Engineering is the application of scientific, mathematical, and technological knowledge to the solution of problems and the creation of products and services. In the context of software systems, software engineering is responsible for ensuring that these systems are reliable, secure, integral, and productive.
WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) used to create websites and blogs. It is a powerful tool that can be used to create websites of any size and complexity. However, WordPress can also be a challenging platform to maintain, especially for those who are not familiar with software engineering best practices.
In this article, we will discuss how to use WordPress in a more reliable, secure, integral, and productive way.
What is a monolith?
A monolith is a software system that is composed of a single unit. This means that all of the system's components, including the source code, data, and infrastructure, are all interconnected.
WordPress is a monolith. The WordPress source code, website data, and hosting infrastructure are all interconnected. This can make it difficult to maintain WordPress, as any change to one component can affect the other components.
Why is WordPress difficult to maintain?
There are several reasons why WordPress is difficult to maintain:
The WordPress source code is complex and can be difficult to understand.
WordPress is updated frequently, and it is important to keep your site up-to-date with the latest versions.
WordPress is a popular platform, and there are many plugins and themes available. It is important to choose high-quality plugins and themes that are compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
How to use WordPress as an engineer
Here are some tips for using WordPress in a more reliable, secure, integral, and productive way:
Use staging environments. Staging environments are copies of your production site that can be used to test changes before implementing them on the production site. This helps to avoid production problems.
Use page builders. Page builders, such as Elementor and Gutenberg, can help you create pages faster and more efficiently. These tools can also help you create more secure and integral pages.
Create and use global components. Global components are blocks of code that can be reused on multiple pages. This can help to reduce the size of your source code and improve productivity.
Make daily automatic backups. Automatic backups are essential to protect your site from data loss.
Have a software engineering methodology for handling tasks. A software engineering methodology will help you manage your site's maintenance tasks effectively.
Do QA frequently. QA (Quality Assurance) is essential to ensure that your site is reliable and secure.
Adopt a continuous CI/CD approach. CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) is an approach to software delivery that helps to ensure that changes to code are delivered in a safe and reliable way.
Conclusion
WordPress is a powerful platform that can be used to create websites of any size and complexity. However, it is important to use WordPress in a way that follows software engineering best practices. By following the tips in this article, you can help to ensure that your site is reliable, secure, integral, and productive.
The experience of using WordPress as an engineer can be a valuable one. By facing the challenges of maintaining a monolith, you will learn a lot about software engineering. This experience will be useful to you in future projects, whether you are a software engineer or a system administrator.
Here are some additional tips for using WordPress as an engineer:
Use a version control system (VCS) to track changes to your code. This will make it easier to roll back changes if something goes wrong.
Write unit tests for your code. Unit tests help to ensure that your code is working as expected.
Use a code review process to review changes to your code before they are implemented. This can help to catch errors and improve the quality of your code.
By following these tips, you can help to ensure that your WordPress sites are reliable, secure, integral, and productive.
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