A Little Clean Up Goes a Long Way

Hints

Sure – the app/theme/plugin you created a few months ago works, but I bet there have been updates or improvements or even optimizations that could make it better. For this reason, each year I like to take a month and do some general “spring cleaning” to most of my active projects in order to make sure things are kept up. For me – January is the month to take care of this.

I generally try to do the following:

  1. Verify backups
  2. Look for any unused code and remove it
  3. Look at ways to simplify any complex code (now that you have had some time to step away from the code/re-evaluate things)
  4. Look for updates to javascript plugins/frameworks
  5. Add any filtering/escaping if it is not present
  6. Look any software and make sure to update anything marked as “not supported” (due to end of life) gets upgraded

All the items above will make projects easier to maintain and more enjoyable to work with over time. Think of this like car maintenance. Sure – your car can run without maintenance – but it will run better/longer with it.

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Quotes

Be Kind…

I cannot stress this enough to my kids…(and myself) “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” ― Wendy Mass, The Candymakers