Category: Development
Tips, techniques, and deep dives into PHP coding, architecture, and toolsāfocused on writing cleaner, faster, and more maintainable code.
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Optimizing Large PHP Codebases Without Breaking Everything
When you’re working in a large PHP codebase, optimization isn’t just about speedāit’s about survival. You canāt just go in and start swapping out loops or rewriting core logic without risking a domino effect thatāll take your entire app down with it. So here’s how I approach optimizing large PHP projects without blowing them up.…
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How Eager Loading Works in ORM (With PHP Examples)
When I first started using ORMs in PHP, I loved how clean and readable my code became. But I quickly ran into performance problemsāthings were getting sluggish, and I couldnāt figure out why. Thatās when I discovered the magic (and danger) of lazy loading, and why eager loading is a tool every developer needs in…
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How to Implement MySQL Pagination in PHP (Step-by-Step Guide)
Pagination: itās how you turn āHereās a mullion rowsā into āHereās 20 rows per page” without melting your server. Alright, before we dive ināthis post assumes you already know how to connect to MySQL using PHP’s PDO. If that sounds like gibberish, hit pause and go learn that first. Iāll wait. š Still here? Great.…
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10 PHP Performance Pitfalls and How to Fix Them Like a Pro
Letās be realāmost PHP performance issues arenāt caused by exotic edge cases. Theyāre caused by small mistakes that quietly accumulate until your server starts sweating. Over the years, Iāve fallen into every performance trap in the bookāand watched others do the same. So hereās a list of the top 10 PHP performance pitfalls Iāve seen…
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Why Developer Experience Matters in Plugin UX
When we talk about plugin UX, we usually think about the end user. Is the UI intuitive? Does the feature solve the userās problem? Is the performance snappy? All valid questionsābut often, we forget one critical piece: the developerās experience building and maintaining that plugin. Developer Experience (DX) isnāt just an internal concernāit has a…
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How to Onboard a New Developer to Your Plugin Codebase
Bringing a new developer into your plugin project can go one of two ways: smooth and productiveāor completely chaotic. Iāve seen both. Whether youāre working on a public WordPress plugin or a custom solution for a client, onboarding a new dev isnāt just about giving them access to the repo and saying āgood luck.ā Itās…
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The Hidden Costs of Not Documenting Your Plugin Code
Weāve all done it. Youāre deep in the flow, building out a plugin feature, squashing bugs, hitting milestonesāand you think, āIāll document this later.ā Then later becomes never. I used to think documentation was a ānice-to-have.ā Something you do when the real work is done. But over the yearsāespecially maintaining my own WordPress plugins and…
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Why I Still Love Developing for WordPress After 25 Years
Itās been 20+ years since I started developing with WordPress, and a lot has changed in the tech world. Frameworks have come and gone, trends have shifted, and countless tools have promised to āreplace WordPress.ā And yetāafter all this timeāI still find myself coming back to it. Not out of nostalgia or habit, but because…