Because of the open-source nature of WordPress, one of the luxuries that many of us are used to having is complete control over the environment in which we’re working. Given that, you might even say that we take certain aspects of WordPress for granted.
And I’d say that for the majority of projects on which we work, this is true.
By that, I mean we’re not only able to customize, extend, and even limit the software (for certain types of users), we’re also able to change certain aspects of its configuration.
But if you’re in the business of doing work for others – an employer, as part of a contractor, or in some other situation – you may be limited in just how much customization you’re able to make.
Taking Aspects of WordPress for Granted (And How to Avoid It)
Case in point: Yesterday, I wrote about how you can modify the shortcodes for the Pods Framework using a filter rather than one of their magic tags.
To reiterate, I think Pods is powerful, and I think the team behind it not only does good of job build what they’ve provided, but they also do a great job of managing their community.
This is evident in their forums and on Twitter. Jim True, the support lead and project manager, pinged me shortly after publishing the post:
Did you make the change referenced in your wp-config.php to enable Special Magic Tags?
— Jim True (@jimtrue) February 27, 2019
Most of the time, I like it when organizations are proactively engaged with their users, and this is an example of such a case.
But it also demonstrates another point: There was a luxury in WordPress that I was used to having. Specifically, be able to modify the config file as needed, that the project on which I was working I could not afford.
So I had to find a workaround (and thus wrote about it). Is this a knock against WordPress? Nope. A customer? Not at all. Pods? No.
What We Take for Granted
It’s simply a reminder that there may be things in WordPress we take for granted.
But it’s also a reminder also that there are other ways problems can be solved. Sure, you may argue they are less than ideal solutions, but when you’re providing a solution to a customer that works, is well-coded, and documented, it’s not bad. It’s just different.
And that’s that’s the next best thing.
