[wp-docs] [Dev Doc] WordPress Database Reference

[Michael D Adams]

[Beating an old thread]

I've moved this page to [[wpdb Class]].  I had to move in the  
(minimal) talk page manually.  The content is there, but the  
discussion tab always links to an editing screen rather than a  
viewing screen.  Unless there's an easy fix for that annoyance, I'd  
suggest just deleting the talk page and starting a new one.

MDAWaffe

On Mar 15, 2005, at 7:43 AM, Carthik Sharma wrote:

> Owen's suggestion of seperating function references from How-Tos seems
> to be good. For now, maybe we can have both the name of the function
> and the text that describes how it can be used as the section heading?
>
> What we have started here is not an easy task to accomplish with
> respect to organization, the best we can do is try out different
> things and settle on what seems to be good, which should not be a
> problem in itself.
>
> Carthik
>
>
> On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:00:38 -0500, Owen Winkler
> <ringmaster at midnightcircus.com> wrote:
>
>> Michael D.Adams wrote:
>>
>>> I've got a rough sketch of the wpdb class at
>>> http://codex.wordpress.org/User:MDAWaffe/Functions .  I agree now  
>>> that
>>> the content is better served from the [[WordPress Function  
>>> Reference]]
>>> section.
>>>
>>
>> This page looks fairly complete.  My only thought (and don't take  
>> this
>> as a negative, since I may still come around to this idea) is that I
>> find the functional function references a bit unnerving.  (Functional
>> function references = Titling a function by what it does rather than
>> using its name.)
>>
>> What I imagine might be optimal from an end-user/developer point  
>> of view
>> is an actual "reference" with just the function definitions and
>> parameters, and then a how-to for each section that links to the  
>> reference.
>>
>> I'm rambling here because there's an alarm going off in my intuition.
>> Is it a false alarm?
>>
>>
>>> The sections delineated there were completely off the cuff.  Please
>>> organize things differently if you see a better alternative.  In
>>> particular, what do people think about each class (or natural  
>>> group of
>>> classes) getting its own box on the page? Also, I don't really  
>>> know what
>>> "basic functions" could be; functions from functions.php will  
>>> probably
>>> go into several categories.  Again, edit at will.  Owen, you seem to
>>> have a good idea how things should be organized.  Do you mind  
>>> poking the
>>> page or listing a sectional hierarchy here?
>>>
>>
>> Using the core filenames seems like a logical way to break up the  
>> larger
>> sections, but I wonder if there are subsection groupings that make
>> sense.  Like in my last message on this topic, I was talking about
>> Options functions.  This grouping isn't large enoguh (the three
>> functions currently in [[Writing a Plugin]]) for it's own major  
>> heading,
>> but where does it go?  In which of these sections would you look  
>> for it?
>>
>> I require more thought on this yet.  Maybe I just need to break it  
>> out
>> and do it to see what it looks like.
>>
>>
>>> This brings up the subpage issue.  It seems the best way to  
>>> implement to
>>> me, but I'm open.  I suppose, then, each of the functions I  
>>> describe for
>>> the wpdb class should have its own page, with an umbrella page
>>> describing database interface in general, the class variables,  
>>> and the
>>> class as a whole.
>>>
>>
>> I think maybe that's what I was trying to say at the beginning - I  
>> would
>> put the class reference on one page, and then have the description of
>> the interface along with a few examples on another.  I don't know  
>> if I
>> would put each function on its own page, though - that would seem to
>> spawn a lot of clicking around.
>>
>> For example, there could be a developer reference page,  
>> [[Accessing the
>> Database]] that describes the interface and how to use it in general
>> which has support function reference on [[wpdb Database Class]] (or
>> whatever you want to call your current [[User:MDAWaffe/Functions]]).
>> Perhaps the function reference could be embedded in the developer
>> reference page, or maybe a simple link would suffice.
>>
>> Similarly, I'd rip out the "#Saving Plugin Data to the Database"  
>> section
>> from [[Writing a Plugin]], replace it with concrete examples that  
>> link
>> to the ripped out stuff as a pure function reference.
>>
>> I'm just looking at this from my perspective versus newbie devs.  For
>> me, I want to skip the "How-to" page and just get the function
>> parameters or whatever.  I don't want a lot of prosy stuff in the  
>> way of
>> what I want to know, yet that stuff may be more important for others
>> than the function reference itself.
>>
>> Owen