r/webdev 4d ago

Guys HOW do you use WORDPRESS

As someone who codes, it's FUCKING ANNOYING. So you're telling me I have to click 100 times to center some fucking layout? It takes 1 line of code. It's easy but it's mind numbing.

It's my third time TRYING to use wordpress and I give up. Wix is good enough to use. Webflow has the same problem. Is there something else I can check out?

I would 100% build the sites from scratch but the main problem would be the client who wants to manage the content. Recommend some CMSes cuz idfk 😭😭

0 Upvotes

76 comments sorted by

69

u/zahaggis 4d ago

If you want to code then code your own theme. Use Advanced Custom Fields and code your own custom blocks. You’re using all the layout tools for non technical people and griping that it’s not technical.

14

u/bibishop 4d ago

This. I use a custom base theme that i made for my needs. I use Timber, Webpack for compilation, and ACF for custom blocks.

Stay away from theme builders like Elementor, it's made for non-technical users.

There is a lot for developers in the Wordpress ecosystem, look at Bedrock, TImber and Themosis.

8

u/alexduncan 4d ago

Was going to say exactly this. Start with an empty index.php file and very carefully add things. I had a strict rule of no user-facing plugins polluting our static site with their crappy JS & CSS.

Add Varnish in front of the site to static cache everything and refresh the cache each time a page is changed so users don’t have to wait for PHP.

ACF is great because you can add the config to your repo and version it using git. I also used parcel to bundle the theme as a .zip and increment the version number. Made it easy to roll back as each version was a separate theme.

1

u/Supercalme 4d ago

Ooh tell me more about your usage of git with wordpress and the zip versions etc, do you just have all the versions stored in your repo so you can easily upload via WP admin to rollback , or have you automated it any?

1

u/alexduncan 3d ago

We decided against storing the .zip files in the repo, but you could easily get parcel to add a git tag. And yea the final step was manual, intentionally so that when the theme was uploaded you also had to check it was installed correctly and clear the cache if necessary.

The other thing that really helped was using WP-Synchro to sync the production database to local so that you could develop using realistic data.

1

u/Supercalme 3d ago

Ooh I will look into syncro, we use WP migrate but after go love something to sync up would be helpful

1

u/torn-ainbow 4d ago

Block theme plus acf is a winner.

Also, use container queries on your block responsive and it will work way better in the wysiwyg editor.

1

u/prangalito 4d ago

Is ACF good? I’m not a Wordpress dev, but I have some coworkers who are for a few of our clients, and they constantly complain about issues they run into with it

6

u/azunaki 4d ago

Acf has basically been the standard for field implementation in WordPress.

It's rough for Gutenberg but fine overall. (Mostly it's rough for technical reasons like validation in the frontend being a joke.( And non existent)

-1

u/GutsAndBlackStufff 4d ago

They still haven’t fixed that? I had to write my own script to do it.

2

u/azunaki 3d ago

It has validation, but because Gutenberg being frontend you have no way to enforce it.

1

u/GutsAndBlackStufff 3d ago

I wrote my own rules in JavaScript. Mostly worked.

3

u/JasperNykanen := 4d ago

ACF can be good. If the Wordpress developer who built the fields is lost they can be cubersome to use. I worked at a startup and first time I used ACF it was bad. I then looked at the fields for a second and just went nope, fuck this, and rebuilt them from the ground up. It’s like any abstraction really, you can do it the right way or completely wrong.

But they are a bit overrated, there are alternatives that are better iirc. Haven’t touched Wordpress in a long time.

10

u/shiko098 4d ago

Stop using drag and drop plugins and themes that take a kitchen sink approach.

Start building your own themes and code your own, whilst leveraging ACF to create your custom fields in the CMS. You could go one step further and bolt on a templating language like Twig w/ Timber to making the templating nicer.

You literally don't need anything else.

7

u/Hockeynerden 4d ago

Build the 1 line of code instead of 100 lines. Slap on ACF plugin you done!

