“My aim is to help anybody who wants to get into developing with WordPress any way I can!”
These are the words of Zach Adams, the WordPress DevOps genius. He is a multitasker in the truest sense of the word. He loves to develop and design high-performance websites. He is ever ready to help out those who want to create and learn something new out of WordPress.
He currently works at Social Eyes Marketing as a web developer where he builds custom WordPress websites for clients. Zach has also developed a couple of WordPress starter themes—Cutlass and Sprig—that were built upon latest frameworks like Laravel, Underscores, and Roots.
He is also a very active blogger on his personal site where he covers technical topics and tips on how to better focus on your development work.
Cloudways: Hey Zach! Tell us a little about yourself: How did you get interested in WordPress and how you made the decision to make a career out of it?
Zach: My first experience with WordPress was in high school while learning PHP. I saw that WordPress was a popular blogging tool but I didn’t look into it much further than that. During my Marketing internship at MetaGeek, one of my jobs was to manage their website and build new product pages. Their website was built on WordPress and I learnt that it was much more than just a simple blogging platform, and it could be used in a variety of ways. With the experience I gained at MetaGeek, I was able to get my first job at Social Eyes and it was there that I gained the majority of my experience with WordPress.
It was at Social Eyes where I learned how valuable WordPress was, especially for clients who want to have control over their site. Rather than having clients come to us every 2 weeks or so with changes, we could simply hand them the login information and a customized EasyWPGuide and they took care of 90% of the changes themselves! I learned about further customization you could do with plugins like Advanced Custom Fields, User Role Editor, Posts 2 Posts, etc.
Once I realized the potential of WordPress, I knew that this would be my go-to platform for building websites.
After building quite a few themes, I learned how to effectively manage my workflow and built several starter themes including Cutlass and Sprig. After that I focused on making WordPress as fast as possible, and that led me into the DevOps world and learning about high-performance solutions for WordPress.
From there, I’ve been working and learning just about everything WordPress and PHP!
Cloudways: WordPress is ever-evolving with new version every 3 to 4 months. Do you think the pace of WP development is fast? You know many plugins developers fail keep up with newer versions. What do you think how this “plugin update gap” can be reduced?
Zach: WordPress was created in a very different PHP-based environment, and looking at some of the core code shows it. PHP has gone through what I happily refer to as a “Renaissance” period where it grew up from a small language with very messy code standards to a language with standards to rival Python or Ruby. WordPress has had the unlucky timing to get extremely popular right in the middle of this Renaissance before it could begin to take advantage of these new standards.
A lot of work is certainly being done on WordPress all the time. The WordPress developers have a delicate tightrope to walk, as they want to maintain as much backward compatibility as possible so that they don’t risk breaking popular old plugins and themes, and yet they need to keep up with the newest PHP standards and best practices to remain relevant. I think the plan for WordPress is to slowly make these big changes over time so that the themes and plugins that are being updated and maintained have time to adjust to these new standards.
Plugins (and themes to a lesser extent) are both the saving grace and the bane of WordPress. Most of the popular plugins are well-built and well-maintained. These plugins show the best that WordPress has to offer. However the Plugin Directory does not have a system to easily “prune” out the plugins which are broken or unusable, which hras led to many security holes and the unfortunate idea that WordPress is not secure.
I think the best solution to fix this problem would be to have stricter rules when approving plugins for the Directory. The main downside is that the volunteer team who already does this, does not have the time to look through the code quality of every single plugin submitted, nor scour the all the plugins submitted for security holes. The volunteer team has always done an excellent job while monitoring plugins and keeping the Plugin Directory as clean as possible, but I think that Automattic has a lot of things to do to maintain the integrity of WordPress.
I do think that WordPress can be used to develop a truly awesome Plugin Development system utilizing modern PHP tools like Composer and PHPUnit which could automatically determine code quality and reduce errors and security holes. However I’m sure their time is better spent on the WordPress Core.
Overall I don’t think that WordPress is going anywhere anytime soon, and that the plugins that are being regularly maintained and updated deserve more appreciation then I’m sure they get. WordPress is slowly evolving into the modern PHP world and I hope that it brings its plugins along for the ride!
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Cloudways: Due to the popularity of WordPress, many hosting providers have popped up and they claim to be the most optimized and managed WordPress hosting solution in town. What are the key points one should look into while picking a WordPress host?
Zach: The truth is that servers are hard to get right, and even harder to maintain. The good part about hosting providers is that they will take care of the difficult parts of creating and managing either an entire server or just a single site and that allows you to focus on your site. If you know a lot about Linux and the command line, it’s not a huge step to learn about creating and managing web servers, however chances are you know very little to nothing about Linux or the command line, so here’s some tips to selecting a good WordPress host:
- Web Server – Ensure they’re running either Apache or Nginx (or some combination of both). These are the two most popular web servers and for a good reason, they’re both extremely powerful and WordPress is designed to play nicely with both of them.
