Every now and again, I click around the tools I use to see what new features have snuck in while I was not paying attention. I know many of you are terrified of clicking into the unknown and I don't blame you, but since I am willing to throw caution to the wind in this area, why not learn from me and resolve issues with all the confidence and less of the anxiety. Here is how I found and resolved a security issue in my WordPress blog through the use of inquisitive clicking around.
Site Health
When I was writing a post on some of the great tools I use to support my software development, I spent a large amount of time procrastinating, clicking around the tools I use to look at features that I had forgotten or had never even seen before. One of the things I discovered was the Site Health feature of WordPress, which I just now discovered was added in their 5.2 release. You can find Site Health under the Tools menu of the admin dashboard side panel; I highly recommend checking it out once in a while to make sure your WordPress installation is secure and performing well.
Selecting the Site Health tool takes you to a page that runs a variety of performance and security checks on your WordPress installation. You can see what things it is checking once the report has been produced. If all is well, everything passes. However, when I ran it, I got a warning about the version of PHP being used.
For those that do not know, PHP is the language with which WordPress is implemented. It is usually installed and managed by your hosting service and it is your hosting service where you must go to fix this problem.
Changing the version of PHP
My host is BlueHost, one of those recommended by WordPress and therefore, quite likely to be your host too. As with many WordPress hosts, BlueHost provide cPanel to manage things and it is in cPanel where the PHP issue can be fixed. However, I did not really know that until I started investigating, and as I said before, I like to click around the tools I use. This is how I found the screen where I could change the PHP version.
Login to the site host account.
Open cPanel In BlueHost, this is accessed by clicking the Advanced option in the sidebar.
Find and click the MultiPHP Manager option
At this point, I saw the following screen.
The system default version of PHP is shown at the top as 7.2, below that the list of my domains show that they inherit that same version. However, my WordPress Site Health said I was running only 7.0 of PHP. One of these is wrong, and I suspect that it is the information displayed in cPanel1.
I checked the boxes on the left so that I could change all my domains and then I chose 7.3 from the dropdown and clicked Apply. Here is what my MultiPHP Manager screen showed; I've annotated it to make a few things clearer.
Verifying the change
At this point, returned to the WordPress Site Health page and refreshed it so that the health tests reran. After a few moments, the status was updated and everything was good2.
The Site Health feature is a great addition to the WordPress platform and though issues can be a little daunting, it often only takes a few moments to address them. Hopefully, my little journey into addressing this issue on my WordPress site is helpful; take a moment to check out your own site health.
Until next the time, I'll be me, you be you, and we will all have a lovely adventure. 👋🏻
if I were to guess, I'd say there is a bug in cPanel where the UX assumes the system version is inherited but in reality, it is the lowest available version, which in this case is 7.0 [↩]
NOTE: You may need to refresh more than once in order to give the system time to reload on the new version of PHP that you have selected [↩]
For my final post of 2019, I thought I would deal with some serious FOMO1 by adding one of my own to the legions of year-end listicles adorned by clickbait headlines. You will not believe what's at number four! Nevermore shall I lament having passed up the opportunity to proffer a subjective collection of arbitrary length for your attention. Of what engrossing subject shall this list be? Life achievements? 11 places to visit before you die? Things I have discovered when looking for other things that I have lost? Nay, it shall be tools! Tools, I say. To be specific, development tools for it is tools of software development that I use often. To be even more specific, this is a list of development tools for each of which I could write an additional list of killer features, extensions, and magical whosywotsits. I present to you a list of feature packed fancies for fruitful software fabrication. How many tools? Read on to find out2.
This open source, cross platform, integrated development environment (IDE) backed by Microsoft really is the best I have used so far. With its built-in terminal, text editor, and task engine, it really is an integrated environment where, if it weren't for Slack and my web browser, I would spend all of my software crafting days. In fact, if I liked the extensions that integrated Slack and web browsing into Visual Studio Code, I could use it or them too; but I don't, so I don't.
Unlike IDE's of old, Visual Studio Code – often referred to as just VS Code or Code (it's command line invocation is the delightful code the-file-I-want-to-edit.js), is implemented to avoid having opinions about the code you write. Instead, it is written to support your code dictating how you write code so that you can deftly move between projects without worrying that the settings for one team will somehow traipse all over the settings for another.
