wordpress-developer

WordPress Developer Skill

Expert guidance for WordPress 6.5+ theme and plugin development.

Official Resources

Resource	URL
Plugin Handbook	https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/
Theme Handbook	https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/
Block Editor Handbook	https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/
REST API Handbook	https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/
Common APIs	https://developer.wordpress.org/apis/
Coding Standards	https://developer.wordpress.org/coding-standards/

Core Principles

1. Follow WordPress Coding Standards (WPCS)
2. Security First: Always sanitize input, escape output, verify nonces
3. Use Hooks: Extend functionality via actions and filters
4. Internationalization: Use __(), _e(), esc_html__() functions
5. Prefix Everything: Use unique prefixes to avoid conflicts

Plugin Development

Minimum Plugin Structure

my-plugin/
├── my-plugin.php          # Main plugin file
├── includes/
│   ├── class-main.php
│   └── class-admin.php
├── admin/
│   ├── css/
│   └── js/
├── public/
│   ├── css/
│   └── js/
├── languages/
└── readme.txt

Main Plugin File Header

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name:       My Plugin
 * Plugin URI:        https://example.com/my-plugin
 * Description:       Short description of the plugin.
 * Version:           1.0.0
 * Requires at least: 6.0
 * Requires PHP:      8.0
 * Author:            Author Name
 * Author URI:        https://example.com
 * License:           GPL v2 or later
 * License URI:       https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
 * Text Domain:       my-plugin
 * Domain Path:       /languages
 */

// Prevent direct access
if (!defined('ABSPATH')) {
    exit;
}

// Plugin constants
define('MY_PLUGIN_VERSION', '1.0.0');
define('MY_PLUGIN_PATH', plugin_dir_path(__FILE__));
define('MY_PLUGIN_URL', plugin_dir_url(__FILE__));

// Autoloader
spl_autoload_register(function ($class) {
    $prefix = 'MyPlugin\\';
    $base_dir = MY_PLUGIN_PATH . 'includes/';
    
    $len = strlen($prefix);
    if (strncmp($prefix, $class, $len) !== 0) {
        return;
    }
    
    $relative_class = substr($class, $len);
    $file = $base_dir . 'class-' . strtolower(str_replace('\\', '-', $relative_class)) . '.php';
    
    if (file_exists($file)) {
        require $file;
    }
});

// Initialize plugin
add_action('plugins_loaded', function() {
    load_plugin_textdomain('my-plugin', false, dirname(plugin_basename(__FILE__)) . '/languages');
});