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We are pleased to announce that Ian Stewart (blog, LinkedIn, GitHub, X) has been chosen to lead end-to-end customer experience for WordPress.com as its Artistic Director and product lead.
In a nod to LVMH’s organizational structure, Ian will lead in the style of a maison head, ensuring that every part of WordPress.com remains the best managed WordPress experience available. He has been a part of the WordPress.com team for over 14 years, and we’re excited to see what changes he will implement on WordPress.com in this new role.
“I got involved with WordPress after growing tired of using Blogger for my personal blog,” Ian says. “This quickly led to the demise of my regular blogging habits as I spent most of my time messing around with my theme…My fooling around with WordPress themes quickly became a delightful obsession as I tried to publicly figure out what I thought about them.”
We’re grateful for your obsession with WordPress, Ian, and we certainly know the feeling.
Please join us in welcoming Ian in his new role.
Read more https://wordpress.com/blog/2024/10/11/ian-stewart/
If you find yourself diving deeper into the topic of WordPress, content management systems, and websites, a term you will quickly stumble upon is “PHP.” You will likely hear how crucial PHP is for the Internet and that it is what’s powering WordPress websites.
However, what exactly is PHP, and why is it so important?
The short answer is that it’s a general-purpose, server-side scripting language. That said, unless you are already knowledgeable in programming and web development, that probably doesn’t make things much clearer.
In order to help you better understand this topic, we’ll cover PHP in detail below. You’ll learn what PHP is, why it matters, and how it relates to WordPress and pretty much everything you do online. We promise you’ll be surprised to hear how much you likely rely on PHP every day.
PHP featuresBenefits of PHP Powering themes and pluginsWithout PHP, there would be no WordPress Other abilities of PHPThe original developer of PHP was a Danish-Canadian programmer named Rasmus Lerdorf. He first created the language in the mid 1990s to build tools for his own website; that’s why PHP originally stood for “Personal Home Page.” Today, it stands for the recursive acronym “Hypertext Preprocessor” and development and support has been taken over by the PHP Group.
PHP has some notable features, many of which are applicable to the way WordPress works:
Open Source: The first thing that is important to note is that, like WordPress, PHP is open source. That means it does not belong to any one business entity. It also means that it’s free to download and use for any purpose.
Also like WordPress, PHP is maintained by a number of volunteers around the world. The next major release, 8.4, will be available November 21, 2024.
Finally, both WordPress and PHP are community-funded––while WordPress has the WordPress Foundation, The PHP Foundation’s mission is to “ensure the long-term prosperity of the PHP language.” Automattic is a proud Platinum Sponsor of The PHP Foundation.
Server Side: PHP is a server-side language, which means it executes on the server and not in the user’s browser.
For example, PHP’s most frequent application is for creating HTML documents for websites. Even though there are PHP files on the server, the browser does not receive the PHP code; instead, it receives the finished HTML documents for display. This is different from client-side languages like JavaScript where the processing happens directly in the user’s browser after downloading the JavaScript files.
To make things clearer, server-side languages are a bit like going to a restaurant. You send an order to the kitchen, they prepare the meal, and it arrives at your table ready to eat. Client-side languages, on the other hand, are like meal-delivery services. While they provide you with all the necessary ingredients, you still have to put them together in your own kitchen.
General Purpose: PHP is also a general-purpose programming language. You can use it for command-line scripting, creating desktop applications, and more. However, its primary application is in web development.
Ubiquitous: According to W3Techs, the language is present on 75.7% of all websites. That includes some famous ones, as you will see below.
In addition, it forms the backbone of many content management systems like Drupal, Joomla!, and—the most popular of them all—WordPress.
PHP is one of the biggest open source success stories, as much of the modern Internet depends on it to work.
You might be asking yourself why the usage of PHP is so widespread. There are many good reasons for that, but here are just a few:
One of the main reasons why PHP is so popular for web development is that it seamlessly integrates with various technologies and services commonly used in this area. Examples include HTTP, POP3, IMAP, and more.
