Building better WordPress applications

PBWEB.CO.UK

@PHILL_BROWN

Problems with WordPress applications• Business logic in themes

• Repeated code

• Tight coupling

• Portability

Rule #1Do not write your application in

functions.php

Decoupling plugins and themesLogic Templates

Templates

Plugin

Theme

Rule #2Every action should be hooked

function my_plugin_start() {// Fire up application

}

// Wrongmy_plugin_start();

// Rightadd_action( ‘plugins_loaded’, ‘my_plugin_start’ );

Rule #3Use WordPress

Core checklist• Custom post types and post meta

• Roles, capabilities and user meta

• Options and transients

• Scheduler

• Remote HTTP

Rule #4Use plugin dependencies

• Scribu’s Plugin Dependencies

• if ( ! class_exists( ‘plugin_x’ ) ) {wp_die( ‘Plugin Y requires plugin x’ );

}

Rule #5Standardise code

• WordPress coding standards:http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Coding_Standards

• PHPDochttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHPDoc

Rule #6Choose your PHP version

• WordPress core (v3.0+) – 5.1.1

• 5.2 – DateTime

• 5.3 – Late static binding, closures, namespacing

• 5.4 - Traits

Rule #7Avoid global scoping

add_action( ‘init’, function() {// do something 

} );

Closures

namespace wordpress\my_plugin;

class Post {} 

Namespacing

class My_Plugin_Post {} 

PHP 5.3

PHP 5.1

Rule #8Activation hooks

register_activation_hook( __FILE__, ‘my_plugin_activate’ );

function my_plugin_activate() {// Create tables, roles, capabilities

}

register_uninstall_hook( __FILE__, ‘my_plugin_uninstall’ );

function my_plugin_uninstall() {// Cleanup data

}

Rule #9define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true );

Rule #10Release your code

Questions?

@PHILL_BROWN

WP@PBWEB.CO.UK