With Matt Mullenweg proclaiming "learn JavaScript deeply" during this year's State of the Word and WordPress.com's Calypso announcement, the WordPress community is abuzz about JavaScript. At the same time, many of us are left wondering what this means for the sites we manage or for our current and future development expertise. We can't help but ask: - Is WordPress abandoning PHP? - How will this affect our sites? - What the heck is JavaScript, anyways? - Most importantly, why do I care? This month, Andrew Duthie, himself a JavaScript engineer and full-time contributor to the Calypso project, will answer these questions, demonstrate how JavaScript is currently used in WordPress, and what the future might hold for WordPress and JavaScript.

1. The Future of WordPress
and JavaScript
WordPress Cincinnati
March 2016

2. OUTLINE
• History of JavaScript
• How JavaScript is used in WordPress
• Benefits of JavaScript
• Speculating the future of WordPress
• Demo

3. Learn JavaScript, Deeply
“ — Matt Mullenweg
State of the Word,WordCamp US 2015

4. HISTORY OF JAVASCRIPT

5. HISTORY OF JAVASCRIPT
• Created by Brendan Eich
• Developed over the span
of ten days in May 1995
• Introduced in Netscape
Navigator 2.0 (September
1995)

6. WHAT IS JAVASCRIPT?
• One of the three essential technologies of
the web (the others being HTML and CSS)
• Supported by all major web browsers
without plugins
• Standard maintained by Ecma International,
currently version 6 (ECMAScript 2015)

7. WHAT IS JAVASCRIPT?
var API_ROOT = ‘https://andrewduthie.com/wp-json';
function getPosts( callback ) {
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open( 'GET', API_ROOT + '/wp/v2/posts' );
xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
var posts, error;
if ( 4 === xhr.readyState ) {
try {
posts = JSON.parse( xhr.responseText );
} catch ( e ) {
error = e;
}
callback( error, posts );
}
};
xhr.send();
}

8. WHAT IS JAVASCRIPT?
import { API_ROOT } from 'config';
export default async function getPosts() {
const response = await fetch( `${ API_ROOT }/wp/v2/posts` );
return await response.json();
}

9. JAVASCRIPT IN WORDPRESS

10. JAVASCRIPT IN WORDPRESS

11. <?php
function mytheme_scripts() {
$theme_dir = get_template_directory_uri();
wp_enqueue_script(
'mytheme-script', // Unique name
$theme_dir . '/script.js', // Script URL
array( 'jquery' ), // Dependencies
'v1.4.1', // Version
true // In footer
);
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'mytheme_scripts' );
JAVASCRIPT IN WORDPRESS
Including your own scripts
https://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Javascript

12. BENEFITS OF JAVASCRIPT
Interactivity

13. BENEFITS OF JAVASCRIPT
Perceived Speed
• Display content optimistically
• Artificial content can give
users the perception of speed

14. JAVASCRIPT’S SURGE IN
POPULARITY
Better tooling for large applications
Frameworks lower barrier to entry
Same language everywhere with Node.js
Language and browser improvements

15. THE FUTURE OF WORDPRESS
= ???+

16. CALYPSO

17. WP-API

18. WP-ADMIN 2.0
Note: This is not it

19. LIVE DEMO