One of its main advantages is that it is highly compatible with HTML, the main language used to create and display websites. In fact, it’s possible to use PHP code in HTML files and vice versa.
<div class="about__section is-feature has-subtle-background-color">
<div class="column">
<h2><?php _e( 'Shape the future of the web with WordPress' ); ?></h2>
<p><?php _e( 'Finding the area that aligns with your skills and interests is the first step toward meaningful contribution. With more than 20 Make WordPress teams working on different parts of the open source WordPress project, there’s a place for everyone, no matter what your skill set is.' ); ?></p>
<p><a href="/<?php echo esc_url( __( 'https://make.wordpress.org/contribute/' ) ); ?>"><?php _e( 'Find your team →' ); ?></a></p>
</div>
</div>
Above you can see how both languages appear in the same file.
The PHP markup is delineated by opening and closing brackets
(<?php
and ?>
) so that
the server knows where it ends and begins. However, the PHP code
itself is inside an HTML <p>
element.
The _e
function is a WordPress function used for localization, which
allows for easy translations across the WordPress software.
The main benefit of this is that using PHP allows web developers to display dynamic content in otherwise static web pages. For example, PHP is able to pull content directly from databases, making it great for templating. You can create a fixed layout for all web pages but then display different content depending on the page a user is on.
This is vastly different from pure HTML, where the content needs to be hard-coded in the page file in order for the browser to show it. PHP, on the other hand, can add it on the fly as needed. That’s one of the main benefits of this programming language—the ability to dynamically combine and display content from different sources and of different kinds according to what the user requests.
As a WordPress user, PHP is especially important. The
programming language forms the basis of much of what WordPress can
do. It’s what allows you to create, edit, and delete pages, posts,
media, and other content. That’s why you see that a lot of files
that end in .php
when you look in the directory
of any WordPress installation.
It’s also why, when installing WordPress on a server, the system requirements insist that PHP be present. In recent years JavaScript has been playing a bigger and bigger role in the WordPress ecosystem, mainly because of the adoption of the Gutenberg editor. That said, PHP is still the main workhorse in the background.
What are some of WordPress’ main tasks powered by PHP? Before the advent of block themes, WordPress themes were all written mostly in PHP, especially page template files. In fact, if you look at the template hierarchy, you can see that WordPress has PHP files for pretty much all pages and theme components.
Why? So we have the ability to create a single layout for one type of content and then dynamically display what’s saved in the database for a particular piece of content.
That way, if you have 300 pages of the same kind on your site, you don’t need a file for each as you would on a pure HTML website. Instead, you just need one single page template file; PHP can then populate each individual page with its specific content.
PHP also makes it easy to compartmentalize different parts of
your theme. For example, it’s very common to not have the markup
for a footer in each file. Instead you can create a
separate footer.php
file and call it into
your templates where needed. That way, if you want to modify the
footer layout, you only have to make changes in a singular
place—the footer.php
file.
The same is true for plugins, aka collections of PHP files that contain the necessary markup for adding extra functionality to your WordPress site. When you activate a plugin, it gets added to the rest of your website code and can provide the functionality you are looking for.
All of the above is only made possible by the flexibility that PHP offers. Besides the benefits we have discussed before, this is the main reason why WordPress relies on PHP to the extent that it does; PHP offers a ton of flexible functionality specifically for web development. PHP’s capabilities in content management, working with databases, and its modularity all make it a perfect candidate for powering the most popular website builder there is.
This also means that if you know PHP, it opens up a lot more possibilities to modify your WordPress website. You can write custom plugins, make changes to (non-block) themes and page templates, introduce functionality to functions.php, and so much more. So, if you want to improve your WordPress skill set, learning PHP is not a bad place to start.
Besides WordPress, you might actually be unaware how much of your general everyday online interactions are enabled by PHP. There are a number of very well-known websites that use PHP to run and many common processes that the programming language performs online:
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are countless other examples of well-known web staples that exist in part because of PHP.