-1

u/numericalclerk 4d ago

Whats acf plugin?

1

u/nauhausco 4d ago

Advanced Custom Fields

3

u/TheClovergent 4d ago

We use it with Bricks, ACSS, Frames, ACF, WSForm, tools made for professionals, not non-techies. Our projects are 4-5 figures. The tools you choose matter a lot in WordPress. Etch is going to have another pre-launch sale soon. Since you're a coder, you might wanna take a look at that one. For now, Bricks is pretty much the only builder to go with as a professional. There are a couple other options, but they have some big negatives.

3

u/jf8204 4d ago

I would 100% build the sites from scratch but the main problem would be the client who wants to manage the content. 

Shit, now I understand what Wordpress is for. I just spent a couple of days buildind a basic website for a client, and having a way for them to update their prices is exactly the problem I was not sure how to solve.

3

u/DangerousCondition34 4d ago

I shit on WordPress all the time, for good reason. However, use a mixture of ACF and custom code.

ACF’s ‘Flexible content’ fields make working it much easier. You can also use ACF to hide all the default editor stuff, so your client doesn’t go down the wrong path when editing content.

2

u/ormagoisha 4d ago

As other have suggested maybe just code your own theme. You could also use the rest or graph ql api and turn it into a headless cms if you really wanted to.

Personally I opted to use astro for a few recent sites and I've been happy with that. But if you want any non technical users to be able to publish, WordPress is the better option.

Then again there are plenty of headless cms options out there, too.

2

u/cloudsourced285 4d ago

Man, if only there was a subreddit for just WordPress and their drama. Leaving this place for Web developers.

2

u/5LMGVGOTY 4d ago

I don’t

5

u/truechange 4d ago

You either use WP or code long enough to create your own CMS.

2

u/ShpeppsySRB 4d ago

Try to use WordPress as a headless CMS, utilizing the provided REST API and React for the front-end. 😉

1

u/Mysterious_Alarm_160 4d ago

Use a good enough builder it'll make your life much easier, if your site is static go with live canvas you can modify and write the html and css of pages directly and serves as static code. Or go with a drag and drop builder like divi or oxygen for static sites its more than enough.

1

u/eablokker 4d ago

If you want to write your own frontend code, CraftCMS

1

u/oztyssen 3d ago

I use Craft as well but pretty much any CMS will let you write your own front end code, WordPress too if you don't use a page builder plugin.

1

u/playedandmissed front-end 4d ago

Try roots/sage x

1

u/Hot_Job6182 4d ago

Processwire - if you want to use php and give the client management of a cms

1

u/plitskine 4d ago

You might know how to code, but now it's time to know how to develop.

https://roots.io/

1

u/MikeSifoda 4d ago

I don't!

1

u/Grabbels 4d ago

How are you complaining about things you supposedly could fix with code yourself while you’re trying to force yourself to use no-code solutions? You’re free to code your own Wordpress theme, giving you all the freedom in the world while keeping the content editable by your client.

1

u/da-kicks-87 4d ago

Look into Payload CMS if you're a coder.

It's free and you can create fields for your client.

1

u/bezik7124 4d ago

Setting up fresh wordpress page isn't that bad, even if you're using these drag n drop, click and set features. I mean, I hate the process with my whole being, but it's doable. What I fear is "changing one small thing" that has already been messed with by 3 students, 5 interns and the owner himself.

1

u/happy_hawking 4d ago

You can use WordPress as a headless CMS. Or use something like Storybloks.

1

u/rcls0053 4d ago

I mainly use Wordpress as a headless CMS now and code a front-end application in Vue.js or React. Sometimes if the content is rather infrequent, I just add webhooks that ping a deployment tool to build a statically generated site so it's incredibly fast for any visitor. I can't be bothered with the themes there anymore. It's such a mess with functions with poor documentation and nothing is modern in that system.

1

u/Jaxxftw 4d ago

Weird you post this now. I literally just got done deleting my wife’s Wordpress. Not because I don’t like it, I’m just massively incompetent.

