Why is there no 7G WordPress Plugin?

I have thought a lot about making an nG WordPress plugin. The problem is that writing to .htaccess via PHP/plugin is risky with lots of ways to fail and make users confused and angry. And nobody wants that, in fact just the opposite: my plugins strive to give users the most awesome experience possible.

Many variables

So yeah, I would love to roll out some awesome .htaccess tricks (like 7G Firewall) via plugin, but there are just too many variables and pitfalls to do it successfully. Especially when you consider that WordPress can run on Nginx and other servers (not just Apache). So .htaccess is not always supported or available.

Working on it

I am working on it though, behind the scenes developing a foolproof way for a WordPress plugin to interact dynamically with Apache/.htaccess. I know there are some other security plugins that make use of .htaccess, and I am learning a lot about what works and what doesn’t. How to deal with different server environments, like Microsoft IIS for the love of God.

Also in the works

Also want to mention. In addition to a plugin version of 7G Firewall, I am working on a way to use .htaccess to solve the issue with Blackhole for Bad Bots not working with page-cache plugins. I’ve made some good progress on this front, and even have a working beta version of the plugin in development.

The main problem here is that every cache plugin is different, and interacts with WordPress in its own unique way. So development is like chasing down a fractalized rabbit hole. Honestly it’s not that bad. Just the main issue where I’m getting stuck, is that plugin-provided cache-clearing functions are not reliable, which really makes things difficult. It’s a headache for sure, but I am working on it.

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Web Developer. Security Specialist. WordPress Buff.