Awhile back I needed to create a template that auto changed some of the shortcode parameters depending on the URL it was accessed from. (Think single gallery page – that depending on the GET variables of the page – would show a specific and that gallery specific options. Instead of creating multiple gallery pages with the gallery shortcode hardcoded in – I decided to make one gallery page and then change the contents by simply modifying the URL using some GET variables which worked out great.

Example:
URL: http://www.example.com/gallery/?gallery-id=23

do_shortcode( '[jappler-gallery id=" '. intval( $_GET['gallery-id'] ).']' );

That code right there will then show the gallery with the ID 23 specified in the URL (?gallery-id=23).
This is just a quick way to utilize shortcodes inside the templates themselves while allowing you to make pages a bit more dynamic!

*Make sure to sanitize your GET variables.

Documentation on do_shortcode(): http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/do_shortcode

When working with something like PHP, CSS, etc – you develop the best you can at the time you develop the code. If you simply leave everything as is – you risk incompatibility/security issues, etc because nothing is constant (browsers, PHP versions, etc). While it might not seem like the best way to spend your time at first – it will definitely help you down the road and at the very least make you realize how much you have learned since you initially wrote the code.

After working with a number of open source projects (WordPress, Drupal, XOOPS, etc) – I realized while that ignoring code cleanup is not an option and am going to from now on delegate September as my code cleanup month in which I will designate 2 days a week to spend exclusively on reviewing code and looking for ways to optimize it, get rid of any depreciated functions/etc. There are projects where code reviews happen more frequently – but for those that do not have reviews built in – this will be the catch all month.

Everyone writes code they are not proud of from time to time – the difference is there are some people who just let it slide vs. others that take the extra step to fix it. Time to review the jappler.com site

Awhile back, my sister ventured back to our hometown in western New York and went to a nearby city where the local community college is located. She apparently went by one of the main entrances and thought of me and my love for signs. As you can see – the lovely “M” is missing and gives the sign a completely different read. A big thanks to my sister for the find on her journey.

Let’s hope they have put the “M” back into place by now…but I would not be surprised if they did not. Go JCC!