Playing with WordPress Core major updates in WP 5.6

10 Dec 2020 13:44 | Geplaatst door Marcel

This week WordPress 5.6 was released and contains automatic updates for major versions. For new installs this is enabled by default, for existing installs this can be manually enabled.

One thing that I would want is to not have these automatic updates on the first major release, like 5.7, but have it update a few weeks later, on the first minor release, like 5.7.1.

Luckily this is possible, and this plugin came out of it:
https://gitlab.com/toomanybicycles/auto-update-on-point-release

/Edit 21:00 o’clock
And ofcourse I just received the tip that there is already a plugin that does this and much more :) The plugin WP Auto Updater has different modes for Core updates. My plugin does the same as the ‘minor_only’ mode.

This week WordPress 5.6 was released and contains automatic updates for major versions. For new installs this is enabled by default, for existing installs this can be manually enabled. One thing that I would want is to not have these…
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Peugeot demi-course from the sixties (PL50 or PX50)

07 Oct 2020 12:32 | Geplaatst door Marcel

Again a Peugeot with guidonnet brake levers, this time with French cantilevers.

This Peugeot demi-course is probably from the early sixties. The rounded logo was used untill the mid sixties, after that the letters became more square. The fenders with extra details are from the fifties and sixties. In the fifties the luggage racks were higher and with a different shape.

Compared to my transparant-green demi-course from the late seventies the top-tube is 1cm shorter and the stem is 1cm shorter as well.

Almost everything about this bike is original, except the handlebar tape and the saddle. It probably had white handlebar tape in plastic. The current tires are Kenda with brown walls. When they are worn out, it will be time for Michelins with white walls.
And yes, the bike has lots of patina :) It will never ever become a collectors item.

Again a Peugeot with guidonnet brake levers, this time with French cantilevers. This Peugeot demi-course is probably from the early sixties. The rounded logo was used untill the mid sixties, after that the letters became more square. The fenders with…
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Biological levers

06 Jul 2020 13:33 | Geplaatst door Marcel

We all know the function of anti-psychotics, they are used to decrease psychotic symptoms. They can be very effective against these symptoms, even though the experiences and opinions vary. The cause of these psychotic symptoms is often not clear and they are not targeted directly by these medications.

From more recent research it seems that people who are suspectible to psychosis consist of genetically different groups. Personally I have heard so many stories that I am convinced there exists a whole complex of causes and that every person who is suspectible to psychosis has a personal story.

My acute psychosis has been over for years. Since 2013 I only need to take a low level of medication for maintenance (around 1 mg Orap). I have always had the wish to be able to stop taking medication completely, but never managed that. More recently I got interested in a more biological approach; there might just be a chemical inbalance or hormonal inbalance that is causing problems.

Omega fatty acids

In my network of people with the same background there is someone who has been happy for years now with Omega fatty acids. They are available in fatty fish and in some other food sources, while also being available as supplement over the counter. They have a strong effect on proper functioning of the brain.
She tells that mostly because of Omega fatty acids she could stop taking anti-psychotic medication. She does have to put more focus on avoiding stress and also accept the fact that she is more vulnerable without medication, but for years now she has been stable without medication.

Anti-inflammatories

In 2014 (if I have the year correct) Iris Sommer gave a presentation about anti-inflammatories at the yearly day of Anoiksis. People who recently had a psychosis seemed to be responding well to simvastatins, which besides decreasing cholesterol also have an anti-inflammatory effect.
Me myself ended up with glycine. This amino acid is a natural part of the protein collagen, which is part of skin and connective tissue. In our modern diet this has mostly disappeared (who still eats chicken skin and chicken bone?). A shortage of glycine can result in inflammation, also in the brain, which can lead to psychotic symptoms.
My experience with glycine is very positive. When I let a teaspoon of it dissolve in a glass of water and I drink that, the next part of the day I feel my head clear up a lot. For some years now I take this twice a week.

Antihistamines

Histamine is an organic compound that has several functions in our body. With people who are suspectible to psychosis, histamine is more often inbalanced than in the general population.
Me myself had some physical problems and my search on the labyrinth that is called the internet seemed to point towards allergic rhinitis. I had an allergy for citrus fruit, a light form of post-coïtal asthma, together with itching and bad sleep. These problems can happen when the level of histamine is too high. I started with antihistamines, which are sold as hay fever medication or anti-allergy, in my case Cetirizine. It made me very drowsy, and the evening was the right time to take them. My psychotic and allergic symptoms decreased a lot, more than I had dared to expect. I have been using this now for a month and my dosage of anti-psychotics is lowered to an amount that was never feasible before, and the last month symptoms have only further decreased.
There are some anti-psychotics that have an antihistamine effect, like Zyprexa (Olanzapine) and Seroquel (Quetiapine). The drowsiness that I experience from Cetirizine is very similar to the drowsiness of these medications.

