That’s the homework assignment given to the WordPress community from Matt Mullenwegg’s State of the Word address. To repeat: ‘Learn Javascript, deeply’.
A lot of sessions and conversations at WordCampUS 2015 backed up the notion of WordPress and the rest of the web moving towards JavaScript development. The examples were many:
Adam Silverstein of 10up said that the framework that one chooses is not that important. He likes Backbone because it stays out of the way. React is a very opinionated about how to do things. He also agreed with the point that it may be unwise to use a technology that originates from Facebook, with their history of inconsistency, and always doing what’s best for Facebook. Backbone gives you granular control, while other JavaScript frameworks make assumptions and do everything for you.
Dirty Stylus had 4 completed projects. See their talk ‘Decoupled Development with WordPress JSON APIs’. The advantages included parallel development by PHP developers on the back end, and JavaScript developer working on the front end. They demonstrated technologies using AngularJS, RiotJS, MapBox, and an ACF-to-WP-API plugin.
The new Calypso app for Mac was built for WordPress using React, Flux and node.js.
Rachel Baker, part of the team building the JSON REST API, showed WordCamp US how to build a WordPress theme with a JavaScript front end.
The WordPress JSON REST API is going to be an important part of advancing the web, and knowing how to use JavaScript on the front end will be very important for developers. Matt Mullenwegg’s message, and the speakers at WordCamp US 2015 have helped set a course for the future of WordPress and the Internet.