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WordPress 2016:
Understanding the Major
Evolution
ordPress has grown substantially since design, forced developers to grow and pushed for 25 percent websites now, but if the improved
Wits inception, and at the time of this better relationships between developers. One of development trends hold, the CMS may be in for
writing, roughly 26 percent of all websites are the best examples of changes that were wrought explosive levels of growth.
designed using WordPress as the CMS. A large through this marriage is image responsiveness.
part of this success comes from the fact that It is now standard for website images to be able There are two very clean examples of quality-
WordPress and the massive number of associated to customize their size with the browser, making of-life improvements to end-user experience.
tools are completely free to use, making it the accessibility between PC and mobile devices The frst is with translation. With the sudden
most accessible avenue for new web designers much smoother. Better image load times are a
infux of additional developers, 2016 has seen
to get their feet wet. The other reason for the nice bonus on top of it all.
a huge push for moving WordPress into more
success is that it is essentially a giant communal
languages. Themes, plugins and everything else
project. Every developer for WordPress
Dependency Management are being translated at increasing rates, making
contributes, leading to a rapid accumulation of
every WordPress site, past and future, accessible
small improvements that make for a big user
Possibly the single greatest frustration for
experience. At the start of 2016, WordPress made in more languages. Already developers can
WordPress developers is the lack of universally
some huge changes to its internal structure. reach more than a dozen languages that weren’t
incorporated dependency managers. While many
This changed the game for thousands of web accessible a year ago, and no changes are
have effectively produced workarounds to use
developers, and the repercussions have only just required on an individual webpage.
managers like Composer, the de-centralization
begun. Everyone is scrambling to measure how
is a source of stress and extra work. Without a
much has changed and anticipate the future, but Language isn’t the only barrier for developers
dependency manager, anyone working with PHP
the major ripples are reasonably observable and or end-users, and once again the surge of new
is unable to load packages from previous work,
predictable. Here is what web developers at every talent has risen to tackle tough challenges.
so every new project basically starts from scratch.
level should know.
Many have speculated that WordPress will Accessibility in general is improving, enabling
offcially adopt a dependency manager, but thus individuals with impairments to have greater
ReST aPI far developers are still left to their own devices. access to every aspect of WordPress design.
Until such management tools are incorporated Visual, audio and other sensory limitations
When WordPress upgraded to 4.4, it represented
to the degree of REST API, creating plugins will are quickly being removed as an obstacle, and
one of the biggest changes to the CMS in its
remain a crapshoot for developers to fnd the the tools that enable impaired developers to
history. The change integrated REST API to the
least ineffcient way to tackle the problem. succeed are easily applied to websites to grant
very core, opening up countless new avenues for
their end-users the same accessibility. One of
utilizing WordPress. The biggest change seen so
far was the increased incorporation of JavaScript. The User experience the most impressive recent accomplishments
This has effectively led to a massive recruitment of WordPress is to push the internet into more
A lot of big changes have happened recently,
of creative and coding talent on a global level. universal accessibility, something many for-
and more are on the way. This has pushed a lot
Designers who were otherwise discouraged proft development companies have failed to do.
of developers to be more specialized, but it has
because they could not fex their JavaScript skills
have focked to WordPress, and thus far 2016 has ultimately increased the variety of tools available The Future
seen an entire avenue of contributions that never to even the most novice website developers
before existed. using WordPress. The end result is dramatically
The immediate future of WordPress is pretty
enhanced potential for the user experience. The
clear. The development community will continue
The REST API changes have also left large impact example of image responsiveness is only the
to grow and produce better tools and websites
on traditional WordPress developers. Before the beginning. Every piece of web design is being
update, developers worked almost exclusively streamlined and re-streamlined on a near daily as a result. Looking farther ahead is less certain,
with PHP. Plugins can and still are made this way, basis, producing themes, plugins, tools and other mostly because it will depend on major changes
and they continue to evolve, but the relationships components that run faster, manage resources like the REST API incorporation seen recently.
between elements with the inclusion of JavaScript better, look amazing and require less work than The next upgrade of that caliber could be just as
have added dynamics that have improved web ever before. WordPress may be running just over positive as 4.4, but only time will tell.
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