You, Too, Can Write a Plugin

The idea of writing a WordPress plugin can be intimidating if you've never done it before. It's not nearly as hard as you think! This presentation walks you through writing a simple plugin, and goes over some tips on writing your own in the future.

Slide 4 is a video showing me searching for "WordPress plugin header" in Google, copying & pasting the example header into a plugin file, and modifying the comment text to make my own plugin.

Transcript

1. YOU, TOO, CAN WRITE A PLUGIN ALISON BARRETT WORDCAMP ALBUQUERQUE 2013
2. YOUR FIRST PLUGIN
3. GOAL ✤ Show up on the plugins page
6. ✤ Making a plugin is easy! ✤ Even the pros use Google. WHAT WE LEARNED
7. THE END QUESTIONS? JK, LOL
8. *THE FIRST ONE THAT ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING YOUR SECOND PLUGIN*
9. GOALS ✤ Put an author bio at the end of every post ✤ Use the bio field from the author's profile ✤ Show the author's gravatar ✤ Only show on single posts
12. <?php /* Plugin  Name:  Super  Amazing  Author  Bio  Appender Plugin  URI:  http://example.com/author-­‐bio-­‐appender/ Description:  Display  an  author  bio  at  the  end  of  each  post Author:  Alison  Barrett Version:  1.0 Author  URI:  http://alisothegeek.com Text  Domain:  author-­‐bio-­‐appender Domain  Path:  /lang */
13. function  saaba_insert_bio(  $content  )  {        global  $post;        $bio_text  =  wpautop(  get_user_meta(  $post-­‐>post_author,  'description',  true  )  );        $author_bio  =  '<div  class="saaba-­‐author-­‐bio">'  .  $bio_text  .  '</div>';        $content  .=  $author_bio;        return  $content; } add_filter(  'the_content',  'saaba_insert_bio'  );
15. $bio_text  =  wpautop(  get_user_meta(  $post-­‐>post_author,  'description',  true  )  ); $avatar      =  get_avatar(  $post-­‐>post_author,  72  );
16. ob_start(); ?> <div  class="saaba-­‐author-­‐bio">        <div  class="saaba-­‐gravatar">                <?php  echo  $avatar;  ?>        </div>        <div  class="saaba-­‐bio-­‐text">                <?php  echo  $bio_text;  ?>        </div> </div> <?php $author_bio  =  ob_get_clean();
17. ob_start(); ?> <div  class="saaba-­‐author-­‐bio">        <div  class="saaba-­‐gravatar">                <?php  echo  $avatar;  ?>        </div>        <div  class="saaba-­‐bio-­‐text">                <?php  echo  $bio_text;  ?>        </div> </div> <?php $author_bio  =  ob_get_clean();
19. function  saaba_styles()  {        $plugin_url  =  plugins_url(  '',  __FILE__  );        wp_enqueue_style(  'saaba',  $plugin_url  .  '/saaba-­‐style.css'  ); } add_action(  'wp_enqueue_scripts',  'saaba_styles'  );
20. .saaba-­‐author-­‐bio  {        background:  #ffffe0;        border:  1px  solid  #ebe5a6;        padding:  10px;        margin:  20px  auto; } .saaba-­‐gravatar  {        float:  left;        margin-­‐right:  10px; }
21. $bio_text        =  wpautop(  get_user_meta(  $post-­‐>post_author,  'description',  true  )  ); $avatar            =  get_avatar(  $post-­‐>post_author,  72  ); $author_name  =  get_user_meta(  $post-­‐>post_author,  'nickname',  true  );
22. <div  class="saaba-­‐author-­‐bio">        <div  class="saaba-­‐gravatar">                <?php  echo  $avatar;  ?>        </div>        <div  class="saaba-­‐bio-­‐text">                <h4>About  <?php  echo  $author_name;  ?></h4>                <?php  echo  $bio_text;  ?>        </div> </div>
25. function  saaba_insert_bio(  $content  )  {        if  (  !  is_single()  )  {                return  $content;        }        global  $post;        $bio_text        =  wpautop(  get_user_meta(  $post-­‐>post_author,  'description',  true  )  );        $avatar            =  get_avatar(  $post-­‐>post_author,  72  );        $author_name  =  get_user_meta(  $post-­‐>post_author,  'nickname',  true  );
27. WHAT WE LEARNED ✤ Use hooks in plugins to extend WordPress functionality. ✤ Enqueue your stylesheets (same goes for Javascript files).
28. PRO TIPS
29. PLUGIN FILE STRUCTURE ✤ Folder and main plugin file should have the same name (which should match the plugin slug). ✤ If there are a lot of files, use subfolders!
30. WORDPRESS DOES A LOT ✤ Formatting functions: wp-includes/formatting.php ✤ Escaping functions: wp-includes/formatting.php
33. WORDPRESS DOES A LOT ✤ Have no fear! Read code!
34. APIS TO KNOW ✤ Widget API ✤ Settings API ✤ HTTP API ✤ Rewrite API
35. WHAT SHOULD MY PLUGIN DO? ✤ Unique need on a client site? It could be useful to more people. ✤ Something you want to do on your own blog? Others might want to do it too! ✤ Want to learn something new? Make it a plugin & release it.
36. SOME OF MY FIRST PLUGINS ✤ Sidebar widget that listed pages in different colored links ✤ Wowhead search engine sidebar widget ✤ Store locator using Google Maps and custom database tables
37. THE END (FOR REALS) @ALISOTHEGEEK HTTP://ALISO.ME/MYFIRSTPLUGIN