It’s been a while since I’ve first customized a WordPress theme.
Yeah it was back in 2006. It went smooth and the final result
was just groovy. Based on the success I’ve launched a
shop & blog theme and created a local startup around.
At that time WordPress had no reliable e-commerce support and
the theme had to be integrated with osCommerce. Sic.
Since then I’m creating a few WordPress themes and plugins a
year even if I don’t want to. Somehow WordPress become
indispensable in my area of expertise: building and designing
products for startups and small companies.
Frankly I don’t like WordPress.
- I don’t like PHP
-
I don’t like HTML code mixed up with
PHP code
- I don’t like the clumsy admin interface
-
And I don’t like the myriad of broken plugins and themes from
the ecosystem.
Compared to modern frameworks WordPress is a steam machine in
the age of Teslas.
Yes, by Tesla I mean:
- Headless CMS
- With reactive components
-
Talking to an API /
GraphQL backend
-
Automagically incorporating web development best practices
during the build process.
- Styleguide based
I’ve been done that
and I would like to do that in the future. So how come to build
a business around WordPress??
Right, it’s the
Gutenberg direction
taken recently combined with the
unbelievable versatility
of WordPress itself. Even if the code is messy and the
technology is old Automattic managed to become a thriving
business, a name like Facebook, Google or Apple in our market
segment.
So what is Gutenberg? — It’s a Tesla you
might be guessed.
It takes the current bloated and monolithic approach defined by
the concepts of post types, templates, plugins and the
customizer, and decomposes into small, independent components.
Creating Gutenberg blocks
feels like creating reactive components. Combining them freely
into any page layout feels like having your own custom
CMS, or at least the
build-your-own approach of Contentful. And the already
decoupling of the backend from the frontend
makes sure you can use industry best practices workflow and
tools to make the production ready user interface code to be the
best possible.
So here we come — a new WordPress, a new
business for a new era!