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> I would wager that if you just rip out the guts of PHP and leave only the frontend (the /wp-admin part that is), but leave it 100% as it is and write a solid

> I would wager that if you just rip out the guts of PHP and leave only the frontend (the /wp-admin part that is), but leave it 100% as it is and write a solid backend in Django/Rails, you have a winner. I would love for WP to exist as only an admin interface to a clean, backend data store. Unfortunately, the problem is the database schema that WP ships with and the way WP handles data. It's almost impossible to get data out of WP press without using its lackluster DB "abstraction" layer and running the fetched data through its many obscure filtering mechanisms. To top it off, WP smashes everything into a handful of tables and makes doing normal, straightforward relational looks up (as any sane schema would allow for) a complete nightmare. Alas, when you go the WP route, your data is very much dependent on WP (and by default PHP). Any organization that uses WP for an extended period of time and builds up a non-insignificant amount of data will run into this wall, guaranteed. If you truly value your data and your project is anything beyond a personal blog that you'll give up on in 6 months time, do yourself and your organization a favor and find an alternative solution. If you must use WP, use it as what it was originally intended for: a blog. It's not a framework to develop a complex application off of.

tluyben2 10y ago
I agree with everything you said here but I can explain this to clients usually however not always. There is, for instance, a supermarket chain running all their web through WP. They spent and spend millions on it; they cannot be convinced and although I might not choose a certain tech for my own company assets, I am not spreading religion (although as I get older I feel more and more the need to do so) and we are not in the position to just say no to large contracts.
agentultra 10y ago
As the person who wrote a patch to import data from WP to Pelican I agree. It's a complete nightmare. In order to properly maintain the formatting from ~6 years of blog posts I had to literally translate the PHP code that parsed the database representation into Python... which is some really gnarly code.
kkoppenhaver 10y ago
Have you looked at/heard about the WP REST API[1]? Basically, it allows WP to function as that backend admin tool that you talked about, and you can build the front end as what ever you want[2]. [1] http://v2.wp-api.org/ http://v2.wp-api.org/ [2] An example of a front end powered by the WP REST API https://github.com/ustwo/ustwo.com-frontend https://github.com/ustwo/ustwo.com-frontend

tluyben2 10y ago

I agree with everything you said here but I can explain this to clients usually however not always. There is, for instance, a supermarket chain running all their web through WP. They spent and spend millions on it; they cannot be convinced and although I might not choose a certain tech for my own company assets, I am not spreading religion (although as I get older I feel more and more the need to do so) and we are not in the position to just say no to large contracts.

agentultra 10y ago

As the person who wrote a patch to import data from WP to Pelican I agree. It's a complete nightmare. In order to properly maintain the formatting from ~6 years of blog posts I had to literally translate the PHP code that parsed the database representation into Python... which is some really gnarly code.

kkoppenhaver 10y ago

Have you looked at/heard about the WP REST API[1]? Basically, it allows WP to function as that backend admin tool that you talked about, and you can build the front end as what ever you want[2]. [1] http://v2.wp-api.org/ http://v2.wp-api.org/ [2] An example of a front end powered by the WP REST API https://github.com/ustwo/ustwo.com-frontend https://github.com/ustwo/ustwo.com-frontend