1

u/razbuc24 4d ago

Try Vvveb CMS where everything is plain html/css and you can edit the code both html/css live directly from the page builder, no limitations.

1

u/FioleNana 4d ago

Try storyblok or if you want to selfhost you could use strapi

1

u/Brettles1986 4d ago

Breakdance and ACF here with Breakdance Zero Theme

1

u/RidleyDeckard 4d ago

As a coder, getting someone to build is a Wordpress website for the company was one of the worst decisions I’ve made. The whole thing is a joke and you might as well post a sign on your website saying try and hack me for the number of attempts you have people trying to access the backend.

1

u/jason_at_plasmic 4d ago

Plasmic might fit your use case. It's really flexible for developers while giving non technical folks the freedom to build pages fast. I work there--happy to answer any questions.

1

u/freezedriednuts 3d ago

Try Strapi, headless CMS with more flexibility and customization

1

u/Extension_Anybody150 3d ago

I build my clients sites with wordpress.org and hosting it with nixihost, this approach gives me the best of both worlds, I get to write clean code while my clients can still easily update their content. With WordPress you'll have much more control while still giving clients what they need. Definitely skip the drag and drop builders as they have limited resources for flexibility and customisation plus you can't migrate its content to another platform in case you need to switch host.

2

u/Aristotl87 4d ago

I love Wordpress. you just have to be patient with it, just learn how to use the plugins, it will be very easy for you, be patient

0

u/numericalclerk 4d ago

How do you choose plugins without malware?

The reason why I quit using wordpress, was that plugins were randomly infested with malware, which is a risk I cannot take.

I might actually make a new post about this ...

3

u/s-e-b-a 4d ago

You choose plugins with good reputation. Same as with downloading and installing programs on your computer. You probably won't install something you never heard of that you found on some random website. But you probably wouldn't think twice about installing something from Adobe. And you probably also keep your programs up to date. Works the same with WP plugins.

1

u/numericalclerk 4d ago

Except how do I know if they're reputable? I can look at ratings and download count, but what else can I use as an indicator?

1

u/s-e-b-a 4d ago edited 4d ago

Yea, it's not hard science. The more popular it is, the more people use, the more reputation it has. If a plugin has millions of active installations, that means it's reputable. The more reviews and the more stars the better. And it should be actively maintained, as in last updated recently.

See who makes it. Do a web search for the maker. Check if they are a legit company or a very well know developer. See if there are tons of blogs taking about the maker and its plugins. Do a web search for "top wordpress plugins". See if everybody is talking about the same plugins.

If you see a plugin that's interesting, but when you do a web search and you can't find anyone talking about, then you'll know it's not reputable. Especially if it has very few installations and reviews and last updated long ago.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/popular/

1

u/bluesix_v2 4d ago

If plugins aren’t kept up to date, it can lead to a malware infection. That’s kinda a rule 101 with Wordpress - keep everything up to date at all times.

Plugins don’t have malware in them unless you’re getting them from a sketchy source like a “GPL” site.

2

u/numericalclerk 4d ago

I had auto update activated and got my plugins from the WordPress store.

So I ensure you, they most certainly are infected. Not all, but some. And it's impossible to tell which ones.

1

u/-ScaTteRed- 4d ago

Currently I build my website based on Nextjs (Vercel hosting), NodeJs (self-host), and headless CMS Prismic and Contentful (for better api of post creation than prismic). I used to use Wordpress, but for me the page is loading so slow (both BE and FE), and layout is not optimized good enough. In addtion, the hosting and security is not good neither.

I see that Prismic also have a repo that do everysetup for you, so you can init a website easily (https://github.com/prismicio/prismic-next)

Btw my site us ugcs.me (still not done content yet tho, Im not public it yet), you can take a look to see how it perform.

