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Tag: PHP

Quick Tip: WordPress “get” and “the” template functions

Quick Tip: WordPress “get” and “the” template functions

Published February 11, 2019 by RachieVee

If you’re learning how WordPress templates work, there are two kinds of functions you’ll see a lot. What I like to call, the “get” and “the” template functions. If you haven’t noticed by now, there are functions in WordPress that seemingly do the same thing, so what is the difference? When do you use either one? Here are some examples:

“Get” function “The” function
get_the_title the_title
get_the_excerpt the_excerpt
get_the_permalink the_permalink
get_the_post_thumbnail the_post_thumbnail
get_the_date the_date
*get_the_content the_content

I learned PHP through WordPress first, before I went on to solidify my PHP knowledge outside of it. If you’re in the same boat that I was, even if you’re not a beginner in other languages like HTML and Css, here is how I learned these functions.

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10 Pre-WCNYC Developer Tips

10 Pre-WCNYC Developer Tips

Published September 16, 2018 by RachieVee

Are you pretty familiar with WordPress by now? Feel like you know all WordPress has to offer yet? Well after many years of WordPress development, I’m proud to say that I am still discovering new functions I’ve never used before or new capabilities behind functions I thought I knew. Since WordCamp is here in New York this weekend, clearly this is my rushed attempt to get something out there before then. Here are 10 pre-WCNYC developer tips that I hope level up your WordPress knowledge in some way. If you run into me this weekend, I’d love to hear if any of these helped you.

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10 Quick WordPress Tips for Front-end Developers

10 Quick WordPress Tips for Front-end Developers

Published September 5, 2017 by RachieVee

We don’t always realize how much we’re actively learning in our day to day work. We’ve gotten so used to the daily grind of web development, that perhaps finding answers to “gotchas” or successfully troubleshooting a problem, is something we celebrate with a fist bump in the air before we move on to the next thing. What helps me keep this blog going is taking a few seconds to write those discoveries down in a draft. While small, each new bit of knowledge levels me up. I want to share some of those with you today as quick WordPress tips.

The great thing about these 10 quick tips, are that they can be absorbed in this one read. No in-depth tutorials, no lengthy explanations – just small bits of knowledge that hopefully help you grow the same way they’ve enabled me to grow.

Half of these tips are for HTML or CSS, the other half, WordPress functions that I’ve found handy during front-end development. Let’s start from the quickest tips down to ones that require a little more explaining.

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Escaping WordPress Template Functions. To do or not to do?

Escaping WordPress Template Functions. To do or not to do?

Published July 23, 2017 by RachieVee

Sanitization, escaping, and validation have become a regular part of my WordPress theme development within the last year. If those words confuse you, don’t worry, I’ve got another draft in my dashboard waiting to be finished. Eventually. 😉

But for those of you that do have a general idea of what these terms mean, perhaps you’ve faced the same nagging questions I had when it came to escaping WordPress template functions. At first, I was just applying escape functions mechanically, while not truly understanding what it was that I was doing, I knew that it was a best practice. Just like WordPress hooks, over time, my understanding became less fuzzy, but until these nagging questions could be answered, I couldn’t feel confident that I was escaping correctly.

Which WordPress template functions should be escaped? Which functions already have this built into core?

By template functions, I mean functions that are regularly used throughout theme development to call content from the dashboard. Like the_title(), the_permalink(), and the_excerpt() to name a few.

This becomes harder to figure out if, like me,  you hadn’t truly dived into WordPress’ mysterious core files for browsing. Or maybe you have, but found it overwhelming to follow the rabbit hole and chain of functions while simultaneously trying to make sense of how WordPress does just one thing. It doesn’t help if your code editor doesn’t make the task any easier. I’m a huge fan of Sublime Text, but have recently been exploring PHP Storm. I won’t lie to you, I still prefer Sublime for my daily development needs, but PHP Storm has a feature that has made learning about WordPress core so much easier.

You can Shift (PC) or Command (Mac) click on any function, WordPress or not, and it will take you to the file and line where that function is written. So for WordPress core, instead of being overwhelmed by all the files in the wp-admin or wp-includes folder, PHP Storm teleports you instantly!

A power ranger teleporting.

And so, via PHP Storm, I narrowed down which core functions actually needed escaping. I threw together a reference until it’s something I commit to memory, and thought it would be useful to share said reference with a blog post. In this post, I’ll also briefly review what escaping does for us, and how we would know if a template function needs escaping. Let’s get to it!

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How to get WooCommerce Category Info with an ID

How to get WooCommerce Category Info with an ID

Published September 24, 2015 by RachieVee

The universe has been telling me to write this post for a very long time. The first time was a year-ish ago, when I googled how to get WooCommerce category data with an ID and couldn’t find a clear answer. “Hey, this is a pain to find an answer for – this should be a blog post!” The second time was after I had posted a question on the WordPress Stack Exchange to find an answer, and then I answered it myself. “Whoa – I figured this out! I should tell people about this!”

Then that question eventually ended up earning me a “most popular question” badge. “Damn it, Rachel, people want to know about this – write a damn blog post!”

Okay, so I didn’t do it. Time passed and it was exactly yesterday ( when I began writing this post ), I was working in WooCommerce again, in the zone, went to google, and this happened:

Yep, that’s right everyone. I ended up googling the same problem I had already once resolved and ended up at the same Stack Exchange question I both asked and answered. All right, universe. You win this round.

To make sure I never ever forget I know how to do this again, I’m going to write it down! How to get the WooCommerce product category name, link, image, all the things with PHP so long as you have an ID to use, step by step, in tutorial form.

Before We Get Started:

  1. This assumes you’re familiar with PHP loops, objects and variables.
  2. This is a WooCommerce tutorial yay!
  3. I am using Advanced Custom Fields for this walkthrough, but you can use other methods like a regular Custom Field and re-work this solution to your purposes.
  4. I am getting category information on a page other than the category archive. If you’re on a category archive, check this WooCommerce documentation first for a head start. I found that the method there and the method I’m writing here are a little different depending on the template you’re working in.
  5. This solution is meant to work inside the loop.
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