Taurine

Just likes histamine it is possible that Taurine is inbalanced, especially with people who are suspectible to psychosis. I have no experience with it myself and I don’t know anybody who has. I do think it can be a good supplement to try out.

Selfinvestigation

I think that for people who are suspectible to psychosis, it can be good to investigate if there is something here that might be good for you. I can imagine that besides these approaches, there might be more possibilities. The body is a complex machine where things can get inbalanced easily. If you can find such an inbalance and know how to improve that, you might improve your health.

Update October 2020

It is now a few months later. The antihistamine pills have done their work well. Problem with them is that they block the receptors, but they do not decrease the release of histamine. In the last two months, and with that aim in mind, I started taking supplements that might have that effect. Currently I don’t use antihistamine pills anymore. Supplements that I am using:

  • Omega-3 fatty acids, including olive oil
  • Calcium + Magnesium
  • Vitamin K
  • Zinc + Copper, in 8:1 combination
  • Manganese
  • Chromium
  • Melatonin (good for sleeping as well)

The melatonin I use daily, the other supplements only once or twice a week. When you have a reasonably varied diet you should only use supplements in a limited amount, I would think overdosing is unwanted.

I started taking Taurine, but I am not sure what the effects are :) It is somewhat similar as GABA, but I have the impression that I can tolerate it better.

I also started taking Tryptophan, which is a precursor to Serotonin. I was a bit worried about psychotic symptoms, but it turns out it is not causing them.

All together I am not in need of anti-psychotic medication anymore while also experiencing less psychotic symptoms. Profit :)

Update December 2020

Some things came together in an unfortunate way. In the course of a few weeks I did build up some psychotic symptoms. I think it was also caused by tryptophan/serotonin and melatonin, which can cause hallucinations. Without tryptophan and melatonin things went back to normal again. In hindsight I did not notice any added value with tryptophan and melatonin, not in increasing them or after stopping them.

Update November 2021

For more than a year I hardly used any anti-psychotics. Since a few weeks I am back on the very minimal dose of ½mg Orap per day, together with 5mg Cetirizine. This is to be a bit more at ease when there is more noise and stress in my life.
There were a few weeks over the course of the last 14 months that I did need anti-psychotics, and I found it better to have a continuous light dose.
I didn’t experience any merits in taking Taurine. The same counted for CBD-oil, it is possible that it has more effect on sleep and against pain.

Update January 2022

Warning to others in the same boat; I seemed to gain tolerance against the 5mg Cetirizin. I didn’t understand the recent rise in psychotic symptoms, which lasted way too long. Now I am back from 5mg to 10mg Cetirizin which seems to be better.

Also, I started taking methionine, which should help with under-methylation.

Update December 2022

The methionine has had remarkable results, the psychotic symptoms are happening now without much emotion involved. Feelings of agression and fear were often involved, they are now mostly gone. Starting with 500mg, I now use 1500mg daily.

I stopped taking calcium and magnesium. I have the idea that these two supplements require a strong balance, and it’s easy to have them go unbalanced.

I assumed my histamine level is lower, and I stopped taking antihistamine. In the next few weeks there was a buildup of psychotic symptoms, apparently I do need them.

At the moment I take:

  • 1mg Orap per day.
  • 10mg Cetirizine per day.
  • 1500mg Methionine per day.
  • weekly; Omega-3, vitamin K, zinc/copper, chromium.

I started taking Pyridoxal phosphate (P5P), more on that in a next update.

We all know the function of anti-psychotics, they are used to decrease psychotic symptoms. They can be very effective against these symptoms, even though the experiences and opinions vary. The cause of these psychotic symptoms is often not clear and…
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How to create a Custom Provider for XML Sitemaps in WordPress 5.5

20 Jun 2020 20:27 | Geplaatst door Marcel

WordPress 5.5 will be released in August 2020 and the feature plugin for XML Sitemaps has been merged this June. You can read about the original proposal on the development blog make/core.

This feature generates a `sitemap.xml` in the document root to make it more easy for search engines to index your website.
It will list all pages, posts, tags, categories and users. It also includes support for Custom Post Types and Custom Taxonomies. You can also extend it to index custom datatypes. That could be from a custom plugin that uses its own database table and its own functions to display that.

This blogpost is about creating a custom provider for your own data.
Please understand that for custom post types or taxonomies you don’t have to do anything.

First you create a custom provider, that will generate pagination and the url_list.

