WordPress plugin Development is very easy and it does not need robust coding or any complex coding required for WordPress plugin development and WordPress is built entirely in PHP.
Required Knowledge for WordPress Plugin Development
The basic knowledge required for the WordPress plugin development:
- HTML
- JavaScript
- CSS
- PHP
- MySQL
WordPress Plugin Development Environment
You will be in need of development environment for developing WordPress plugin so that you can run the examples and get started with your own WordPress plugin development you need to check your plugin for errors and success scenarios while developing WordPress plugin.
You need to have a local environment set up on server or remote server and installation of WordPress and you need to have write permissions so you can create files, modify files, delete folders etc.
The official WordPress site provides the latest version of WordPress and instruction on how to set up your local server of WordPress installation in your local machines.
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You will need a code editor to edit your code and highlights the syntax, you need to have one from any of these – sublime, notepad++, Eclipse, VIM, NetBeans etc.
Ideally, we will working with database and you need to have setup one and to manage like phpMyAdmin so that you can easily modify and play around with MySQL
Create Simple WordPress Plugin
If you look at your WordPress installation you will find a folder called wp-content, inside the folder look for the folder plugins and this is where all the plugins will be located and if you create one
WordPress plugin naming should be exact same or else WordPress will be getting confused and get the stuff mixed up so to avoid this prefix your plugin names are unique and wont running an issue.
Create a folder of your plugin name
Yourpluginname as your folder and add or create a new php file and call it as yourpluginname.php.
Now add the plugin meta date and this information will be read by wordpress during the wordpress installation as below:
Go to wordpress root folder -> wp-content folder -> GO to Plugins Directory
In plugins directory where all plugins in WordPress live. If you are creating a new WordPress plugin then you need to create a folder of your plugin and create a .php file in it.
Create your First WordPress Plugin
To create a Plugin suppose I am saying here firstplugin. Then the folder name of the plugin should be first-plugin. Go ahead and create the folder naming first-plugin in plugin director. Inside the plugin directory create an empty php file with the same name first-plugin.php file. Your plugin name and the php file name should be same as chosen from your derived from plugin name.
That’s it Now you are all set to write your first plugin code in first-plugin php file.
Copy the following below code and paste it in first-plugin.php file
This the basic structure wordpress plugin will be able to read that this is a plugin followed by given information provided by you as the plugin name, plugin author and plugin url, author name etc.
WordPress Plugin Metadeta information:
After adding the above information go to WordPress installation -> Login to wp-admin
Go to Plugins-> Under All plugins you will be able to see the plugin which you have created. With plugin name title, Plugin author, author Uri and the information which you have added in yourpluginname.php file.
Your plugin doesn’t do anything here you can active and deactivate here. It’s a new plugin which is recognized by WordPress.
Now you will be able to find the plugin in administration section and install it and activate the plugin.
The above created plugin will not do anything as we haven’t written any code in first-plugin.php file, by following the plugin development rules and codex rules with plugin API . , hooks , Actions, filters etc in Action.
Your plugin doesn’t do anything here you can active and deactivate here. It’s a new plugin which is recognized by WordPress.