If there’s one thing I learned in the web development field, it’s that time is money. There are budgets to be faithful to, deadlines to aim for, and when you’re a developer who wants nothing more than to have the most beautiful and efficient code ever – sometimes those things can come at odds.
So what do you do? Do what you humanly can. Write the cleanest most awesome code you can, but be mindful of doomsday the finish line. And try out these 5 WordPress tools and boilerplates!
Plugins & Widgets
What? Write Plugins and Widgets from scratch?
No, thanks. Tom McFarlin’s Plugin BoilerPlate and Widget Boilerplate will give me a head start.
Well documented, and sticks to WordPress standards. Can’t ask for more and it’s better than re-inventing the wheel every time.
Theme-ing
I’m a fan of Shawn Cope’s Blank Slate theme, although it’s based on Twenty Twelve, the styles have been stripped and it has the most basic functionality without all the bells and whistles you’d have to remove if you start with another theme. Another great choice is the Underscores theme. It’s up to date and even includes Jetpack infinite scroll and more customizer features already built in. These blank themes do all the magic I need, or rather, it lets me do my magic without getting in the way.
Functions
For those that find the WordPress Codex to be synonymous with trying to figure out a Professor Layton puzzle (Omg, seriously I never beat the first game, I really need to…), then this next one is for you. Generate WP allows you to not only pick what function you want, but customize it to your needs. Then it’s just a matter of copy and paste. Voila! More magic!
And so, hope that helps. Anyone have any other useful tools that make their development process go a lot faster, drop me a line in the comments! I love resources – especially WordPress resources! Happy WordPressing!
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