So you think you can scale: wordcamp MKE 2016

1. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
So You Think You Can
Scale

2. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
Hi, Im Dan Beil
- Me
- (current) Dev Team Lead at Crowd Favorite
- (former) Software Developer at Alley Interactive
- (WordPress VIP Partner)
- Working with WordPress since ~ 2009
- B.S. in Applied Sociology
- Dogs

3. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
Why this talk?
Scaling is about more than just site
performance and code

4. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
What Does “Scale” Mean?
1. Risk - Cannot go down
2. Complexity - Constant feature additions,
interface
3. Traffic - Large (concurrent) user base
4. You Know it when you see it

5. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale”
Account the for unknown
so it doesn’t break

6. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale”
- Site Architecture
- Plugins
- Code Performance
- Code Portability

7. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Site Arch.
Site Architecture
- Consider Content Types
- Determine relationships between
Content and what architecture will
best suit these relationships
- Meta Data vs CPTs vs Taxonomies
- Future query concerns
- Unknown future content (use the WP
Theme Unit Testing data)
https://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_
Unit_Test
Home
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8. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Plugins
● All 3rd Party Code introduces
Some type of risk
○ Maintenance
○ Updates
○ Support/Communication
○ Not feature complete for the
project (i.e. on 80%)
○ I.e. not just security
● Choose your 3rd Party Code Wisely
And 3rd party Code

9. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Plugins
The Cost / Benefit Choice:
● Ask WHY you are using a
plugin and SHOULD you
learn to code THIS yourself.
My list of Plugins:
● https://vip.wordpress.com/plugins/
● Gravity Forms, SearchWP, Core
Plugins (WP API)
● Highly complex (eCommerce)
● Generally, things that are proven
And 3rd party Code

10. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Performance
● Lots to read on this
● Meta and Term Queries
○ Tools to find ‘bad’ queries
■ Phpcs (VVV)
■ Query Monitor
(Plugin - John Blackbourn)
● https://10up.github.io/Engineering-Best-Practices/php/

11. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Portability
Definition:
● Any Developer
● Any Project
● Any Time

12. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Portability
● Code Organization
● Single Responsibility Principle
● Abstraction of code and re-usability
● Sending variables to template parts
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/21676

13. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Portability
Code Organization
● Directory Structure
● Coding Standards
○ PHPCS
● Local environments
○ Build tools (Grunt / Gulp)

14. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Portability
Single Responsibility Principle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_responsibility_principle
● Get logic code off of
template parts
○ Use Helper Functions
○ Custom new WP_Queries
● If you’ve coded it twice,
you’ve coded too much

15. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Portability
Borrowing from the logic of the
Single Responsibility Principle
and applying its idea to
templates will sometimes
require us to send variables to
template parts

16. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale” - Portability
Each (sub) template part should
do one thing and one this only

17. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
<project>_get_template_part( ‘template-parts/author’,
array(
$post_id,
$class,
$link )
);
How to “Think at Scale” - Portability
Example Cuatom get_template_part function

18. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
How to “Think at Scale”
- Site Architecture
- How are you organizing content
- Plugins
- What dependencies are you willing to accept
- Code Performance
- Total Users, Concurrent Users, Hosting / Caching considerations
- Code Portability
- The importance of _thinking_ about code logic before actually writing

19. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
More Resources
WP_Query (10up) - https://10up.github.io/Engineering-Best-Practices/php
Elastic Search (Aaron Holbrook) - http://wordpress.tv/?s=aaron+holbrook
My Preferred Envrionment - https://github.com/Varying-Vagrant-Vagrants/
WordPress Core coding standards -
https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/best-practices/coding-standar
ds/php/
Make Ticket on passing vars to templates -
https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/best-practices/coding-standar
ds/php/

20. Dan Beil | @add_action_dan
Thanks, Questions?
Slides at: