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WordPress has left the building

kevinjohngallagher.com

211–220 of 223 posts

Re: WordPress has left the building

#211

I work at a firm that employs WordPress to build simple B2B and B2C websites. We share many of the same opinions as this author, and even more shortcomings come to mind: 1) Unable to change content types 2) Funneled into the "Blog" post type, which is simply called "Posts", with no easy way to kill this off and create your own 3) User group management The list could go on forever. However, if the shoe doesn't fit, wh…

> 1) Unable to change content types 2) Funneled into the "Blog" post type, which is simply called "Posts", with no easy way to kill this off and create your own

http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_post_... ?

Re: WordPress has left the building

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The author does not understand that if a theme is designed properly, an admin can mark comment as spam without editing the post. In addition, just about every single thing he thinks core Wordpress lacks can be added easily with a plug-in.

Sir, you have missed the point. You need the CAPABILITY to be able to edit posts to be able to mark comments as spam. Many of my clients want to be able to delegate SPAM marking, but not have that person be able to edit any content on the website. WordPress has hardcoded these two CAPABILITIES together for the last 13 releases.

[deleted]

Re: WordPress has left the building

#213
post #147

All the things he listed that WordPress doesn't have are the reasons why I like it. With the exception of better caching/CDN integration, I like that WordPress is simple, straightforward, and super hackable with plugins and theme functions. A lot of people don't even know all the capabilities. Few know about the WP Transients capabilities, for example. They're quite powerful and useful.

Transients API is exactly what I've been looking for, thank you. The WordPress Codex is not really in a good shape I think.

Re: WordPress has left the building

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just my 2 cents about XML. Don't use it as a feed for data. It's better to use JSON. Specially for mobile applications.

At least with ProcessWire, it would be pretty straightforward to re-template it to output JSON instead of XML (or keep both).

If you play it that way: At least WordPress is user friendly ;)

Re: WordPress has left the building

#215

I don't get what kind of business goes out recommending WordPress to a bunch of clients as a CMS platform to begin with. I always thought WordPress was a quick yet flexible blogging tool for a one-to-five-man team who doesn't want to get into serious development but just needs to get some content out there. In that regard WordPress does the job more than adequately. He cites department heads and account managers givi…

A business like TechCrunch, that was acquired by AOL last year?

TechCrunch produces content and as such I'm sure they were well served by WordPress.

The OP's company is in the business of selling WordPress-based solutions and that to me seems like a shaky business at best. In another post the OP clarified himself in saying that they are not a large business and mostly work with non-profit and small organization without a large development budget so I guess now his write-up makes more sense. But perhaps instead of ragging on WordPress for not being something they were hoping it to be, they should be thanking the authors of WordPress for for creating a tool and releasing it free of charge allowing the OP's company to stay in business for this long.

Re: WordPress has left the building

#216
> "Additionally this causes immense trouble for our clients and users who WordPress consider to be “edge cases”, that they no longer cater for. That covers disabled users, colour blind users, those not using a mouse.."

Most every other CMS would not be suitable for disabled users, colour blind users, those not using a mouse.. (unfortunately).

> "those not using a desktop PC"

Wordpress had a pretty nice official mobile interface.

> "those using a microsoft browser, especially those using IE6 or IE7"

IE6 is not supported by most website. Facebook recently stopped supporting IE7. IE8+ works fine.

> "(Bluntly, if you’re not using a Mac, look out)."

There is no basis for this comment.

I am not sure why we are giving this author this much attention.

Re: WordPress has left the building

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect a lot of people become expert in a "CMS" like WordPress or Drupal, because it seems easier than learning to work with a proper framework like Rails, and then find themselves stuck inside the platform. Like project management systems, CMS is destined to be reinvented by everyone, every day of the week.

It's very hard to convince people of going with a proprietary, custom solution. Many people have been burnt here, and it's a tough sell to upper management.

All CMS is necessarily a "proprietary, custom solution". All CMS (like all software) exists somewhere on the spectrum of "easy to use" vs "extensible and customizable".

If management chooses to rely on a vendor to set the roadmap, then they are fools, and there's not much you can do to help foolish management.

Re: WordPress has left the building

#218
post #211

I work at a firm that employs WordPress to build simple B2B and B2C websites. We share many of the same opinions as this author, and even more shortcomings come to mind: 1) Unable to change content types 2) Funneled into the "Blog" post type, which is simply called "Posts", with no easy way to kill this off and create your own 3) User group management The list could go on forever. However, if the shoe doesn't fit, wh…

> 1) Unable to change content types 2) Funneled into the "Blog" post type, which is simply called "Posts", with no easy way to kill this off and create your own http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_post_... ?

Try creating a custom post type and adding a handful of posts to it.

Now try moving those posts to a different post type.

Not so easy, now is it?

Re: WordPress has left the building

#219
Man what a surprising bunch of uneducated crap I've been reading. Have any of you heavy criticizers installed it, learned how to develop themes, and gain a complete and full understanding of the WP core and the incredibly impressive Codex with a bajillion helpful functions at your disposal?

I've developed customized WP sites for things like realtors, business directories, news sites, restaurants, online stores, local governments, and quite a few small/medium sized businesses.

The only way to use WP to it's full advantage is to first of all, take advantage of custom post types and taxonomies. Organize your content. Also, you need to customize the backend so you're only allowing you client to see certain information. There are great plugins available such as Adminimize, and the User Role Editor for properly assigning permissions to your user roles.

As far as security is concerned, this obviously depends on the administrator. Simple things such as not using "admin" as the administrator, and NOT using wp-admin as your path for the backend, proper file permissions on the WP installation dir, etc, are all simple practices.

To say WP is just blogging software obviously means you haven't been paying attention for the past 3 years.

Re: WordPress has left the building

#220
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But for the talented developers and/or programmers on the team, it's a complete productivity and sanity drain. Moreso if you're, say, part of HN's target audience, because you'll know all the modern web development techniques, and you'll be able to use none of them. I have had an absolutely terrible experience with it, which sadly isn't unique amongst these big PHP projects.

It's not bad once you get your head around it. Sure, it's not buzzword compliant (MVC, TDD, ORM OH MY!) but for what it is, it can be pretty compelling. My primary job for the last 2 years has been developing a Drupal site for a group of daily newspapers with monthly page views in the low 8 figures. We were in a situation where we had to get a site up quickly (Our small group was bought off from a much larger conglom…

I really don't doubt that for many people it has its place, as evidenced by your experience, but the moment you want any semblance of interactivity (at which point you can argue that a CMS is the wrong tool for the job) or efficiency/optimisation, you're screwed.

We've had different experiences, but I wouldn't touch it with a 10' bargepole, not any more. And I'm glad I've been managing to encourage my boss to start moving away from it. The only positive thing I've been able to take from it is a list of things never to do in my own code.

Like I say, it's not just Drupal. It's a side-effect of over-complication in the name of simplicity, and trying to run in parallel a system that makes it easy for non-devs to use. It's a recipe for disaster if you want lean, maintainable code.

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