Ok to Cross the Streams When Code Fixing

“Who ya gonna call?” “CODEBUSTERS”

No.

But the metaphor of Ghostbusters crossing the streams was inversely appropriate to a little bit of code action over the holidays (of which the actual action was nil).

But this was fun.

This nice tweet from John Johnston (who spawned the idea) reminded me of a WordPress plugin I had made

Thanks to my On This Day page (thanks to @cogdog for that), I found my review of 2006: https://t.co/bsjJWahYlG (https://t.co/GQky8Cpz10)
— john johnston (@johnjohnston) December 29, 2019

The WP Posted Today plugin is meant to offer a short code you can put on a site and it will list all previous posts on the current calendar day (this of course is useful if you actually still blog regularly) (cough) (cough).

Just for grins I checked the page where I use my own plugin. Yikes. Red Alert. It displayed all the ones for December 29 in years past, but the part where it should list how many there were was blank.

Red arrow points to missing number where the page output reads "There are posts previously published on December 29th"

I dug into my own code… and found myself a bit lost. Crossed. I was not even sure where I got the sprintf functions (John’s original code?) that were aimed to be compatible if anyone every wanted a language translation (maybe, or it’s just that thing when people code things differently).

Taking the path of least resistance, I took out the code where I think the problem was occurring and did it a more simple, but brute force way.

And it worked.

So I updated the version on GitHub and felt at peace with the world. In the off chance someone stumbled into my little corner of code, they would find something that works (or should work).

And then (here comes a stream crossing) Michael Hanscom @djwudi — someone I don’t think I’ve ever communicated with — tweets that he had seen pretty much the same bug and offered a fix.

https://twitter.com/djwudi/status/1212871226953101313

In looking at his post I saw the fix he made, and said– that’s better than mine! So I decided today to roll back my changes in place of Michael’s solution (but also keeping a modification I had made to remove extraneous calls when not needed for singular versus multiple results).

I noted the extra change he made in hos own version

Plus, I’ve made one other tweak to the plugin, so that it adds a link to the end of the excerpt to better handle “microblog” style entries that don’t have titles, so I still get to feel good about that part, as well. 🙂 My coding skills may be underdeveloped and rusty from lack of regular use, but they’re not entirely atrophied!

In this case, these microblog type entries (see Michael’s demo page) lack titles, so yes, a link is needed at the end of the post excerpt.

Yet I could see that regular posts (like on my site) did not need the extra link, and also, not everyone might want the arrow Michael likes.

I solved this cleverly by creating an additional shortcode parameter more which defaults to a blank string. In the shortcode function, we convert any attributes passed to variables with

extract(shortcode_atts( array( "month" => '', "day" => '', 'excerpt' => 1, 'more' => '' ), $atts ));

