If you can write WordPress plugins, you can make WordPress do just about anything. From making the site easier to administer, to adding the odd tweak or new feature, to completely changing the way your blog works; plugins are the method WordPress offers to customize and extend its functionality. This book will show you how to build all sorts of WordPress plugins: admin plugins, Widgets, plugins that alter your post output, present custom "views" of your blog, and more.
This book focuses on teaching you all aspects of modern WordPress development and usage. The book uses real and published WordPress plugins and follows their creation from the idea to the finishing touches, in a series of carefully picked, easy-to-follow tutorials. You will discover how to use the WordPress API in all typical situations, from displaying output on the site in the beginning to turning WordPress into a CMS in the last chapter. In Chapters 2 to 7, you will develop six concrete plugins and conquer all aspects of WordPress plugin development.
Each new chapter and each new plugin introduces different features of WordPress and how to put them to good use, allowing you to gradually advance your knowledge. This book is written as a guide to take your WordPress skills from the very beginning to the level where you are able to completely understand how WordPress works and how you can use it to your advantage.
This is a Packt Beginners Guide, which means it focuses on practical examples and has a fast-paced but friendly approach, with the opportunity to learn by experimentation and play. Each chapter builds a practical plugin from the ground up using step-by-step instructions. Individual sections show you how to code some functionality into your plugin and follow up with a discussion of concepts.
Chapter 1 teaches the advantages of WordPress development, and what WordPress has to offer to plugin authors.
Chapter 2 creates a working, useful, and attractive WordPress plugin from scratch. It shows how to extract information using the WordPress API and how to use CSS to improve the look of our plugin.
Chapter 3 explores more cool things we can do with WordPress by livening up the default WordPress blogroll. The purpose of the plugin is to display the most recent posts from the sites listed in the blogroll using a nice pop-up window.
Chapter 4 uses the mixed approach, by taking advantage of creative WordPress and JavaScript techniques, in order to create an Ajax powered 'Wall’ for your blog’s sidebar. It introduces quite a few interesting techniques such as Widgets, interacting with the WordPress Database, and Ajax form submission.
Chapter 5 covers the creation of a very sleek and stylish looking WordPress enhancement. The purpose of the Snazzy Archives plugin will be to present your site archives in a unique visual way. It shows how to manipulate the layout of the template using shortcodes and custom templates.
Chapter 6 is all about digging a little deeper into WordPress and hacking the Write Post screen. It shows how to create custom panels in the various sections of the Write Post screen. It teaches how to access the current WordPress rich text editor, tinyMCE, and create a button on its toolbar.
Chapter 7 explores the possibilities of turning WordPress into a Content Management System (CMS), using methods provided to us by WordPress. It shows how to modify the Manage Posts panel to display the information we want. It also covers managing who can use your plugin by looking at the logged in user capabilities.
Chapter 8 covers the additional steps involved in localizing, documenting, publishing, and promoting your plugin. It also covers useful tips and ideas to improve your general WordPress knowledge further.
This book is for programmers working with WordPress, who want to develop custom plugins and to hack the code base. You need to be familiar with the basics of WordPress and PHP programming and believe that code is poetry; this book will handle the rest.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "Edit the insights.js file and add the functionality to insert the HTML directly into tinyMCE."
A block of code will be set as follows:
/* Add Digg link to the end of the post */
function WPDiggThis_ContentFilter($content)
{
return $content.WPDiggThis_Link();
}
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be made bold:
<?php the_content('<p class="serif">Read the rest of this entry »</p>’); ?>
<?php if (function_exists(WPDiggThis_Link)) echo WPDiggThis_Link(); ?>
New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this:
"Go to your WordPress Plugins admin panel."
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The downloadable files contain instructions on how to use them.
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