Although contributing to the open source–and specifically, the WordPress–community has always been a central component of WebDevStudios’ philosophy, it wasn’t until October of 2014 that we figured out how to formally contribute as a full company. We started participating in Five for the Future, where we designated 5% of WDS working hours to giving back to WordPress. Since many of our developers are passionate about WordPress, it wasn’t difficult to get everyone on board, and a bunch of cool things have come out of the time we’ve spent on it!
This past month, we worked on a few projects during 5FTF time that we thought you might like to hear about:
wdunderscores
You’ve heard us talk a lot about our internal starter theme, wd_s. We kicked off the year with Greg detailing the history of wd_s, and sharing the process that led to where it is in 2016. Damon followed it up with a post about utilizing wd_s when kicking off a new project, and Greg finished off the series with what the future holds for wd_s. Corey talked about wd_s going veggie by dropping the ever-controversial hamburger navigation menu, and Damon created and shared the wd_s Pattern Library.
In April of this year, wd_s got even better! During 5FTF time (and a little outside of work, too), Greg worked on the WebDevStudios wd_s generator, also known as wdunderscores, which is a simple, awesome way to generate a new WordPress theme using our own starter theme, wd_s.
is_wds_ admin
Parbs worked on is_wds_admin, a plugin that allows you to check if a specific user is within a certain subset, to hide more advanced options, features, debug stuff, and more. This past month, he rewrote is_wds_admin to make it easier to use in different contexts and environments. Now, it has been modified it so anyone can use it, not just us here at WDS. This allows for greater extensibility and modification via lots of actions/filters, and the update added unit tests to verify code integrity.
WP Show Tracker
Chris R. has been working on the WP Show Tracker, which was originally built to be a tool to keep track of how many shows his kids are watching every week. He built a small app that points to a live URL using Nativefier, and when the build is finished and ready for release (apparently very soon!), he plans on making a simple mobile app out of it using AppPresser.
WordCamp Asheville
Cameron has been toiling away at the WordCamp Asheville site. WordCamp Asheville 2016 is coming up very soon, and Cameron used his super design skills to make an exceptionally pretty WordCamp site for them!
The Forums
Lastly but definitely not leastly, we had a few folks working in the forums and trying to help others out! Damon, Allison, Chris O., and Will were out there, doing their best to help folks and give back to the community. Chris also did a little bit of work on core, too!
These are some of the cool things that we worked on during April 2016’s 5FTF time! We know a bunch of you out there are contributing back as well–what have you worked on recently? Tell us! We want to hear about your nifty new projects too.
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