Posts by Ethan Clevenger
Migrate from WP User Avatar to JJJ’s WP User Avatars
WP User Avatar, now commandeered by ProfilePress, is significantly more bloated than it once was. There are a variety of alternatives to turn to if you want to replace it, but I’ve chosen (and recommend) WP User Avatars, maintained by WordPress core contributor John James Jacoby. The migration here is pretty simple. WP User Avatar…
Read MoreConfigure wkhtmltopdf for Laravel Snappy on Homestead, Sail, Forge
If you’re generating PDFs from HTML in the Laravel world, you’re likely using something like Snappy, wrapped conveniently in a service provider by barryvdh/laravel-snappy. Snappy depends on the wkhtmltopdf binary to function. Per the documentation, this binary is conveniently available via Composer: But that package hasn’t been updated in 4+ years, meaning the binary is…
Read MoreKeep MySQL Databases During Laravel Homestead Upgrade
This question has been documented about a million places around the internet with a variety of convoluted answers. How can we upgrade Laravel Homestead without losing our MySQL databases? Instead of writing your own mysqldump commands, or copying and pasting one from an internet stranger, there’s actually functionality for this built right into Homestead. If…
Read MoreGoogle’s Core Web Vitals and Organic Search Ranking
Google is rolling out a new set of metrics designed to evaluate the performance of websites across the internet. How your site performs, according to these metrics, will directly impact your website’s organic search engine results page (SERP) ranking – that is, how close to the top of Google you are. Site speed has always…
Read MoreSemantic Versioning for WordPress
One of the biggest struggles facing both the maintainers of WordPress and individuals tasked with maintaining WordPress sites is updates. Running updates often gets ignored by non-technical users afraid of breaking things, and the WordPress core team is doing everything they can to mitigate the security risks involved with not updating. If you don’t install…
Read MoreRemove WordPress Actions with Object-Bound Callbacks
Often, it’s very simple to disable a filter or action in WordPress. Core’s adherence, merit notwithstanding, to working in the global namespace meant many plugins and themes followed suit. So unhooking a function was as simple as: But as PHP has matured, plugin and theme authors have moved toward more frequent use of modern structures…
Read MoreHiring: PHP Developer Seeking to Leave Freelancing
The Sterner Stuff team is growing! We’re seeking a self-motivated PHP developer fresh off a solo-preneur endeavor. You: a self-motivated PHP developer always seeking to learn. Obsessed with doing things the “right way”. At some point, you decided to try your hand at freelancing, either due to circumstances or for a shot at something new…
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The Sterner Stuff Work-From-Home Starter Kit
Working from home is brand new for a lot of folks, and it’s full of quirks and challenges. Even for someone who’s worked from home or a flex office for a while, COVID-19 has caused me to re-evaluate my setup. To maximize your productivity, here are a few products you shouldn’t live without. But First……
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Video Conference Alternatives to Zoom
This article does not contain affiliate links In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, people have been flocking to Zoom for their business meetings and virtual happy hours. With that has come increased scrutiny of the video conference darling. Folks have found their privacy policy to be less than forthcoming about the data shipped back…
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Web Apps vs Smartphone Apps: The Iowa Caucuses
The United States is buzzing with the fallout of the Iowa caucuses. If you’ve been living under a rock, the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) enlisted the use of a smartphone app to help with tallying the results of the Iowa caucuses. This app was responsible for reporting from over 1600 precincts across the state over…
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