- Newest PHP Version – Every version of PHP has gotten more stable and more secure. Ensure they’re running at least 5.3 and preferably 5.4 to 5.6. PHP 7 is going to be released later this year and it will contain massive speed and security updates, so be sure your host uses it!
- SQL Database – Ensure they have either MySQL, PostgreSQL, PerconaDB, or MariaDB. Either of those four will run WordPress just fine. Also having PHPMyAdmin to manage those databases is awesome!
- Storage – Some WordPress sites can get pretty bulky, so make sure they give you options to expand or include more storage space (often called vertical scaling). Also check to see if they include SSD over the traditional HDD as SSD offers a significant speed boost to your site (at a greater cost).
- WordPress optimization – Look to see what kind of optimizations they have made to the WordPress install (if you don’t install it manually). There are many optimizations you can make yourself but be sure to carefully examine what changes they made themselves.
- Security – See what kind of security they have on their servers. Server security is notoriously hard to do correctly, so ensure they offer some kind of firewall and automatic security updates for their servers.
Cloudways: In 2015, where do you see the WordPress hosting industry heading towards? Do you think WordPress will leave other popular CMSes behind in terms of compatibility and adaptability to newer setups like PHP 5.6, HHVM, and such?
Zach: This year, I’ve seen a huge adoption of Facebook’s HipHop (HHVM) over traditional PHP. I would hesitate to recommend HHVM over PHP to WordPress developers mostly because HHVM is still in development and some things don’t transfer over correctly (though Core WordPress runs just fine). Also, HHVM is for high-performance and specialty environments, so if your site is not getting a lot of traffic (more than 5 million hits a day), I wouldn’t switch from good ol’ PHP.
I think WordPress has a much bigger development team and dedicated base of users than most CMSes and that will help it to remain relevant in an evolving development environment. Right now HHVM will run most modern PHP, and since WordPress has been making great strides in its PHP code quality it will run just fine. While I don’t think that HHVM will gain a massive user base outside of high-performance sites, I think that WordPress being able to support HHVM will encourage developers to take WordPress more seriously as a high-performance solution.
Cloudways: In your opinion, what will be next generation WordPress hosting stack? Will hosting continue to play an important role in optimizing WordPress for speed?
Zach: Determining which new software will win out has always been an extremely difficult thing to predict, especially in the web world. If you want to see this in action just take a stroll down the Hacker News comments’ section. For the time being, I’m happy with my stack setup and it I’ve found that it’s worked well for others.
Right now my stack (collection of software that works together to run a website) is:
- Database: PerconaDB – A drop in replacement for MySQL, although you can run MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB just fine as a replacement (it’s all up to your preference)
- PHP: HHVM and PHP-FPM – I would caution people with this one. For about 95% of people PHP-FPM is fine, so just stick with that unless you know exactly what HHVM is and what it does.
- Web Server: Nginx or Apache – This was a tough choice as both are excellent. My stack is designed to run on smaller servers so if you have a smaller server, I would recommend Nginx as its memory management is awesome. If you have a little more memory to throw around, give Apache a try!
- Caching: Varnish – I love Varnish. If you don’t know what Varnish is, I must say it’s a lot like the QuickCache (ZenCache now) plugin for WordPress except it sits in front of your web server before it even reaches WordPress. The downsides are that it can be difficult to maintain with constantly updating websites and dynamic services.
- Security: fail2ban and NinjaFirewall – Fail2ban monitors your server logs and kills any suspicious login attempts. NinjaFirewall is a unique security plugin for WordPress since it sits in front of WordPress like Varnish does and monitors everything that comes through. I would also recommend iThemes Security and Sucuri’s security plugin.
Hosting a WordPress site with the right hosting service provider has always been one of the biggest issues when it comes to performance. It all comes down to whether your host has the required system setup for what’s best with your site. Be sure to check the above suggestions to ensure your host is giving your site the respect it deserves.
Cloudways: Workflows are really important to be efficient in your work. Can you let our readers know which tools and services help you in creating productive workflows?
Zach: I’ve spent about 5 years developing with WordPress and my workflow has changed quite a bit. In the beginning, all I had was NotePad++ and the Theme Editor and a passable knowledge of HTML and CSS. This seemed extremely inefficient but I didn’t know what else to use, so I made it my mission to discover all the best tools to make developing with WordPress as fun and efficient as possible.
I’m writing about the tools and techniques I’ve discovered in a new book which you can find on my website, but here’s a list of some of my favorite tools:
- Wordmove or Capistrano – Move your WordPress between environments 10x faster than FTP and manage deployments a whole lot more effectively.
- Varying Vagrant Vagrants/Vagrant (VVV) – Much better than MAMP/WAMP/XAMPP (IMO). A full-fledged development server on your local machine that’s totally customizable and packed with features.
- Variable VVV – Setup and manage WordPress sites on VVV.
- SASS – Once you try SASS you’ll never go back to regular CSS, you’ll write your styles in a fraction of the time.
