Category: Articles (Page 250 of 258)

Personal opinions and how-to’s that I’ve written both here and as contributions to other blogs.

Writing WordPress Code – Clean, But Not Clever

September 24, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

I think of one the biggest challenges that programmers face as we become more comfortable and well-versed in our programming language(s) of choice, is that we become intimately aware of some of the more clever things we can do with the code.

For example, one feature of dynamic programming languages is that they offer anonymous functions. They’re really powerful and you can do some really cool stuff with them, especially in JavaScript; however, this always introduces a tension:

Are we writing code to be clever or are we writing code for others to understand?

Since I spend the majority of my time working with and writing about WordPress, I thought I’d share my thoughts on writing WordPress code.

Why I’m Against Placing Custom Hooks in WordPress Themes

September 18, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the things that I my team and I are often asked is if we’re ever going to place hooks in our core theme files for Standard. The short answer is “no,” but there’s actually a few reasons why I’m personally against placing custom hooks in WordPress themes.

Although this is stemming largely from building and managing a commercial theme, the discussion isn’t limited to that particular scenario. Rather, this is something that I’ve actually discussed with a number of other WordPress users and developers.

Overall, I’m generally against placing custom hooks in WordPress theme files, so I thought I’d share my reasons why I’m not a fan of doing this.

How I Organize My Files When Developing WordPress Themes

September 17, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

I recently shared how I organize my files when developing WordPress plugins, but since I also work with themes and have recently been building two applications using WordPress, I thought I’d also share my thoughts on organizing WordPress theme files.

For what it’s worth, I think that some developers – especially beginners – often try to make the plugin model fit the theme model or vice versa, and although both types of projects are aimed specifically at WordPress, they require different approaches.

Simply put, theme file organization differs from plugin file organization. With that said, here’s how I organize my files when developing WordPress themes.

Thinking Holistically About WordPress Plugins as Products – The User’s Experience

September 13, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

This is the final post in the Thinking Holistically About WordPress Plugins as Products series.

Throughout this series, I’ve been sharing my thoughts on what it means to think holistically about building WordPress plugins as products rather than simple utilities for blogging.

In the first post in the series, I defined this by saying:

Thinking holistically about WordPress Plugins is about the top-to-bottom, end-to-end experience that goes into building and that will go into using the product.

And in the second post, I shared my thoughts on the top-to-bottom – or the developer’s experience – of approaching WordPress plugin development as if we’re building quality products.

Similarly, I consider the end-to-end aspect of development to be epart of the WordPress Plugin user experience and that it’s arguably just as important as the developer’s experience.

So in attempt to continue thinking holistically about WordPress plugin development, here are my thoughts on the user’s experience – or the end-to-end aspects – of development.

Thinking Holistically About WordPress Plugins as Products – The Developer’s Experience

September 11, 2012 / Tom / 0 Comments

This is the second post in the Thinking Holistically About WordPress Plugins as Products series.

In this series of posts, I’m sharing my thoughts on what it means to think holistically about WordPress plugins as products rather than simple extensions for WordPress.