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Posts on WordPress plugin development, PHP, and the open-source tools we build and maintain.

8 posts in Software.

Software 4 Sept 2026

How to automatically log out inactive users in WordPress

WordPress keeps a login alive for 2 days — 14 with "Remember Me" — no matter how long the browser sits untouched. Here are four ways to add an idle timeout that signs inactive users out, from a one-line snippet to a full warning-countdown setup, with honest pros and cons for each.

A flat blue illustration of five user avatars — two white with lime status dots, one white with a keyhole, and two dimmed dark blue

Software 27 Jun 2026

How to view active login sessions on a WordPress site

WordPress lists every account that exists, but never the ones signed in right now. Here are four ways to see active login sessions — from a raw SQL query to a one-click admin tool — with honest pros and cons for each.

A flat purple illustration of a row of white arrows where one breaks at a small amber tick and detours up and over before rejoining, the last two arrows dimmed

Software 20 Jun 2026

404 to 301 v4: a complete rewrite for custom redirects and 404 error management

404 to 301 v4 is a ground-up rewrite — a React admin, a full custom redirect manager, indexed database tables, a REST API, WP-CLI support, and an official add-ons catalogue.

A flat purple illustration of five array tiles with a white magnifying glass over one, revealing a small lime fragment inside its lens

Software 27 Jan 2020

Partial string search in an array using PHP

There's no built-in PHP function to find every array element that contains a substring. Here's the small helper I wrote for it — and the two one-liners that replace it on modern PHP.

A flat blue illustration of a wall of dark blocks with one white block dropping into the last gap under an amber spark

Software 7 Dec 2016

My first WordPress core contribution is live

WordPress 4.7 shipped today with my name in the contributor list — a small patch for a broken importer link that now runs on millions of sites. Here's the bug, the fix, and why giving back is worth it.

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Software 17 Aug 2016

What the 404 to 301 tracking incident taught me about plugin security

In 2016 my most popular plugin shipped a usage-tracking feature that a partner turned into cloaked ads for search-engine crawlers. Here's a level-headed account of what went wrong and the lessons that still guide how I build plugins.

A flat lime illustration of three ring timers running down from full to nearly empty, with an amber arrow leaving the last white ring

Software 5 Mar 2016

Countdown redirect using JavaScript

How to send a visitor to another page after a visible countdown — a clean, accessible JavaScript version, plus a no-JavaScript fallback and the setTimeout pitfall to avoid.

A flat purple illustration of five circles on a line — the first white with a lime X, the line cut after it and the remaining four dimmed

Software 1 Feb 2016

Laravel bail: stop validation on the first failure

A single validation rule kept firing every check on a field and throwing a database error along the way. The fix was a one-word rule called bail — one I ended up contributing to Laravel itself.

Tags in Software

#WordPress #Security #Loggedin #PHP #Plugins #Arrays #Contributing #JavaScript #Laravel #Open Source #Redirects #SEO

All posts Trading Writing

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