Recently, I started contributing to WordPress core. I’ve decided to hone my WordPress skills beyond writing WordPress plugins.
Contributing code patches to core is exciting because they get scrutinized by some top notch programmers I admire, and if accepted, get used directly in WordPress. I’ve also been testing bugs and other people’s fixes when I can, but creating patches is the most part exciting so far! My first patch was tiny and accepted without a change, most of the rest have been more complex and needed little fine tuning. Along the way I’m learning more about the WordPress core than any normal person needs to know.
Here are some patches I’ve contributed recently:
- #22919 – my first, patch, accepted and committed by nacin. grin:). fixed a javascript type mismatch
- #22606 – ‘select a file’ link doesn’t work from keyboard, accessibility issues – added javascript fix
- #22933 – tabbing out of text edit area went to wrong field, fixed bug in code
- #21334 – fixed accessibility issue with quick edit panel, two possible patches
- #23120 – fixed issue with unclear/no confirmation on widget save/reorder
- #22896 – eliminate possibility of removing bundled jQuery when in Dashboard
- #22917 – user/site count not updating (immediately) after adding/removing user/site(s)
It took me a little bit of time to get the local setup for debugging and coding WordPress core, but mainly because I haven’t done anything quite like that before. Now that everything is set up locally, I can work on fixing bugs or testing fixes quickly and efficiently. When I find a bug I can fix, creating the patch file is as simple as a command line command away, especially as outlined in Mark Jaquith’s Toolbox.