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<\/p>\nAhmad Awais is a seasoned full stack developer and regular WordPress core contributor. An intense WordPress lover hailing from Lahore, he has donned several hats\u00a0\u2014 coder, author, speaker and WordPress evangelist.<\/p>\n
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Ahmad set aside time from his crammed schedule to answer a volley of questions we directed at him. Here goes!<\/p>\n
Do you see a great future for WordPress with improved interoperability, thanks to the WordPress REST API?<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh, yes I do! WordPress is quite late to the party but I am glad we are there. WordPress can now be used in a lot of different forms. Imagine having an enterprise software that\u2019s written in .NET \u2014 but you\u2019d like to use the biggest eCommerce product i.e. WooCommerce with it. Well, now you can. Build a WooCommerce store and connect your enterprise software with the WordPress API.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s only the beginning of what\u2019s possible with WordPress now. In the coming years we are going to see amazing new products built on top of the WordPress REST API.<\/p>\n Don’t you think WordPress is being stretched too far to be used as a reliable web application platform? Where do you think is the boundary that shouldn\u2019t be crossed?<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t think so. Though, I agree I have seen some pretty weird use cases of WordPress but that\u2019s just it. WordPress empowers nearly 30% of the web. If an app or a SaaS startup wants to connect with that, they have to use WordPress via REST API.<\/p>\n About boundaries, I think that\u2019s completely subjective. It\u2019s about the task at hand. What is WordPress really? A community of PHP programmers. PHP is not the language being used to build mobiles apps. So, when a regular PHP\/WordPress programmer wants to build a mobile app, what do you think happens?<\/p>\n Most probably that programmer tries to use WordPress to build the apps for you. And that\u2019s not a new thing. People have been trying to do that for ages. It\u2019s just getting a lot better now.<\/p>\n With Gutenberg getting merged into the WordPress core, are you happy that resource-heavy page builder plugins will turn obsolete?<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh, far from that. I don\u2019t think that any of the page builders will go stale. Remember Gutenberg is not a page builder. It\u2019s sort of a framework on top of which one could build a page builder, though, it isn\u2019t one itself.<\/p>\n There are both Pros and Cons to the Gutenberg project. I have contributed to its code and documentation and have shared my concerns as well as a boilerplate for developers to build custom Gutenberg blocks<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s amazing to see your work with WordPress, the Advanced Gulp workflow<\/a> and your contribution on GitHub<\/a> as well as your labs projects<\/a>. What is your advice for someone who wants to be a prolific open source contributor like you?<\/strong><\/p>\n That’s very kind of you to say!<\/p>\n Well, I love building open source projects especially FOSS (free and open source software). I think it\u2019s a lifestyle for software engineers. At the moment, I spend 50% of my time in building FOSS and contributing back to the WordPress Core, maintaining 70+ open source projects at GitHub<\/a>. My advice would be \u2192 Just Do It\u2122<\/strong> \u2014 seriously, by building open source software, you get to know about collaboration, building together, you learn why someone is not using your software, and it\u2019s brave to put your code out there.<\/p>\n Do NOT think that if something has already been created you can\u2019t recreate it the way you want. That\u2019s why I build so many projects \u2014 mostly to share my personal workflow \u2014 which I never thought thousands of developers would be using<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some developers have concerns with using WordPress as a headless CMS, particularly those who are web publishers and need good SEO. Can you share your experience on how the REST API plays with SEO?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have had been a blogger for about 13 years now. So, I can tell you that SEO is important. But hey, WP REST API has less do with SEO. SEO has two major parts \u2014 On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.<\/p>\n Thank you, Ahmad, for your valuable thoughts! We hope this interview will inspire a lot of budding developers to put lots of energy into open source projects and WordPress.<\/strong><\/p>\n You can keep the conversation going on Twitter, by following\u00a0@MrAhmadAwais<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our countdown to WordCamp Colombo 2017 is ticking\u00a0\u2014 23rd September is the day!<\/strong> Just like this interview, we are going to have great insights delivered in person by some of the world’s finest developers and businesspersons who have been confirmed as speakers already<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s a good time to book your tickets to attend the event<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ahmad Awais is a seasoned full stack developer and regular WordPress core contributor. An intense WordPress lover hailing from Lahore, he has donned several hats\u00a0\u2014 coder, author, speaker and WordPress evangelist. Ahmad set aside time from his crammed schedule to … Continue reading A Conversation with Ahmad Awais, Full Stack Developer<\/span> \n
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