So on my site, where I just used the shortcode

There are 20 posts previously published on April 24th

202518 Years Later Echoes of a VoiceThread, not from the Grave Strap your self in for another wild old crazy link tour, real audio echoes from the web past, and an anomaly of a free web storytelling tool that not only is around after a start 8 years ago, but quite useful. This web rabbit hole goes deep, deep, deep, including some browser source inspection of […]
2024Out of the Gray A 2X McPhee Crossing I never thought I’d learn something from dumping paint. Once upon a time when I was living in Arizona, I decided to do the right thing and dispose of my cans left over paint. The Gila County dump had a special collection day for disposing of paint, so I arrived with my box of various […]
2018Eyed Out of The U.K. Never brag about your health; Rod Serling will tap you with some Twilight Zone stick. At a few days short of 55 I had been talking among friends how good I feel- no aches, no replaced body parts, good energy, and not bad for someone 48 years as a Type 1 diabetic. Saturday morning, while […] I Got Bill Jayed in Bristol Webs are not just for http protocols. They are in life itself, invisible hyperlinks, maybe random generated coincidence. And once more, filed in the bulging web of serendipity tag pile on this blog is how I came to be at a screening of a brilliant documentary Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay. […]
2017Open Educational (Porosity / Permeability)? OH NOES NOT DEFINITIONS! Fear not, it’s not happening. But today during the blog-star-studded-most-of-them-self-deprecating hangout on “Open Pedagogy Open Discussion #YearOfOpen” (see the resource doc too) Mike Caulfield made an interesting comment about openness and the metaphor of “permeability” which raises my Geology sensors (Maybe 5 years of undergraduate and 6 in graduate study of […]
2016On Dog Walking Having adopted a dog has changed my daily routines, all for the better. I have data – our daily walks, medium in the morning, long in later afternoon, short at night, have taken my daily walking from less than 1 mile per day to over 5 on average. Each time I put on Felix’s leash, […]
2014My Bags Aren’t Packed, I’m Sort of Ready to Go… I will toss in a few more bits at lunch time, heading out tonight from Phoenix for the direct hop to London. There’s a few days adjustment, Still Web planning, and I expect tangential conversations with Mariana Funes. But I am really going to visit Colin. I hear we are traveling in fine mode to […] A Domain of pechaflickr’s Own It’s about time it went out on its own. Now serving random flickr images as pecha as it can — http://pechaflickr.net. Have no fears, the old domain http://pechaflickr.cogdogblog.com/ should send you there too. Share this barking on social media
2013ds106 Show: Off The Air Yesterday was week 14 for ds106, the last week of classes for my UMW students, and also the last of my semi regular live Google Hangouts pitched as a weekly “show”. Thanks to Brian Lamb, Todd Conaway, and stalwart student Nancy B for showing up. The whole series is right here! The viewership on the […]
2012Layers and Noticing: Two ds106 Meta Layers cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Andrew Curtis This is the last week of my first semester teaching ds106; Jim Groom has reminded my plenty about what a marathon push this is for both student and teacher. Their blogs have fallen quiet as (I hope) they are going full metal on their […] Kinetic Hand Luke I tried my hand poorly a few weeks ago at the ds106 Kinetic Typography assignment. There is a reason maybe only 3 or 4 people have braved this one. Kinetic typography (“moving text”) is an animation technique that allows a creative entrepreneur to mix text and motion. Your job is to take a speech or […]
2011Daily Shot cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Like this tulip, lingering languidly long after its prime, I am giving up the 473 day photo string of participating in the Daily Shoot. After 15 months of being faithful, I am giving it a rest. Part of it is just not feeling the drive […] Last Man on Earth Not So Lonely OMG, it is the last stretch of ds106, finals! cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Late last night, in a fit of energy, I decided to finish out my fandom assignment. Rather than blabbing all about it first, like usual, I share first “The Last Man on Earth is Not So […]
2010Found. The WordPress Search Solution. Hewn by Hand. I’m hopeful I have an optimum (or optimummer) search solution for my blog- not that I care if you can find anything here, but its important that I do. Back in March I vented my frustration about the limits of WordPress search, yet despite the experiments with plugins, none of them really worked for me, […]
2009TweetDeck Hidden Gem: Translated Tweets cc licensed flickr photo by me! (do I need to attribute myself? will I sue myself? This was not the photo I wished I had taken at Northern Voice 2009. There was a moment in the back of the auditorium, during one of the big keynote sessions, when I glance at all the open laptops- […]
2008Help! Jailbreak me from the Brig of the Stinky Alltel Pirates I am far from alone being in individual ramrodded by a company that takes your money for a service it does not provide. But these dinosaurs are in denial of the asteroids raining down on them, as the net empowers us to put their evil deeds into the light. This is my little experiment to […] Waiting for the Twitter Follow Up Song Here’s a toe tapper – show your love for Facebook: Linktribution to Suw Charman-Anderson So now Facebook has a chat client built in. Where did they get that idea? Will they try to position themselves as also a hub for web-apps? While working on your FaceDocs will you be able to poke your colleague or […]
2007involver? This month’s issue of Wired had a small blurb in the PLaylist section on YASS (Yet Another Social Service): involver.com Sure, Twitter’s fine if you must know what your friends are doing right now. But what are they doing next week? Try involver.com, which lets you list events you plan to attend and tag them […] Google Saves My Coding (again) It’s hardly, hardly news anymore when a search in Google unveils the answer to a technical problem. But every time it happens, I get a tickle. Still. Like a newbie searcher. This borders on techno-trivia, but I’ve been working on some code that will allow us at NMC to create our own registration form to […]
2006Ramping Up To Conference on Personal Broadcasting Go ahead and criticize for raving about an upcoming conference my new employer is hosting– but regardless I would still be excited about this week’s NMC Conference on Personal Broadcasting, taking place April 26 and 27 online via LearningTimes: At the leading edge of a wave that will last for the next several years and […]

