I am developing a new plugin for wordpress. I will put it on own site which is developed in wordpress, so other can download and use it.
I want to give the revision facility like updated version of plugin with old version available on site and FAQ's etc. is there any plugin which can control this.
Thanks
WordPress was only really developed to manage revisions of posts, not software (as far as I know), but GitHub is pretty cool, you should definitely look into it. You can use it to help you develop and get others to help out too. It makes your work publicly available without you having to purchase any hosting or worry about setting up a site for it.
There is a little bit of a learning curve for git, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be thankful you started using it.
And just to clarify, git is a version control system. GitHub is a place where you can keep your git repository, and it makes your life super easy in doing so.
Here are some research links for you...
https://github.com/
http://git-scm.com/
If you wanted to, you could still create that Wordpress site, but have your commits or tags (not too sure about the latter) tied to a feed, so whenever a new one is up on GitHub, it gets picked up by your site automatically.
Just some food for thought anyway :)...
Good luck!
Related
While I do have experience working in WP and creating WP themes. I am new to learning about blocks. Therefore, someone gave a link to learn about blocks: https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/tutorials/block-tutorial/. However, I thought I should start with the prerequisites in which I can set up development environment and a new wordpress site, which is at: https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/tutorials/devenv/.
However, I got stuck after the step "install npm -g install #wordpress/env" It said after this: "Start the environment from an existing plugin or theme directory, or a new working directory:" I thought I was missing something so I tried to look around online if someone followed the Block tutorial and wrote about what they did. I also came across https://davidyeiser.com/tutorials/docker-wordpress-theme-setup that should help me set up a new environment and new Wordpress site with Docker.
Is this the correct way I should be going before I download the "https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg-examples" to work with as I go through the tutorial?
It's hard to say what is the right or wrong way to start learning developing blocks for Gutenberg. Personally I started in a similar way as you are talking about. I just did the beginners tutorial, and after I understood how that was connected I modified that plugin to my taste. Since then I've just been using that plugin and workflow for every project I have. It's worth mentioning that I had some experience with React before I started working with this which came in really handy to understand the system.
After that I would recommend looking into wp-bg.com for a better visualization, examples and snippets of the different components that Gutenberg offers. The documentation that WordPress themselves provides on Gutenberg is a bit limited regarding the different components and tools that comes with Gutenberg.
I’m looking for some advice when it comes to custom CMS development.
Wordpress has been perfect for me before a became a developer. I used to use page builders like Elementor & WPBakery.
When developing within WP, would I need to develop a page-builder for people (without coding knowledge) to edit their pages? I’m aware of Gutenberg, is that able to edit coded pages or would it not be able to read anything as it wasn’t built using Gutenberg?
If so, would it not be better to develop a Custom CMS similar to Wordpress? That way you are able to offer a blank canvas CMS that you can brand as your own?
Thanks in advance.
Interesting question! It will require some prior research on your part, as there is no obvious answer. Below are my thoughts on the matter, but it the decision is yours to make, as the project requirements are unique and also the time you can invest in it.
When developing within WP, would I need to develop a page-builder for people (without coding knowledge) to edit their pages?
A: No. Gutenberg is perfect for this.
I’m aware of Gutenberg, is that able to edit coded pages or would it not be able to read anything as it wasn’t built using Gutenberg?
A: It won't read anything that wasn't made with it, but you can try recreating those pages with it. Depends on the design, but it shouldn't be hard. If it is a site for a client, you can ask them to recreate one or two pages and see how they feel. They will answer this question for you :)
That way you are able to offer a blank canvas CMS that you can brand as your own?
A: You can "rebrand" the WordPress admin with such a plugin
If so, would it not be better to develop a Custom CMS similar to Wordpress?
A: It all depends on how comfortable you feel with WordPress and Gutenberg, code-wise. You can do pretty much anything, if you understand the PHP, React (Gutenberg is written in React) and logic behind WP, so you won't need a custom CMS. Again, it all depends on your skills with the technologies. If you rate yourself a 10/10, no need to think about it, but I guess you wouldn't be asking this question, if you were.
Pros of going with WordPress and Gutenberg:
You already have all the necessary tools.
A ton of supporting plugins, already developed by other people.
WordPress has one of the most well-maintained codebases out there, so you will have a great start, compared to building a CMS on your own. Even if you decide to create your own plugin, you have a set of rules and practices that you need to adhere to, which is great for starters. You also have all the necessary components - DB, back-end and front-end ready.
Gutenberg is pretty stable right now and you can install the plugin, because the code that is implemented in WP core is not the latest. It is great for building pages, when you don't know code. Look into all the different blocks it offers by default and think if they cover your requirements. There are also a lot of extra blocks you can add.
The popularity of Gutenberg is growing and the community is slowly, but surely moving in that direction, so making this project with Gutenberg would benefit your future career as a WP developer, if you are interested in building one.
On the point of growing community, you will find answers to a lot of the common issues.
Pros of building your own CMS:
You will see the whole process - DB design, connection and expanding. Back-end and front-end development, user authentication and administration. For me this is a con, because there are many unexpected problems, which WP has solved. It is also very time-consuming, so if you have limited time for this project, I would advise against this.
You can make a slim CMS, which covers only your requirements and you will know the ins and outs of the code, so any future changes and expansions will be easier for you to make.
As you said, it will be easier to brand as your own and you can build the Admin side of it however you want, even though there are defined UX standards, which won't allow you to go very wild. It will probably resemble the WP admin in one way or another. Check out these admin page designs, for reference.
