Not sure if I’m relieved or totally pissed… but I just solved in half an hour what I’ve been trying to puzzle out for six, count ’em, six hours.
If only I would have Googled the right words when I started.
See, I want to include a list of upcoming appearances on my client’s website, and I knew Google Calendar would be easily updated and — I thought — easily pulled into WordPress and styled just so. Turns out it’s not quite as simple as all that.
Well, actually, it is, now that I’ve found the plug-in and don’t have to write the damn thing from scratch. *headdesk*
Granted, I learned a lot about XML parsing in PHP during my research tonight. I also reinforced the unfortunate truth that I really can’t just go out and learn the piece of a technology that I need RIGHT NOW without first learning more of the foundations. I’d put myself at a beginner-plus level of PHP. Parsing XML? That totally requires at least a novice level. At least I know enough to tweak the code in the plug-in now, I guess.
I still have a decent amount of work to do before the site is complete, and I couldn’t really afford to spend so long on this one problem, but I still think it was time well-spent.
And I’m still including this evening in my billed hours. Totally.
PS – I’m getting really tired of Movable Type showing me a blank screen after just about anything I do with this blog anymore. I’m hoping a clean install will fix these annoying issues… but that’s going to be easily another month, if not more.