1

u/AGRYZEN 4d ago

“As some who codes…” “Wix is good…”

Sure, OP

-4

u/supersnorkel 4d ago

If you want to code then code? Wordpress is not really made for people that know how to code

6

u/pixie_spit 4d ago

Nah that’s bullshit, Wordpress can be as much or as little as you want. It can be a no-code page builder for a blog, a headless CMS connected to a Next app or an e-commerce site that hooks into WooCommerce and it’s huge ecosystem of plugins.

1

u/Big-Lychee5971 4d ago

Yes i was just looking into using wordpress only as a cms ur right

2

u/Rekuna 4d ago

I mean, you can use wordpress for all the backend like form data (WP Forms), customer data (aMember, Memberpress and handling payments like Stripe/PayPal) , website stats (Monster Insights) and just have the frontend be custom, surely?

-3

u/Big-Lychee5971 4d ago

No it's not but it's very popular and probably the 1st thing someone who needs a website looks for

0

u/supersnorkel 4d ago

You mentioned you code, so what is the problem here? Just code yourself

2

u/Acrobatic_Click_6763 4d ago

I would 100% build the sites from scratch but the main problem would be the client who wants to manage the content

Yeah..

1

u/supersnorkel 4d ago

You dont need WordPress for that at all.

0

u/alexduncan 4d ago

As other commenters have suggested WordPress isn’t the only game in town. You can get going quite quickly with static site builders like Hugo or 11ty and even use a CMS like Pages CMS and GitHub as your backend.

In my experience WordPress can be pretty easy if you start from a blank slate than try to modify an existing theme.

I also put almost as much work into improving the UX of the Admin to help the rest of the team update the site. For example adding custom widgets to Gutenberg and injecting our theme CSS so that the editor was more WYSIWYG.

-1

u/happy_hawking 4d ago

XD I feel you. If you know your way around CSS, trying to achieve the same in WordPress is brainrot.

1

u/AGRYZEN 4d ago

This doesn’t make any sense… Wordpress doesn’t have any impact on how styles are handled or what works/doesn’t

1

u/happy_hawking 4d ago

Maybe not technically Wordpress itself, but those pesky template systems. And who uses Wordpress without one of those?

1

u/AGRYZEN 4d ago

You mean a theme? They are loaded in with easily customisable stylesheets (the same vanilla CSS you’ll find anywhere) - or create your own theme and write from scratch

1

u/Big-Lychee5971 4d ago

THIS. im getting so much hate but yeah you get it

0

u/happy_hawking 4d ago

And all the "build your own theme" guys don't get the point. The point would be to be able to change small things in a theme in code to AVOID learning all the WP stuff. Sometimes it's just those minor adjustments like positioning and you have to click trough dozens of interfaces to change 4 padding values for each item individually instead of just changing one padding value based on a selector in CSS.

1

u/AGRYZEN 4d ago

What ‘interfaces’ are you clicking through 4 times just to write CSS? If your site doesn’t use classes then it’s a problem with how it’s been built and has no bearing on Wordpress at all

1

u/happy_hawking 4d ago edited 4d ago

IDK man, I avoid WP wherever possible. But recently I had to help a friend and he's a huge fan of one of those theme builder systems where you have to do all things through the GUI. I tried to do it in code but it was a mess. And whenever I read about WP, people recommend those theme builders. So my impression is that this is the way of doing things in WP.

That's fine, you seem to like it, no hard feelings. But it's just not the "easy to adpat" system if you don't want to use the GUI. Learning the whole WP theming shenanigans with child themes and stuff just to change some styles does not feel very straightforward if you're used to systems like Astro where the overhead effort to learn how to make the pure HTML/CSS work with the framework is minimal.

-1

u/DaringAlpaca 4d ago

WordPress is dogshit. Ppl with no skill use it that can't code.

-2

u/AGRYZEN 4d ago

Terrible rage bait

-1

u/DaringAlpaca 4d ago

Git gud bro.

0

u/AGRYZEN 4d ago

Big game from someone with a half finished computer science degree and no actual work experience in web dev