How Big Data Is Saving Lives in Real Time: IoV Data Analytics Helps Prevent Accidents

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Internet of Vehicles, or IoV, is the product of the marriage between the automotive industry and IoT. IoV data is expected to get larger and larger, especially with electric vehicles being the new growth engine of the auto market. The question is: Is your data platform ready for that? This article shows you what an OLAP solution for IoV looks like.

What Is Special About IoV Data?

The idea of IoV is intuitive: to create a network so vehicles can share information with each other or with urban infrastructure. What‘s often under-explained is the network within each vehicle itself. On each car, there is something called Controller Area Network (CAN) that works as the communication center for the electronic control systems. For a car traveling on the road, the CAN is the guarantee of its safety and functionality, because it is responsible for:

Chris’ Corner: Mentals and Models

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Josh Comeau has a new learning guide out for CSS grid: An Interactive Guide to CSS Grid. I like how Josh gets into the “mental model” right away, because that’s the biggest thing with big APIs like this: you need to get the basics of how it works in your head so you know when and why to reach for it. The niche details are less important. You can look them up. Mostly you need to understand that the thing exists and what it is capable of. Ideally you can write a basic setup from memory. Then the more niche stuff you reference. Josh’s guide, especially with the interactivity, loads you up with that mental model.

Josh has done the same before with an An Interactive Guide to Flexbox. The interactive bit goes a long way in locking in that mental model. In my CSS-Tricks days, our guide to flexbox was also decent at explaining the model I think, and also was a decent reference guide at the same time. But it didn’t have that interactivity so people were left to extracting the information to their own code to play. Once people are writing their own layout code, I’d wager that’s also a pretty big moment for locking in a mental model. CodePen editable embeds might be a good way to bring that to guides like this. I know that a very lot of people had their ah-ha moment with flexbox via Flexbox Froggy, and I think it’s that combination of interactivity and real code that made that so effective.


Speaking of Cool Josh Ideas, have you seen his operator lookup page? JavaScript has a pretty decent number of operators, and some of them you really have to look up to remember sometimes:

Sometimes my brain goes… what’s the one where you set the value, but if the value is null, provide a fallback. Which is this one.


Do you know about import maps yet? They aren’t some new niche thing, they are supported across the board. (Well, a little new, maybe).

I like Yoshi Huang’s article(s) on them, they do a good job of setting the stage.

My brain goes a little like this. This is really common code to see, but it’s actually invalid JavaScript:

import lodash from "lodash";

If you see code like that, traditionally, it means that the JavaScript will be going through a processor of some sort that is going to resolve "lodash" to some actual location where that code can be found. If we wanted that code to be valid JavaScript, we’d either have to:

  1. Import from a relative file path (e.g. that string has got to start with a dot or a slash)
  2. Import from a URL

The latter being like:

import lodash from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.21/+esm'

But now, the original import statement actually is valid. That is, as long as we use an import map. From Yoshi’s article, something like:

<script type="importmap">
{
  "imports": {
     "lodash": "/node_modules/lodash-es/lodash.js"
  }
}
</script>

Think of it like string replacement. The "lodash" in the import statement becomes "/node_modules/lodash-es/lodash.js" and a valid relative file path import. That could be a URL as well.

I like the idea that an import map can help orchestrate imports across an entire codebase from one place, and eliminate a lot of repetition, and be a tool in using less build processes.

I talk about them quickly in a video I did the other day if that’s helpful. There is some extra nuance to them, like an import map key can replace only part of an import path if that’s helpful.

It seems like a relatively small thing in the wide world of web development, but I think it has big implications. I know Baldur Bjarnason definitely thinks so, as he’s got a whole course called Uncluttered: Free yourself from Node with import maps and test-driven web development, which I’ve just started taking myself.


Shout out to Flavio Copes for the recent release of The Valley of Code which looks like a great reference, up from “first principles”, of web development work. Not a lot of guides like this are so comprehensive the start out with URLs and DNS before going on to higher level languages like HTML and CSS.

There is even a section on using CodePen so color me a little biased.


I shared a video of Szenia Zadvornykh’s Crowd Simulator the other day (just because it’s awesome). It’s just one image if you can believe that. Us early 2010’s developers remember sprite sheets.

