Frequently Asked Questions

Why do all the modules put their bootstrapping functions in a separate file?

If you've looked over the code of the DWS WP Framework modules, you probably noticed that all of them have a bootstrap.php file that's autoloaded by Composer and a separate bootstrap-functions.php file that's included among the very first things. The functions defined in that file are usually just getters for constants defined in the bootstrap.php file, so why not define the getters in the same file?

That was the original design actually, but it didn't work out too well for automated testing. Since the bootstrap.php file is autoloaded, it is also loaded every time when a development tool (like Codeception or PHPMD or PHP Code Sniffer) is run.

Absolutely nothing in the autoloaded bootstrap.php file is executed because the very first command is to return if the WordPress-specific constant ABSPATH is not set. However, before the file is executed, PHP parses it and "learns" about the functions defined in said file. That's why it's possible to call a function defined at line 500 while executing line 25.

Therefore, if the bootstrap.php file is included a second time during the same PHP request, there will be a runtime error about the functions being defined already. Coincidentally, the automated tests do exactly that! By putting the functions in a separate, non-autoloaded file, and only including them after the ABSPATH constant has been set, those errors can be easily avoided.

Another solution is to wrap the functions inside function_exists conditional statements, like WordPress that, but in our case it makes the code unnecessarily clunky.

Is development done forever on the DWS Framework?

With regret, we're happy to announce that is not the case. While we find that the current version of the framework fulfills its purpose splendidly, there will always be performance improvements, new features, PHP and WordPress upgrades etc.

Are you actively developing the next version of the framework?

Not actively, no. As mentioned in the question above, the current version is already pretty great (in our opinion). But inadvertently, through using it and learning of new use-cases, the next version is probably evolving somewhere in our subconscious.

For the time being, however, rest-assured that there won't be any ground-breaking changes any time soon!

I still have questions about using the framework

It's probably best if you open a discussion on GitHub. All our framework modules are available here -- just pick the one that fits your questions the best and ask away!