Over the last few years, I’ve talked a lot about the nature of code quality and various tools, processes, and libraries that I recommend using when it comes to writing code for WordPress.
I’m also open that that majority of the work that I do is in backend development. This means that I work predominately on WordPress plugins using object-oriented programming and don’t work much with templates nor as much with front-end technologies.
It’s by choice, and I’m really happy with where I am. But I digress.
If you’re in the business of doing the same thing (or doing it as a hobby), it’s not just about writing the code. It’s about having proper tooling in place.
I’ve alluded to a few in these in previous posts, but I’ve not walked through the tools I use and the set up I use whenever I’m building a solution for myself or someone else.
At least not in an organized manner.
In this series, I’m going to do exactly that:
I’m going to cover the tools I use, the libraries I use, and how I use them.
Ultimately, the goal is that those of you who read this can incorporate them in your day-to-day work to write better code.
Better WordPress Code
Before we go any further, I’ll give a disclaimer first:
The previous series that I’ve done up to this point has been long. This series will not. I’m going to focus on shorter, more focused series and posts for a while.
With that I said, this series assumes you’re familiar with your IDE and have a cursory knowledge of Composer. For me, I use Visual Studio Code (and I’ve covered it quite a bit).
I’m going to be walking through the process from the very beginning up to the point of having a plugin ready to roll. No, this does not mean we’re writing a plugin. But we’re going to go right up to the edge.
So with that said, let’s get started.
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On to the Tools
One of the questions that occasionally come up, regarding Composer, is why? And though I could answer that in this post, remember that I’m working to keep these and this series a bit more succinct than the previous series.
So I’ll look to answer that, in brief, in the next post, as well as cover how to get started with a few tools after which we’ll begin seeing how it can play a larger role in developing WordPress plugins.
