Janvier Design Services

WordPress has been my content management system of choice for the last 2+  years. I have many reasons for that crucial choice and of the many choices in my life, I know this is among the good ones. Though the point of this post is other than wordpress functionality, I will touch bits of it. Now, when it comes to customizing wordpress, it implies working around the default functionality. This can be achieved by editing the basic theme for instance, or adding plugins to achieve a particular purpose. One thing you can be sure of is that there are literally thousands of wordpress plugins designed by individuals who were trying to achieve very likely the same thing as you may be trying to. So, before spending your time or money on freelancers, check the vast wordpress plug-ins repository and the wordpress themes database.

With all that in mind, when it comes to customizing wordpress, there are three basic steps one needs to understand.

1. What do you want?

   Pretty trivial… I know. Like any other project, this is the step that you need to understand more than any other ahead of time. It is important to figure this part out so you know which plug-ins and themes to choose or design.

2. Do you know what you are doing?

   WordPress is a CMS. That is, it is subject to updates and upgrades once in a while as it becomes necessary. While it is possible to change its behaviour by editing core files, it is not a good idea because it comprises of more than 3000 files. This not only makes it pretty hard to figure out which file to edit to bring about the desired result, it is not recommended given that a silly mistake (error) in one can cascade throughout the CMS, ripping havoc. So, know what you want to do, and if you don’t or are not very sure, hire someone to help.  Like Janvier , or check out the net.

3. Do you know the limits?

   It may be the world’s best publishing platform, but if you expect to build an application that will be used to remotely control robots on the battle field using wordpress, I think you may be missing the point. I give this example because a few months back, I had a client approach me who wanted to build a wordpress  based social network “exactly like facebook“. My reaction was “with wordpress MU you can come close enough, but with regular wordpress, it’s fairly almost impossible, or you could pay at least $7000 to achieve that – or try to“. So, before you start customizing or hire someone to do the job for you, it is a good idea to know – or at least have an idea – of the limitations the software has. This will help you to avoid tons of headaches, but most importantly it will save your pocket from leaking unnecessary cash to freelancers!

In my next post on how to unleash the beast within wordpress, I will discuss the steps involved in carrying out the customization you need.

Popularity: unranked [?]