Platform Plugin Development @ WordCamp NEO 2021

It’s been a wild year since my last talk (the keynote at this very conference), and while the whole virtual conference scene is very different than the talks that I’m used to, I couldn’t sit out on one of my favorite WordCamps.

That’s right, folks — for the first time in a year, I’m dusting off the ol’ slide tools and giving a brand new talk at WordCamp NEO 2021!

Considerations and Concerns for Platform Plugin Development

This brand-new talk is near-and-dear to my heart, as it’s a technical, deep-dive into a project that I’ve been leading at work for the last year and a half:

One of the major strengths of WordPress is the ability to develop small plugins to solve particular needs. Whether you want to re-arrange menus or add a new dashboard widget, WordPress gives you the tools to make small, focused plugins to customize nearly anything.

This paradigm changes when your code is running across tens of thousands of customer sites, however. Suddenly, you have to coordinate which features are active based on the site. Is this a WooCommerce site? Does this feature exist in this version of WordPress? Has the site owner already installed another plugin to handle this piece of functionality?

In this session, we’ll be taking a deep dive into the architecture, development decisions, and release process behind the “Must-Use” (MU) plugin that runs on every WordPress site across the Nexcess Managed Applications platform. Attendees will learn about the practice and challenges of building a WordPress plugin at-scale, as well as how to better handle conflicts in their own plugins of any size.

If you’ve ever wondered “what the heck does Steve do all day at work?”, this will clue you in. The Nexcess MAPPS MU plugin isn’t the only thing I’m working on (far from it, in fact), but we’ve been averaging a new minor release every month for software running on tens of thousands of WordPress, WooCommerce, and StoreBuilder sites.

Whether you have your first plugin that’s gaining some traction or are working on a similar product at one of our competitors (::shakes fist in friendly competition::), come learn the secrets to deploying across thousands of sites without tearing your hair out!