WordPress WTF

After you’ve spent many years working with something, you start to get to that point where you feel competent, that you can do anything and every problem has a solution. However, with this understanding you also get to a point where as well as seeing how something works, you can also see how badly it does it. This is the point Adam has come to with WordPress.

In this talk, you’ll take a look over some weaknesses with WordPress, exploring downsides of the architecture, the theming and some more general problems around the platform. But also you’ll see how to avoid these problems and write better themes, plugins, and websites with WordPress.

Video here: http://www.supermondays.org/2014/02/25/content-management-systems-videos/

Transcript

1. @onishiweb
   What The F...!
   

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2. @onishiweb
   

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3. @onishiweb
   Photo by Dan Goven: http://flic.kr/p/js7sdf
   

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4. @onishiweb
   

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5. @onishiweb
   Shameless Plug
   

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6. @onishiweb
   

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7. @onishiweb
   

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8. @onishiweb
   WTF
   WordPress?
   

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9. @onishiweb
   Templates...
   

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10. @onishiweb
    Templates are built
    procedurally
    
    
    
    
    

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11. @onishiweb
    No separation of logic
    from the view
    

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12. @onishiweb
    

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13. @onishiweb
    Template
    Tags...
    

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14. @onishiweb
    Content Tags are alright
    
    
    
    
    

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15. @onishiweb
    If sometimes a little
    confusing
    
    
    
    
    

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16. @onishiweb
    A bit more confusing...
    
    
    

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17. @onishiweb
    A bit more confusing...
    if( have_posts() ):
    while( have_posts() ): the_post();
    /* Do stuff */
    endwhile;
    endif; ?>
    

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18. @onishiweb
    And even more confusing!
    
    
    

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19. @onishiweb
    Template Tags
    But...
    

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20. @onishiweb
    IDs..!
    

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21. @onishiweb
    IDs EVERYWHERE!
    
    
    
    
    

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22. @onishiweb
    IDs EVERYWHERE!
    
    
    
    
    

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23. @onishiweb
    IDs EVERYWHERE!
    
    
    
    
    

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24. @onishiweb
    WordPress Hooks
    to the rescue
    add_filter('body_class', ... );
    add_filter('post_class', ... );
    

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25. @onishiweb
    Add better classes
    function dig_add_useful_classes($classes) {
    global $post;
    if( ! is_tag() ) {
    $classes[] = dig_get_post_type_class();
    }
    if( is_page() ) {
    global $post;
    $classes[] = 'page-' . $post->post_name;
    }
    return $classes;
    }
    https://gist.github.com/onishiweb/9151982
    

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26. @onishiweb
    Add better classes
    function dig_get_post_type_class( $type = false ) {
    if( ! $type ) {
    $type = dig_current_post_type();
    }
    $class = str_replace('dig_', '', $type);
    $class = str_replace('_', '-', $class);
    return $class;
    }
    https://gist.github.com/onishiweb/9151992
    

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27. @onishiweb
    Add better classes
    function dig_current_post_type() {
    global $post;
    if( ! is_tag() ) {
    $type_name = get_post_type();
    if( ! $type_name ) {
    $taxonomy = get_query_var( 'taxonomy' );
    $type_name = substr_replace($taxonomy, '', -9);
    }
    return $type_name;
    }
    }
    https://gist.github.com/onishiweb/9152009
    

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28. @onishiweb
    Better classes =
    Happy Adam!
    
    
    
    
    

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29. @onishiweb
    WP-Admin...
    

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30. @onishiweb
    

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31. @onishiweb
    

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32. @onishiweb
    

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33. @onishiweb
    

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34. @onishiweb
    

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35. @onishiweb
    WP-Admin
    But...
    

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36. @onishiweb
    

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37. @onishiweb
    @MKJONES
    @MWTSN
    http://wpclarity.com/
    

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38. @onishiweb
    Plugins...
    

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39. @onishiweb
    Plugins...
    

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40. @onishiweb
    Biggest lesson learnt from this
    current project: WordPress
    plugins are largely evil, and
    should not be relied on for
    core functionality
    - Alex Jegtnes (@jegtnes)
    

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41. @onishiweb
    Have you tried
    deactivating your
    plugins?
    

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42. @onishiweb
    Plugins
    But...
    

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43. @onishiweb
    

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44. @onishiweb
    It’s not all
    bad...
    

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45. @onishiweb
    Open Source
    

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46. @onishiweb
    The Codex
    

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47. @onishiweb
    The
    Community!
    

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48. @onishiweb
    Photo by Jonny Allbut: http://flic.kr/p/hQbbEq
    

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49. @onishiweb
    Thank You
    

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