WPEngineer.com is one of the leading WordPress development blogs, who, in their own words “…was created by 3 WordPress Junkies, who love WordPress. We always try to show ways to make WordPress a little bit better, more convenient, more flexible or in short – just awesome!” The guys at WPEngineer.com were kind enough to answer some questions about how they got started with WordPress and offer advice about developing for WordPress.

Could you provide a bit of information about yourself? E.g. Your background in the industry, how you got started, who uses your websites…?

We are three WordPress enthusiasts from Germany. Long before WordPress we started to create websites but we’ve got to know each other about working with WordPress and exchanged ideas and solutions. Eventually it became more and we started together WPEngineer.com

Frank works as a software architect at Carl Zeiss AG, primarily developing solutions with SAP and various other business applications. In parallel, he is part of the Inpsyde GmbH, which develops solutions for customers in and with WordPress. Now and then he writes a book about WordPress or reveals his knowledge in various blogs. The rest of the time he spends on a mountain bike or climbing – and of course he likes to spend a lot of time with his family.

Alex is a freelance web designer, working on projects with WordPress and Magento. Also he started together with Michael Xtreme Theme, the new flexible and powerful WordPress Framework. Another project is wpSEO, the SEO Plugin for WordPress. Besides work, Alex loves to go out with friends, playing squash, tennis and soccer.

Michael is web designer and programmer. He works since version 2.1 with WordPress and is specialized on developing Themes. He is the developer of Xtreme One WordPress Framework.

Why are you so passionate about WordPress and not other CMS programs such as Drupal or Joomla?

The simplicity and the implementation via hook makes the system very flexible. There is also an update strategy, contrary to Drupal I can update from any version. This has also disadvantages but for the customer it primarily has benefits. The special thing of WordPress is the community, huge and helpful – there are many people with whom you can exchange knowledge and the large WordPress family is certainly one of the reasons why WordPress is so popular.Once you understand the basic idea of the hooks of WordPress, then you will quickly feel comfortable and the development with and for WordPress will be fun, without touching the core. We really didn’t pay attention to Drupal and Joomla, we did work on it, had some projects with it and didn’t like it. Also our opinion is, better to be really good on one system then to be average on several systems.

Which websites should aspiring developers go to if they want to learn more about WordPress development and get more involved in the community?

A difficult question, because the web and its authors are developing and changing fast. That said, you probably should go ahead and search on the internet. Otherwise, special searches like wpseek.com are available to help many. Also the Codex is a good place to find solutions. Parallel it looks like https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/ is a great platform for WordPress users and developers. And not to forget our own website of course. 🙂

What do you see as being WordPress’s limitations and how do you work around them?

One limitation is the backward compatibility, which has several advantages, but also brings a lot of load with which could get rid of. We also want a lighter system, a leaner core – that can be extended via core Plugins. Thus we see features such as revision, image processing functions, or comments as a core Plugin, which are developed simultaneously with the core, but is only active when the user activates it to the core. On the whole, therefore, less dependence of the various functions and with a leaner system.

Nevertheless, or perhaps – WordPress is and has been always a pleasure when you develop, there are advantages and disadvantages. WordPress proven every day on many sites. In this context we can only say thank you, thank you for a free product which is wonderfully extensible and a great platform.

What new features would you like to see when they start developing WordPress 4?

Currently we would like to have more n-x-n relationships that gives you more possibilities. This starts with attachments, which you like to use anywhere. In parallel we would like to hav this for all objects in WordPress – Object Releationships. In this context, we would like to get rid of some functions of the core, to facilitate the work of a WordPress Multisite environment so relations between objects of different blogs and networks can be realized in a easier way. Otherwise, we hope that WordPress maintains the direction of the GUI – the user feels comfortable and not overwhelmed.

What inspired you to start blogging about WordPress and sharing all of this great information?

Our work with WordPress always leadus to new ideas and we implement them for us and our customers. And we are happy to write about our new ideas and solutions on our blog. We believe that sharing our knowledge will also benefit us. So our knowledge and expertise gets improved by the feedback we receive and conversations we have on our website. What goes around comes around. This is our way to give a small part back to the WordPress community.

What software and tools do you use as your environment to develop WordPress?

We write everything in IDE Aptana or Netbeans, and in addition we use tools in the browser, like xDebug and Webgrind. In this respect, the browser is an important tool and the tools in the browser are also very important, like Chromium and FireBug in Firefox. For the fast design and layout development, we are using our WordPress Framework Xtreme One.

Finally, do you have any words of advice for aspiring WordPress developers?

There are certainly lots of tips. From our personal experience we can recommend: use the Core to search for solutions and examples, know and live the WordPress Codex (help to make it even better) and create solutions to your best knowledge and belief. Give out only what you would use and don’t be shy to receive any criticism. Share and think about new ideas and criticism. Know that there is always someone out there who is better than you, use his knowledge and skills to your advantage. If you make no mistakes, your tasks are too simple or your development stagnate- look for the challenges, but know your limits.

Thanks!