It’s almost like those illustrated people are the result of some fancy drawing algorithm. Well, here’s something like that! CSS-PEEPS is “one CSS file, one <div>, and over 5 MILLION combinations” of people.

That’s me in 2 years when I inevitably need glasses and try hair regrowth techniques doing my “well actually” look.


A bit of a random add-on here, but I think I agree with Evert Pot when he says:

So while React/Next.js may be relegated to the enterprise and legacy systems in a few years, they completely transformed front-end development and created ripple effects in many other technologies. One of many great ideas stemming from this stack is JSX. I think JSX has a chance to stay relevant and useful beyond React/Next.

I’m maybe a little more bullish on Next.js because it does a lot really well, has a lot of momentum, support, and has some DX that is hard to match. But that’s a little besides the point. JSX, as an industry thing, might just end up having bigger influence over time than React itself. It’s just a pretty good HTML templating language.

How to Replace Default Theme and Plugin Editor in WordPress

Wp Plugins

Are you looking for a way to replace the default theme and plugin editor in WordPress?

The default WordPress theme and plugin editors are plain text editors with limited functionality. By replacing these editors with better tools, you can use advanced features like access control, child theme creation, file downloads, and more.

In this article, we will show you how to easily replace the default theme and plugin editor in WordPress.

Replacing the default theme and plugin editor in WordPress

Why Replace the Default Theme and Plugin Editor in WordPress?

The default theme editor in the dashboard of your WordPress website allows you to make direct changes to the code in your theme files.

Similarly, the plugin editor lets you edit the code of the installed plugins on your website.

Default theme editor preview

These built-in editors have text editor interfaces that lack advanced features like access control, file download/upload, and child theme creation. This makes it time-consuming for you to add and maintain custom code.

Plus, if an unauthorized person gains access to your WordPress admin area, then they can easily access the default editors to edit your theme and plugin files. This can allow them to install malware on your website.

By replacing these editors with a plugin, you can easily customize your WordPress themes and plugins from the dashboard by adding or removing code snippets, customizing colors, modifying various template files, CSS styles, and more.

This will allow you to make quick changes to your theme or plugin without accessing your website files via FTP.

You can also create child themes, control editor access to make your website more secure, and even upload files to your plugins and themes from your computer.

Having said that, let’s see how to easily replace the default theme and plugin editor in WordPress. You can use the quick links below to jump to the different parts of our tutorial:

How to Replace the Default Theme and Plugin Editors in WordPress

First, you need to install and activate the Theme Editor plugin. For detailed instructions, you can see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: Before making any changes to your theme or plugin files, please make sure to create a complete backup of your WordPress website. This will come in handy if anything goes wrong and you have to restore WordPress from a backup.

Upon activation, you need to head over to the Theme Editor » Settings page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Once you are there, check the ‘Yes’ box for the ‘Enable code editor for theme’ option.

After that, if you want to disable the default WordPress theme editor, then you need to check the ‘Yes’ box next to the ‘Disable WordPress theme file editor?’ option.

Configure theme editor settings

Once you have done that, just switch to the ‘Plugin Editor’ tab at the top.

Here, you need to check the ‘Yes’ box next to the ‘Enable code editor for plugin’ option.

You can also disable the default editor by choosing the ‘Yes’ option for the ‘Disable WordPress plugin file editor?’ setting.

Configure plugin editor settings

Next, switch to the ‘Code Editor’ tab from the top of the page.

From here, you can choose a theme for the code editor from the dropdown menu. This will display the code in your theme and plugins in different backgrounds and font colors.

Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Choose a code editor theme

Editing Your Theme Files Using the Theme Editor

Now, you need to visit the Theme Editor » Theme Code Editor page from the WordPress admin dashboard.

Once you are there, you need to select the theme that you want to edit from the dropdown menu in the right corner of the screen. Next, you must choose the theme file where you want to add code from the sidebar on the right.

After that, you can easily add, remove, or edit code to your theme files from the theme editor on your screen.

Choose theme to edit

Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Update File’ button to store your settings.

You can also download the file you just edited by clicking on the ‘Download File’ button. If you want to download the whole theme instead, then you can click the ‘Download Theme’ button.

