Everyone, who has WordPress as their CMS platform, makes use of plugins for bringing extra functionalities quickly! Sometimes however need arises such that you have to write codes expanding several lines, because plugins do not have what you specifically want. And if you run multiple blogs or sites, copying codes to each would be a daunting task at times! So won’t it be nice if you can put all these required codes in a custom plugin? Obviously, it will make many things smoother than before.
That is why today we have decided to make a post on the best free resources teaching how to create WordPress plugins :
Although not a complete tutorial, this particular post by Hongkiat would definitely be a nice starting point, especially for beginners. It has clearly explained different essential parts involving creation of a plugin. By simply going through this guide, you will be able to have a grasp of all the basics, such as structure and location of plugin folders, importance and usage of filers and hooks, and so on.
Published on Smashing Magazine – a well-known resource for web enthusiasts, this one is a step-by-step guide to plugin creation. It has explained the entire process using a ‘real’ example, which you can try on your own, and get practical knowledge! The best thing about this guide is its discussion on how you should allow the plugin cleanup itself once deactivated/uninstalled, and how you would maintain security aspects. Creating a plugin just by knowing the basics can be something easy, but if you do not know ways to secure it or make not-so-messy, issues may show up later! And this guide from Smashing Magazine would help you know all these.
This guide was published back in 2009, and in next four years, WordPress has changed a lot! But still you could refer to it as a beginner’s guide without a problem. So what makes it different from the other free WordPress plugin coding resources mentioned above? Well, you will learn how to set up a configuration or settings page for your plugin. WordPress comes with some built-in functions, which allows us easily create top-level as well as sub menus, followed by API functions to allow us easily perform database manipulation! It is likely that your plugin would need them, and this guide from Tutsplus will teach you that.
Now this resource won’t need any special introduction since it is the base of all other free and premium guides teaching WordPress plugin development! In case you have not checked it yet, we insist that you should do it right away. In fact, it is recommended that you must consult this section of WordPress codex while going through any other guides or tutorials.
So far we have discussed four important free resources on WordPress plugin creation. No doubt there would be many more on the Internet, but we think it is not nice to get confused learning the same matters over and over, but in different expressions! The ones we have mentioned here are appropriate for beginners, and feature a simplified approach toward teaching plugin development techniques.
0 comments:
Post a Comment