7 Guides for Beginner WordPress Plugin Developers

Learning how to develop plugins for WordPress gives you the ability to simplify many site development and management tasks. These articles provide good insight into the different pieces of plugin development. In order to get the most out of these articles, it is best to have a basic understanding of PHP and HTML. Two good resources for any questions that you may have are WordPress’ Plugin Handbook and StackExchange.

1. https://www.sitepoint.com/an-introduction-to-wordpress-plugin-development/

This article gives a great overview of plugins and plugin development. It explains WordPress’ use of hooks, shortcodes, and widgets to integrate your plugin with WordPress. Be sure to follow the links to the codex for more information.

2. https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/wordpress-plugin-development-guide/

This guide to creating a WordPress plugin that works with Facebook Open Graph shows different techniques used in plugin development. This is a good source to pull pieces from that apply to your plugin. The hooks and functions used for enqueueing scripts and styles can be modified to fit your needs.

3. https://mikejolley.com/2013/08/13/keeping-your-shit-secure-whilst-developing-for-wordpress/

Plugin vulnerabilities were the cause of 22% of WordPress site hacks, as noted in this article. Fortunately, WordPress has many built-in functions to bolster security. Implementing simple measures can ensure that the data your plugin uses is secure.

4. https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/wordpress-development-beginners-building-plugins/

This is another overview of developing a plugin, providing an explanation of using WordPress’ Theme Options to add settings to your plugin. This article is also a part of a series on WordPress development. Be sure to check out the other parts.

5. http://www.wpexplorer.com/writing-simple-wordpress-plugin/

This article begins with how to name your plugin. It walks you through adding functions and filters to replace words and add content. There is also a section on uploading and using your plugin in WordPress.

6. https://www.designbombs.com/start-learning-wordpress-development/

If you are just starting to look into WordPress plugin development, this is a good place to start. This article has three different sections based on your knowledge level. It also provides resources to use to get involved with the community around WordPress plugin development.

7. http://jaskokoyn.com/wordpress-plugin-development-tutorial-series/

This tutorial series on WordPress plugin development is long but is a valuable resource for plugin development. It breaks down every piece of plugin development. There are 30 sections in total, but they are not very long and there are many examples.

Conclusion

These overviews, guides, and tutorials are good foundation to begin WordPress plugin development. Combining these articles with resources such as WordPress’ Plugin Handbook and StackExchange will help you create plugins that will simplify many tasks in WordPress.

— Peter Strucely