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Hi! I'm Josh.

Plugin Machine Version 2/ Josh As A Service

Published about 1 year ago • 2 min read

👋 You're receiving this because you signed up for Plugin Machine or the email list. I'm going to start sending more emails to this list. I apologize 🙏 if that's not what you expected. Unsubscribe

When I started Plugin Machine, my goal was to help solo developers and small plugin companies build more stable plug-ins and build solutions to solve ecosystem-level problems. I thought building a plugin generator and CLI was a good place to start. Last year I launched “Josh as a Service” as a way to offer more direct help, and to start to turn my Laravel/ React/ WordPress freelancing into more of a product.

I've also been writing more recently -- blog posts and drafting new courses. Read on for more about Plugin Machine version 2 and Josh as A Service. I also wrote a little bit about the new posts.

Plugin Machine Version 2

🌲 Members get access to courses 🌲 Consulting services 🌲 Free plugin builder

I wrote a blog post last week about focusing Plugin Machine on consulting services -- troubleshooting and code review help and ongoing developer team mentoring and training. Also, open source tools to help WordPress, Laravel and React developers.

For awhile, like years now, whenever anyone asks me what I want to do, I say “write code and write about writing code.” So, I’ve been working on a pivot for Plugin Machine and that’s the basic plan. I am mainly going to focus on services and educational products.

🌵 Josh As A Service

I enjoy solving interesting challenges as well as educating developers. As a long-term WordPresser, I can help new entrants navigate the ecosystem.

These services are an easy way to book an amount of my time. Let me know if you have any ideas that don't fit into any of these buckets, this is still an MVP.

  • Two hour zoom call to help with troubleshooting a problem, or coming up with a strategy for solving a large problem. Send me something to review for an hour before. (2-3 hours).
  • Code reviews . Review your plugin code and go deep on one problem. Not a complete audit, but an overview of what you might need. (5-6 hours)
  • Ongoing developer training . Monthly options for developer mentoring and training or developer advocate as service. (12 or more hours a week) I'm still figuring this out. Fill out the form if you're interested.

Learn more about Plugin Machine services here: https://pluginmachine.com/services/

🌲 Recent Posts

In addition to the with more information about plans for version 2, I also wrote post about creating React hooks to help with using React to make blocks or other WordPress UI. That post is based on some hooks I wrote to share code between a set of blocks I created for a client recently.

A few weeks ago, I set up a new Linux-based development environment for PHP and JavaScript. One thing I like about Windows is how easy it is to run multiple Linuxes with different softwares and versions of PHP and/ or node. When one gets screwed up, I throw it out and make another one. I have gotten my setup time down to a few minutes including git, ssh and Docker. The other day, it took me a few minutes to remember where I put the setup scripts, so I wrote a blog post to make it easier to find them.

Hi! I'm Josh.

Josh Pollock

I write a newsletter about PHP and JavaScript development with WordPress, Laravel and React

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