Aurooba and Brian dig deeper into the WordPress Interactivity API. This episode mostly focuses on the HTML directives they used in their custom blocks, how they work with block markup, and how the Interactivity API uses them to hydrate data. Along the way they also compare it to other templating and logic tools like the ones in Laravel and Next.js …

So begins another project! This time back inside WordPress. Brian and Aurooba discuss the Interactivity API in WordPress. They explore how to use the API, the challenges they faced, and the benefits it provides. They also touch on JavaScript modules and how they are used in the context of the Interactivity API. The conversation ends with a discussi…

Aurooba and Brian dig into the Font Library - a flagship feature launching in WordPress 6.5. Along the way they discuss the long road getting it into core, some user interface issues, and the future of "composability" in WordPress. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the video podcast on YouTube and subscribe to our …

Let's discuss the process of deploying Next.js applications using Vercel and explore the benefits of exploring different platforms and paradigms. We dive into the process of getting a project live with Vercel but discuss comparisons in the WordPress world, the complicated nature of deployment in WordPress, how different platforms handle them, and t…

Wrapping up the functionality of their Next.js application, Brian and Aurooba look at CRUD operations: how to create, read, update, and delete (ok, maybe not delete) data by using Supabase as a database. They talk about structuring your database, when to update state while saving data, dynamic pages in Next.js and more. A full transcript of the epi…

Continuing the series on Next.js, Aurooba and Brian take a look at a Next.js version of https://wpaudit.site complete with a login set up and ability to save your own checklist. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the video podcast on YouTube and subscribe to our channel and newsletter to hear about episodes (and mor…

Continue the journey of building a Next.js application as Aurooba explains how to use Supabase to handle all aspects of user authentication in your app, including user accounts, email notifications, and session data. They also dig into server vs client side differences. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the video p…

In this conversation, Brian and Aurooba discuss various topics related to Next.js development. They explore the importance of deeper understanding, the decisions involved in styling and storage in JavaScript applications, the advantages of CSS-in-JS libraries, the choice of Supabase as the database solution, handling user authentication, and select…

Aurooba and Brian kick of a new series all about Next.js. What is Next.js and when is the right time to use it for a project? Along the way they spin up a new application and talk about the build process, file structure, and where you might host your Next application. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the video pod…

Brian nicknamed the WordPress 6.4 release the "warm and fuzzy" release, and we explore our favourite features that landed in WordPress Core as part of it. We also found a bug, file it, and talk about how to file a bug well so that it'll get fixed. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the video podcast on YouTube and s…

It's the fourth and final episode of our series exploring Laravel. Brian takes us through the deployment process using Laravel Forge and AWS. Aurooba discusses "modern" WordPress development and how WordPress solutions like SpinupWP compare to tools like Netlify and Forge. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the vide…

Continuing on in the Laravel series, Brian adds suggestion submission capabilities to the Suggest an Episode app and discussed routing, content relationships, and the ease of templating in Laravel versus WordPress. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the video podcast on YouTube and subscribe to our channel and newsl…

Breaking down Laravel and the MVC framework by building our first model and view. Along the way, Aurooba and Brian talk about Breeze, Artisan, database migrations, and Query Builder - all fundamental components of Laravel- and how they work. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the video podcast on YouTube and subscri…

What exactly can you use Laravel for? How does it differ from WordPress? When does it make sense to use Laravel versus WordPress, and what can we learn from the Laravel approach to open source work? Come on an adventure with us as we dive into Laravel and build a mini project over the course of the next few episodes and compare and contrast it with…

Season 2 starts in October! Tune in to find out what we'll be chatting about in this second season of viewSource and when it begins. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the video podcast on YouTube and subscribe to our channel and newsletter to hear about episodes (and more) first! - Brian's website – https://www.bri…

The Season 1 finale of viewSource is a draft style episode where we reflect on our favourite WordPress conversations over the last 20 episodes, chat about what's coming next for both WordPress, viewSource, and both Aurooba and Brian. A fairly chatty episode where we touch on topics like Brian's hatred of JSX, Aurooba's recent struggles with Webpack…

Season one moves closer to an ending as Aurooba and Brian share their biggest wish list items for modern WordPress development. With a focus on both User Experience and Developer Experience, they cover topics like extensibility, documentation, and user onboarding. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the video podcast…

In this episode, Aurooba and Brian discuss the four main challenges they faced and learned from in while producing this first season of viewSource. They also dive into the side effects of producing viewSource and how it impacted other aspects of their professional lives. This all stemmed from a technical snaffu that lost them an episode they were l…

Aurooba and Brian complete their accordion in React.js as part of their series on building an accordion block. They discuss how components are loaded into the Dom, binding a value to the className attribute, and thoughts on prop drilling. The episode ends with a preview of the rest of Season One and thoughts on viewSource Season Two. A full transcr…

