Software Engineering in WordPress, PHP, and Backend Development

Tag: Object-Oriented Programming in WordPress (Page 6 of 6)

Object-Oriented Programming in WordPress: Terms and Conditions

In the previous post in this series, we talked about defining requirements (or a statement of work) and why it matters to have this.

Before we get into actually understanding – and writing – object-oriented code, there’s one more “business-related” topic to discuss: Terms and Conditions.

For many, it’s a bit of a dry topic, but if you’re looking to build solutions for someone else, do so from the ground-up, and do so properly, then it’s important to make sure you have all of the necessary pieces in place before doing so.

And once you’ve:

It’s time to make sure you have the terms under which you’re working.

Continue reading

Object-Oriented Programming in WordPress: Statement of Work

Before we get into the topic of object-oriented analysis and design (which is when most of us get the most fun out of what we do aside from actually writing code), it’s important to follow-up a few more things regarding understanding customer requirements.

In the previous post, I mentioned:

If you take time to understand what they want from the beginning, then the requirements don’t have to be a 50-page document outlining how every single module has to work.

For example, whenever I put together requirements (or a Statement of Work) as I usually call them when I send them to clients, I rarely exceed ten pages, and it’s often less.

And though there are times when it’s longer, I think that part of the reason that developing a short set of requirements comes with the preliminary discussions to make sure you and the customer(s) have developed a common language with which you can work.

When you do that, the requirements and the statement of work – whatever you opt to call them – don’t have to be as long.

Continue reading

Object-Oriented Programming in WordPress: Understanding Customer Expectations

As we continue to move forward discussion object-oriented programming in WordPress, it’s important that we make sure we’re not jumping ahead of ourselves when it comes to building a product for someone else.

So often, it’s easy to:

  1. hear what a customer says,
  2. build something out based on what we’ve heard,
  3. turn it over to said customer.

But there is so much more to it than that. I’ve danced around it a bit in previous posts in this series; however, I want to start drilling down into what it means to hear:

  1. What a customer says,
  2. Develop a set of requirements,
  3. And then create feedback loops around that.

Ultimately, we want to make sure the people for whom we’re working the and solutions that we’re building truly are solutions and not hindrances or hurdles over which they have to jump.

Furthermore, I don’t think it’s enough that a customer simply enjoys the experience of their final product, but with working with the one (or the ones) building the solution, as well.

With that said, let’s take a look at what it means to listen what they say and go from there.

Continue reading

Object-Oriented Programming in WordPress: Analysis, Part 2

In the first post in this series, I talked all about how I wanted to tackle about an introduction to object-oriented programming within the context of WordPress.

There are some great resources for object-oriented programming but they can use contrived examples, or they can move too quickly for those who are just looking to get started.

In an attempt to keep this from happening, I think talking about OOP in WordPress anchors us to a strong foundation and using practical examples will always be better than using generic examples that are difficult to translate to the domain in which we’re working.

For those who’ve yet to join or who haven’t caught up just yet, the first post hits on the following topics:

  • Object-Oriented Analysis,
  • Determining Must-Haves versus Nice-To-Haves,
  • And Why Is It Hard?

And that’s where this post is going to pick-up.

Continue reading

Object-Oriented Programming in WordPress: Analysis, Part 1

When I first set out to offer memberships on this site, I knew the first thing I wanted to tackle was an introduction to object-oriented programming.

It’s something that seems to be interesting to most people who are working in WordPress, but there’s a problem that either turns a lot of people away or generates poor results:

Object-oriented programming can get complicated fast. And this gets demotivating.

Here’s what I mean: Say you’re a WordPress developer who starts to research object-oriented programming. It starts off talking about classes and constructors and functions, and all seems well.

But then it quickly gets into:

  • private and protected methods,
  • inheritance,
  • polymorphism,
  • design patterns,
  • dependency injection,
  • repositories,
  • and so on.

It snowballs, doesn’t it? And that’s not at all how it has to be, but it’s hard to find a proper introduction save for a few resources that are out there.

With all of that said (and serving as a backdrop for where I’m headed), I wanted to set out to create a series of content for those who:

  • are genuinely interested in object-oriented programming,
  • aren’t sure where to start,
  • want to grow their skills,
  • want to start from ground-zero without escalating into more complicated material too quickly.

And that’s what I’m starting today and in the first major serious planned for members. With all of that said, let’s get started.

Specifically, let’st started talking about object-oriented programming, analysis, design, and why she should start there.

Continue reading

Newer posts »

© 2024 Tom McFarlin

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