Up until this point, we’ve mostly talked about PHP in the context of creating and outputting HTML markup; however, the programming language is involved in a lot more that you probably take advantage of on a daily basis:
If you’re an everyday WordPress user or non-developer, you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how much of your online experience is possible thanks to the humble PHP. However, the more you dive into this topic, the more you’ll realize how much you rely on it.
Who knew an open source solution was at the heart of what makes the World Wide Web tick? From the largest content management system in the world to well-known web entities, so much of what we take for granted exists because of it.
There are good reasons why it’s so widespread; from its powerful capabilities over its wide support system to ongoing development and support, there is a lot that speaks for PHP as the go-to solution for web projects.
Since it’s also beginner friendly, learning some PHP skills is definitely a good place to start if you want to dive deeper into the technical aspects of WordPress and web development.
Read more https://wordpress.com/blog/2024/10/11/what-is-php/
In this conversation, Joel Clermont shares insights into his work within the Laravel ecosystem, including his educational initiatives through Mastering Laravel, the impact of daily tips, and the community he has built. He discusses his unique consulting model with No Compromises, emphasizing a flat fee structure that simplifies client relationships. The conversation also touches on his recent projects, including the development of SourceDive, a tool aimed at helping developers explore Laravel codebases more effectively. Throughout, Joel highlights the importance of community, education, and innovative approaches to consulting in the tech industry.
Or listen in your podcast app of choice:
<iframe width="100%" height="180" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://share.transistor.fm/e/89109380"></iframe>The post Mastering Laravel, No Compromises, and SourceDive with Joel Clermont appeared first on Laravel News.
Join the Laravel Newsletter to get all the latest Laravel articles like this directly in your inbox.
Read more https://laravel-news.com/mastering-laravel-no-compromises-and-sourcedive-with-joel-clermont
The first beta version of Inertia.js v2 was released this week. The core library has been rewritten to support asynchronous requests; unlocking some impressive features, you can now get your hands on!
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>🚀 The Inertia.js v2.0 beta is now available!
— Jonathan Reinink (@reinink) October 10, 2024
This marks a huge step forward for Inertia. The core library has been completely rewritten to architecturally support asynchronous requests, enabling a whole set of new features, including:
- Polling
- Prefetching
- Deferred props
-… pic.twitter.com/0IdtnfokpZ
To start using the beta, check out the following list of resources:
Remember, the code is currently in beta, and the documentation is considered a work in progress. Please report bugs on GitHub. Congratulations to Jonathan Reinink, Taylor Otwell, Joe Tannenbaum, Pedro Borges, and all those who are contributing to Inertia and Laravel!
The post The Inertia.js v2 Beta is Here appeared first on Laravel News.
Join the Laravel Newsletter to get all the latest Laravel articles like this directly in your inbox.
Read more https://laravel-news.com/inertiajs-v2-beta-is-here
When creating your first Laravel project you need to ensure you have PHP and Composer installed first. However, if you don't have these already installed it can be a little tedious for someone new. Well fear not, the Laravel team has you covered and based on feedback they received, have made the process more straight forward and simple. The official documentation was recently updated to include a single line command that will take care of everything for you. Whether you are on macOS, Windows or Linux it's a cinch to setup.
If you are on macOS just run:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://php.new/install/mac"
If you are on Windows then run:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://php.new/install/windows'))
And on Linux:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://php.new/install/linux)"
Behind the scenes these commands take care of downloading and configuring your environment to run PHP, Composer and Laravel. That's it! You're good to go on your PHP and Laravel journey.
Note: If you would still like a more full-featured dev environment for PHP, check out Laravel Herd.
The post Now you can install PHP and the Laravel installer with a single command appeared first on Laravel News.
Join the Laravel Newsletter to get all the latest Laravel articles like this directly in your inbox.
Read more https://laravel-news.com/php-new
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