WordPress: “Too cool for documentation”
I’m pissed off.
I’m trying to write a sidebar widget for the new WordPress. It’s a really simple widget, in fact it only has one option. Since widgets are part of WordPress now, naturally I thought – as the premier blogging platform, that I’d find some well-written API documentation on the codex detailing how to go about interfacing with the dynamic sidebar and admin section.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
Yeah I was wrong.
In fact, the best I could come up with was an insultingly nonchalant overview at Automattic’s website along with some kind of excuse for an API.
I defy anyone to write a sidebar widget that works with the built-in widgets UIs using the information on these websites. I reckon you can get close but there’s bits of information missing about the admin panel. Apparently there’s some Google Search widget that you can look at that’s well-commented but I can’t find that anywhere within my WordPress source tree.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the laid-back “cool Web 2.0″ style but there are boundaries. And saying API Documentation is “for eggheads” is a bit childish, honestly.
scott horne 2181 days ago
http://web-professor.netyeah wordpress documentation sucks donkey balls. I find myself having to dig through the source just about everytime I write something for wordpress.
Dax 2181 days ago
http://www.biggnuts.comYou should see some of those eggheads’ explanation for forcing non-www compliance in WordPress mu. They quote no-www.org as an official source for the deprecation of www.
Joost de Valk 2181 days ago
Haha Rob, been there done that too… Hate the documentation for widgets…
Patrick Altoft 2181 days ago
I tried and then hired a good coder for a tenner to do the job perfectly on my behalf. If you know your way around WP it’s easy. If you don’t its impossible.
Alastair McDermott 2177 days ago
http://www.logon.ie/internet-marketing-blog/I’m a big fan of WP.org but I find the lack of documentation a serious pain. There’s also some strange arguments (like Dax refers to) on their mailing lists.
Maybe it’s the old political answer: join their development team and try to nudge it in what you think is the right direction.
Rob Haswell 2177 days ago
Perhaps. I’d be more tempeted to start a new documentation site and just do it all myself. At very least it needs a complete function reference. Would only take a couple of weeks.
Although that said I think a couple of weeks would be far better spent cleaning up some of the code. What I saw of it (and I think it was even recent stuff) was fucking terrible.
HHC 1745 days ago
http://www.homehealthcareclassifieds.comI am using wordpress for last one year and I’m a big fan of WP.