If you like vim-style editors, there's a vim emulator. If you don't like the menus, use Zen Mode or go fullscreen. Want to run tests integrated in the sidebar or the test file itself? Do that. Want to run them from a terminal or via a background task? Do that instead. I could (and probably will) write a whole new list on the best extensions to use with Visual Studio Code. It is versatile enough that I believe any developer could make it the editor they need.
Why it is great for software developers?
Either natively or via an extension, Visual Studio Code supports just about every aspect of the software development lifecycle you might encounter, on every platform that likely matters (Windows, macOS, and Linux), using any workflow that suits you. Not to mention it gets feature updates monthly and is supported by a huge community of users. It takes a little DNA from editors like Atom, Sublime, and your basic text editor, and elevates them to something, well, sublimer3.
When concentrating on software development tools, it is really easy for me to overlook this one – probably because it is not a software development tool, at least not from first impressions. I use WordPress for this blog; I always have. There are many alternatives out there; some more technically involved than others. I know I could use markdown in a GitHub repository; I have heard of Jekyll and Gatsby and so many other ways to generate a site; I know about Medium, but for me, WordPress wins because it has the features I need, including wide support for hosting, accessibility, themes, plugins, and autonomy from the whimsy and money-grabbing aggregation platforms like Medium.
The recent updates to the core editing experience, known as Gutenberg, have been amazing and the regular updates that are auto-applied without me raising a finger keep adding polish to an already awesome experience. I can schedule posts, manage comments, and use plugins to add syntax highlighting, footnotes, multi-factor authentication, backups, and spam filtering, to name just a few. Just as with Visual Studio Code extensions, I could write another list of plugins that I love for WordPress.
35% of the web uses WordPress, from hobby blogs to the biggest news sites online.
WordPress is used by over a third of the web. A third! That includes this blog, almost every site that Ann Arbor Give Camp has worked on in the past few years, and rollingstone.com! If you are considering putting together any kind of website, whether a blog, or something else, I highly recommend this freely available platform that has more versatility than Meryl Streep.
Why it is great for software developers?
As I mentioned earlier, WordPress seems entirely unrelated to software development (unless you are writing themes and plugins for WordPress4). However, I have learned that writing a blog about ones technical exploits is an absolutely amazing software development tool. I never realised how much I could learn just by trying to teach someone else. I used to think a blog was about its readers and being right; I have come to learn that a blog is merely its writer, being. The act of writing a blog is where its value lies. Writing this blog identifies gaps in my knowledge, personal biases, and more. It can shine a light on my laziness, focus the my mind on a gnarly problem, and provide a scaffold from which to hang my personal growth. There are numerous times where writing posts for this blog (including some I never published) has helped me become a better software engineer. The fact that sometimes, someone reads it and finds it useful, entertaining, or infuriating is really just a bonus.
For some readers, this may seem a pointless entry. Using GitHub for collaborative software development is so incredibly common that suggesting folks should use it seems a bit like suggesting folks should try breathing air5. Though there are alternatives such as GitLab, GitKracken6, or BitBucket, GitHub is almost ubiquitous. I do not recall an open source project that I have interacted with recently that was not hosted on GitHub7. With the recent changes allowing private and public repositories for personal accounts, the addition of GitHub Actions for automating all kinds of workflows – free to open source, and some great improvements to code review that have been released or are in beta, GitHub is an absolutely fantastic tool for those developing software. Add to that the integrations with other tools that I use like Visual Studio Code, Slack, and third-party issue trackers such as Jira, and GitHub shines. Many feared that its acquisition by Microsoft would doom it to failure, yet the Microsoft of today is a wonderful curator of open source goodies, and it seems that we all get to reap the benefits.
Why it is great for software developers?
Free backup of your source code, code reviews, automated workflows, and more, all on a tried and tested platform with a huge community. Not only that, but if you want, you get to collaborate, build, and present work with that community8.
