April 29, 2016

What is secret ingredient of WordPress?

What is secret ingredient of WordPress?

WordPress is a user-friendly blogging CMS and undoubtedly it’s alone enough to handle all kind of application requirements. You might will not agree but I try to elaborate that what I mean. Look, you can replicate content and easily copy paste the PayPal checkout button in every post or page and by this you can manage your shopping cart without hassle but still we need WooCommerce, wp eCommerce and may other plug-in etc. The reason is, we are being lazy and always try to find the ease. A lot of people don’t know about spreadsheets that they are capable of managing complete inventory system. MS Access and spreadsheets are still in use worldwide as proper inventory management systems. But we don’t bother to learn about the formulas and the results are, we have to learn even complex systems which are specifically developed with the name of inventory management etc. Same like this, we can manage photo albums, socials sharing, video portals, catalogs, directories and online library with plain WordPress without any special plugin. But it’s being a trend that we need some change or a feel of change that we are using something better than others. We are beyond and ahead from others. If everybody is using WordPress on shared hosting so we are using it on WordPress hosting. It’s all about to be different from others, it’s not related to the need or requirements exactly. An interesting thing which I want to discuss here, we hear about a lot of plugins, themes, widgets, theme development frameworks and even addons within plugins, but never heard about something like WordPress, why? Because these all decorations, fragile arts, prudent solutions, genius thoughts, killer fixes are nothing in fact. These all look fascinating but in fact they are not capable of getting attention of masses, that’s why they need something as foundation. WordPress provided them a platform where they can juggles and impress the already invited audience. Unfortunately, when these all jokers come to stage and got the clap so they feel that it’s their audience and they start feeling like they are WordPress itself. Although these plugins and other addons are getting tremendous dislikes too. What a bad moment is, they are unable to make happy the ready-made audience so how can they be capable of developing something innovative like WordPress? Another aspect is, if these actors don’t join the stage of WordPress so how can such large audience be here in to enjoy the circus? I agree, it’s a combine effort but I am talking about those who are unable to product something worth testing and usage. WordPress didn’t force people to use do conventional or unconventional coding and still carrying on with simplicity. People are developing with basic development skills and are happy to be as WordPress developers. That’s the secret ingredient of WordPress, it’s for all. Its theme still can work with just 2 files in it. The plugin and theme developers, who are feeling proud on their complex development pattern, should think about it that you couldn’t do something awesome like WordPress and still you are continuing the same series of dumbness. Let it be simple and usable. MVC initially was introduced to educate the coders so they can easily understand each others coding pattern but due to WordPress, they don’t even need to learn MVC. The reason is, there is no complex configuration and it’s a kick start thing. I love those guys who are learning theme and plugin development with their basic knowledge of PHP development and not confused in pattern selection. In this era, we forgot the core purpose of software or application development. Initially software engineers were famous because they were supposed study your manual system in offices, shops, stores or anything you are doing on daily basis, then they provide some smart solution to deal with daily challenges. They were making lives easier, but now software engineering is somehow obsolete and a lot of people are coding just for fun or as a fashion. There is not any passion to help people or solve the problems involved in this craze; the thing which exists is only the greed of fame. Somehow majority is inspired by pirates of Silicon Valley and later a lot of names which are shinning due to efforts they have done so far. We are being selfish because we are no more interested in their stories behind the success; we love to see them as they are standing with pride today. Last year I found a theme development framework and had a chance to use it in a few projects. Obviously found a few shortcomings which should be improved for sure, I tried to reach the developer but found all doors closed. Finally I thought to restructure that incomplete stuff and named it GuavaPattern. It’s a first ever theme development framework from Pakistan. Initially I managed to override the functionality to improve usability but later when I felt that main structure need improvements so I simply discarded the base and performed a major surgery. It’s still in progress and I am working on it continuously but I feel that we are good to go with plain WordPress theme development. It’s not a good idea to make the things complex which are clear and easy already. With the same vision, I am trying to add convenience in it and where WordPress itself is awesome, I am not touching that part. If I mention one single feature here of GuavaPattern, a WordPress theme development framework, so I will mention that it takes care of your CSS and JS files for admin and front-end automatically. You can simply create CSS, JS files in relevant folders and it will automatically enqueue for you. By this, you don’t need to worry about the files which should be enqueue on front-end and which should be in admin panel only. A few more upcoming features are in to-do list but still I admit that WordPress itself is better to go with, instead of depending on any other plugin, addon, widget or any kind of framework. Be simple and smart, don’t confuse the things and move with confidence. Your comments are appreciated.

Last updated: May 10, 2016