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How to Create a WordPress Plugin

Last updated on June 22nd, 2012 by Editorial Staff

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WordPress is the most popular open source blog system. Due to it ease of use and extensibility, it is almost de facto of blog industry standard. With their plugin management module, developers are free to build their own custom plugin to add new features. Some examples are page specific SEO features, photo gallery, spam combating and more.

Writing your own WordPress plugin is not that difficult if you are a web developer with basic PHP skills. The only thing you will need, coupled with your PHP skills, is some direction, some resources, a little information on how WordPress expects your plugin to behave, and most importantly a great idea.

A plugin is a simple program, a set of functions, that adds a specific set of features and services that can be executed in different sections of your WordPress site.

Today, I have compiled a list of the best tutorials to help you create your own plugin(s).

Writing a Plugin – WordPress Codex

The best way to learn anything new is to start at the source. Here you can start by learning the basics in WordPress official site. This plugin overview guide takes you through the initial stages of plugin development, from naming your plugin, creating the plugins first PHP file, setting up a unique directory for a multi-file plugin (if you choose to use CSS, Javascript), using and understanding WP hooks and template tags, creating option pages and saving plugin data to the database.

Anatomy of a WordPress Plugin

This tutorial from Nettuts covers pretty much the same information as the official WordPress site, but it is more illustrated and easy to follow. It explains the concept of how to build your widgets, and how to write your widgets admin panel. It is a must read for a new developer.

How to write a WordPress Plugin ?

A rather basic tutorial that teach you to setup your own plugin, not bad to get your first hands on.

Create a Custom WordPress Plugin From Scratch

This tutorial will describe the implementation of a WordPress plugin starting from scratch. The plugin will connect to an external OSCommerce database and display random products on your WordPress site.

WordPress Plugin Tutorial – Hello World

In this tutorial, you will go over how to make a simple Hello World plugin.

How to Make a Social Bookmarking WordPress Plugin – Step by Step

Work on a more real life applicable plugins, learn how to develop your bookmark plugin one step at a time. This tutorial will teach you another level of knowledge with creating plugins and accessing API features of the social network system, not to forget admin panel, conditional tags and WordPress hooks.

WP Tutorial: Your First WP Plugin

This is a video tutorial in which you will learn how to create your first WordPress plugin.

A Crash-Course in WordPress Plugin Development

This is a screencast tutorial from nettuts showing how to create a WordPress plugin from scratch that allows a blog editor to easily format articles.

Building a Plugin – It’s Easier Than You Think (Video)

This video tutorial demonstrates the basics of constructing a plugin, designing it to make the changes you want, and then using that plugin to alter your WordPress site in a persistent way.

First WP Plugin in 20 Lines

This tutorial is for newbie plugin developers, it doesn’t explain how to use WP nor how to code PHP. What it does do is create a plugin in only 20 lines, which is pretty cool.

Building a WordPress Plugin

This easy to read tutorial takes you through the full process, of developing a plugin.

Developing WordPress Plugins – Slides

If you have any questions or suggestions about this article feel free to post a comment below.

Ryan is a 17 Years old Web Developer/Designer. He’s interested in every thing around the Web especially web development and designing. He loves using jQuery, HTML, PHP, MYSQL, CSS, and AJAX. You can follow him on Twitter @TurRyan.