WordPress / WordPress/Documentation-Issue-Tracker
[DevHub] Suggest to add new Boilerplate (maintained) to the List of Plugin Boilerplates
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Description
Status Quo
Currently the https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-basics/best-practices/ page suggests a couple Plugin Boilerplates as starting points for aspiring (or experienced) DEVs to create Plugins.
See section Boilerplate Plugins.
All of them are very good starting points, but all of them unless the WP CLI one are very old and never been updated since.
Some are last updated 2014, others 9 years ago.
URL of the Page with the Issue
https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-basics/best-practices/
Section of Page with the issue
https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-basics/best-practices/#boilerplate-starting-points
Why is this a problem?
It is not the best to start new development with code that was written 9 years ago (even if it still works).
There have not been any updates to those libraries since.
This basally encourages "non-evolution" and suggests to new, aspiring devs (but also existing experienced devs) to simply go on forever with the same old code that "worked once, still works, so why not".
While this is OK, it would be better to also provide a link to a maintained and actively developed boilerplate that adjusted some of the code to newer approaches and as well (and most importantly) commits to continue to develop the boilerplate and listens to the community requests and accepts PRs.
None of the currently suggested boilerplate has accepted a single PR since years, despite numerous valid PRs by users to the respective repos. All of the suggested boilerplates are as said being developed many years ago and never evolved from that. Meanwhile, we have autoloaders, PHP evolved, WordPress evolved. So definitely, it would be a good time to add a link to a more maintained, developed Boilerplate.
Suggested Fix
Such boilerplate does exist. It is actively maintained, developed, accepts PRs and attempts to evolve, rather than stay stuck on what worked once (and may work forever or not).
It does not yet include all new things we could include, but that is partially also the reason why I suggest listing it on the page. The more users are aware of it the more users will contribute and the more the boilerplate can be evolving.
It is certainly more up to date than the other linked boilerplates, and is actively maintained, and accepts/listens to community input (something that has been completely lacking from the other boilerplates)
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start at the linked Best Practices page and inspect the “Boilerplate Starting Points” section. Add the suggested maintained boilerplate link alongside the existing entries, then verify that the page clearly includes it and the link works.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- php
- Domain
- documentation
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100