Build WordPress plugins like a Professional developer.

Professional WordPress Plugin Development is the ultimate WordPress development learning tool, taking budding PHP developers, advanced users, and professional programmers through the steps of creating quality plugins.

Available in paperback and e-book, Pro WP Plugin Dev is the only book you’ll ever need to craft poetic code like the pros!

Professional WordPress Plugin Development book cover

I Wish This Book Existed When I Got Started

I built my first WordPress plugin in 2007. It almost feels like a lifetime ago. I had dabbled in a little PHP, HTML, and CSS. Any plugin development adventure I was to embark on was sure to break my website and probably create a security hole or two or three.

The truth is that I had no clue what I was doing.

But I was eager to learn.

There were few resources available to a young developer at that time. A handful of random tutorials and incomplete documentation did not make it easy. However, I muddled through that first plugin. After that first taste of power, I continued building more plugins for years to come.

I wish I had a guide like this book on that day in 2007 when I first delved into WordPress plugin code. It would have saved me a headache or two.

In truth, programming is mostly trial and error. You learn by making mistakes and fixing them. However, having a helpful friend or guide along for the journey makes it so much easier.

That is where Professional WordPress Plugin Development comes in.

It is your guide when you get lost. It is your friend that holds your hand through the turmoil of plugin dev. While the book is meant to help plugin developers up their game to the pro level, it also walks first-time plugin authors through the early stages of setting things up.

If you have a bare minimum of PHP knowledge under your belt, you can build a WordPress plugin.

Brad, John, and I have all been doing this for over a decade. We have picked up a few tricks along the way and hope that we can impart this knowledge on a new generation of WordPress plugin developers with the second edition.

What’s in the book?

This significantly updated edition of Professional WordPress Plugin Development addresses modern plugin development for WordPress, the highly popular content management system (CMS). If you’re using WordPress to create and manage websites, WordPress plugins are the software that can extend or enhance CMS functionality. This book offers guidance on writing plugins for WordPress sites to share or sell to other users.

The second edition of Professional WordPress Plugin Development covers the building of advanced plugin development scenarios. It discusses the plugin framework and coding standards as well as dashboards, settings, menus, and related application programming interfaces (APIs). Additional topics include security, performance, data validation, and SQL statements.

  • Learn about the power of hooks in WordPress
  • Discover how JavaScript and Ajax will work in your site
  • Understand key technologies: Block Editor/Gutenberg, JS/React, PHP, and the REST API
  • Create and use custom post types and taxonomies.
  • Creating custom dashboard menus and plugin settings
  • Work with users and user data
  • Schedule tasks and utilizing Cron
  • Performance and security considerations

Anyone can write a plugin. In fact, there’s an entire guide/developer handbook dedicated to helping anyone create their first plugin. What that said, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Just write a plugin and poof, problem solved. Where do you start? What are best practices? You’re going to have a lot of questions. This is the book with most, if not all, the answers.

Russell Aaron - Amazon.com Review

Build Your Plugin

The book starts simple, walking your through the basics. Everything from setting up your first plugin to diving into advanced topics like rewrite rules is covered.

<?php
namespace NextBigThing;

class Plugin {

	public function boot() {
		add_action( 'plugins_loaded', [ $this, 'setup' ] );
	}

	public function setup() {
		// Let's do this thing!
	}
}

There is no time like the present. Get started building WordPress plugins.

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