7 ms·

What to do when you need help with WordPress

33 points by mduo 11y ago

mduo 11y ago
My take: You just don’t shoot some keywords on forums and wait for people to bring up all the answers. You need to do your part as well.
josefresco 11y ago
I laughed at this "Think about what you did" - I've been a bad WordPress dev :( No mention of backups, but that can at least save you from some of the freak out - assuming your site isn't changing more frequently then your backup scheme. Daily backups are nice, but the problem might not be detected immediately - so snapshots (week, month, 6 month) are advisable.
- mduo 11y ago
  I see backups more suitable for a slighlty different topic. Something like "how to take care of your website" where there would be db otpmization, recurring backups, daily & monthly snapshots, etc.
  - josefresco 11y ago
    I'm not so sure. When shit goes wrong, backups are not directly part of "solving the problem" but they are a part of the process, an essential one that can mitigate losses and provide developers with a clear path forward. Good article though - and you're right backups probably deserve their own focused article.
    - mduo 11y ago
      thanks man!
- deckiedan 11y ago
  Re. Backups: check out rsync's "--link-dest" option. It's amazing. Alternatively, this is one thing that version control could help with. Set up a cron job to check for changes every day and commit if needed.
  - mapgrep 11y ago
    httrack is also very nice! I found it more comprehensive than wget's recursive mode, but I haven't compared it to rsync --link-dest.
    - 0x0 11y ago
      Those tools do a very different type of job (archiving generated html). Rsync is just file transfer.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  I always wanted some tripwire feature on wordpress hosts. You'd see quite fast who managed to poke to your install.
  - josefresco 11y ago
    There are numerous logging plugins, and security plugins that can email you when anyone does anything on a WP site. However, it's usually not someone else who broke it, and normally is due to plugins/themes/core updates.
    - agumonkey 11y ago
      I remember trying a few, but ... I don't know, I wanted to have an independent isolated component.
      - josefresco 11y ago
        It's a good point - a plugin that logs access won't work if you can't access the WP admin! If you move up outside of the WP environment you get into the hosting/server world and the solutions become vendor specific. I would imagine there is (or should be) a third-party backup and logging solution that keeps the data offsite but works host-independent.
nerdy 11y ago
If I need help with WP I'm taking a long walk off a short pier.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
eloisant 11y ago
Other solution: don't use a CMS that mixes plugins code with the core code with absolutely no sandboxing or even a separation between the core and the API.
- marknow 11y ago
  This. WP frustrates the stew out of me, precisely because it mixes concerns. All. The. Freakin'. Time. Arrrgh!
- techdevman 11y ago
  Yes but Wordpress is ubiquitous and so has the most plugins, helpful blog posts written about it, easy-to-use features, and so on. For most people it is the best choice.
- hullo 11y ago
  techdevman, unfortunately your posts are dead and you probably aren't aware of it. I would welcome you to the site, but the site has evidently decided it doesn't want you here. :-(
- josephjrobison 11y ago
  What's a good alternative to WordPress that allows some level of ease of use for the non-developer site owner, while also checks the boxes for the technical issues you see? Truly want to know because I don't know the answer!
  - Aldo_MX 11y ago
    If your end users at least know how to edit Markdown (or HTML/CSS), try October CMS. If they aren't, I apologize because I don't got a recommendation for you.
  - blueatlas 11y ago
    Give Concrete5 a try. MVC, common sense architecture, highly customizable, very easy UI for content editors, great community. http://www.concrete5.org/ http://www.concrete5.org/.
weavie 11y ago
For the one WP site I have to maintain, I keep things as simple as possible. I avoid plugins as much as possible and push as much functionality as possible to the frontend using Javascript. For stuff that requires collecting data I will send the form data to a separate Clojure server where I can store and process the data in a sane way and then redirect back to Wordpress as needed. It is probably over complicating things just for the sake of avoiding having to learn PHP and deal with stuff I don't (want to) understand - but on the whole it works quite well.
kraig911 11y ago
These tips can largely apply to anything. I work in Liferay. I wish I had half of Wordpress's community and documentation. That said I feel sorry for people who have to work with Wordpress.
- gesman 11y ago
  Lack of Liferay' community and documentation is well compensated by much higher pay that average Wordpress/PHP developer can pull.
m3talridl3y 11y ago
First, make note of the error message. Just kidding, you just get the "white page of death" with no error message. Good luck.
AstroJetson 11y ago
I wish there was better docs / info about performance. I have a dog slow WP site that is hosted on Godaddy (and that may be my problem). It takes 800 ms to get the html out to the browser to start the loads. I've pulled plugins, gone back to basic themes, etc. Godaddy support has tried, but they go an 8 second load is pretty good. The admin pages are far worse.
AstroJetson 11y ago
I wish there was better docs / info about performance. I have a dog slow WP site that is hosted on Godaddy (and that may be my problem). It takes 800 ms to get the html out to the browser to start the loads. I've pulled plugins, gone back to basic themes, etc. Godaddy support has tried, but they go an 8 second load is pretty good. The admin pages are far worse.