Save theme files

Editing Your Plugins Using the Plugin Editor

If you want to add code to your plugin files instead, then you need to visit the Theme Editor » Plugin Code Editor page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Once you are there, choose a plugin to edit from the dropdown menu in the right corner of the screen.

After that, you can select a plugin file to edit from the sidebar on the right and then edit it using the plugin code editor.

Edit plugin files

Once you are satisfied with your changes, just click the ‘Update File’ button to store your settings.

You can even download the file you just edited by clicking the ‘Download File’ button.

If you want to download the plugin with all the changes that you have made, then you can click the ‘Download Plugin’ button instead.

Download plugin files

Configuring Access Control With the Theme Editor Plugin

The Theme Editor plugin even lets you control access to your theme and plugin editors in WordPress. However, this feature is only available in the pro version of the plugin.

This way, only users who you approve will be able to edit the themes and plugins on your website.

By using access control, you make your website more secure by allowing only trustworthy users to make changes to your files, reducing the risk of malware.

First, you need to visit the Theme Editor » Access Control page from the WordPress dashboard.

Control the access to theme and plugin editor

From here, you just need to check the options in the columns that you want the WordPress user roles to have access to.

For example, if you want the editor to have the ability to update theme files, then you need to check that box in the ‘Editor’ row.

Once you are done, simply click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Creating a Child Theme With the Theme Editor

If you want to create a child theme to customize your WordPress themes, then you can visit the Theme Editor » Child Theme page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Once you are there, you will first need to choose a parent theme from the dropdown menu in the middle and then click the ‘Analyze’ button.

Choose a parent theme

Once that’s done, you must provide a name for your new theme directory and select where to save your child theme stylesheet.

After that, you can even provide a name, description, author, and version for the child theme that you are creating.

Once you are done, just click the ‘Create New Child Theme’ button.

Configure child theme settings

Now that you have created a child theme, you can edit the selector, web fonts, CSS, child style, and theme files from the menu bar at the top of the page.

The changes that you make will automatically be saved in your child theme.

Child theme created

Bonus: Use WPCode to Add Custom Code to Your Website

Adding code to your website using plugins or theme file editors is always a bit risky because the smallest error can break your WordPress website and make it inaccessible.

That is why we recommend using the free WPCode plugin instead to add custom code to your website. It is the best WordPress code snippets plugin on the market.

First, you need to install and activate the WPCode plugin. For detailed instructions, you can see our tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to head over to the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

From here, you can use the WPCode snippet library to add pre-made code snippets to your WordPress site.

However, if you want to add custom code, then you can also do that by clicking the ‘Use Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.

Add new snippet

This will open the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can start by adding a title for your code snippet.

After that, you need to select a code type from the dropdown menu in the right corner of the screen. For example, if you want to add PHP code, then you just need to select the ‘PHP Snippet’ option.

Next, simply add your custom code into the ‘Code Preview’ box.

PHP Snippet as code type

Once you have done that, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section and choose the ‘Auto Insert’ mode.

Your custom code will be automatically executed on your site upon activation.

Choose an insertion method

Finally, scroll back to the top and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.

After that, click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to save and execute the custom code on your website.

Save code snippet

For more details, you can see our guide on how to add custom code in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily replace the default theme and plugin editor in WordPress. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide on how to safely update WordPress and our expert picks for the must-have WordPress plugins to grow your site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Replace Default Theme and Plugin Editor in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Analysis of Failure Modes in Producer-Consumer Systems

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Producer-consumer patterns are used extensively in systems all around us. In producer-consumer pattern-based systems, producers write data that one or multiple consumers consume. This pattern allows producer systems to scale while distributing functionality among multiple consumer systems. Just like any other distributed system, the uptime of a producer-consumer system depends on how well it protects itself from the various failure modes and, when impacted, how quickly it can recover.

In this article, we analyze the various failure modes of producer-consumer systems, their impact, how we can detect the failures, mitigate them, and review the protections we can put in place to prevent the failure modes from happening.

Sometimes It Is Who You Know

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(And sometimes it’s not)

My post about my 6-month job search generated some attention and conversation. The comments helped me clarify some of the more specific lessons I’ve learned recently or that I knew but were reinforced by the experience. After taking time to organize them into a somewhat coherent structure, I’m ready to share. Here are the first lessons on the list.