Transients and options are both ways to store a value in the WordPress database, but they work differently. A transient is like an option that disappears after a set amount of time. They are used for temporary values, while options usually stick around. tl;dr: Transients expire, options don’t. Use transients for a single value you …

When writing a plugin, it’s important to realize one thing about WordPress: Everyone’s WordPress site is a hot mess. I’m joking. Kinda. Seriously though, everybody uses WordPress differently, so you need to account for that. These 2 PHP functions will help you avoid errors in strange WordPress environments: class_exists() and function_exists(). Avoiding Errors With Plugin …

I got really interested in Gatsby recently, and started creating themes and websites with it. I decided to make things official, and started a project called Static Fuse. Static Fuse is a collaboration with Justin Hall to help developers, freelancers, and agencies build Gatsby + WordPress sites. Justin and I have been working on this …

I just released the Gatsby theme I use for this site, called Gatsby Theme Publisher. Update 10/19: this theme has had a lot of updates, and has moved to a new repository. I’ve updated the post to reflect that. This site (scottbolinger.com) uses WordPress as a back-end, and Gatsby as a static front-end with the …

I’ve had a few conversations lately with friends who build WordPress websites for clients, and I was surprised to hear all of them say things have slowed down. I thought at first it might just be a certain segment, or maybe just the smaller shops. I asked around and it seems this slowdown is affecting …

I wrote an article for Post Status about a month ago, it was just published to their blog. In it, I discuss how the WordPress product market is a lot different than it used to be. People started making real money building for the platform around 2008, when there was high growth and low competition. …

I had the pleasure of interviewing Joel Bronkowski, who worked at WooCommerce for many years, and now works for Shopify. My recent post about a Shopify-centered conference got a lot of attention, so I wanted to dive deeper into this topic. I was excited to hear from someone with experience in both WordPress and Shopify, …

I just got back from an eCommerce conference called Content and Commmerce Summit. It was very different from the WordPress conferences I usually go to, and it gave me a lot of perspective. I go to the same events every year, and talk to the same type of people. I love WordPress, and so do …

In January of 1848, James W. Marshall discovered a shiny piece of metal in his Sacramento lumber mill. He showed the metal to his boss John Sutter, and the two discovered that it was gold. Sutter tried to keep the discovery a secret in order to avoid endangering his agriculture business. He failed. In the …

I built a new thing, it’s called Holler Box. It’s a WordPress plugin I built for myself, because I wanted a better way to communicate with my site visitors. For example, I did a webinar a couple weeks ago, and I was trying to figure out how to announce it to people on my website …