Kharkiv WordPress Meetup #5

Slava Abakumov at Kharkiv WordPress Meetup #5
Slava Abakumov speaking at Kharkiv WordPress Meetup #5

One more time I was invited to talk at a local Kharkiv WordPress Meetup #5, which took place on April 20th. I have decided to share my thoughts on what you should do before actually starting to rewrite your WordPress plugin with a huge user base (in my case – over 700k active installs).

Slides

You can download slides here as well.

Presentation key points

  1. So, you’ve decided to create a plugin for sale: https://bit.ly/khwp3
  2. Working for Awesome Motive
  3. WP Mail SMTP
  4. Audit
    • Current problems from point of view of:
      • ordinary users
      • developers (do you have such users?)
    • User base activity
      • active install growth / downloads per day (*/advanced/)
      • support forum
  5. Goals (why?)
    • What do you want to do:
      • adding new features/enhancements?
      • fixing old bugs?
      • update code based on the latest technology stack? Is it important?
      • start selling a paid version with new code/features set etc?
  6. Target audience (whom?)
    • Whom this new version will be dedicated to?
      • if developers – API
      • if ordinary users – UX/UI
    • How long will users work inside you plugin admin area?
    • Does old design correlate with your target audience?
  7. Requirements (what?)
    • Depends on Target Audience:
    • different ways to develop UI for developers and ordinary users
    • no need to waste time on something that is not needed, example: error messages
    • follow your target audience strictly for the 1st version
  8. Technical planning (how?)
    • Minimum requirements?
      • WordPress, PHP, MySQL versions etc.
    • New technologies for you or not?
    • Full plugin rewrite or partial?
      • throw away old code and start fresh – it has both advantages and disadvantages
      • depends on timing
  9. Time (when?)
    • Release:
      • exact date
      • when it’s ready
      • when dedicated development time/money will come to an end
    • Upfront thinking about this date:
      • users notifications
      • what will change at this day?
  10. One more thing…
  11. WordPress 5.0 [YOLO Release]* (* as per Chris Christoff from Awesome Motive, Inc.)
    • Gutenberg
    • “GutenBlocks”
    • React
    • jQuery 3.3.x
    • JavaScript hooks: addAction() / addFilter() etc.

Video

By Slava Abakumov

// Be good, have fun, create things.

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