When beginning a new WordPress project, what are the five most important things every WordPress developer should know if they are to succeed?
Beyond best practices, some tips must come from experience. And this is what our five below are: hard-earned bits of knowledge we've found to be invaluable, especially as a project moves on.
1. Plugins
Can't do something in WordPress? Fear not! As they say, there's a plugin for that. But do your due diligence on the plugin first and make sure it is indeed absolutely necessary. If it can be fixed with a code snippet instead, take that route. As someone altogether unfamiliar with plugins once said, "Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler." Einstein might have been on to something there.
2. Avoid WYSIWYG from the start
Although not directly related to development, it's helpful to note this when building the site. Blogging or updating content in a WYSIWYG editor on WordPress can cause a domino-effect of trouble, especially if your stylesheet isn't prepared for it and any unanticipated code inserts. While it might seem obvious to leave the WYSIWYG option there, if only for the sake of your liberal arts-educated blogger, it tends to cause problems sooner or later. Instead, get your blogger a good coffee, maybe some pie, and sit her down to teach her how to use HTML. It'll save both of you a lot of time in the future.
3. Know your background operations
As a general best practice in development, don't make things happen unnecessarily. With WordPress, this means avoiding using jQuery codes like query_post, which will quickly turn into eight queries rather than two (main query and your index.php query).
4. Scripts and styles
Always enqueue your scripts and styles. Especially when developing the site, you don't want to freeze your JS library with multiple calls. Instead, use the wp_enqueue_script function which allows you to only load one version.
5. GZIP
Side-server GZIP allows you to compress your site files before sending them. All it requires is a simple code snippet to be added to your .htaccess file and it's definitely a time-saver.
Have another bit of WordPress knowledge you think every developer should know? Let us know in the comments!