Mr Wilde’s DT’s January 2018
where I cover just the important bits!
Here is a little segment I present every month at my local WordPress Meetup which will provide some info and insights on all the awesome things I have come across over the last few weeks. These will include things like:
- All things WordPress
- New or Awesome training discovered
- what is hot at the moment
- Important or Interesting News for the month
- Podcast’s or Blogs you should check out
Here are the items covered for the month of January 2018
Things to focus on this year – (JavaScript, CSS Grid, Gutenberg)
Few things to really focus on this year, especially in the WordPress ecosystem. If you do any kind of development JavaScript is something you will use at some point in time and ES6 is being heavily used now. Time to focus on the core JS concepts and go 100% vanilla, no frameworks. I will have some links to training and posts everything month this year, I am sure.
Being someone who has used Bootstrap for a long time I have been wanting to expand my CSS knowledge and this year CSS Grid will be a big focus. I will have some links below where you can get some insights and start practising.
If you do anything with WordPress you have heard of Gutenberg and if not you certainly will. Like JavaScript, and built using a JS library ReactJs, this will be an ongoing discussion and something to focus on this year. Gutenburg is going to change the way we edit and add content to WordPress, for better or worse.
Zac Gordon Launches Gutenberg Development Course
Zac spent his Christmas putting together a detailed course on developing with Gutenberg as well as teaming with Joe Casabona who created an intro course Introduction to Gutenburg. Zac has been doing some awesome things when it comes to WordPress and JavaScript so make sure you check out his other course JavaScript for WP.
Wes Bos – Async + Await
Continuing on the JavaScript track, Wes Bos has been putting together some fantastic courses and presentations over the last 5 years. This talk on Async + Await is a great introduction to the update to JavaScript Promises and JS asynchronous nature. Even if your not a developer, it’s worth a watch.
CSS Grid
As mentioned CSS Grid is something to look at if you do any front-end work. The person to follow on this front is Rachel Andrew as she has put together some awesome guides, content and pretty much help write the book on rules for CSS Grid. LearnCSSGrid.com is a great introduction to how CSS Grid works and how you can use it to create something new and fresh with no CSS framework needed.
Top WordPress security tips for Admins – by Reginald Dawson
Here is a great article on what you can do to keep your WordPress install safe and secure, Top WordPress Security Tips for Admins. Reggie is an awesome trainer and has a lot of great content over there on Code Tuts+.
New Course: Up and Running With WooCommerce
Another great course for newcomers, check out this intro to WooCommerce, the online store plugin for WordPress.
My New favourite WP Theme – BEANS
Over the break, I was introduced to this awesome new WordPress theme BEANS (http://www.getbeans.io/). Switching theme frameworks is not something I do lightly, being a long time user of Genesis but when I found out Tonya Mork liked it so much she joined the team and became a co-maintainer I had to check it out. I have been doing a tonne of training over at WP Developers Club, created by Tonya, and it is the best WordPress developer training available on the net today. Check it out
On the Horizon – GraphQL
Something that is coming up a lot is GraphQL, a new type of query for API’s. Check out this awesome Youtube video, What is GraphQL? by Scott Tolinski.
Awesome Podcast to checkout – SYNTAX.fm
Here is great consolidation by some previously mentioned content creators, Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski talking about GraphQL on the latest podcast over at https://syntax.fm/
Awesome YouTube channels to check out
Coding Tech is a great channel providing recordings from a large number of conferences and events from around the world on a large number of developer/designer topics. Traversy Media is another of my favourite training go-to resources, put together by Brad Traversy and there is a fantastic community coming together to provide more assistance with your learning journey.
Random Cool Tech – Robotic Toliet Cleaner
Really I don’t think I need to say anything here, who doesn’t want one of these. Check out the Kickstarter – SPINX – World’s First Toilet Cleaning Robot
Technology has been in my blood for as long as I can remember. Started with Dick Smith kits when I was 10, I was making FM wireless bugs in high school. After several years working, Electronics Technician, Sound and Lighting Technical Director and then IT Sysadmin, I am going with the flow and leaving the hardware behind, mostly. I am now developing solutions for the cloud, focus on WordPress, SharePoint and Mobile devices. Learning more and more every day.