Interview with Patrick Rauland, Project Manager for WooCommerce

To the interview! »

Our upcoming guide to WordPress development will include interviews with twelve WordPress luminaries.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, we’re working on a comprehensive guide for WordPress developers, with the working title The Principles of WordPress Development.

It’ll include an e-book, screencasts from us, and plenty more—including interviews with twelve WordPress luminaries like Pippin Williamson and Tom McFarlin.

Each interview is designed to give you a close look into the world—and, most especially, into the code—of a thriving WordPress developer. Today we’re excited to present an interview with Patrick Rauland, Project Manager of the wildly successful WordPress e-commerce solution WooCommerce.

We talked with Patrick about his approach to WordPress coding, and we walked step-by-step through a plugin he developed, WooCommerce Terms and Conditions Popup.

This One’s On the House!

Enjoy this interview! If you love it, join our mailing list, and set the radio button option to “Yes.”

You’ll get regular updates on the e-book package with exclusive content, plus a 25% discount on the e-book when it ships.

Thoughts, Questions, or Feedback?

We’d also love to hear any thoughts on the video, in the comments below.

Enjoy!

The Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lerZC1l1_I4

Interview Contents:

0:00 – 1:30: Introductions

Patrick describes his experience with WordPress, WooThemes, and WooCommerce.

1:30 – 3:00: Defining Good WordPress Code

Patrick describes his criteria for good WordPress code:

1. It needs to be WordPress code (written in a way that uses WordPress’s conventions and APIs), not just generic code written for WordPress as an afterthought.
2. It “has to be written in a way so that it doesn’t break anything else,” especially on large projects like WooCommerce. This means checks like if(function_exists()), checking whether variables are already defined, testing across different hosting environments, and more.

3:40 – 1:00:30: A Deep-Dive into Code: WooCommerce Terms and Conditions Popup

We dive into Patrick’s WooCommerce plugin, WooCommerce Terms and Conditions Popup.

3:40 – 8:15: Introduces the behavior of WooCommerce Terms and Conditions Popup. This very simple plugin does one thing, and does it really well: It improves conversions by opening the “Terms and Conditions” page in a popup rather than on a new page, keeping people on the checkout page while they view it.

8:15 – 1:00:30: A comprehensive look at the plugin’s code. Topics covered (among many others):

• Creating smart directory structures
• Careful programming with checks like if(function_exists())
• Object-oriented programming (OOP) for WordPress
• Creating WordPress options and settings pages
• Passing PHP variables to JavaScript with wp_localize_script
• Integrating jQuery into a WordPress environment

1:00:30 – end: Advice for WordPress Developers

Patrick gives a ton of good advice for aspiring WordPress devs. Topics covered:

• Patrick’s favorite WordPress and WooCommerce functions
• Advice for WordPress devs: Go to WordCamps, listen to podcasts (Apply Filters, Side Hustle Nation, and more)
• Lots of business advice for freelancers and consultants
• Favorite development tools: Slack, Github, Atom code editor, MAMP, and more

That Was Awesome. Where Can I Get More of That?

We’ll be putting out a lot of exclusive content in the run-up to publication, so if you want that and a 25% discount on the e-book when it ships, join our mailing list! (And click “Yes” on the “update/discount” radio button option.)

Thoughts, Suggestions, and Feedback

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the video above; we’re recording more interviews as we speak, so your suggestions really will be taken seriously and potentially incorporated. Speak up in the comments below!