Hyperdrive

:: Fetch Inject / PHP / WordPress / Kahlan / Patchwork / Composer / Packagist

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Hyperdrive is a WordPress plugin wrapping Fetch Inject library to increase site performance using modern Web standards. Based on initial testing Hyperdrive was shown to reduce perceived latency in WordPress by 200-300%.

I was asked to create Hyperdrive based off a modified functions.php file I created for a talk I gave once in Bali. This was my first time creating a WordPress plug-in. But I was able to teach myself enough PHP to knock it out with 89% code coverage using functional programming concepts.

It was around this time I learned the WordPress core team required all official WP plug-ins to use the GPLv2 license and wouldn’t support submissions using AGPL nor allow discussion about it on the WordPress.org public forums.

Based on some personal research it turns out there are quite a few licensing issues in code used in WordPress plug-ins – and I received personal criticism from some working on the WordPress core team for pointing this out on GitHub.

That’s when I lost motivation to continue updating the SVN repo and, generally, when I started to share some of the same feelings as Jeff Atwood about the GPL.

Nevertheless, Hyperdrive is a sleeper and it works like a charm. Clone it from the git repo above or get it on Packagist.