Conclusion
Personally, I would go for WordPress and Gutenberg, because I have had mostly bad experiences with building everything on my own. I am not a good enough coder and that is OK, because I can use all of these tools, built by awesome developers before me. So please keep in mind that building your own CMS will take a lot of time, if you want to make it stable and secure. There are also alternatives to WordPress.
I am trying to speed up my wordpress site. In this case, it is powered by Visual Composer. We have attempted to speed up the site using smaller images, static text, and CDN-movement of movies.
However, I am being told by a service that Visual Composer is the main culprit on why the website is extremely slow. I have no idea how to begin troubleshooting this, and I am asking this group if anyone has had this told to them and what they did about it.
My Site is https://www.trekfederation.com/
Anything to start with would be greatly appreciated.
You shouldn't use Visual Composer. Have a theme custom made so you don't have extra bloat in your site. Visual Composer creates plugin madness and bloats your database. Its not a quick process but making a brand new theme or starting with one of WordPress's themes and making it your own is your best bet. You could also hire someone to do it.
I too was curious about the same question and could not find a reasonably satisfactory answer to my question and so I decided to test the results with and without VC using https://gtmetrix.com/
Following are the results:
Speed before creating the page; using Visual Composer:
Speed of page; when created with Visual Composer:
There is a drastic fall in the speed; having said that; if you tend to use Visual composer some of the premium themes; which have been optimized for VC, you will not face such issues. Wowmall is one such theme on themeforest; which has a decent speed. They do use VC and also provide it free with the purchase of their theme.
Here is the checklist I follow to make sure my WordPress sites do not slow down.
Test the themes well before implementing them on the live project (generally use https://gtmetrix.com/ https://tools.pingdom.com/ https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
Use Max CDN for content delivery network https://www.maxcdn.com/
Use w3 total cache plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/ (I stick to free version; unless I expect high traffic on the website)
Use a minimum number of plugins; it's very tempting to use some plugin to get things done quickly however it may backfire in terms of speed.
PS: you can consider https://wpengine.com/ for hosting solution; I have not personally used their services, however, know that they take care of caching needs quite effectively.
EDIT:
I have also observed the Revolution slider script slow down the website, whether or not the slider is used on the page; the js runs once the plugin is activated.
To conclude Wordpress is a double-edged sword; if not wisely used will result in a poor web performance.
Okay, so this turned out to be fairly curious - I was able to figure out what the developer has done to trick Google Page Speed (and me).
I have attached a screenshot.
He checked for user-agent-string for Google Page Speeds Lighthouse and then shows it a screenshot of a website instead of the website itself. He even shows separate screenshots for mobile and desktop and has added some CSS animations to make the loading seem more realistic.
I have been planning a little side project of mine for a while now. Since the beginning I had planed on writing a CRUD application from scratch myself. Now after having a little more experience with web programming I think I would save myself a ton of time by using a CMS but being unfamiliar with these systems I do not know if I can do what I need to.
Users will create a profile.
Users will upload images.
Some users will be selling their products, others will be buying them. I will take a percentage. Think ebay without bidding.
Many javascript and php features such as image rotators and an app so users can crop their photos.
Will be integrating Facebook API.
Main reason I am considering a CMS is not to save time, but to make a safer website. I am not experienced with eCommerce and do not want to put my users at risk. Everything else mentioned I can and have done.
Use CMS like Drupal or just start from scratch?
Most of the CMS have the basic functionality you've mentioned in 1,2 and 5.
You'll have to write your own extensions for 3 and 4, or search for existing one that fits you.
Writing an extension for CMS will take less time than writing entire CMS from scratch.
If you want safe and stable code, then it's better to use existing CMS.
I agree with w3b4 that an open source CMS will save you time and give you major security and support advantages.
My experience of open source CMSs only extends to WordPress. I am sure you could make it do all the things you want with a bit of work, but my gut feel is that it might not be the best platform to start out with if you main requirement is buying and selling.
However before you strike it off your list, check out the wp-ecommerce plugin and its various add-ons. This product has developed a lot in recent years and might offer what you need out of the box.
I'm working at a company that uses Drupal 6 to host documentation for it's SAAS products. The documentation is organized in various books using Book.module.
We have a Production Drupal site with the documentation for the production SAAS product.
Secondly, we have a "Preview" site, for the upcoming version of our product - the documentation is slightly different than on the Production site.
Thirdly, we have a "Development" site, which contains the unstable version of our product documentation. The documentation here changes frequently
Documents are originally authored on Development, moved to Preview, and then finally to Production.
It's quite unwieldy to manually update each Drupal site as our product evolves. I've looked at Deploy.module, and although it looks promising, it has limitations wrt books (ie: it can't handle the book structure/menus). It also makes for a solution that is quite complex with lots or moving parts.
I'm hoping that I've been over-thinking everything and some Drupal rockstar out there can point out an obvious (or not-so-obvious) solution.
(An obvious non-drupal solution would probably just be store the documentation pages as html in version control and update each site with the appropriate revision. But with this I lose the ACL functionality that Drupal is so good at.)
Thoughts?
Cheers
I've had good luck with the Feeds module to get one site to consume a certain view from another site when I choose or periodically. It will take some configuration work to get going but it's more flexible than a turn-key solution and it's less fragile than any SQL dump -> import of the node revisions table.