Author Archives: Alison Barrett

Themejack is now open for business!

For all y’all that have been following the Themejack news, you already know this. For those who don’t, here it is: Themejack has launched! It’s been in the works for a very long time. Ever since I started working on my own theme framework over a year ago, my husband Jim and I have been [...]

Where the hell have I been?

Hi all; Aliso here. As some of you have surely noticed, I’ve been somewhat absent from my own blog lately. I’ve also been incommunicado to some extent—my sincere apologies to anyone who has sent me a message and been waiting for a response. Let me explain. In the past month, a lot has been going on. I [...]

An Upstanding Solution

I’ve read a lot lately about how sitting for prolonged periods of time every day can shorten your life. While I’m skeptical, it seems like common sense that sitting down all the time just isn’t good for you. As programmers, we know what it feels like to only get out of our chairs once every [...]

Customize admin menu colors in WordPress 3.2 (the easy way)

The updates to the admin UI in WordPress 3.2 are pretty great. I love the new interface. The only thing I didn’t love was the loss of the blocky header and footer of the admin section—that was the easiest and fastest way to customize the look of the admin area for client’s sites (or for [...]

Picking apart XML feeds and namespaces with PHP and SimpleXML

I love parsing XML feeds in PHP. It makes virtually anything that has an RSS or Atom feed completely accessible to my programming. YouTube video feeds, blog feeds, even Facebook Walls. I’ve used SimplePie a lot to make combined social media feeds at work, and SimplePie provides a pretty simple way to access data from [...]

Show a user’s order history on “My Account” in Cart66

This isn’t a full tutorial, just some code for people to use. I’m working on a site that’s using Cart66 for their online store. Unfortunately, Cart66 doesn’t come with a function or shortcode for displaying a logged-in user’s purchase history. I made a somewhat comprehensive “My Account” page that does just that.

I’m going to WordCamp Chicago!

A couple of days ago, my plane tickets were purchased and my hotel reservation was made. I’m headed to WordCamp Chicago! Brave New Media, the company I work for, is sending me along with our other (awesome) developer, Jerry Kramer. I’ll definitely be tweeting throughout the event, and you can expect a post or two [...]

WPMU Dev Copyright Infringement: Looking at the Code

I’ve followed all the hubbub online about WPMU Dev‘s copyright infringement on Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin. There are some people taking sides, and I haven’t vocally been one of them until now.

Email obfuscation in WordPress

For those who don’t know about the antispambot() function in WordPress, it automatically obfuscates email addresses so it’s safe to use mailto: links. It turns email@example.com into email@example.com . Cool, huh?

Introducing Bolts, a WordPress Parent Theme

I could endlessly tinker with Bolts, adding one more feature or making one more change before release, but then it would never reach 1.0. So, without further adieu, here it is: Bolts 1.0 It’s not perfect, but nothing ever is. Please enjoy using it, and I welcome any and all feedback! The fact that Bolts is [...]