Home of WP-Members, The Original WordPress Membership Plugin
Chad Butler · ·
DO NOT use do_shortcode() to run a shortcode!
If you have to ask yourself “why?” when reading that, then this post is for you!
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The more customization that you do when building a WordPress site, the more you will find that you have a lot of functions hooked to actions and filters. Sometimes these functions might be quite simple, returning just a single line of text or replacing a single word. Is there an easy way to make this more compact?
Yes, there is! Here’s how: Continue Reading →
Chad Butler · ·
Builder plugins (and themes that use them) such as SiteOrigin, Elegant Builder, Divi, and others, have become more popular.
Without beating a topic that has already been beat to death in the WordPress developer community, let me just say that my position on it is conflicted.
First, I generally agree with the assessment provided by Pippin Williamson:
The other big issue is that their use violates a primary reason for using a CMS in the first place – separating content from design. Using a builder embeds design elements into the content which is a major design flaw from a CMS site management perspective.
On the other hand, I also agree with Chris Lema – builders exist because there is a market demand for them:
Why do people want WordPress Page Builders?
Simple. They offer customers a solution for personalization that mass-produced themes can’t offer, while at a lower price than working with a professional web developer and web designer.
A bigger problem than simple compatibility however, is that there is simply no industry standardization. In the WP development community, most successful plugin developers work with WP’s core standards. That makes it easier for everyone because if something isn’t initially compatible, a couple of adjustments with filter/action hooks and you’re dovetailing seamlessly.
Continue Reading →Chad Butler · ·
I have shown in the past how to change the WordPress new user notification by rewriting the wp_new_user_notification() function, which is a pluggable function. But the transition from WP 4.2 to 4.3 showed why even pluggable functions can be problematic. So here is a way to do it with a filter that almost no one knows about – wp_mail. Continue Reading →
Chad Butler · ·
Easy Digital Downloads is an incredibly popular plugin that allows you to create a digital product store using WordPress.
You can require users to be logged in to checkout in EDD, but that does not restrict a download link from being used when the user is not logged in. Restrictions can be put on the link in terms of number of times it can be downloaded and disable redownload, but that can lead to a poor user experience – being over protective can create problems for legitimate users while protecting what amounts to a “perceived” risk rather than real.
But you can integrate with WP-Members to force a user to be logged in to actually download the file. This way, even if the link is known and not expired, the user will be redirected to login if they attempt to download without being logged in.
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