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JavaScript

Posted by Ian Z
Ian Z
14,584 Points

Learning web dev stuff, good to learn wordpress first? how useful is it for a skilled web dev?

i always thought wordpress was for people who cant code, but maybe its a good skill for coders? Lets you make blogs quick, and gives you design experience?

any web devs have opinions about its usefullness in their big jobs

Marcus Parsons
Marcus Parsons
15,719 Points

Wordpress is an amalgam of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. If you can develop plugins in Wordpress and debug errors in Wordpress, I would assume that you can code. You don't have to be a developer at all to make a Wordpress site, but you do have to learn how to code in order to create plugins and debug errors.

1 Answer

Erik McClintock
Erik McClintock
45,783 Points

Ian,

Like most anything else to do with the field, learning a CMS like WordPress can be very valuable, in that it adds another skill to your suite of services. A lot of clients these days are familiar with WordPress (at least in the sense that they have heard about it, and undoubtedly think it's "The Way" to go), Magento, or Squarespace, etc., so being able to offer expertise and provide them with a site built in one of these systems is a huge thing to them. It also affords them the ability to perform content updates on their own relatively easily (with a small learning curve), should that be a requirement or desire of theirs. Beyond that, if you become proficient enough, you can earn money simply building plugins and/or themes for use with WordPress, so there is always that potential benefit, as well.

I still prefer to make a nice hand-built site, but if you spend some time with PHP and the WordPress Codex, you can put together a highly customized, simple-enough-to-maintain site using their system. Ultimately, it comes down to what you want to do and what services you want to offer, but from my experience (I am a Web Developer at a company that focuses mainly on WordPress sites now, and do some freelance work on the side, which is a mix of custom and CMS based sites), it is always beneficial to expand your service options and expertise as much as possible.

Hope this was helpful, and happy coding!

Erik