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Let’s talk about WordPress Coding Standards.
The WordPress Community creates Coding Standards for WordPress development. These standards define a baseline for:
- Developing WordPress core, Themes, and Plugins
- Collaborating on WordPress open-source projects
- Reviewing code standards for WordPress development
- Helping WordPress community share, create, and manage WordPress projects, updates, and Open source management
So, let’s explain the subject in more detail.
Introduction to WordPress Coding Standards
WordPress Coding Standards is a set of rules for the WordPress community. Here, the people contributing to WordPress’ open-source project are included in the WordPress community.
Developers, contributors, or authors interested in contributing to WordPress should follow the “Standard Rules.”
Why use Coding Standards?
In WordPress, coding standards are recommended for a variety of reasons, including:
- It helps developers avoid common errors while coding.
- Help developers improve code readability.
- This will help streamline the workflow. For example, every person should be able to access, improve, change, or manage a WordPress project without learning or consulting specific “code authors.”
Note: All contributors must follow coding standards. These rules help developers easily understand open-source projects.
Let’s proceed further and describe various aspects of WordPress Coding Standards.
Language-specific Coding Standards
WordPress uses various programming structures/languages, so it’s important to know what coding standards are advised.
For example, while coding CSS styles, one needs to know the CSS coding standards for WordPress. Similarly, there are separate coding standards for HTML, JavaScript, and PHP.
Note: CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and PHP are the languages That make the WordPress. Learning what coding standards work helps developers comply with industry standards.
Let’s talk about coding standards for separate languages.
CSS Coding Standards
Coding standards for CSS help developers define rules for:
- Structures
- Commenting
- Media Queries
- Values
- Properties
- Selectors
Let’s proceed further.
Note: Above all, the purpose of Coding Standards for CSS is to create, edit, and manage readable code structures. If followed, coding projects are quickly accessible, edited, and understood by anyone without hassles.
Structure defines the proper structuring of a CSS stylesheet. Let’s explain more in detail.
- For CSS indentation, use Tabs – instead of pressing the space bar.
- Adding sufficient space between sections is essential. This helps to increase code readability. For example, adding two blank lines between CSS sections is vital. Similarly, adding one blank line between blocks in a section is the rule.
Let’s talk about other things in CSS.
For Selectors, using human-readable identifiers helps with coding CSS. It helps developers understand the workflow quickly.
Properties and values are advised to be in lowercase. However, you can make changes to Font names.
Always end Values with a “Semicolon”. Period.
Similarly, grouping Media Queries at the end of the CSS stylesheet helps.
While commenting, a table of contents is advised for the longer CSS stylesheets.
HTML Coding Standards
Let’s explain what HTML Coding Standards are in WordPress.
HTML standards include instructions for:
- Validation
- Quotes
- Elements
- Indentation
- Attributes and Tags
Let’s explain further.
Validation helps developers test, edit, and approve HTML page standards. This advisory advises developers to keep HTML pages verified against the W3C Validator.
For Elements, all tags must be closed correctly. For example, in the case of a “<br>”, inputting one space after “br” in closing tags is necessary.
All tags and attributes in HTML should be written in lowercase. This rule for “Attributes and Tags” helps developers avoid syntax errors.
Regarding Quotes, CSS values are enclosed in proper quotes, double or single – depending on various use cases.
Let’s describe the Indentation in HTML. Using tabs and not “spaces” in HTML codes is recommended for HTML pages.
JavaScript Coding Standards
For the WordPress developers’ community, JavaScript coding standards address various aspects in detail. Here, we’ll address some of them.
For example, let’s talk about the following aspects of JavaScript standards for coders:
- Spacing
- Semicolons
- Comments
Let’s describe.
Spacing in JavaScript: Use tabs for spacing, not space bars. Similarly, users are advised to use lines up to 80 characters.
Semicolons: Developers are advised to use “Semicolons” manually; automating the insertion of semicolons is dangerous.
Comments: In JavaScript, code comments should be placed before the line. Capitalizing the first letter of comments is vital. Similarly, placing a period at the end of sentences is always recommended.
PHP Coding Standards
PHP coding standards for WordPress are complex. Here is a list of what we can explain at the moment.
- Naming
- Whitespaces
- Formatting
- Operators
Related Reading: WordPress as the Best choice for Web Development
Let’s define it in more detail.
Naming: Using lowercase letters while defining or addressing variable names is always advised in PHP coding.
Whitespaces: In PHP, spaces are instructed between various elements. For example, developers can add a space between commas, helping contributors quickly understand code workflows.
Formatting: PHP code should include proper formatting styles. For instance, an example of formatting in PHP is using “Braces,” even if unnecessary. This helps maintain PHP coding structures.
Operators: Use proper operators to avoid code syntax errors, check True/False use cases, and use increment/decrement operators.
Key Points
- Even if you’re developing a custom application powered by WordPress – you should take WordPress Coding Standards seriously.
- Following coding standards for all languages, as discussed above, which include HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript – is advised.
- You can see coding elements, operators, and parameters for all languages on W3 Schools. This will help you learn how language elements work in WordPress.
- Manual code review is costly and requires extensive research. However, there are better alternatives than using automation to check code standards. Manual code review for WordPress custom projects is always recommended if you can afford it.
- WordPress coding standards help developers communicate easily. Code review is streamlined, easy, and quick.
- Some coding standards are skip-able. However, following such rules is similar to adding more value to WordPress codes.
Summing Up
Coding Standards are mandatory if you want to join the WordPress Developers Community.
In this resource, we learned the basics of WordPress Coding Standards. For more information, refer to the WordPress official resource.
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