Abdullah Ayman

Open-Source Contributions

I contribute to open-source projects to improve my engineering skills in real-world codebases, collaborate in the open, and learn from experienced maintainers. Below are selected contributions where I explain my decisions, trade-offs, and outcomes.

WooCommerce (Automattic)

PR #62339 Replace WooCommerce accordion with WordPress core accordion

Why I chose it

  • First contribution to WooCommerce
  • Tagged as good first issue, no active PRs
  • Goal was to learn WooCommerce block structure and conventions

Key decisions & trade-offs

  • Chose wp-env over manual WP setup to match WooCommerce’s recommended workflow
  • Chose running CI on a forked PR over fixing local E2E setup to unblock progress faster
  • Chose configuring WordPress linting tools instead of fixing errors manually to speed up future contributions

Outcomes

  • WooCommerce now uses WordPress core accordion for WP 6.9+
  • Reduced duplication and maintenance effort
  • Gained experience with PHP blocks, React, integration tests, and E2E workflows

PR #63038 Enhancing Variation Selector Attribute Options

Why I chose it

  • Wanted to continue contributing after my first merged PR and take on editor UI related work
  • Asked an experienced maintainer for a recommendation instead of picking randomly
  • The issue was recent and touched modern WooCommerce block patterns

Approach & key decisions

  • Started by reading all linked issues and related PRs before writing any code
    • This significantly reduced uncertainty and made the problem feel much clearer early on
  • Reproduced the issue locally to fully understand the behavior before making changes
  • Split work into small, focused commits aligned with the issue requirements to make review easier
  • Migrated the block UI from the legacy PanelBody component to the newer ToolsPanel, following patterns used elsewhere in WooCommerce
  • Added a default value of pills for the optionStyle attribute instead of handling null cases throughout the block logic, resulting in cleaner and more predictable code
  • Proactively added the onDeselect prop to all ToolsPanelItem components after verifying that without it the reset functionality did not work correctly, even though this was not explicitly requested in review

Trade-offs

  • Chose to make a small improvement that was not explicitly mentioned in the issue because it aligned with existing conventions and improved maintainability
  • Used AI assistance for mechanical changes, while personally reviewing and validating all logic and behavior

Outcomes

  • Block editor UI is now aligned with WooCommerce’s ongoing migration to ToolsPanel
  • Cleaner and more maintainable block code
  • Gained deeper experience with WooCommerce block editor architecture, review cycles, and UI conventions
  • Improved confidence in identifying missing behavior beyond what is explicitly requested

PR #64131 / #64247 Fix product filters not working when Full Page Reload is enabled

Why I chose it

  • Wanted something harder than a good first issue, a real bug rather than a refactor.
  • The bug touched areas I had not worked with before in this repo: server side rendering, the interactivity API, and communication between two separate blocks.

Approach & key decisions

  • Read the surrounding code first and named the real problem: Product Collection and Product Filters are siblings linked only by queryId, with no shared DOM parent, so this was a cross block communication problem, not a simple filter bug.
  • First fix worked by passing a forcePageReload flag through wp_interactivity_config and doing a full window.location.assign navigation, and the maintainer confirmed it fixed the issue.
  • Acted on review feedback that the config was global, meaning one Product Collection’s setting would leak into every Product Filters block on the page.
  • Spent two days trying to drop the global config and handle the sibling case myself before asking the maintainer for the cleanest per instance pattern, to keep the solution aligned with the repo’s conventions.
  • Rebuilt the fix to pass forcePageReload through real per instance context using providesContext and usesContext, with the global config kept only as a fallback for the sibling case.
  • Added types, updated tests, wrote the changelog, and fixed the PHPStan baseline

Security incident & trade-offs

  • During the first PR, malware on my machine (the PolinRider supply chain campaign, picked up from a teammate’s project through a weaponized npm package) silently injected an obfuscated payload into postcss.config.js and changed .gitignore, then amended and force pushed the commit under my name.
  • Chose to close the compromised PR entirely and start clean rather than try to scrub the branch, since something that amends commits behind your back cannot be trusted to be fully removed by reading a diff.
  • Fully removed the malware from my machine, rotated reachable secrets, and audited my lockfile and editor extensions before continuing.

Outcomes

  • Product filters now work correctly when Full Page Reload is enabled, with a per instance fix instead of a globally leaky one.
  • Learned that my local environment is part of the supply chain, and changed how I review my own diffs before pushing.
  • Gained experience with the interactivity API, cross block context, and handling a real security incident in the open.