One of the projects that I love working on the most is the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate.

I dig it because it’s been a resource that has helped other people, and there are a number of other contributors that are constantly working to make it even better.

Earlier this year, I had plans to begin releasing more frequent updates, but – as with the nature of employment and side projects that are done for free – the updates didn’t happen as fast as I would like.

Additionally, it was becoming clear to me that the Boilerplate was headed in a direction that was going to be more intimidating for beginners, harder to grasp for those migrating their plugins to that format, and that it was not using some of the best principles in place.

So after talking with a number of notable developers, I’ve opted to delay the release of `2.7.0` until we have something significantly better than what’s in place.

In fact, it’s going to be a near total rewrite.

A Rewrite of the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate?

In a sense, yes.

This doesn’t mean that we’reĀ completely starting from scratch. Instead, we’re talking a lot of the best ideas that are already there and building them in.

Then, we’re taking some of the ideas that are more complex from the average plugin development standpoint, pulling them out, and then making notes to provide documentation on a forthcoming web page.

Ultimately, this should result in a significantly more useful, easy-to-understand, and easier-to-implement Boilerplate for those who are getting started in plugin development.

Who is This “We” You’re Talking About?

A little while ago, I put a call out in the WordPress Plugin Developer mailing list for those who were interested to join in a back channel to hash out ideas about the direction of where the project should go.

The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate Backchannel

The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate Backchannel (Say it Three Times Fast)

So far, this has been a really good place for a handful of us to chat and work through some of the initial issues that we have with the Boilerplate, and begin planning the future state of where we’re headed.

Where Are You Headed?

In short, we’re looking to include the following (in no particular order):

  • An official website for the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate complete with code examples, documentation, and more.
  • A rewrite of the core Boilerplate
  • Better object-oriented practices
  • Cleaner code, clearer DocBlocks, and generally easier ways for developers to pick up the Boilerplate and run with it
  • Official documentation for users and developers alike
  • …and more

Obviously, there’s a lot to hash out and we’re really excited about it.

If you’re someone who uses the project (regardless of if you like it or not), please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments and we’ll be sure to take these into consideration, as well!

On to `2.7.0`!