In today’s episode I got to sit down with another person I’ve had on my guest list for a long time: Terry Hale. Terry is a really active community member, especially in the various Divi related facebook groups, a few of which he even helps administer.
I wanted to have Terry on because while he’s not one to seek out the spotlight, he’s always there to help others in the community by researching their problems or sharing resources. By sharing his story and some tips, this would be a great way for him to help an even wider portion of the Divi Community all at once. Oh, and he’s a really pleasant guy to have a chat with 🙂
I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as we did having it!
Tips for Getting Started as a Divi Developer featuring Terry Hale – The Divi Nation Podcast, Episode 31
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In this episode I’ll be talking with Terry Hale, a Divi developer based out of Farmersville Texas, in the United States.
Terry is a one of just a handful of developers we’ve had on the show. He’s currently making his living under the company name and moniker Mizagorn creating custom Divi modules sold through the Superfly Marketplace at besuperfly.com.
In our conversation Terry and I talk about the value of community, we hear his WordPress/Divi story, and he shares some Divi development tips and best practices for those looking to get started.
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See You Next Week!
As always I’ll be back each and every week with a new story from our Community. If you have any questions about the topics Terry and I discussed in this episode please feel free to leave a comment below. And if you’d like to see someone specific on the podcast you can leave that request below too. See you next week!
I would really like to ask Terry, if there is any tutorial or info out there, to help us peasants create our own custom divi builder modules? That would be great 🙂 Great interview!
Thanks for the comments!
There are 3 sources I found when starting on the idea of a custom module. I posted this answer a couple of days ago, but the spam filter might not have liked having all the links I provided.
So, instead, do a Google on “divi custom module creation” and you should see links from Stack Overflow, Divi Space and Jonathan Bossenger. 🙂
Good talk! While we’re on the topic of plugin/module ideas, I would love to see more options for plain-old blog posts. Divi, for all its strength with static pages, offers precious little for single posts, index pages, search results, etc. Some sites are still blogs, let’s not forget, and with WordPress offering custom post types as a native feature, it would be amazing if the look of those were easier to customise.
I’m unclear how Extra relates to all the ongoing Divi focus and reference to the upcoming “Divi Developer version.” I use Extra and I understand that, when first published, it had an innovation Divi didn’t, the Category Builder. Since it’s targeted toward media and blogging site, I assume there was some modification of its CSS and-or Layouts for that purpose.
I just went back and read some of my own posts to the ET tech forum from 2014 and was reminded that Divi Builder was initially called the Divi PageBuilder. As it’s matured and spun off an independent Plug-in, and is being used to create child themes, seems the nomenclature is going toward Visual Builder.
Seems to make the most sense to use “Visual Builder” – Divi core as the mothership theme – then host a developing family of “ET Visual Builder themes” created by ET and independents, wherein all server-side code is identical, thus “no forking” related either to core WordPress or core Divi and Visual Builder.
My assumption is that Extra has this profile and, thus, those of us using it don’t risk “being forked” (pun intended) as focus on “Divi Developer version” progresses.
Related to this, I’m wondering if it makes sense for ET to continue developing “Visual Builder child themes” – like Extra – versus just taking a cut for helping independent Divi developers to market their own Visual Builder themes after vetting them for quality.
Right now the Divi Builder is the core of the Divi Theme, Extra Theme, and Divi Builder Plugin. The Divi Theme and Extra Theme have the new frontend visual builder (which was built using React) and we’re working on brining that to the plugin too. Right now we don’t have any plans to create new themes, but rather to keep these three core products in lock-step. The upcoming developer release (which will affect all three products) and the upcoming marketplace will be how we empower the community to build their dev businesses on top of that core Divi code you mentioned.
Nathan –
Thanks for your reply. BTW, I only thought this morning of checking this page to see if my comment was posted and if there were any replies. Given that this page uses standard WP “comments” functionality, I’m wondering – for my own interest as a developer – is there a way to allow “commenters” to get email notifications?
Reviewing support tickets and ET blog posts from recent years, I see that Extra was announced but then its publication was delayed quite awhile as Divi Builder was made much more robust. Once Divi Builder became as robust as it now is – just my opinion – it would have been possible, alternately, to have provided the Extra functionality within Divi as a combo of one or more Blog format modules and Divi Library Layouts-Modules (with Category Builder as a related Divi update).
The new “Visual Builder,” I understand, is a major update to “Divi Builder” involving the React framework, etc. I don’t know what plans are, but my suggestion is that the Builder have just one name, going forward. Like, rather than say “Visual Builder,” ET could refer to using Divi Builder in two modes; the legacy drag-drop or new Visual mode.
“Divi Builder” stands on its own in the wild – incl. as the “Divi Builder plugin” – while “Visual Builder” needs the ET prefix. Another option would be “Elegant Builder”. However, ET also needs one – and, IMO, preferably ONLY ONE – “Mothership theme” that seamlessly incorporates the Builder.
Since the Divi trademark has such recognition, to me, what makes the most sense is to keep everything under “Divi” and “Divi Builder”. Using Divi Builder in “Visual” vs. legacy mode is just a current, if not permanent, design preference.
Thus – just my opinion – would be best to “blend Extra back into Divi.” The really powerful Divi formula is “One theme that does it all,” “The only theme you’ll ever need.” This being the case, creating any new theme with Divi at its core becomes a…Dept. of Redundancy Department project (:
It forks energy and momentum that, IMO, could-should remain under the “One theme that does it all” mothership. It makes it so those of us using Extra feel we should search the Divi forum first for any support issue – because we know how much more active it is, Divi being the mothership – but also need to search the Extra forum in case what we’re experiencing is unique to Extra. Similar points re: feature upgrades. Similar points re: sharing developer tips about creating “child themes.” Similar points re: spreading the word about how great the theme-builder combo we’re using is.
IMO, preferable to keep the overall community united under a single banner. This said, “Keep up the good work!”
Great thoughts for chewing on.
And I agree that it would be SUPER nice if we could sign up for email notifications on comments.
Hey, ET, how ’bout it? 🙂
Maybe some hint about approximate date of appearance 3.1?
It’s interesting to hear not only designers but also developers
Thanks for listening! With the already existing ability to extend Divi, and considering that hopefully not too long in the future the developer version of Divi will come out, we felt like this would be a good topic. 🙂
I listened to the whole session. It’s great to learn more about my favourite person on Divi community, Mr. TerraMax 😛
Thanks so much, my good friend!
Great episode, guys! Image Intense is my go to image plugin and has served me VERY well for months now. Can’t wait for 2.0 and Blog Intense plugin!
Thanks Josh. Wow, that’s so nice. 🙂
I hope you’ve seen that 2.0 has been released. Login to your Superfly account if you haven’t already, and it’ll be there waiting for you!
Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers!