Alan’s Personal Techy Website
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Can I log in to WordPress.org to support users of my free plugins?
A new mandatory checkbox WordPress.org login page creates a bit of an issue, as to support users of my free plugins I need to login, or to release updates and fixes I need to login in too. Also I have pledged to provide 5% of my time which I have been doing by providing general…
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Understanding Website Contact Form Spam: The Origins, Dangers, and How to Combat It
Spam is one of the oldest and most persistent problems on the internet. It clogs up our inboxes, invades social media feeds, and annoys us with unsolicited messages. But among the many types of spam, website contact form spam remains a particularly troublesome issue for website owners. So, why does contact form spam exist? What…
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Developing Freemium Plugins
Developing Freemium plugins for WordPress presents a unique blend of opportunities and challenges. The technical hurdles can be significant, requiring a deep understanding of WordPress’s architecture and a commitment to ongoing updates and improvements. Marketing challenges include finding and reaching your target audience, and convincing users of the value of upgrading from free to premium.…
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WPCS 3.0.0 Breaking Changes
Like many #WordPress #Plugin and Theme developers I use #PHPCS with WordPress rule sets to help with coding the WP standards, especially around security. Also like many I use #composer to install #WP coding standards with its dependencies. The issue is that composer will update without warning, even if there are breaking changes. So I…
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WordPress 6.3 how can I add a link that opens in a new tab?
In WP 6.2 opening a new tab for a link was obvious. In 6.3 it is a bit hidden, seems you have to edit the link, expand advanced and there is a check box.
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Unintended consequences of some CSS techniques
TLDR: a form field with a negative margin margin-left: -99999999px breaks form input on iPhones and iPads Discovering the Incompatibility Issue: As an experienced web developer, I was handed the responsibility of maintaining an old WordPress plugin that incorporated a honeypot field as part of its anti-spam measures. The hidden honeypot field was designed to…