🤷🏻♂️ That's it…
I don't know about you, but lists are exhausting. I've only written about three things and I'm already done with everything and ready for a lie down. I do stand by this list though. I really thought about what to put on it, considering the various tools I have used, not only because I have to, but because I want to. I would choose these tools from the very start of a new project unlike some others I use that, while I like them, are specific to a technology (such as React Developer Tools), are only what I use because the circumstances call for it, or are not really that standout against alternatives that I could be using.
Of course, this is all my personal opinion drawn from my personal experience; you have absolutely no obligation to agree with me. In fact, you have every right to use anything but the things I mentioned above, remaining in your state of willful ignorance, knowing you are wrong, unwilling to accept the truth as a way of life 😈. Just kidding, these are development tools, not religions – what works for you, works for you. These work for me. Perhaps you agree and want to pat me on the back from my excellent choices, maybe you care to tell me your preferred alternatives or shout at me about mine, or perhaps you read the footnotes and really have something to say about privilege, toxicity, and portfolios – feel free to engage in the comments; let's talk 🤗.
And with that, I bid you well until the 🎆New Year and all the productive software shenanigans that await us in 2020. 🙇🏻♂️
Fear Of Missing Out – a most annoying acronym, I find; why? no idea [↩]
before GitHub, it was SourceForge, before the DevShare debacle – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SourceForge [↩]
Side Note: I think it is perfectly fine not to have a portfolio; some of the best developers I know do not have any public source, or fancy stuff to show off. This weird obsession some folks have with portfolios feels like another toxic manifestation of privilege in the software development world, and I don't care for it. Let's share what we want (and are able) to share, and accept that if we don't, that doesn't mean we're shit developers. 💙 [↩]
Being grateful—for what others do, for good fortune, for what you have—is good for you. It makes you happier, helps you sleep better, and boosts your immune system. Being grateful is a good way to live and when you thank someone else for what they have done for you, I believe it fosters relationships, builds community, and encourages others to do the same.
I learned about the concepts behind journaling gratitude at my first KalamazooX when Elizabeth Naramore1 discussed her own gratitude journal. Around the same time, a Facebook friend started recording five things a day for which they were grateful. Looking back, this was the period when I started to acknowledge that I had unaddressed problems with depression, anxiety, and self-worth. Being grateful seemed like an easy place to start, so I gave it a try.
At different times, I recorded my gratitude using Facebook, Twitter, a physical journal, and my blog. Eventually, it started feeling stale or false; I was being thankful for inanimate or generic things like coffee, friends, or sunshine. Don't get me wrong, these are all fantastic things, but stating gratitude for coffee felt like my goal had become writing about gratitude than actually feeling grateful.
"…people are not so keen on just handing out personal information like their home address without at least knowing why."
Sometime before a visit to Boston, I had read about a man who set out to send one "thank you" note a day for a year. The idea of writing to people and thanking them directly was appealing. While in Boston, we visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and there I bought a box of postcards that I thought would suit this purpose. It took another two years and a move to Texas before I actually got started.
It has now been three weeks since I started; I have sent 20 cards, and have another four ready to go this week. Writing them is cathartic for me and I get a little excited to mail each one. I keep a list of the people I intend to write to and make sure to keep track of those to whom I have already written. Each day, I send one card, write one or two more, and send a message or two over the Internet to get addresses. However, it turns out that some people are not so keen on just handing out personal information like their home address without at least knowing why. This seemed odd to me at first and I felt untrusted. In addition, I felt a deep reluctance to explain why. It seemed I felt the value of this project was lost if the postcard was not a surprise. Of course, that is ridiculous; not only do people have every right to know why I would want their address, but if the surprise of receiving the card itself were the value, what would be the point of writing anything on the card?
So, I write this blog entry, in part, to provide an explanation for people when they ask why I need their address. That said, I also write it as encouragement to others who might be considering the start of their own gratitude project. Being grateful is powerful on its own, yet the responses I have received to messages I have sent have been wonderful, humbling, and kind. People are amazing, so tell them; the more you thank others for their impact on your life, the more you will be surprised by your impact on theirs.
Google provides some extremely useful online tools that many of us have come to rely on. From Sheets, Slides, and Docs, to Gmail, Maps, and Keep, the advertising giant tends to cover all the angles. The most recent Google tool that I have started using is an improvement over an old service called My Places that started out as a part of Google Maps. It is called My Maps and provides users with the means to build custom annotated maps. Any maps you create can then be embedded into websites or shared via email and social media1.
