Best Practices For Those Looking to Get Into
WordPress Development
- WordPress is one of the friendliest tools for those just starting with web development
- Its free tools serve as a training ground and a guide to leveraging its premium features later
- However, before moving on to that phase, anyone using WordPress must have these five elements ingrained into their practices
Best practices for WordPress development
1. Coding Standards
- The WordPress developer community has a few guidelines in place
- These coding standards come from years of trial and error
- So, adhering to them is critical to site functionality
- For example, when creating a new theme or plugin through PHP or JavaScript, developers must stick to specific guidelines on the site
2. Choosing Themes and Plugins
- While building a WordPress site, you may use an existing third-party plugin or theme
- Pick one that’s frequently updated and has consistent reviews
- That’ll ensure that the plugin or theme will be compatible with later updates
- Moreover, the developers will be more likely to help if you encounter issues with their code
3. Site functionality
- Incorporating a custom plugin is the ideal way to add site-specific functions
- This is far more effective than adding site widgets through theme templates
- You can use code snippets to create custom widgets
- When you rely on a template to make such additions, you restrict the site to using that particular theme to not lose out on functionality
4. Update Compatibility
- Most developers use an existing theme while building a site
- Often, they’ll want to customize it according to their requirements
- To do so, they must install the original file and create a child version.
- That way, when the original file updates, the custom theme’s code won’t break
5. Template Hierarchy
- WordPress has a system for suggesting templates while building a page or post
- It picks from a default pool and matches the site as closely as possible with a template
- For those using child themes, any added files will override lower-priority templates in the parent theme
- Understanding how template hierarchy works will be fundamental to building the site you want
Key takeaways
- Getting a new plugin, feature, or theme to work the first time is challenging
- To circumvent this, you can use Test Driven Development (TDD)
- The basic idea is to outline a test to check for functionality and then write just enough code to pass the parameters
- After that, repeat the process every time you add new code
- Still, your business may not have the necessary time to go through all of that
- In that case, hiring professional developers will be the best way to go about this
- After all, a job done with expertise and ease is always evident in the final product