Before we left off, in the first article of the series about creating web applications using WordPress, I recommended to search and install some plugins. The plugins are to save us a lot of time of coding. Those plugins are Advanced Custom Fields and Custom Post Type UI, both free but with premium features to pay for if needed.
However is our class, we will not need any premium feature. It’s our zeal to develop something that will allow us the opportunity.
Looking at the web application we shall build.
It’s always good to plugin before developing anything that will used by people. Because what we are building must be a solution to a problem.
For this tutorial we shall develop a web application where we can store and retrieve book keeping records easily, without using a pen and book. So the basic features of our application will to record our budget, Cash out and Cash In. Since other people like friends and family could also be suffering with book keeping, we shall also allow anyone to register for an account on our system, allow them to login and able to record and retrieve their records.
Which means we need a user management system but WordPress has one already. All we need is to show a registration and login forms to the user.
For that case we need a plugin. But which is that among the many that exist! Before I mention and recommend I would like to hear your opinion.
Thanks for reading and contributing!
Tag: WordPress Plugin
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How to create Web Applications using WordPress! Part 2
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Take action and paint your vision.
For so many months I have been pondering on whether I should learn git or not, I know I needed it than I wanted. Though I kept on procrastinating which made everything difficult. To the extend that even the little I knew evaded from my brain.A few weeks ago, a friend(Bosco Anthony) shared his with me, his TedEx talk video and did more to me especially igniting my motivation.In his video he shared about the game changing ingredients which are Purpose and Momentum. And he shared what he knows are the 5 real life applications for fueling one’s purpose. What interested me more was accountability and vision.How would you achieve a vision if you are not accountable, how easy will it be if you practiced clarity?Last night I wrote a tutorial which could help anyone learn how to create a WordPress plugin.Yesterday (3rd/July/2016), besides being a Sunday, I utilized the day instead of relaxing to create templates for the products I’m about to bring to the market, in addition to creating a WordPress plugin, which will help WordPress website owners add 120px by 600px banners to their websites without writing a single piece of code or waiting for a web administrator to do it for you.This plugin is already uploaded to github.com.
A screenshot of the process as I pushed to github via Git CMD. So that anyone can do whatever he wants do to it for free. Whether you install it on your blog or fork it and contribute to it, you’re welcome. Before the end of the day, I will try to upload it to WordPresss.org, fingers crossed. It will be my first in the repository. You may find it here, if you want it.Little of this would happen if I hadn’t watched this 18 minute video. In fact, sincerely, the words Bosco shared helped me find Rhythm and introspect.You can access the video here on youtube. -
Simplest WordPress plugins creation, Part 1.
There is no question WordPress is the most popular Content Management System, in the world of CMS possibly because of it’s simplistic and the free blog platform wordpress.com and support for several features; theming, plugins, widgets, media management and more being the most notable. I personally love SEO support that it comes with out of box.
WordPress.org has over 45k plugins!
Actually wordpress.org has ove 40,000 plugins and more are coming in. So why do I teach someone who to make a plugin? Simply because you may have an idea that is not yet executed though it could be useful to you and other WordPress users. So if you read this short tutorial and other parts, you will be able to do that whenever you want.
Tip: WordPress plugins can be monetized hence make some income for you.Prerequisite knowledge you should have/know.
It’s important to check yourself for the technologies below.
- HTML, CSS & PHP knowledge (Must)
- Javascript/Jquery/Angular knowledge is a plus
- A text editor such as Notepad++, Brackets & Sublime, etc.
- A fully working WordPress installation, running on a local/private server. Testing on local(development) set up, is recommended in order not harm the website the visitors are viewing.
Step 1. In a folder of your choice, create a main PHP file of your plugin and name it. e.g my_plugin.php
For preview purposes, I suggest to create a folder, residing in the WordPress plugin folder.
Which is located at /wordpress_install_folder/wp-content/plugins
If you have xampp installed on your development machine, you have this folder in the path; c:/xampp/htdocs/wordpress_install_folder/wp-content/plugins
Step 2: Add plugin code to the filea.Tell WordPress about your Plugin
A WordPress plugin begins with code that describes the plugin, they code is so helpful for installation, uninstall and management of the plugin. It also makes extending the plugin or updating it’s code easier. Such details include:- Plugin Name, Description, Tags, Author, Version, Author URI and etc. As a general rule of thumb this code goes at the start of the file, enclosed in comments.
Example:
/*
Plugin Name: My Plugin
Author: awebdesigner
Author URI: http://fictiontoactual.wordpress.com
Description: My Plugin is a cool plugin and it will print the date at the footer of website. For illustration purposes.
Version: 0.0.1
*/
b. Add code to do the real thing
add_action(‘wp_footer’,’print_date’);
function print_date(){
echo date(‘Y’);
}
Step 3: Compress and upload to server.
Let see it in action. Compress the plugin and upload it to your site.
Notice: Since WordPress is coded using PHP, it’s plugins supports everything PHP supports, includes, services, MYSQL etc. Don’t limit yourself.
What’s next? Improving the functionality of our WordPress Plugin by adding to the Admin Menu, integrating a form which saves something and display to the users.