- Gulp/Grunt and Livereload – Compile your CSS and Javascript and automate just about any other work you like. Livereload will reload your browser when there’s a change so you never have to hit F5 again!
- Starter Themes – Timber/Sprig/Cutlass – Timber and Sprig allow you to use the Twig Templating Language which (in my case) drastically decreases development time while building WordPress themes. Cutlass is like Timber and Sprig except it uses Laravel’s Blade Templating Language instead of Twig. If you don’t like PHP Templating Languages try _s or Sage!
- PHPStorm/Sublime Text – Both are awesome for WordPress and both have their unique features. Try them out and pick the one you like.
It’s important to search out for new tools, because chances are there’s someone out there who has built something to make your job easier. There are a lot of different workflows out there and I certainly won’t claim mine is the best. Just remember that whatever makes you work faster and better is the best!
Cloudways: So, do you have any hobbies? 😀
Zach: You bet! When I’m not in a dark room typing away I’m either:
- Mountain Biking in the Boise Foothills
- Hiking the various mountains Idaho has to offer
- Whitewater Rafting in the world-famous Payette River
- Backpacking up near McCall, Idaho
- Skiing at either Bogus Basin, Grand Targhee, or Brundage
- Longboarding the Boise Greenbelt
- Playing Video games or reading Game of Thrones conspiracy theories on /r/asoiaf
Cloudways: I have noted that you are using the Laravel framework on one of your WordPress themes. Tell us about it. Why did you choose Laravel in this case? Will there be a need to install Laravel on the hosting stack? (This is for the newbies.)
Zach: Laravel is a new PHP framework that uses the best techniques that modern PHP has to offer. Specifically, it has a really cool built-in templating engine called Blade. It allows you to write your PHP code faster and makes it more readable. I decided to rebuild a WordPress plugin called Blade into a Starter Theme called Cutlass. Now instead of having to install and activate the plugin, you can simply download and install the starter theme like a normal WordPress theme and you’re ready to go! The theme comes bundled with the necessary files so there’s no need to install Laravel, all you have to do to install it and follow the instructions on the Cutlass home page under “Installing”.
If you’re new to PHP development I would highly recommend that you learn Laravel since it’s leading the way in the newest PHP techniques and allows developers to use good development practices. It’s really not as hard as it sounds, and I recommend you watch Laracasts as it will show you everything you need to know about PHP development! Learning Laravel really will make you a better all-around developer and the skills you learn there can be transferred to most other popular programming languages.
Laravel’s Blade is pretty cool and has tons of features, but if you know what Twig is, you can try Cutlass’s counter part Sprig which is another starter theme I created based on Twig rather than Blade. Timber is another popular Twig solution for WordPress and I recommend you to look at all three to see which one you like the best!
Of course if you’re new to WordPress theme development I would recommend you stay away from using Cutlass or Sprig as it’s another layer of abstraction and just another thing you need to learn. WordPress makes theme development pretty easy without any of these fancy tools, so if you’re looking for something a little less bulky for starter themes, I would recommend _s, Sage or Bones as they will help teach you how to correctly develop themes.
Cloudways: Well, I know many people follow you in WordPress, but tell me about the people you follow in the industry.
Zach: Matt Mullenweg and the guys from the WordPress core development team are totally awesome and they’re always fun to listen to.
I’m a huge fan of the guys at WPTavern and Smashing Magazine for WordPress-related news. I also love CSS-Tricks, Codrops and Codyhouse for the coolest and craziest things I’ve ever seen CSS do. I also keep up with all the latest WordCamp talks and PHP development conferences.
Cloudways: What is your opinion about Cloudways. Do you think WordPress users will be attracted towards cloud hosting infrastructures like AWS EC2, DO, and GCE?
Zach: I think it’s excellent! You give users the chance to choose between AWS, DO and GCE. It gives users the freedom to try out different platforms and decide which one works best for them. Really it’s all down to a matter of preference and the type of site you’re trying to run. I would recommend DigitalOcean for regular sites and blogs, if you need a cheap, effective solution, AWS for medium to high load servers and GCE if you need to do a lot of heavy processing work.
The stack that Cloudways runs on is also extremely impressive! Using Nginx as a reverse proxy for Apache and having Varnish take care of the brunt of the load means that Cloudways really can back up their claims of a 2-second load time. In fact during my tests with Cloudways service the slowest my site loaded was 1.5 seconds, so Cloudways is being the modest (in most cases) with a 2-second load time.
The server management console is also pretty cool! I’ve never used any hosting service that offered so many helpful options, or made it so easy to change them. Basically everything that is required to effectively manage a web server is included in their management console, and that’s something I can’t say about any other hosting service I’ve used.
Pretty much the only feature I couldn’t find was the ability to change the PHP version (being that the default is 5.4) to which Cloudways has already said they’re working on.
Ahsan Parwez
Ahsan is the Community Team Manager at Cloudways. He loves to solve problems and help Cloudways' clients in any aspect he can. In his free time, you can find him playing RTS PC games.
