I Wish Other Web Apps Were Built Like Wordpress

Wordpress really is a very well built piece of software. Wordpress is what I use for this blog. I’m working a new version of this site that will be completely managed using Wordpress as a CMS. Same thing for my business site. That’s how powerful Wordpress is. Development is very active and I love the theme system and the modular system of plugins. Everything just works and it works well. I often find myself wishing other open source projects were built the same way like ecommerce shopping carts or client billing software. Basically something that’s standards-based and is very extensible.

I think by FAR the largest strength of Wordpress is the plugin system which allows you to extend Wordpress as far as you want without having to alter the core system underneath it, making upgrades much less painful. For example with shopping cart software like osCommerce, both the frontend and backend coding are horrible and it’s jumbled together. Almost every single third party contribution made to this software requires alterations to core code and database tables. So if you have a highly customized installation and you need to upgrade it to a new version, it’s going to be a nightmare.

A little explanation for those not familiar with this stuff:
With osCommerce, when you upgrade you have to port over all of the changes you made to the new version and this can quickly get VERY complex depending on what modifications were made and how the new version has been altered. On the other hand with Wordpress, I can simple deactivate all my plugins, upgrade Wordpress, then enable all the plugins again. I don’t even need to touch the frontend theme/template. It’s a world of difference.

A new version of Oscommerce is under development but as far as I can see it’s basically being developed/controlled by one person and development is PAINFULLY slow. If I had the time and resources I would definitely jump into web application development for some niche markets where there really is an opportunity to provide something better than the current offerings. Also contrary to popular belief, open source does NOT mean you can’t make money.