Build Philosophy
This section is intended to forgo the technical implementation of a website build and focus more on the overall approach. What's important? Why?
#1. We build websites for clients.
With every site build you have to assume the client has no prior WordPress or technical experience. They may not be super comfortable logging into a CMS and making changes to a website. With that in mind it is very important to make every part of the website accessible through the WordPress Admin.
Need a slider on the homepage? Ensure that the client can login and add or remove slides on the fly without too much trouble. Need to update some footer links, put them in a widget so the client can easily make adjustments from the Appearance > Widgets panel. Everything needs to be accessible and easy to edit.
#2. No Bloat, No Problem.
As of right now we do not use page builders and pre-made themes. There are a number of reasons for this approach and a few of the big ones are:
Gutenburg. WordPress has come a long way in terms of how users build out pages. Gone are the days of page templates. With the introduction of Gutenburg, WordPress's proprietary page builder, users now have the ability to create pages using modular elements known as blocks. In keeping with our minimalistic philosophy and sticking to the "WordPress Way", we try to utilize as much of the Gutenburg editor as possible when creating a page. Yes, there are more advanced page builders, quite a few of them actually, which is exactly why we put our faith in WordPress's page builder. The documentation is plentiful and it is continuously being improved. No subscriptions, no "freemium" models, and no time spent learning yet another page builder.
Bloat. Page builders and pre-made themes are bloated. Most of these run a lot of Javascript and "bloatware" in the browser slowing things down hindering the build process. If we're bypassing the default Gutenburg editor we're essentially wasting an entire codebase inside of the WordPress core and adding another layer to the overall architecture of the site. This is unnecessary.
Subscriptions. Page builders and premade themes typically come at a cost. You have to purchase a license and continue to renew annually in order to keep the theme up-to-date with the latest WordPress build.
Sustainability. Page builders and pre-made themes require updates. Once a site has been handed over to a client it is typically up to them to stay on top of these updates. This often leads to themes falling several versions behind and in some cases these builders becoming incompatible with the latest version of WordPress. If you were to simply go in and try to update the theme or page builder you could run into unintended consequences and changes to the front-end of the site.
Underscores. That's why we use the Underscores starter theme, developed by the makers of WordPress. It's directly editable, requiring no child theme. It doesn't require updates. It follows WordPress best practices and coding standards. It's open-sourced and free to the public.
#3. Minimize Plugins
We love plugins, that's one of the features that makes WordPress so powerful. We have a handful that we use with every site build. However, as a developer for The Grove it is important that we only install plugins if they are absolutely necessary. If you can solve a problem without using a plugin, do it. A good use case for a plugin is Advanced Custom Fields. Try setting up a custom repeater field and adding it to the page as a Gutenburg Block element. You're looking at hours if not days to set this up. With ACF you can do this in a matter of minutes.
Adding custom post-types, custom taxonomies, search boxes and styling the login page should all be done within the theme. Don't use a plugin for these common WordPress tasks.
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