• History & Background
• Lesson 1: Use WP_DEBUG
• Lesson 2: Use a VCS
• Lesson 3: Find a Good IDE
• Lesson 4: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel Unless Absolutely Necessary
• Lesson 5: Make it Extensible
• Lesson 6: Admit to Mistakes
• Lesson 7: Document Document Document
• Lesson 8: Supporting the Monster
• Lesson 9: Release on Your Own Schedule

• Breadcrumb NavXT
  • 1.3M downloads (as of 4-25-2014)
  • First release: 2.0.0 Beta 1 on 11-22-2007
  • 37 Releases (and counting)
  • Originally named Breadcrumb Navigation XT
• Breadcrumb Navigation XT
  • Adopted 7-01-2007
  • 7 Releases

In your testbed, make sure the following is in your wp-config.php:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

• Goal of 0 PHP errors, warnings, and notices

• Git, Subversion, Mercurial
  • Pick one, and actually use it
  • WordPress.org repo uses SVN

• Features such as:
  • VCS integration
  • Syntax Hilighting
  • Code hinting
• I use Aptana

• Check the WordPress Codex and now Code Reference to see if a similar function already exists
• Try to avoid direct queries to the database
• Keep up with API changes
  • i18n/l10n functions didn’t always exist
  • WP HTTP API is new as of WP 2.7
  • WP Heartbeat API is new as of WP 3.6

• WordPress uses actions and filters
• Don’t force people to use OOP for extending a plugin

@JohnONolan It should only show the message once and deactivate itself. If that is not the behavior you are seeing then it is a bug.

— John Havlik (@mtekkmonkey) March 16, 2011

@JohnONolan After looking at the code, I "did a stupid" and add that to the deactivation code not working, and we get a mess.

— John Havlik (@mtekkmonkey) March 17, 2011

• Allows users to help themselves
  • Reduces the number of support requests (sometimes)
• Some users actually read it and will call you out if it’s missing

• The WordPress community is an international community
  • Not everyone is a native English speaker
  • Some may not speak your language at all (and Google translate can cause confusion)
• If the same question keeps coming up, there may be something to learn
  • Documentation holes?
  • Missing feature?
  • User base shift?
• Never respond when angry/emotional
  • Best to step back and review a support response before hitting “submit”

• 2 types of people do this:
  • Lazy
  • Confused
• Best to treat both as confused
  • Lazy will go away
  • Confused will respond/ask more questions
• Point the user to the relevant documentation with some added explination

• “Release early and release often”
  • I’m not a fan of this
• Don’t rush new releases
  • Make sure your tests pass
  • Use automated unit tests to help with testing
  • Make preview/development released available for others to test
• Make sure you have the time for the increased support load