WordPress Plugin Development Cookbook: Create powerful plugins to extend the world's most popular CMS

Learn to create plugins for WordPress 4.x to deliver custom projects or share with the community through detailed step-by-step recipes and code examplesKey FeaturesLearn how to change and extend WordPress to perform virtually any taskExplore the plugin API through approachable examples and detailed explanationsMold WordPress to your project's needs or transform it to benefit the entire communityBook DescriptionWordPress is a popular, powerful, and open Content Management System. Learning how to extend its capabilities allows you to unleash its full potential, whether you're an administrator trying to find the right extension, a developer with a great idea to enhance the platform for the community, or a website developer working to fulfill a client's needs. This book shows readers how to navigate WordPress' vast set of API functions to create high-quality plugins with easy-to-configure administration interfaces.With new recipes and materials updated for the latest versions of WordPress 4.x, this second edition teaches you how to create plugins of varying complexity ranging from a few lines of code to complex extensions that provide intricate new capabilities.You'll start by using the basic mechanisms provided in WordPress to create plugins and execute custom user code. You will then see how to design administration panels, enhance the post editor with custom fields, store custom data, and modify site behavior based on the value of custom fields. You'll safely incorporate dynamic elements on web pages using scripting languages, and build new widgets that users will be able to add to WordPress sidebars and widget areas.By the end of this book, you will be able to create WordPress plugins to perform any task you can imagine.What you will learnDiscover how to register user callbacks with WordPress, forming the basis of plugin creationExplore the creation of administration pages and adding new content management sections through custom post types and custom database tablesImprove your plugins by customizing the post and page editors, categories and user profiles, and creating visitor-facing formsMake your pages dynamic using Javascript, AJAX and adding new widgets to the platformLearn how to add support for plugin translation and distribute your work to the WordPress communityWho This Book Is ForIf you are a WordPress user, developer, or a site integrator with basic knowledge of PHP and an interest to create new plugins to address your personal needs, client needs, or share with the community, then this book is for you.Table of ContentsPreparing a Local Development EnvironmentPlugin Framework BasicsUser Settings and Administration PagesThe Power of Custom Post TypesCustomizing Post and Page EditorsAccepting User Content SubmissionCustomizing user dataCreating Custom MySQL Database TablesLeveraging javascript, jQuery and AJAX scriptsAdding New Widgets to WordPress' LibraryEnabling Plugin InternationalizationDistributing your plugin on wordpress.org Read more