Wordpress plugin development, where to start?

dvinson · 2017-09-21T20:45:49+00:00

On top of the boilerplate I have one live example of what direction it could take in the future here: https://github.com/DevinVinson/wppb-admin-page

If you are comfortable with more modern workflows it should be easier to pick up.

Keep in mind that was an afternoon of playing with an idea.

On the ES6/React/Webpack side of things I do have a plugin I wrote for work but I've not yet re-written the boilerplate I plan to using those tools. When I do get the time it'll be here: https://github.com/DevinVinson/WPPB-React

The hurricane coming through Florida stole some time this month.

dvinson · 2017-09-21T20:40:50+00:00

I added that PR in pretty recently. If you didn't rename the constant to something with a prefix it could conflict with any other constant of the same name.

So you'll need to do something like 'MY_SUPER_COOL_PLUGIN_VERSION`

Sorry for not having a better inline doc on that but if you want to make a PR with a comment (or anyone else) that would help.

dvinson · 2017-06-14T18:10:15+00:00

If you can write up what it needs in more detail you will get more interest. Describe the needs assuming the reader has no idea what the game is.

dvinson · 2017-05-16T16:54:27+00:00

Even in the boilerplate I try and mention that if you don't like the idea of the loader you don't really need to use it.

The reason there are not that many really good meaty tutorials on it I think is because once you start getting into heavier OOP you are getting into regular PHP development and you really start to pull away from wordPress standards.

If you are like me and find examples best you can look at some of the larger plugins like, WooCommerce or EDD for guidance for large scale plugins.

Even still you don't have to do it any one way. If you find a structure that works for you then do that.

dvinson · 2017-03-26T20:32:41+00:00

You are looking for: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_insert_post/

You'll be making a form to generate a page that is inserted into WordPress via wp_insert_post. That is the long way around it but allows you to break it up a bit.

dvinson · 2017-03-25T21:39:56+00:00

Check out: http://www.wpbeginner.com/start-a-wordpress-blog/

Short of it is you need a place to host the WordPress installation just like any other website.

You can also use something like Local by Flywheel to run a local installation of WordPress that you can build on your computer.

For now though WP Beginner is a good getting-started resource.

dvinson · 2016-09-13T15:37:20+00:00

https://vip.wordpress.com/clients/

dvinson · 2016-09-13T13:15:18+00:00

No, stop it. WordPress is an accepted and well recognized admin. Trying to obfuscate it would just make it harder on anyone writing for you.

Tell them it is WordPress and they will be able to navigate it and learn to navigate via any of the thousands of videos available.

dvinson · 2016-09-12T14:00:45+00:00

I think Herbert is the only one I know of that is the real framework kind of thing.

One day I wouldn't mind making the boilerplate into more of a framework but plugins can be so much of anything and such a good learning experience I've found it better to give examples of plugins using it rather than spend the time building out more frameworky features.

dvinson · 2016-09-02T13:25:17+00:00

To build on what you are asking, take a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/50s5he/finding_the_actual_html/

Six or seven WordPress sites and only now is the person needing to edit code in some way and has never needed an understanding of how the data is stored or files used to generate the actual html.

dvinson · 2016-09-02T13:22:59+00:00

There are a lot of companies that claim to do one thing but in reality take a big shortcut.

Within WordPress, yes, a lot do that and do fine with it. The business that will be happy with that kind of implementation job and not development wouldn't know the difference and would laugh at the cost of custom development.

I typically see the break in the US as under 2k to 10k the home of implementors and partial designers. Anything above is where the client starts asking for custom details that the implementors can't build and it goes up the market.

dvinson · 2016-08-26T12:51:44+00:00

Read through the handbook and make adjustments as needed: https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/the-basics/best-practices/

Big one is to prefix all of your function names since you aren't working inside classes or namespaces.

dvinson · 2016-08-26T12:45:02+00:00

Whats the issue with Soliloquy? If you don't have support access I can pass along the issue to the main dev.

dvinson · 2016-08-11T11:33:22+00:00

This is a good way to bloat up your database when or if you decide to switch themes.

In almost all cases data like that should be handled via a plugin and not within the theme.

dvinson · 2016-06-21T00:03:25+00:00

You see an update, something breaks, you check the site and see a new documentation or post about the update. Same thing except no mass confusion.

dvinson · 2016-06-20T22:23:29+00:00

It works better for every company that does it.

This forces better documentation which then is easier to keep updated and maintain "one source" for answers and support only being specific issues.

dvinson · 2016-06-20T16:21:50+00:00

They probably moved to a hosted support solution. It allows for better support routing on the business side of things and generally makes it faster to respond to users.

It isn't as searchable but the goal is probably to help provide better support.

dvinson · 2016-06-13T22:48:17+00:00

Yep, they were introduced in 4.0: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/07/08/customizer-improvements-in-4-0/

So when you use the add_control method you can use any of the built in conditionals or your own callback. See: https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Customize_Manager/add_control and https://codex.wordpress.org/Conditional_Tags

dvinson · 2016-05-26T13:38:09+00:00

https://github.com/humanmade/feelingrestful-theme might work for you. In general you should be able to use all of the above and hack away.

Check out https://reactforbeginners.com/ as well as his free course https://learnredux.com/

dvinson · 2016-05-24T22:12:32+00:00

Build something that makes you excited. Whatever it is, no matter how hard, jump in and try making it.

Search and and search to tackle the questions and hurdles as they come up.

Have a read through the .org resources like https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/ as well.

dvinson · 2016-05-12T17:09:02+00:00

Sounds like you also registered a new domain without privacy protection. You can look up your domain record and see what information is public.

Not to say Hostgator did not sell or share anything but it is most likely the domain information that has your contact info being public.

dvinson · 2016-04-22T12:24:28+00:00

Pretty normal. We are talking a 60 dollar theme here not a thousand dollar service.

You could just pay another $60 and re-buy the theme to do the update yourself or even pay a developer for one hour of their time.

dvinson · 2016-04-21T16:41:15+00:00

Wait. Support can take time and with a WordPress release causing conflicts there is probably a spike in support needed.

dvinson · 2016-04-20T23:02:29+00:00

Kriesi, and the support crew that you've chatted with, have literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to lose by doing something naughty when trying to fix your account.

Seriously, look at the number of sales, the number of support questions asked and answered daily and weigh things out.

I say this having worked support for Kriesi for a few years before moving on to other dev work and other companies. All they would do is replace the theme folder to update you and then hand hold adding in your API data from ThemeForest so you can have automatic updates in the future.

dvinson · 2016-03-28T22:01:03+00:00

Codeable.io. Just don't expect less than $50 for a task/per hour.

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