33 points by mduo 11y ago

mduo 11y ago

My take: You just don’t shoot some keywords on forums and wait for people to bring up all the answers. You need to do your part as well.

josefresco 11y ago

I laughed at this "Think about what you did" - I've been a bad WordPress dev :( No mention of backups, but that can at least save you from some of the freak out - assuming your site isn't changing more frequently then your backup scheme. Daily backups are nice, but the problem might not be detected immediately - so snapshots (week, month, 6 month) are advisable.

mduo 11y ago
I see backups more suitable for a slighlty different topic. Something like "how to take care of your website" where there would be db otpmization, recurring backups, daily & monthly snapshots, etc.
- josefresco 11y ago
  I'm not so sure. When shit goes wrong, backups are not directly part of "solving the problem" but they are a part of the process, an essential one that can mitigate losses and provide developers with a clear path forward. Good article though - and you're right backups probably deserve their own focused article.
  - mduo 11y ago
    thanks man!
deckiedan 11y ago
Re. Backups: check out rsync's "--link-dest" option. It's amazing. Alternatively, this is one thing that version control could help with. Set up a cron job to check for changes every day and commit if needed.
- mapgrep 11y ago
  httrack is also very nice! I found it more comprehensive than wget's recursive mode, but I haven't compared it to rsync --link-dest.
  - 0x0 11y ago
    Those tools do a very different type of job (archiving generated html). Rsync is just file transfer.
agumonkey 11y ago
I always wanted some tripwire feature on wordpress hosts. You'd see quite fast who managed to poke to your install.
- josefresco 11y ago
  There are numerous logging plugins, and security plugins that can email you when anyone does anything on a WP site. However, it's usually not someone else who broke it, and normally is due to plugins/themes/core updates.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    I remember trying a few, but ... I don't know, I wanted to have an independent isolated component.
    - josefresco 11y ago
      It's a good point - a plugin that logs access won't work if you can't access the WP admin! If you move up outside of the WP environment you get into the hosting/server world and the solutions become vendor specific. I would imagine there is (or should be) a third-party backup and logging solution that keeps the data offsite but works host-independent.

nerdy 11y ago

If I need help with WP I'm taking a long walk off a short pier.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

eloisant 11y ago

Other solution: don't use a CMS that mixes plugins code with the core code with absolutely no sandboxing or even a separation between the core and the API.

marknow 11y ago
This. WP frustrates the stew out of me, precisely because it mixes concerns. All. The. Freakin'. Time. Arrrgh!
techdevman 11y ago
Yes but Wordpress is ubiquitous and so has the most plugins, helpful blog posts written about it, easy-to-use features, and so on. For most people it is the best choice.
hullo 11y ago
techdevman, unfortunately your posts are dead and you probably aren't aware of it. I would welcome you to the site, but the site has evidently decided it doesn't want you here. :-(
josephjrobison 11y ago
What's a good alternative to WordPress that allows some level of ease of use for the non-developer site owner, while also checks the boxes for the technical issues you see? Truly want to know because I don't know the answer!
- Aldo_MX 11y ago
  If your end users at least know how to edit Markdown (or HTML/CSS), try October CMS. If they aren't, I apologize because I don't got a recommendation for you.
- blueatlas 11y ago
  Give Concrete5 a try. MVC, common sense architecture, highly customizable, very easy UI for content editors, great community. http://www.concrete5.org/ http://www.concrete5.org/.

weavie 11y ago

For the one WP site I have to maintain, I keep things as simple as possible. I avoid plugins as much as possible and push as much functionality as possible to the frontend using Javascript. For stuff that requires collecting data I will send the form data to a separate Clojure server where I can store and process the data in a sane way and then redirect back to Wordpress as needed. It is probably over complicating things just for the sake of avoiding having to learn PHP and deal with stuff I don't (want to) understand - but on the whole it works quite well.

kraig911 11y ago

These tips can largely apply to anything. I work in Liferay. I wish I had half of Wordpress's community and documentation. That said I feel sorry for people who have to work with Wordpress.

gesman 11y ago
Lack of Liferay' community and documentation is well compensated by much higher pay that average Wordpress/PHP developer can pull.

m3talridl3y 11y ago

First, make note of the error message. Just kidding, you just get the "white page of death" with no error message. Good luck.

AstroJetson 11y ago

I wish there was better docs / info about performance. I have a dog slow WP site that is hosted on Godaddy (and that may be my problem). It takes 800 ms to get the html out to the browser to start the loads. I've pulled plugins, gone back to basic themes, etc. Godaddy support has tried, but they go an 8 second load is pretty good. The admin pages are far worse.

AstroJetson 11y ago