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I get contract work from time to time about making a wordpress based site for customers. And they all have custom requirements on top. Granted I haven't done it

by keyle 10y ago

I get contract work from time to time about making a wordpress based site for customers. And they all have custom requirements on top. Granted I haven't done it for years - it's probably better now - but to me, it's just a shinier Joomla. I couldn't help but facepalm at this article. I understand deadlines and all, but get a friend developer to overlook your code before releasing in the wild, because you know the caveat of "hey I haven't tested it properly" isn't going to make anyone itch.

mercer 10y ago
I've found that the Advanced Custom Fields solves most of the custom needs I get from clients. I'm not a fan of Wordpress' innards. I usually avoid themes or plugins (other than ACF and a few 'crucial' ones). I'm not a fan of the theming system to the point where I often override or circumvrent the out-of-the-box queries and templating rules. I use my own get_partial() function that properly isolates my template variables and have even used React for the view layer once. But I still use Wordpress quite often because 1) so many of my clients need exactly the features that wordpress offers, 2) they're familiar with WP and often insist on using it (and it saves me support), 3) I've found that the CMS-part of the whole thing is by far the most work, and building something as slick as WP' admin interface is just too much reinventing the wheel, and 4) there's still an advantage to being able to just run the site on 'typical' hosting (speed, pricing). Furthermore, the inconvenience to me is a huge advantage to the client, because if they need small changes or additions they're now free to hire any (shitty) 'webmaster' to make css changes or install crappy plugins that magically offer them the features they need. These webmasters are a lot cheaper than I am. All that said, I generally prefer the kinds of projects where I don't feel Wordpress is the right solution. But for a number of reasons the WP projects are still the most common and relevant ones right now.
- addedlovely 10y ago
  You'll probably really enjoy Timber for themeing https://wordpress.org/plugins/timber-library/ https://wordpress.org/plugins/timber-library/ Integrates nicely with ACF as well.
  - scarecrowbob 10y ago
    I do a lot of WP work. Personally, I like things like Timber, but IMO, you really want to avoid getting very far out from the most basic stuff if you ever want to hand the project off to rando WP folks... I stay away from anything even as complex as sage/roots for those reasons. Though I don't even like ACF, as I have a bunch of snippets for building post meta interfaces and ACF is large enough that I haven't read all its code. I'd rather just write 200 lines into an MU plugin.
  - mercer 10y ago
    That's interesting! Thanks for the link. Any other suggestions? I'm honestly considering using React when I have the luxury of hosting on my own server. I find it difficult to go back to other templating systems after the nice 'componentized' approach of React. Hard to justify though.
- qznc 10y ago
  > I usually avoid themes or plugins (other than ACF and a few 'crucial' ones). I'm not a fan of the theming system to the point where I often override or circumvrent the out-of-the-box queries and templating rules. I'm not alone! :) I used Wordpress 10 years ago. Then I used it again last year. I was shocked that it is still as unreliable as ever. I consider myself lucky if plugins only stop working after an update. Sometimes they break the whole website. I made the mistake to build my theme on top of the popular Origin theme. That one breaks or changes such it breaks my theme all the time. Over time I adapted my code similar to your guidelines to make it more resilient against other changes.
  - mercer 10y ago
    While it might be in 'paranoid' terroritory, I even avoid using the ACF theme functions and just use the vanilla get_meta() one (or whatever it's exactly). Just in case ACF breaks.

by keyle 10y ago

mercer 10y ago

I've found that the Advanced Custom Fields solves most of the custom needs I get from clients. I'm not a fan of Wordpress' innards. I usually avoid themes or plugins (other than ACF and a few 'crucial' ones). I'm not a fan of the theming system to the point where I often override or circumvrent the out-of-the-box queries and templating rules. I use my own get_partial() function that properly isolates my template variables and have even used React for the view layer once. But I still use Wordpress quite often because 1) so many of my clients need exactly the features that wordpress offers, 2) they're familiar with WP and often insist on using it (and it saves me support), 3) I've found that the CMS-part of the whole thing is by far the most work, and building something as slick as WP' admin interface is just too much reinventing the wheel, and 4) there's still an advantage to being able to just run the site on 'typical' hosting (speed, pricing). Furthermore, the inconvenience to me is a huge advantage to the client, because if they need small changes or additions they're now free to hire any (shitty) 'webmaster' to make css changes or install crappy plugins that magically offer them the features they need. These webmasters are a lot cheaper than I am. All that said, I generally prefer the kinds of projects where I don't feel Wordpress is the right solution. But for a number of reasons the WP projects are still the most common and relevant ones right now.

addedlovely 10y ago
You'll probably really enjoy Timber for themeing https://wordpress.org/plugins/timber-library/ https://wordpress.org/plugins/timber-library/ Integrates nicely with ACF as well.
- scarecrowbob 10y ago
  I do a lot of WP work. Personally, I like things like Timber, but IMO, you really want to avoid getting very far out from the most basic stuff if you ever want to hand the project off to rando WP folks... I stay away from anything even as complex as sage/roots for those reasons. Though I don't even like ACF, as I have a bunch of snippets for building post meta interfaces and ACF is large enough that I haven't read all its code. I'd rather just write 200 lines into an MU plugin.
- mercer 10y ago
  That's interesting! Thanks for the link. Any other suggestions? I'm honestly considering using React when I have the luxury of hosting on my own server. I find it difficult to go back to other templating systems after the nice 'componentized' approach of React. Hard to justify though.
qznc 10y ago
> I usually avoid themes or plugins (other than ACF and a few 'crucial' ones). I'm not a fan of the theming system to the point where I often override or circumvrent the out-of-the-box queries and templating rules. I'm not alone! :) I used Wordpress 10 years ago. Then I used it again last year. I was shocked that it is still as unreliable as ever. I consider myself lucky if plugins only stop working after an update. Sometimes they break the whole website. I made the mistake to build my theme on top of the popular Origin theme. That one breaks or changes such it breaks my theme all the time. Over time I adapted my code similar to your guidelines to make it more resilient against other changes.
- mercer 10y ago
  While it might be in 'paranoid' terroritory, I even avoid using the ACF theme functions and just use the vanilla get_meta() one (or whatever it's exactly). Just in case ACF breaks.