and the default value, the link at the end is invisible.

On Michael’s site he might use

There are 20 posts previously published on April 24th

202518 Years Later Echoes of a VoiceThread, not from the Grave Strap your self in for another wild old crazy link tour, real audio echoes from the web past, and an anomaly of a free web storytelling tool that not only is around after a start 8 years ago, but quite useful. This web rabbit hole goes deep, deep, deep, including some browser source inspection of […] &amp#x27A1;
2024Out of the Gray A 2X McPhee Crossing I never thought I’d learn something from dumping paint. Once upon a time when I was living in Arizona, I decided to do the right thing and dispose of my cans left over paint. The Gila County dump had a special collection day for disposing of paint, so I arrived with my box of various […] &amp#x27A1;
2018Eyed Out of The U.K. Never brag about your health; Rod Serling will tap you with some Twilight Zone stick. At a few days short of 55 I had been talking among friends how good I feel- no aches, no replaced body parts, good energy, and not bad for someone 48 years as a Type 1 diabetic. Saturday morning, while […] &amp#x27A1; I Got Bill Jayed in Bristol Webs are not just for http protocols. They are in life itself, invisible hyperlinks, maybe random generated coincidence. And once more, filed in the bulging web of serendipity tag pile on this blog is how I came to be at a screening of a brilliant documentary Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay. […] &amp#x27A1;
2017Open Educational (Porosity / Permeability)? OH NOES NOT DEFINITIONS! Fear not, it’s not happening. But today during the blog-star-studded-most-of-them-self-deprecating hangout on “Open Pedagogy Open Discussion #YearOfOpen” (see the resource doc too) Mike Caulfield made an interesting comment about openness and the metaphor of “permeability” which raises my Geology sensors (Maybe 5 years of undergraduate and 6 in graduate study of […] &amp#x27A1;
2016On Dog Walking Having adopted a dog has changed my daily routines, all for the better. I have data – our daily walks, medium in the morning, long in later afternoon, short at night, have taken my daily walking from less than 1 mile per day to over 5 on average. Each time I put on Felix’s leash, […] &amp#x27A1;
2014My Bags Aren’t Packed, I’m Sort of Ready to Go… I will toss in a few more bits at lunch time, heading out tonight from Phoenix for the direct hop to London. There’s a few days adjustment, Still Web planning, and I expect tangential conversations with Mariana Funes. But I am really going to visit Colin. I hear we are traveling in fine mode to […] &amp#x27A1; A Domain of pechaflickr’s Own It’s about time it went out on its own. Now serving random flickr images as pecha as it can — http://pechaflickr.net. Have no fears, the old domain http://pechaflickr.cogdogblog.com/ should send you there too. Share this barking on social media &amp#x27A1;
2013ds106 Show: Off The Air Yesterday was week 14 for ds106, the last week of classes for my UMW students, and also the last of my semi regular live Google Hangouts pitched as a weekly “show”. Thanks to Brian Lamb, Todd Conaway, and stalwart student Nancy B for showing up. The whole series is right here! The viewership on the […] &amp#x27A1;
2012Layers and Noticing: Two ds106 Meta Layers cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Andrew Curtis This is the last week of my first semester teaching ds106; Jim Groom has reminded my plenty about what a marathon push this is for both student and teacher. Their blogs have fallen quiet as (I hope) they are going full metal on their […] &amp#x27A1; Kinetic Hand Luke I tried my hand poorly a few weeks ago at the ds106 Kinetic Typography assignment. There is a reason maybe only 3 or 4 people have braved this one. Kinetic typography (“moving text”) is an animation technique that allows a creative entrepreneur to mix text and motion. Your job is to take a speech or […] &amp#x27A1;
