wordpress plugin development practices

PLUGIN DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES

521 DimensionsTECHNOLGY SOLVING NEEDS

Presented By: Dan Pastori@danpastori

Sunday, June 3, 12

Dan Pastori

Sunday, June 3, 12

WHO IS DAN PASTORI?

Primary PHP/Java Developer

Co-Founded 521 Dimensions

Been tearing apart Wordpress for 3 years

Built two large plugins and one theme

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OTHER PRODUCTS I’VE DEVELOPED FOR

And of course custom applications!

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WORDPRESS IS THE BEST!(at least from my experience!)

Great Community

Great Documentation

Fast learning curve

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PRE-REQUISITESUnderstanding of PHP

Motivation/Consistency

A goal to develop towards

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WORDPRESS TERMINOLOGY2 Types of Hooks:

1. Filter - Modifies text before it hits the screen.

2. Action - Hooks launched during execution.

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WHERE TO BEGIN?

1. Find a need

4. Jump right in3. Prototype

2. Focus on that need

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BEGIN YOUR PLUGIN

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STRUCTURING PLUGIN

/wp-content/plugins/[NAME]

Create Directories

/wp-content/plugins/[NAME]/css

/wp-content/plugins/[NAME]/js

/wp-content/plugins/[NAME]/images

/wp-content/plugins/[NAME]/includes

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ADD MAIN FILE/wp-content/plugins/[NAME]/[NAME].php

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Add Header In Main File/*Plugin Name: [NAME] Plugin URI: http://www.521dimensions.com/wp-picturesDescription: Pictures in Wordpress!Version: 1.0Author: Dan PastoriAuthor URI: http://www.521dimensions.comLicense: GPL2*/

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OOP VS FUNCTIONAL?

Modern programming practices say OOP

Both work!

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BEGIN CODING!DO NOT OVER-WRITE CORE FUNCTIONALITY

Use predefined functions as much as possible(They’re there for a reason!)

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register_activation_hook(__FILE__, ‘function_name’)

What happens when you activate and deactivate?

register_deactivation_hook(__FILE__, ‘function_name’)

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Open [NAME].php

...class WPPictures { static function install() { // do not generate any output here }}register_activation_hook( __FILE__, array('WPPictures', 'install') );

OOP

Functional

...function wp_pictures_install(){

}register_activation_hook( __FILE__, ‘wp_pictures_install’ );

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WORKING WITH THE DATABASEglobal $wpdb object

dbDelta()

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INITIAL INSTALL

1. Check for upgrades

If {installed version} != {plugin version}

2. Create Tables

3. Set options

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CSS AND JSRegister first, enqueue second

wp_enqueue_script('thickbox',null,array('jquery'));

wp_register_script('product_js', plugins_url('/js/product_list.js', __FILE__));

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DASHBOARD VISUAL APPEALOne management page, append to settings menu

Multiple management pages, have it’s own heading

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ADMIN MENUS add_menu_page(PAGE TITLE, MENU TITLE, PERMISSION, SLUG, FUNCTION, LOGO);

add_submenu_page(PARENT SLUG, PAGE TITLE, MENU TITLE, 'CAPABILITY', 'MENU SLUG', 'FUNCTION');

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MEDIA GALLERYwp_insert_attachment($attachment, $filename,

$parentPostID)

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PERMISSIONS

current_user_can('manage_options')

http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities

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SHORTCODES

extract( shortcode_atts( array( 'categoryID' => 'all',

), $attributes ));

add_shortcode('product-list', 'product_list_shortcode');

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ENSURE PLUGIN QUALITYBe accepting of criticism

DOCUMENT... PLEASE :)

Update

Don’t solve everything, do one thing right

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BE THE SERVER ADMIN’S FRIEND(And have a quality plugin)

Minimize requests

Make sure your resources are present

Use common php packages

Don’t require 777 on ANY directory!

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LAUNCH PLUGINHave your Mom use your plugin

Accept criticism

Maintain thorough documentation

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QUESTIONS?

@danpastori

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