tinkering with the .maintenance file

    WordPress has a built-in method for throwing up a maintenance page, which makes a website completely inaccessible. This is used during its own internal updates. You probably recognize the screen:…

  • The Quest for the Right Plugins

    The WordPress plugin ecosystem is vast. You can pretty much find a plugin to do anything. I’ve been asked “Which plugins do you recommend?” or “Can I use this?” or “How…

  • Randomization With WP Engine Cache

    Be default, WP Engine disables WordPress queries with a random order. You can enable it, but that will disable their caching system, so it’s not a good idea. Here is a run…

  • Loading sFTP logins into Transmit with Alfred workflow

    If you manage lots of WordPress websites, dealing with sFTP logins can be a pain. Most sFTP clients don’t allow backup/restore passwords between computers. At some point I got tired of manually entering credentials…

  • Handling WordPress Migrations with Transmit Sync

    I’ve mentioned before that I use Transmit for sFTP. One of the really nice features of Transmit is the ability to sync two folders together. This comes in handy when migrating…