Really hard to read plugin code

  • pkostadinov

    (@pkostadinov)


    8 years ago

    As a developer, I need to read the plugin code, so I can do custom integration. With that said, when I started reading the source I was really terrified by the way it is written.

    Here is what I did not like (pretty much everything):
    – A big mess of html-php mixup,
    – no clear logic and structure with the templates,
    – a thousands of classes,
    – full of static methods,
    – showing bad understanding of design patterns,
    – thousands of commented code and debug code,
    – random indentations, random vertical spacing,
    – not well documented with no clear explanations on how the templates are overridden, I had to dig into the source code to find a big comment with examples

    Really disappointing for something that costs 280 usd for 1 site… And yes – what I said is meant for both free and premium versions. I can’t imagine how so many developers keep track on such a mess…

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Darren Ethier (nerrad)

    (@nerrad)

    8 years ago

    I’m puzzled why as a developer you would not just get the full version from https://github.com/eventespresso/event-espresso-core ?

    The $280 you quoted is the annual fee for the _everything_ support license which give you access to all the add-ons for EE4 and support.

    Also, you may have missed:

    – developer.eventespresso.com
    and the docs that are found at https://github.com/eventespresso/event-espresso-core/tree/master/docs (which are removed from the released version)

    We’re working hard at always improving the code and assisting developers with using it. Some of those improvements can be seen in https://github.com/eventespresso/event-espresso-core/tree/BETA-4.9-message-activity

    We would love to see some more detailed suggestions for improving via issues in our github repo or even some pull requests since you seem to have a good grasp of how our code could be improved.

    mch0lic

    (@mch0lic)

    8 years ago

    Free or premium, seems to be the same hardly readable code base. It’s one of the most frustrating things with this plugin, if you wanna write an add-on, or tweak some stuff you in for a long ride…

    Darren Ethier (nerrad)

    (@nerrad)

    8 years ago

    Oh really? So the fact that we even provide a robust add-on api for EASILY and QUICKLY creating an add-on for EE4 means things are hardly readable? https://github.com/eventespresso/event-espresso-core/tree/master/tests/mocks/addons/eea-new-addon

    It’s A LOT more helpful to us when instead of generic “this is hard to read” or “this sux” type comments that we get more specific feedback. More specific feedback would be things like:

    “I was looking for how to do “x”, but I couldn’t figure out where it was because of “y”.”

    or

    “The documentation you have about “x” is wrong.”

    It’s very demoralizing when collectively as a team we’ve put in tens of thousands of hours into developing and improving a product “see https://github.com/eventespresso/event-espresso-core/commits/master” to have comments like this left in the wp.org reviews. Comments that give us nothing to work with to actually improve things.

    Speaking on my own and not as an EE team member (I have other plugins on wp.org), when I see reviews like this it sadly makes me think twice about even sharing a plugin on WordPress.org because its one thing to get criticism, but getting non-helpful biting criticism like this is just plain annoying and hurtful. I’m definitely not motivated to put more plugins here because of that.

    The one thing I hope for, is that if there is another developer reading this review that the links I’ve posted will be helpful to them.

    mch0lic

    (@mch0lic)

    8 years ago

    Nobody is trolling here, yes you do have documentation (that covers just basic stuff), add-on api etc, but its extremely hard to first understand inner workings plugin (and unless you do you can’t write fixes, addons, etc) and the right way of (re)using you code, since everything is called like class1::method1 -> class2::method2 -> self::method3 -> method4 …, by the time you reach the place where the actual code is executed you end up completely lost.

    I understand you guys went form MVC, but its really far from being friendly plugin for 3rd party developers with typical functional/linear WordPress approach of doing things.

    Darren Ethier (nerrad)

    (@nerrad)

    8 years ago

    I edited my original post because the trolling comment was uncalled for and written out of frustration. My apologies. However your reply is still not helpful.

    yes you do have documentation (that covers just basic stuff)

    Have you even read the developer documentation? What is it that you find is hard to understand? Help us help you out! Is there something you needed to know that isn’t covered in the documentation? Create an issue to let us know so we can address!

    but its extremely hard to first understand inner workings plugin (and unless you do you can’t write fixes, addons, etc)

    So you’re saying the fact that we provided a working example of a sample add-on plus some accompanying documentation does not help at all? It’s still “extremely hard“?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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