When first visiting the site, you are offered an option to either create a new map or open an existing map. Any places you had in My Places are already transferred to My Maps and available to open if you wish.
Initial view after creating a map
Creating a new map presents you with a familiar Google Maps-style view but with additional overlays for editing the map. These are together at the top-left in two distinct groups. The first is the map structure where you can view and edit the name of the map and its layers, as well as add new layers and adjust the appearance of the base map layer. When I tried this, there were nine different base maps available; from left to right, top to bottom these are Map, Satellite, Terrain, Light Political, Mono City, Simple Atlas, Light Landmass, Dark Landmass, and Whitewater.
Map structure with "Base map" menu opened
To edit the map name, map description, or layer name, just click the text.
Dialog for editing the map title and description
Below the description are options to add a new layer and to share the map. There is also a drop down that provides options to open or create a map, delete, export, embed, and print the current map. Below that, each layer is shown. The layer drop down can be used to rename or delete the layer as well as view a data table of items on that layer. The data table allows you to add additional information about various things that have been added to the map (two columns for name and description are provided by default, but more can be added).
The My Maps toolbox
Next to the map structure is the toolbox. The toolbox contains a search bar, allowing you to find the area of the map on which to base your customizations. Below the search bar are buttons to undo, redo, select and manipulate, add places, draw lines, add directions, and measure distances and areas. Using these tools, you can build up map layers. When building the Stonehenge map for my blog post on our trip there, I was able to not only search for add mark existing places, but also add custom places. Each item added goes into the selected map layer, which is indicated by a colored bar on the left edge of the layer in the map structure. Clicking a layer changes the layer being edited.
Adding and editing a layer, showing the layer selection bar on the left edge
The appearance of each item in a layer can be modified, either as a group or individually, by manipulating the styles option at the top of the layer and clicking the paint can icon on an individual item. By editing the layer style, you can also choose which column in the data table for that layer provides text for the items in that layer, and style items based on data in the data table (useful for representing data on the map). There is a lot of scope in this area, so I recommend playing around with it and seeing what works for your specific use case.
Editing the appearance of items on a layer is easy
Once you are happy with the map you have created, you can share it, export it to KML (for use in Google Earth and other apps that support KML), and embed into websites. The main share options are familiar to anyone who has shared a document from Sheets, Slides, or Docs, allowing you to share a link to the map as well as control who can edit and view it. If you want to embed the map in a website, an embed code is provided via the map menu, however, as the site will tell you, you need to make the map public before you can embed.
Assigning permissions is consistent with other Google apps
All in all, I found My Maps a pleasant discovery and really nice to use. The styling options and ability to add additional data allow for some impressive customization. I am certainly going to use this application more in the future. How about you? Leave a comment and let me know your experiences with this new addition to Google's collection of online applications, or perhaps add details of alternatives that are out there.
Those planning to use Google My Maps for commercial use should review Google permissions and license terms before proceeding [↩]
I recently made the decision to have a featured image for each of my blog entries. The intention was to make things more consistent and easier on the eye. Sometimes, the image to use was immediately obvious and I would get it from my personal photos, at other times, it was not so easy.
Thankfully, my good friend and exceptional designer, Terrance Robb came to the rescue by introducing me to Unsplash. Unsplash is a service that posts ten stock images every ten days. These are high resolution images licensed under Creative Commons Zero, and as such, are completely free to use as you see fit.
Why use Unsplash? Well, when someone puts professional, copyrighted images on the Internet without the permission of the owner, it directly impacts that owner's ability to make money from that work. I like Unsplash because it encourages people to do the right thing with regards to copyright. Rather than resort to stealing copyrighted images with a right-click, Save As…1, Unsplash provides a free source of images for those who cannot afford professional alternatives. Not only that, but the licensing terms are completely unambiguous. There is no hunting for the appropriate attribution information or license information, you know exactly what your getting with these images.
So, next time you need inspiration or want an image for your presentation or blog and don't have the budget to pay for a professional stock (or custom) photo, don't steal; check out Unsplash.
Being grateful—for what others do, for good fortune, for what you have—is good for you. It 
