Author: Ethan Clevenger
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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…
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Configure wkhtmltopdf for Laravel Snappy on Homestead, Sail, Forge
Laravel Snappy depends on wkhtmltopdf, and the Composer wrappers are outdated. Here’s how to get set up with the latest version.
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Keep 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…
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Google’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…
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Semantic 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…
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Remove 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 are more often using modern structures and practices, like…
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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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How to Create a Sharable URL for your Free PDF
A common first rung in a company’s product ladder is something free and informational. Something like a PDF whitepaper or other sales document. In the digital space, it’s easy to deliver this kind of thing. Potential customer’s can easily click and follow any link you include in a blog post or email they receive. But…
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Hide Google’s “People Also Searched For” Box
Updated 04/16/2021 Stop me if you’ve been here: You Google something. You click the first result. You click “Back” in your browser. You go to click the next result, only— Google takes half a second to expand this little box and you click on one of those links instead. Let’s hide that thing. Custom Browser…
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Sterner Stuff’s 2019 Favorite WordPress Black Friday Deals
Every year, US retailers offer huge discounts for Black Friday. Digital deals used to be reserved for Cyber Monday following Black Friday, but we’ve seen these deals start earlier and earlier as the years have gone on. There are plenty of WordPress-centeric deals already available for 2019. Here are some that are worth a look.…