2011Daily Shot cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Like this tulip, lingering languidly long after its prime, I am giving up the 473 day photo string of participating in the Daily Shoot. After 15 months of being faithful, I am giving it a rest. Part of it is just not feeling the drive […] &amp#x27A1; Last Man on Earth Not So Lonely OMG, it is the last stretch of ds106, finals! cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Late last night, in a fit of energy, I decided to finish out my fandom assignment. Rather than blabbing all about it first, like usual, I share first “The Last Man on Earth is Not So […] &amp#x27A1;
2010Found. The WordPress Search Solution. Hewn by Hand. I’m hopeful I have an optimum (or optimummer) search solution for my blog- not that I care if you can find anything here, but its important that I do. Back in March I vented my frustration about the limits of WordPress search, yet despite the experiments with plugins, none of them really worked for me, […] &amp#x27A1;
2009TweetDeck Hidden Gem: Translated Tweets cc licensed flickr photo by me! (do I need to attribute myself? will I sue myself? This was not the photo I wished I had taken at Northern Voice 2009. There was a moment in the back of the auditorium, during one of the big keynote sessions, when I glance at all the open laptops- […] &amp#x27A1;
2008Help! Jailbreak me from the Brig of the Stinky Alltel Pirates I am far from alone being in individual ramrodded by a company that takes your money for a service it does not provide. But these dinosaurs are in denial of the asteroids raining down on them, as the net empowers us to put their evil deeds into the light. This is my little experiment to […] &amp#x27A1; Waiting for the Twitter Follow Up Song Here’s a toe tapper – show your love for Facebook: Linktribution to Suw Charman-Anderson So now Facebook has a chat client built in. Where did they get that idea? Will they try to position themselves as also a hub for web-apps? While working on your FaceDocs will you be able to poke your colleague or […] &amp#x27A1;
2007involver? This month’s issue of Wired had a small blurb in the PLaylist section on YASS (Yet Another Social Service): involver.com Sure, Twitter’s fine if you must know what your friends are doing right now. But what are they doing next week? Try involver.com, which lets you list events you plan to attend and tag them […] &amp#x27A1; Google Saves My Coding (again) It’s hardly, hardly news anymore when a search in Google unveils the answer to a technical problem. But every time it happens, I get a tickle. Still. Like a newbie searcher. This borders on techno-trivia, but I’ve been working on some code that will allow us at NMC to create our own registration form to […] &amp#x27A1;
2006Ramping Up To Conference on Personal Broadcasting Go ahead and criticize for raving about an upcoming conference my new employer is hosting– but regardless I would still be excited about this week’s NMC Conference on Personal Broadcasting, taking place April 26 and 27 online via LearningTimes: At the leading edge of a wave that will last for the next several years and […] &amp#x27A1;

to get the arrow codes he likes. This works because output for each found post looks like

// output post and link
			
$output .= '' . get_the_title() . '';

// display excerpt if we want it
if ( $excerpt ) $output .= ' ' . get_the_excerpt();

// for microblog output where there might not be titles so add a link at end
// h/t https://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2020/01/02/rss-feed-weirdness-and-php-debugging/

$output .= ' ' .  $more . '';

So how is that for the odds of streams crossing on the same obscure bit of code? That’s the old fashioned kind of net serendipity that still happens.

Thanks Michael! Check out his 20 year old blog, he’s an “Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk” quite the tag line.

Featured Image: Edit of the Ghostbusters Cross Streams scene found in the Ghostbusters Fandom Wiki site which states “Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.” I replaced part of the background with a screenshot of the WP Posted Today PHP code.