Category Archives: WordPress
Jan 24, 2011 by Matt | Posted in WordPress
WP Engineer had an interesting post recently about a WordPress “Transients API” that is used for caching bits of data temporarily. I often use the Options API to cache things from external servers, such as Twitter statuses, so I don’t hit Twitter’s servers more often than necessary (which would slow down page loads). The Transients API is similar, but with the addition of an expiration field. This makes it a much easier solution, even without its other added benefit.
Also of note is that Transients are inherently sped up by caching plugins, where normal options are not. A memcached plugin, for example, would make WordPress store transient values in fast memory instead of in the database. For this reason, transients should be used to store any data that is expected to expire, or which can expire at any time.
It’s simple enough to use the API. You just call the set_transient(), get_transient() and delete_transient() functions where appropriate. You can read up on the usage over at WP Engineer or the WordPress Codex.
Dec 8
WPCandy, the prolific WordPress blog, has just released a new iPhone app for easy mobile access to their content. The interesting part isn’t the app so much as their “reverse launch” deal. The app costs $0.99 normally, but they are charging $5.99 instead for…
Dec 3
MediaElement.js is a nifty jQuery plugin that allows you to use the HTML5 video and audio elements while still supplying a Flash or Silverlight backup for compatibility. There’s now a convenient MediaElement.js WordPress plugin that gives you easy-to-use shortcodes for use in the post…
Nov 15
Want to easily embed individual twitter messages in your blog posts? There’s a WordPress plugin for that. Twitter Blackbird Pie adds several options that allow you to embed a nicely-rendered HTML representation of a tweet. It adds buttons to the editor, shortcodes, even oEmbed…
Nov 12
I’ve talked a little before about how WordPress 3.0’s custom post types made it possible, if you don’t mind doing a bit of coding, to turn your WordPress blog into a “tumbleblog.” A little while after, WooThemes released a plugin to make it a…
Nov 3
WooThemes has launched an iPhone app, called Express, for their tumbleblog themes. It makes it easy to post Tumblr-style to your WordPress blog. If you’re not using one of the supported tumbleblog themes, they have also built a WordPress plugin that will add the…
Sep 15
Automattic, the company behind the WordPress.com service and much of the development of the WordPress software, has donated the “WordPress” trademark to the WordPress foundation. The foundation was launched by Matt Mullenweg, who of course is the founder of Automattic and the WordPress project.…
Aug 25
Some of Smashing Magazine’s most popular posts have been their roundups of free WordPress themes. It has been about a year since the last one, and most of the themes featured are looking kind of dated. I was surprised to see a new roundup…
Aug 11
Anthologize is an interesting new WordPress plugin that helps you compile an eBook using posts from your blog. It supports the PDF, ePub and TEI formats. Anthologize is a free, open-source, plugin that transforms WordPress 3.0 into a platform for publishing electronic texts. Grab…
Jul 28
At long last, the WordPress project will be ending support for PHP 4. WordPress 3.1, to be released in late this year, will be the last version to support the legacy version of PHP. For WordPress 3.2, due in the first half of 2011,…
