06 November, 2014

Best Practice in Wordpress Development

WordPress development is not rocket science. However, when it comes to the qualitative aspect of development, there are certain points that need to be taken into account. In fact, the practice of WordPress Development becomes trifle easier, whenever certain time-tested or proven procedures are followed. Let us discuss some of the best practices of WP development that might come in handy for the developers.

Wordpress CMS Customization
Technically speaking, WP is a collaborative CMS so much so that it makes writing, reading, or maintaining codes a virtual cakewalk from the developers’ as well as the end users’ point of view. Though at the beginning, changing the code styles might be a bit difficult, eventually it becomes extremely easy and the codes get cleaner and easier to comprehend.

Let us go through some of the best as well as the most logical practices that will help make development of WP much easier.

Debugging
While coding a particular plugin, the first and foremost thing that needs to be done is enabling the debug mode as it will help in seeing the warnings, issues, and errors. Once the site is reloaded, all the issues and warnings will appear along with the messages with denounced WP function notices. For delivering a quality WP, it is imperative to ensure that disabling or enabling the debug mode yields the same results.

Documentation
Documentation of each and every aspect of a plugin or theme helps to make the life of the developers as well as the end users much easier. It becomes possible to make the theme or the plug work to fulfill the requirements, by following a certain guide or a video, or combination of the both, so as to save time as well as labor. Again, in this aspect, it is recommended to split all the relevant documentation in various categories or sections like installation, configuration, and quick usage, common issues of problems or requirements. Once that is done, the rest of the categories or sections can be added depending upon the theme or plugin.

Internationalization
This is another thing that can be maintained for the best practices. Internationalization is also called i18n as there are 18 letters between ‘i’ and ‘n’. Once internationalized, dealing with a theme or a plugin becomes absolutely easy. Hence, before delivering a particular theme or plugin it is imperative to guarantee that they can be translated to the required language without any problem.

Commenting Code
The comments that come up along with the codes are the best aide to a developer. While at times it becomes a bit frustrating to find comments in each and every function or variable created, they guarantee that as and when the code grows in size as well as length, particularly upon receipt of any contribution from others, knowing what is to be done never becomes a problem.

Also, as WordPress is a collaborative Content Management System, developers look into the code and a little bit of assistance in the form of comments will help them take the right path and guide them to move to the right direction.

Actions and Filters
Filters need to be added to certain places for the following reasons:
  • When the arrays are setup, it is always a nice option to implement a filter so that the users can modify them according to their requirements
  • When the data objects are setup, the same thing needs to be followed as it is always a good idea to provide the users the option of modifying the object(s) before using them.
  • After the data strings are setup filters can be added as well, again to help the users modify them to suit their requirements
There are other things as well that can be used.

Hooks: Hooks or Action Hooks as they are called can be added in a certain stage of the plugin, generally in and around the important actions. These can actually be ‘hooked’ with the functions for execution of the codes right at that particular point.

Filters: Filter Hooks can also be placed in the plugin so as to enable tying of other functions to that plugin. Filters generally allow manipulation or modification of data before they are implemented. Hence, it is suggested to place filters in between two or more variables whenever there is a possibility of manipulation by the end users.

You can hire developers from top wordpress application development companies in India who can help you build products within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide wordpress cms customization services. If you would like to hire expert wordpress developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

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