A client’s Resources section had meta box code scattered across functions.php and two include files, so every small change broke something. One reusable meta box class moved the registration logic into a constructor and the form HTML into a template.
A junior dev passed a post object where my function wanted an integer, and it failed silently with no error. That is the trap of overly defensive WordPress code, and when you control the environment, failing loudly beats bailing quietly.
A sharp junior dev was stuck on a bug that only showed up on staging, because he was lost without a GUI. The command line is the most direct way to see what a server is doing, and a couple of basic commands found the error in minutes.
A minor form change once broke logins across a client’s membership site. Unit tests passed anyway. Acceptance testing drives a real browser through the whole user flow, so this kind of break fails a test before customers ever see it.
A client came to us with a plugin that was, to put it mildly, a total mess. It started simple enough: one little settings page….
I got a call from a new client in a panic. Their site was down. White screen of death. Turns out, their previous developer had…
I got a call last week from a client in a panic. Their international orders were failing at checkout, but only when customers tried to…
I got a frantic call last Tuesday. A client, running a decent e-commerce setup, had just pushed an update. Classic story, right? Suddenly, their entire…