The Fundamentals of Creating Sound Plugins

Thanks to WordPress core making plugins to add functionality is not that difficult. However for each plugin you make, there are some sound principles you should follow in order to make your plugin the best it can be.

This talk will teach you some of the principles to follow when making your plugins, which will make it easier for you to develop and upgrade your plugin, as well as allowing other developers to make changes in a safer way and keep things secure. Ideal for beginners and intermediate developers in plugin development.

Transcript

1. https://highrise.digital @wpmark The Fundamentals of Creating Sound Plugins Mark Wilkinson
 WordCamp Manchester 2017
2. https://highrise.digital @wpmark #1 Security
3. https://highrise.digital @wpmark sanitize_*() sanitize_text_field() / sanitize_email() sanitize_option() / sanitize_title_with_dashes() sanitize_option() …
4. https://highrise.digital @wpmark esc_*() esc_url() / esc_html() esc_attr() / esc_textarea() esc_js() …
5. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Others wp_kses_post() absint() / intval() wp_redirect() / wp_safe_redirect() $wpdb->* / is_email() array_map( 'absint', $array ) …
6. https://highrise.digital @wpmark <input type="text" name="title" value="" />
7. https://highrise.digital @wpmark <input type="text" name="title" value="" /> $title = sanitize_text_field( $_POST['title'] ); update_post_meta( $post_id, 'title', $title );
8. https://highrise.digital @wpmark <input type="text" name="title" value="" /> $title = sanitize_text_field( $_POST['title'] ); update_post_meta( $post_id, 'title', $title ); $title = get_post_meta( $post_id, 'title', true ); echo esc_html( $title );
9. https://highrise.digital @wpmark #2 Reliability / Scalability
10. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Watch out for notices & warnings 'WP_DEBUG' = true
11. https://highrise.digital @wpmark
12. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Efficient Queries posts_per_page = -1
13. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Efficient Queries posts_per_page = -1 posts_per_page = 100
14. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Efficient Queries posts_per_page = -1 posts_per_page = 100 meta_query = array( … )
15. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Efficient Queries posts_per_page = -1 posts_per_page = 100 meta_query = array( … ) tax_query = array( … )
16. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Efficient Queries posts_per_page = -1 posts_per_page = 100 meta_query = array( … ) tax_query = array( … ) https://10up.github.io/Engineering-Best-Practices/php/
17. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Complex Queries Cache ‘em get_transient() set_transient() wp_cache_set() wp_cache_get()
18. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Don’t re-invent the wheel! Use WordPress functions
19. https://highrise.digital @wpmark #3 Maintainability
20. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Activation / De-activation register_activation_hook( __FILE__, ‘hd_function_to_run’ );
21. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Activation / De-activation register_deactivation_hook( __FILE__, ‘hd_function_to_run’ );
22. https://highrise.digital @wpmark uninstall.php Runs when a user deletes the plugin Clean up options, removing DB tables https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/the-basics/uninstall-methods/
23. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Use functions / methods get_option( 'hd_version' );
24. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Use functions / methods get_option( 'hd_version' ); hd_get_version();
25. https://highrise.digital @wpmark #4 Compatibility
26. https://highrise.digital @wpmark prefix_all get_version();
27. https://highrise.digital @wpmark prefix_all get_version(); hd_get_version();
28. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Enqueue Scripts / Styles wp_enqueue_script(); wp_enqueue_style();
29. https://highrise.digital @wpmark #5 Extensibility https://wordpress.tv/2014/08/29/mark-wilkinson-easy-extensible-plugins/
30. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Template Overrides if ( file_exists( STYLESHEETPATH . '/file.php' ) { // load template from theme. } else { // load template from plugin. }
31. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Function Overrides if ( ! function_exists( 'hd_function' ) { function hd_function() { // some function stuff! } }
32. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Actions & Filters do_action(); apply_filters();
33. https://highrise.digital @wpmark #6 Usability
34. https://highrise.digital @wpmark
35. https://highrise.digital @wpmark
36. https://highrise.digital @wpmark Mark Wilkinson WordPress Developer & Co-founder @ Highrise Digital https://highrise.digital @wpmark