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And don't forget the amazing amount of functionality that's available for free using the plugin system. It's a classic software development problem - Wordpress

by EwanToo 14y ago

And don't forget the amazing amount of functionality that's available for free using the plugin system. It's a classic software development problem - Wordpress's complexity is both it's strength and weakness, and will probably be it's downfall one day (but not just yet)

chc 14y ago
On the other hand, most of the free plugins are awful. Many of the paid ones are as well, in fact. Many plugins can bring your site to its knees as soon as five people look at it sideways.
- JVIDEL 14y ago
  And the templates, some are simply STUNNING it makes you wonder why pro designers charge you so much for stuff that barely holds a candle to stuff you see on WP. Then you install the template and everything goes to shit, you have to read some of the stuff support writes to users, it boils down to "we sold you a broken product and now we will give you just a hint about how to get it to almost work". Still lightyears ahead of templates on other CMSs...
  - chc 14y ago
    > Still lightyears ahead of templates on other CMSs... Yup, but I think that's primarily because WordPress has a stranglehold on the market. Nobody will use another CMS because WordPress has all the stuff, and nobody will develop mass-market stuff for another content management system because WordPress has all the users. The network effect is strong, and displacing WordPress wouldn't be profitable enough to be worth the effort to counteract that effect. (Obviously this is a slight exaggeration — somebody uses another CMS — but I think it's pretty accurate from a bird's eye view.)
    - JVIDEL 14y ago
      I think the best way would be to come up with a way to port those templates to other CMS that doesn't involves rewriting the whole thing, or perhaps a wrapper?
      - girvo 14y ago
        WP templates are so coupled to WP itself, I truly don't think it's worth it.
  - rhizome 14y ago
    and now we will give you just a hint about how to get it to almost work Whenever I've come across situations like this, I assume it's them fishing for consulting hours.
  - AznHisoka 14y ago
    Then you install the template, and realize the only reason it looks so good is because they have pretty top notch photos and pages filled with content.
mikepurvis 14y ago
I've found plugins to be extremely hit-and-miss, though. I was helping a photographer friend who bought a commercial theme, which broke admin-side Javascript when he did the 3.4 -> 3.5.1 update. We still haven't figured out exactly what happened, but it just reinforced for me again that a) Wordpress hasn't adequately documented which APIs are stable and not, b) Authors, even of paid add-ons, don't keep their stuff up to date.
- chrisguitarguy 14y ago
  The theme replaced jQuery bundled with WordPress with some external version (eg. Google hosted or otherwise) and did it so on both the admin and front end. That's usually the cause of those sort of issues. 3.4 -> 3.5 brought up a lot of JS compatibility. Look in the theme's directory for `wp_deregister_script` and see if anything was deregistered and re-registered (`wp_register_script`). > Wordpress hasn't adequately documented which APIs are stable and not If it's it in a major release, it's stable. When you buy any piece of software you're relying on its author knowing "the right thing to do (tm)". The author of the commercial theme thought it was okay to replace some bit of core javascript and din't bother to check on it. Or they didn't bother to be specific about it -- only do custom JS stuff on their theme's options page or on the front end. It's easy to do that, but you have to know how to do it (it's not documented in the Codex).

by EwanToo 14y ago

chc 14y ago

On the other hand, most of the free plugins are awful. Many of the paid ones are as well, in fact. Many plugins can bring your site to its knees as soon as five people look at it sideways.

JVIDEL 14y ago
And the templates, some are simply STUNNING it makes you wonder why pro designers charge you so much for stuff that barely holds a candle to stuff you see on WP. Then you install the template and everything goes to shit, you have to read some of the stuff support writes to users, it boils down to "we sold you a broken product and now we will give you just a hint about how to get it to almost work". Still lightyears ahead of templates on other CMSs...
- chc 14y ago
  > Still lightyears ahead of templates on other CMSs... Yup, but I think that's primarily because WordPress has a stranglehold on the market. Nobody will use another CMS because WordPress has all the stuff, and nobody will develop mass-market stuff for another content management system because WordPress has all the users. The network effect is strong, and displacing WordPress wouldn't be profitable enough to be worth the effort to counteract that effect. (Obviously this is a slight exaggeration — somebody uses another CMS — but I think it's pretty accurate from a bird's eye view.)
  - JVIDEL 14y ago
    I think the best way would be to come up with a way to port those templates to other CMS that doesn't involves rewriting the whole thing, or perhaps a wrapper?
    - girvo 14y ago
      WP templates are so coupled to WP itself, I truly don't think it's worth it.
- rhizome 14y ago
  and now we will give you just a hint about how to get it to almost work Whenever I've come across situations like this, I assume it's them fishing for consulting hours.
- AznHisoka 14y ago
  Then you install the template, and realize the only reason it looks so good is because they have pretty top notch photos and pages filled with content.

mikepurvis 14y ago

I've found plugins to be extremely hit-and-miss, though. I was helping a photographer friend who bought a commercial theme, which broke admin-side Javascript when he did the 3.4 -> 3.5.1 update. We still haven't figured out exactly what happened, but it just reinforced for me again that a) Wordpress hasn't adequately documented which APIs are stable and not, b) Authors, even of paid add-ons, don't keep their stuff up to date.

chrisguitarguy 14y ago
The theme replaced jQuery bundled with WordPress with some external version (eg. Google hosted or otherwise) and did it so on both the admin and front end. That's usually the cause of those sort of issues. 3.4 -> 3.5 brought up a lot of JS compatibility. Look in the theme's directory for `wp_deregister_script` and see if anything was deregistered and re-registered (`wp_register_script`). > Wordpress hasn't adequately documented which APIs are stable and not If it's it in a major release, it's stable. When you buy any piece of software you're relying on its author knowing "the right thing to do (tm)". The author of the commercial theme thought it was okay to replace some bit of core javascript and din't bother to check on it. Or they didn't bother to be specific about it -- only do custom JS stuff on their theme's options page or on the front end. It's easy to do that, but you have to know how to do it (it's not documented in the Codex).