Post By Email Weekly Update

I’ve spent the past week converting the Post By Email pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party into proper OOP form, trying to incorporate the best practices for plugins as well as the WP coding standards (from which I learned a few things… like why you’d want to leave the end tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) out of PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher files!).  I cribbed a lot from Tom McFarlin’s WordPress Plugin Boilerplate.

On activation, the plugin now copies the global Post By Email options into its local settings and hides those settings from Settings->Writing.  There’s also an options page that uses the Settings APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways..

Hilariously (and illustrating the dire need for an upgrade), I’m having a hard time figuring out how to test this; it turns out it’s actually quite difficult to find a free email provider that still does unsecured POP.  Suggestions?  I might have to add SSLSSL Secure Sockets Layer. Provides a secure means of sending data over the internet. Used for authenticated and private actions. support just to be able to retrieve any emails.

Anyhow, I’m calling this version 0.9, with 1.0 being all the functionality from coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. (nothing extra yet).  Once I upgrade it to a full 1.0 version, I’ll post installation instructions here so the curious can try it out and tell me what breaks.

Next steps:

  • Show log info on plugin options page  (e.g. “Last checked at 2:15pm, 1 message posted.”)
  • Find an email account to test with (or just add SSL?)
  • Add a “check mail now” button on the options page

#post-by-email, #weekly-update

Post By Email weekly update

Last Friday, I met with Justin and George to talk through the details of the project proposal.  Here is the final version with revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. from that conversation.

I spent Monday and Tuesday moving apartments, so just a short update this week.  🙂

This first couple days has mostly been about getting oriented and comfortable with the tools.  I created the skeleton of the new pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and committed it to the svn repository (and by the way, the in-progress, up-to-the-minute code for this plugin will always be available on the svn repository).  Right now it’s just a straight port of the code from mail.php and is mostly untested.

Next steps:

  • Use plugin options instead of global options
  • Add activation hook to copy existing global options over to plugin
  • Create a settings/status page for the plugin

#post-by-email, #weekly-update

OPW Introduction – Hello!

Allow me to introduce myself — my name is Kat. I’ll be working on coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. this summer as an OPW intern.

I live in the Bay Area and have been a freelance web developer for the past couple of years, so as you can imagine, I work with WordPress quite a bit. I’ve written custom themes, taxonomies, post types and plugins, but nothing that I’ve been able to release back to the community.

Even though contributing to an open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project has been a goal of mine for many years, I was never able to figure out how to get started until now. When a friend sent me the OPW page and I saw WordPress on the list, I leapt at the chance to get more involved with a tool (and a community) that I’ve worked so much with, and in the process really level up my WP knowledge.

For my summer project, I’ll be removing the “post by email” functionality from core, deprecating it and replacing it with an official pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. This addresses Trac ticket #22942.

There are some more details in the initial version of the proposal I wrote up. Note that I haven’t yet hashed through the plan with my mentors, so standard disclaimers apply. (Details subject to change without notice. Void where prohibited. Not labeled for retail sale.)

Feel free to comment with feedback, or just to say hi. I’m looking forward to working with you!

#post-by-email