Brian and Aurooba walk through the process of submitting a pull request in GitHub, reviewing it, and merging it into a repository – discussing best practices and perspectives to take as the reviewer and the reviewee in an ongoing pull request. In this case, the open source project was wphelpers.dev and Brian was adding a fantastic new helper: a sea…

Aurooba and Brian explore the new WP_HTML_Tag_Processor that landed in WordPress 6.2, and how handy it would be in scenarios where they've had to use regular expressions to modify HTML in their WordPress projects. They then walk through a function using the new processor to inline and safely modify SVGs, ways they could improve the function and tak…

Aurooba and Brian are back with the series on building with React inside WordPress! In this episode, they dive into how state works in React and why ternary expressions are more common in JavaScript than they are in PHP. They break down the code of the accordion they've been building in React over the course of this series, focussing on exactly how…

In this episode, Aurooba and Brian discuss his recent recent experience speaking at WordCamp Phoenix. Then, they dig into the presentation topic: transitioning from Advanced Custom Fields Flexible Content Rows to ACF Blocks. The conversation ranges from what it takes to learn a new workflow to understanding the limitations of the block editor. A fu…

On today's episode, Aurooba manufactures a little bug in her code and then Brian helps debug what's going on. As they debug the code, they discuss the high level approach to debugging, some helpful WordPress tools to make finding problems easier, and discuss the role coding standards can have in helping you debug better. A full transcript of the ep…

Aurooba and Brian convert their simple React accordion into separate, reusable components and discuss the importance of components as foundational parts of the web. Next, they show how to use React devtools in Chrome to quickly examine and debug your components. Finally, they dig into the code with a focus on passing and destructuring the data you …

Aurooba and Brian dig into the semantics of not only what makes an accordion accessible, but also why a11y should be a first class consideration when you build anything on the web. They also explore how different ARIA tags work and what they indicate, taking a previously inaccessible accordion and transforming it into something navigable visually, …

Building on our simple React app, Aurooba demonstrates a component and sets up state to track variables. While discussing return statements, Brian cringes about JSX and mixing HTML with JavaScript. They also discuss how a function can return more than one variable in modern JavaScript. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. W…

Dig into what React is and how it works, especially inside WordPress, with Aurooba and Brian as they set up the basic environment and load up a little React component inside a WordPress post. Part one of a series of episodes where they'll transform their code into a working accordion block. A full transcript of the episode is available on the websi…

Two long-time remote workers share their history and their best practices for working from home. Aurooba covers how to socialize yourself and fight loneliness, and Brian shares his tips for creating boundaries when you have five kids outside your office door all day. They discuss some of the tools they use, the best ways to have asynchronous conver…

Brian walks Aurooba through how Bootstrap works and the conversation turns into a discussion about common design languages and the core concepts of CSS most people, frameworks, and systems employ. They also talk about the role frameworks like Bootstrap play in modern WordPress development and whether they are even necessary. 🤔 A full transcript of …

Continuing where they left off, Aurooba and Brian recap their experience with ACF Blocks. Next, they look at two different ways to create native WordPress blocks: using nested inner blocks and using React components. They discuss the pros and cons of all three methods, how to plan your blocks, and when to just use block patterns. A full transcript …

Aurooba and Brian dig into ACF Blocks and how taking a design from mockup to built with the Block Editor requires a mindset adjustment. They also talk through the code of a real ACF Block, coding LIVE on the episode and discussing the pros and cons of ACF Blocks versus native blocks – with support from GitHub Copilot, of course. A full transcript o…

Brian gets Aurooba to spill all the details about how she starts a new client website project. They discuss the tech stack, when to use WordPress, using plugins versus custom coding, and more. Then they dig into her project management and communication best practices, including her preposterous claim that she’s actually taught clients how to record…

Today’s episode explores the range of local WordPress environments, starting with MAMP and making it to Docker, Vagrant, and Local WP. Brian discusses the built-in WordPress local dev tool, @wordpress/env and the state of documentation. Somewhere along the way, Aurooba explains the difference between mamp-stacks and Docker. Local WP doesn't use Doc…

Listen in as Aurooba and Brian recount their experience of trying out GitHub Copilot, debate its gender (!!), how it will affect developers in and out of the WordPress space, and what the current and possible future ethical concerns could be with AI coders. And it wouldn’t be a conversation between them if they didn’t digress into a tangent or two,…

Introducing viewSource: a weekly conversation around tech, web development, and WordPress with hosts Aurooba Ahmed and Brian Coords. Listen in to learn a little about the hosts, their backgrounds, and the types of conversations you can expect to eavesdrop on in future episodes. A full transcript of the episode is available on the website. Watch the…