/**
 * Get set of sitemap link data.
 *
 * @since 5.5.0 (use your plugin version)
 */
if ( class_exists( 'WP_Sitemaps_Provider' ) ) {

class WP_Sitemaps_My_Plugin extends WP_Sitemaps_Provider {

	/**
	 * WP_Sitemaps_My_Plugin constructor.
	 *
	 * @since 5.5.0 (use your plugin version)
	 */
	public function __construct() {
		// Use ofcourse your own names here.
		$this->name        = 'plugin_prefix';
		$this->object_type = 'plugin_prefix';
	}


	/**
	 * Gets a URL list for a sitemap.
	 *
	 * @since 5.5.0 (use your plugin version)
	 *
	 * @param int    $page_num       Page of results.
	 * @param string $object_subtype Optional. Default empty.
	 *
	 * @return array $url_list Array of URLs for a sitemap. 
	 */
	public function get_url_list( $page_num, $object_subtype = '' ) {
		// use a function from your plugin to fetch this data
		$pages = plugin_prefix_get_url_list();

		$url_list = array();
		foreach ( $pages as $page ) {

			// No need to add 'lastmod', it is only a hint to search engines.
			$sitemap_entry = array(
				'loc'     => $page,
			);

			$url_list[] = $sitemap_entry;
		}

		return $url_list;

	}


	/**
	 * Gets the max number of pages available for the object type.
	 *
	 * @since 5.5.0 (use your plugin version)
	 *
	 * @see WP_Sitemaps_Provider::max_num_pages
	 *
	 * @param string $object_subtype Optional. Default empty.
	 *
	 * @return int Total page count.
	 */
	public function get_max_num_pages( $object_subtype = '' ) {
		// again, use a function from your own plugin to fetch this data.
		$pages = plugin_prefix_get_my_pagination();

		return count( $pages );

	}
}
}

This is all for the Custom Provider that you need. I do hope you understand that you need to code your own pagination and your list of urls :)

Now to integrate it with the Sitemaps in WordPress 5.5 you can use 2 ways.
First option is to use a filter and add the instance of your Provider class.

function plugin_prefix_wp_sitemaps_register_providers( $providers ) {

	if ( class_exists( 'WP_Sitemaps_Provider' ) ) {
		$provider = new WP_Sitemaps_My_Plugin();
		$providers['plugin_prefix'] = $provider;
	}

	return $providers;

}
add_filter( 'wp_sitemaps_register_providers' , 'plugin_prefix_wp_sitemaps_register_providers' );

The other option is to call a procedural function call in an action hook.

function plugin_prefix_wp_sitemaps_register_providers() {

	if ( function_exists('wp_register_sitemap') && class_exists( 'WP_Sitemaps_Provider' ) ) {
		$provider = new WP_Sitemaps_My_Plugin();
		wp_register_sitemap( 'plugin_prefix', $provider );
	}

}
add_action( 'init', 'plugin_prefix_wp_sitemaps_register_providers' );

Both these hooks to register your custom provider should end up the same.

WordPress 5.5 will be released in August 2020 and the feature plugin for XML Sitemaps has been merged this June. You can read about the original proposal on the development blog make/core. This feature generates a `sitemap.xml` in the document…
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How to avoid global variables in PHP

19 Jun 2020 21:09 | Geplaatst door Marcel

In PHP variables are usually only available in the scope of a function or a class. For ‘easyness’ people sometimes (often?) revert to global variables. Variables can then become available in the global scope and can be pulled into any function where you might need it.

Problem is dat you might easily overwrite that variable. All you need is a typo like this:

function get_css_class( $post ) {
	global $variable;
	if ( $variable = 126 ) { // do something }
}

And only because you use the `=` for assigning a value to the variable you have now overwritten it, while you only wanted to test it with `==`.

A good way to not use global variables is to use static variables in a function that is both setter and getter. Like this function:

function get_css_class( $post ) {
	static $css_class_static;
	if ( $css_class_static ) {
		return $css_class_static;
	}
	$class = 'anything-i-want'; 
	$css_class_static = $class;
	return $css_class_static;
}

You can see here that if the variable `$css_class_static` was not set before, it gets assigned a value and saved as a static variable. The next time the function gets called, it is already set and it gets returned without having to calculate it again.
This function is both a setter (first time it’s called) and a getter (anytime it is called).
The advantage is that your variable is not in the global scope and is thus modularized and not easily overwritten.
Do pay attention to the fact that this static variable only exists during the same request, just like any global variable.

If you are using WordPress and want to go one step further you can even use the cache by using the `wp_cache_add()` and `wp_cache_get()` functions. Make sure to use keys that are unique to that data.
Also be aware that in most setups this data will only exist during the same request. Be sure to test this though, software like Memcached and Redis might be involved that make cache data survive requests.
Most software systems will have a cache system like this, and you might want to look into it.

In PHP variables are usually only available in the scope of a function or a class. For ‘easyness’ people sometimes (often?) revert to global variables. Variables can then become available in the global scope and can be pulled into any…
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Chess quote

06 Mar 2020 18:57 | Geplaatst door Marcel

Chess quote:

There are two moves you can make, one is good, one is bad. When you don’t look, you will play the bad move.

Chess quote: There are two moves you can make, one is good, one is bad. When you don’t look, you will play the bad move.
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