General WordPress development standards

General WordPress Development Standards

These General WordPress Development Standards are the basis for all proposals White Label Agency sends out and they form the instructions for the developers as they are building the individual sites.

If there is a specific agency preference which replaces or eliminates a General WordPress Development Standard, it will be clearly identified in the proposal and provided to the developer assigned to the project via specific directions.

Example: General Standard vs Specific Preference

A General WordPress Development Standard is to not use a child theme with Bootstrap or Foundation. If you want a child theme to be used, we will identify that as a Specific Agency Preference in the proposal.

Basic principles

We will:

Initially build the site on white label dev server
Use the most currently available version of WordPress at time project is started
Create CSS files that are well-commented, clearly broken into sections and organized in a logical order following the page display order (body, header, navigation, content, row, sidebar, footer, etc.)
Set all external links to target=”_blank”
Disable comments unless otherwise specified
Discourage search engines from indexing the site on our staging server
Use the fonts that are in the design files we receive (if premium fonts are required they need to be purchased by Agency and provided before development starts or similar fonts from Google fonts will be used until actual fonts are received)
Use Open Sans from Google Fonts in situations where clear direction about fonts are not provided
QA test the sites for the following browsers: latest editions for Firefox, Chrome, and for Safari
Utilize UserSnap plugin to collect feedback screenshots during website review phase by Agency
Create a custom individual WP user admin record for each project we build for an agency
Move site at completion using Duplicator plugin. If Duplicator plugin is not compatible with chosen hosting environment we will provide up to 2 hours migrating the website. If the migration takes more than 2 hours, we will charge for each additional hour or provide a zipped version of the website for the agency to deploy. All migrations require validated FTP credentials and access to cPanel is preferred (cPanel access required for instances where Duplicator can not be utilized)

We will not:

Create a child theme for Foundation or Bootstrap sites as each site build is a custom theme built off a framework and is not impacted by parent theme updates like other commercially available themes (standard WP core updates and plug-in updates can still be run as normal)
Style comments form or comments thread views unless directed by final design files and priced specifically in proposal
Write/modify plug-in source code (functionality) unless specifically discussed and agreed to with agency
Make significant changes to the functionality of a premium theme (see premium themes section below) at a fixed price
Test websites in IE10+
Perform SEO optimization of the website unless specifically requested in the original specifications during the quoting stage

Header and footer

We will:

Use Dashboard » Appearance » Header so header logo file can be added as an image
Use Dashboard » Appearance » Background to set background color and/or background image plus scrolling
Use Advanced Custom Fields Pro » Options Page to create global options for header content, footer content, etc. resulting in a Dashboard menu item called “Theme Settings”
Will set up Dashboard » Theme Settings » Contact Info as a set of custom fields where user can set site phone number, site email address, physical or mailing addresses, etc.
Will set up Dashboard » Theme Settings » Footer » Copyright Statement and Social Media custom fields where user can add/edit the site’s copyright statement and various social media pages
Will use built in favicon functionality released since WP 4.3 (Appearance -> Customize -> Site Identity)

Navigation

We will:

Create all menus using Dashboard » Appearance » Menus drag-and-drop editing tool
Clearly identify Menu Locations using obvious naming such as “Top Nav”, “Primary Nav” and “Footer Nav”
Build the responsive navigation using the defaults for Bootstrap or Foundation unless otherwise specified in the design files and quoted specifically in the proposal

We will not:

Add breadcrumbs unless specified in the design files

Slider

We will:

By default use Slick JS library to create a slider. Depending on requested functionality we can create it via Custom Post Type or Advanced Custom Fields (Repeater/Gallery field)
Make images in the responsive versions of the slider proportional
Put all text that overlays the slider in the full screen view underneath the slider image in the responsive views
Work with premium slider plugins (e.g. Revolution) if provided by Agency prior to development beginning

Pages and posts

We will:

Manually set the Page Sort Order on each page we add to the site so that the listing of sites on Dashboard » Pages closely follows the same order as the navigation menus
Wrap the logo in an <h1> tag, unless otherwise stated in the project requirements
Only wrap one text heading, the Page Title or Post Title, in an <h1> tag, unless otherwise stated in the project requirements
Setup any custom fields used on a Page Editor of Post Editor in a logical order using an obvious naming syntax so that non-technical users can add/edit information.
Use Dashboard » Settings » Permalinks to set the default permalinks to /%postname%/ (requires MOD REWRITE in PHP on host)

Templates

We will:

Name the theme and theme’s template folder based on the project name. The name can be changed if requested
Add site logo or first letter of the site as favicon
Replace the default screenshot to with one of the homepage
Create a templates folder under the themes directory and create the requested template files there (example: templates/template-home.php
Provide CSS for template files and:
– Single.php
– Page.php
– 404.php
Use the default responsiveness provided by Bootstrap or Foundation if specific design files are not provided for the responsive views

Plugins

We will include the following plugins on
every site:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/login-lockdown/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
(install but not activate)
https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/usersnap/

We will include the following plugins if
the functionality is required:

https://www.gravityforms.com/
If used we will deliver the initial website with our developer license key in place. Later you can update it with one these solutions:
– Remove the license key (the forms will still work.) Note that the updates to the plugin will cease and pose a security risk if not replaced with a substitute key or plugin
– Replace our developer license key with your own to have full control of the license key and remove any dependency on us – recommended.
– Keep our developer license key. The only trace back to us will be a generic email address tied to the license key (Would only appear if the license expires.)
https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/
https://github.com/stormuk/Gravity-Forms-ACF-Field

WooCommerce

We will:

Quote client-provided design templates for checkout, cart, and single-product pages. If templates are not provided by the client – we will use the standard WooCommerce templates for these pages
Set the default payment gateway to PayPal and Pay with check
Set default shippings standards of:
– Free shipping
– Flat rate
– Local delivery
– Local pickup
Any customizations and additional functionality add-ons must be requested by the client during the quoting stage in order for us to provide an accurate quote

Premium themes

We will:

Work with a premium theme if requested by the client and use the theme’s default functionality to quote and build the project
Only provide a rough estimate for any additional functionality (not provided by themes default settings) and charge the standard hourly rate for all hours spent. Estimate accuracy will be based on completeness of functionality descriptions by the client during the quoting stage

We will not:

Make significant changes to the existing functionality of a premium theme (see above) without full understanding and acceptance from the agency of the future risks that come with making such changes (i.e. updates released from Premium theme breaking components of site upon update)