WordPress workflow? Alternatives?

[mmmavis]

Excuse me for my loooooooooong post :cold_sweat:

Currently many MoFo sites are built in WordPress: eg. Hive Learning Networks, Advocacy, MozFest, Fundraising... and more

Current Workflow (definitely not optimal)

1. Fresh WordPress install
2. Create a theme and build everything in the theme code. (ie., minimal or zero widget usage). Almost everything is built as part of Theme. This means site content is coded as HTML within the template files. (ie, we are not pulling content from the database)
3. Create a Github repo to store the Theme code
4. Push Theme code to Github
5. ssh to server(staging/production) and do git pull there.
6. Push subsequent commits and repeat Step 5.

Pros

• Easy for dev (that's me :open_mouth:) to deploy from local -> staging -> production via ssh & Git commands.
• Version controlled.

Cons

• Since everything is coded in PHP/JS/HTML/CSS and no widgets are being used, it makes site edits extremely frustrating for site admins(non-devs).
• Also very troublesome for devs who don't have WP set up locally or ssh access to server to make changes.
• This leaves me the only person who can make changes "easily".

  Solution?

• We could try widgetizing things as much as we can. So our Theme code just does what a "theme" should do and site content gets created via WP widgets(either 3rd party ones or our own creation) and stored in production site database.
• The good part
  • This way site admins can make edits through WYSIWYG editors / widget settings and do not have to ask for dev help.
• Concern:
  • (1) it takes a lot more time to build a site like that (me no WP expert nor PHP pro :scream:)
  • (2) content syncing is hard (not sure how we can do it, do we db dump every time?)

    Alternatives?

• I heard Ghost is good and easy to use. Wondering if it could be an alternative?
• Other suggestions?

Thoughts?

[mmmavis]

@simonwex

[thisandagain]

cc @hannahkane

[davidascher]

For a bunch of these sites, I expect a static site generator with embedded disqus comments is likely just fine. e.g. Jekyll, Octopress, … Combined with a travis hook to publish on github commit, it means that simply making a push of a markdown file can update the site. It's also easy to setup prose.io to make it possible for people to edit those files in a web browser without having to learn git. I'd be happy to show you next time we're both in the office if you want @mmmavis

[cassiemc]

<3 that you're tackling this @mmmavis. Besides also addressing your pain, which is important, I would love to see how the solution to this problem can help streamline ux & design across mozilla properties. One mozilla ftw!

[toolness]

I personally really like using WordPress Admin as a backend for CMSes because it's both easy to use, fully-featured, and tons of non-devs are already quite familiar with it. What frustrates me more is WP front-end/theme work, since like Mavis and others I'm extremely rusty on my PHP.

For a pro-bono site I worked on, lifeofthelaw.org, I wrote a node-based front-end that talked to a WordPress back-end using the excellent WordPress JSON-API Plugin.

There were some pitfalls to this approach, but one particular advantage was that it allowed the site's content creators to continue using the same WP admin backend without needing to migrate data or learn how to use a new user interface.

[jbuck]

If we just need a way to edit content, https://prismic.io/ and then we can do whatever we want with the front-end?

[gesa]

+100 @davidascher's comment on Jekyll, Prose.io, and Travis. I've done this several times for clients and family members, it p much always ends with happy users.

[alicoding]

I would suggest https://ghost.org/ since they are open source and it's written in JavaScript. The benefit here is that it's really easy to use and it also supports multi-user. Writing a plugin or adding anything is just like using any other node npm's module, so nothing new to learn here.

[mmmavis]

Hey guys, thanks for the great feedback. I'll have to do lots of research before I can start asking questions again. If we can settle an improved system it will benefit our future projects a lot!!! Fingers crossed!

For our existing WordPress sites, since we are kinda late to the game and have no resources to port everything to the new system... I'm gonna see how I can make use of this popular WP plugin ACF to make both site admins and my lives easier. :pray:

[mmmavis]

@davidascher cool I will find you when I go to the office next week.