For me, custom plugins are one of the funner parts of using WordPress as a blogging platform. There is a huge community of developers out there creating amazingly useful gadgets to include in your blog.
I have developed websites which used a lot of PHP, but [before I read this] I hadn’t developed anything specifically for WordPress. Plus, I didn’t really have time to slog through the Codex, even though it is well documented. I just don’t have the time to read it all to find the useful stuff. I wanted it all in one place.
That’s why I was delighted to find Vladimir Prelovac‘s book, WordPress Plugin Development – Beginner’s Guide. It seemed a perfect fit.
While I won’t suggest this is book is perfect, it is an excellent starting point for anyone who wants to write a plugin from scratch.
Each plugin is already available from the WP Plugin Repository some of which are quite popular. (I particularly like Insights.)
- WP Digg This – Adds a Digg This button to each post.
- Live Blogroll – Adds a recent posts popup for each blog in your blogroll.
- WP Wall – Displays comments on the sidebar without reloading the page.
- Snazzy Archives – Presents your site archives in a unique visual way.
- Insights - Access your articles and Flickr images from within the WordPress edit page.
- Post Types – Provides pre-defined post templates to quickly add a photo or a link to your blog.
It goes even as far as giving you some tips and guidelines for submitting your plugin to the WordPress community and how to maintain your plugin. All good tips by someone who has been working on this subject for a while.
Short Examples
Each chapter creates a different plugin and uses different aspects of the WordPress interface: simple sidebar widget, admin console. And more advanced features like Ajax commenting and database access.
Each Step Explained
Each chapter is further broken down into bite-sized chunks of concepts that can make learning easier and things easier to find. It also explains each step in further detail.
Not For Programming Newbies
While it is gear towards beginners, it’s not a book for non-coders. You should have a good understanding of all the features of WordPress, for one. Also, plugins are written in PHP and the book gives you lots of code example and some HTML and CSS (obviously!). It’s well commented, but if you are unfamiliar with any of these aspects of web development, you will be lost.
Furthermore, as I discovered, it helps to have some knowledge of the basics of Ajax and jQuery before you start out with this book. You can read and complete the examples without that knowledge, but if you want to be able to expand on the examples or write your own features from scratch, then this knowledge will serve you well as they are important tools to add to your own skill set.
I didn’t [and still don't] consider myself an AJAX expert so I had to take a few looks around to fill in the gaps toward understanding some of the examples. But it has broadened my knowledge of some other web technologies which is a good thing, right?
That’s It
If you want to learn how to dig into WordPress plugin development, then this book may be your ticket in. Overall I recommend it for anyone to get started or to brush up on some of the aspects to improve their plugin coding style.
Your Input
Have you found any other good resources for WordPress plugin development? Leave a comment if you’ve used this book or another one, or if the article was helpful to you.
[This review is not sponsored, nor did I get a free copy. sob]
