Developing a Simple WordPress Plugin from Scratch
Recently I walked folks through building a simple WordPress plugin from scratch at the WordPress Developers meetup in Fresno (my home town).
We went through how to build a plugin for taking donations, optionally with a Stripe checkout overlay.
The source for the plugin is now posted on GitHub.
Learning Resources
As promised, here’s a list of resources to get you started with plugin development.
- https://developer.wordpress.org/ – Recently updated. Great code reference for looking up core WP functions, actions, filters, etc.
- http://wpseek.com/ – The other code reference for quick core WP lookups.
- http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Coding_Standards – Try to adhere to these as much as possible.
- https://pippinsplugins.com/learn/ – A ton of tutorials, code samples, videos, etc. I highly recommend his member-only site.
- https://tommcfarlin.com/ – Another great WP developer to learn from.
- http://wpsessions.com/ – Top notch lengthier video courses.
- http://wordpress.tv/ – Tons of WordCamp video presentations found here for free.
- http://code.tutsplus.com/categories/wordpress – A wide variety of WP dev topics.
- http://applyfilters.fm/ – My favorite WP dev podcast.
- http://wpdevtable.com/ – My 2nd favorite.
Developer Tools
Here’s a few tools I use as I’m developing and debugging plugins.
- https://github.com/manovotny/wptest – Populate your WP install with a ton of posts, pages and media using all aspects of the core WP features. It’s a great way to check how well your plugin works with everything built into WP.
- https://github.com/tommcfarlin/WordPress-Plugin-Boilerplate – For larger plugins this is a great boilerplate to follow to keep your code and files well organized and standardized.
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/developer/ – A collection of 10 useful developer plugins by Automattic.
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/sysinfo/ – See all details about your WP install, PHP, MySQL, etc. Great to install on customer sites to see what they’re using.
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/query-monitor/ – All details about all database queries.
This is a good product Phil. Thanks for sharing. It will take some discipline for some to complete, but anyone taking the training will be able to benefit. In today’s competitive digital marketing landscape, anything that increases knowledge is a plus. Google’s next algorithm change is right around the corner. Does the training include any prep for making the plugin mobile-friendly, or is that just a natural component of the training? If not, can it be included in the course?
Hi Gene. This was just a meetup presentation I gave. Not a course.
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Hi Phil, I’ve been reading some of your posts regarding monetizing WP plugins. Many are from 2013 & 2015, but a lot of the content seems equally applicable today. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Paul. Glad you still find it useful. :)
Thanks for the info. I am a Co-founder of a video tech startup called VidSnippets (www.vidsnippets.com/gallery.html). We are getting ready to release our first product and got a request to develop a WP plug-in so anyone with a WP based website can use our product more easily. If you have time to check out some of the short intro/demo videos on the gallery page, any feedback would be very welcome. Cheers.
hi phil Derksen, they are many articles on monetizing WP plugins but they speaks less