{"id":4199,"date":"2023-11-04T23:14:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-04T23:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10003\/how-to-develop-a-wordpress-plugin-from-scratch\/"},"modified":"2023-11-05T05:47:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T05:47:56","slug":"how-to-develop-a-wordpress-plugin-from-scratch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost:10003\/how-to-develop-a-wordpress-plugin-from-scratch\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Develop a WordPress Plugin from Scratch"},"content":{"rendered":"
WordPress plugins are an integral part of extending the functionality of a WordPress website. If you have ever wanted to add custom features to your WordPress site, developing a plugin from scratch is the way to go. In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the process of developing a WordPress plugin step by step.<\/p>\n
To follow along with this tutorial, you’ll need the following:<\/p>\n
The first step is to set up the plugin structure. Create a new folder with your desired plugin name inside the Inside the “MyCustomPlugin” folder, create a new file called “my-custom-plugin.php”. This will be the main file of your plugin. Open the file in your code editor and add the following code:<\/p>\n Replace the placeholder information with your actual plugin details. This header section is important as it provides WordPress with the necessary information about your plugin.<\/p>\n Next, let’s add activation and deactivation hooks to our plugin. These hooks will be triggered when the plugin is activated or deactivated.<\/p>\n You can add any custom code inside the Let’s now add a custom admin menu to our plugin. This will allow us to configure plugin settings.<\/p>\n The The To add settings to our plugin, we need to register them using the Here, we have registered the plugin settings with the The Now, let’s add fields to our plugin settings section using the The The To save and retrieve the plugin settings, we need to update the The To retrieve the plugin settings, you can use the Replace Congratulations! You have successfully developed a WordPress plugin from scratch. It’s time to test your plugin.<\/p>\n In this tutorial, we walked through the process of developing a WordPress plugin from scratch. We covered setting up the plugin structure, adding activation and deactivation hooks, creating a custom admin menu, registering plugin settings, adding fields to plugin settings, and saving\/retrieving plugin settings.<\/p>\n WordPress plugins offer endless possibilities for extending your WordPress website. Now that you have the knowledge to develop your own plugins, you can start building custom features and functionalities to take your WordPress site to the next level. Happy coding!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WordPress plugins are an integral part of extending the functionality of a WordPress website. If you have ever wanted to add custom features to your WordPress site, developing a plugin from scratch is the way to go. In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the process of developing a WordPress Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1654,1655,1656,1653,1652],"yoast_head":"\nwp-content\/plugins<\/code> directory of your WordPress installation. For this tutorial, let’s call the plugin “MyCustomPlugin”.<\/p>\n
<?php\n\n\/*\nPlugin Name: My Custom Plugin\nPlugin URI: https:\/\/www.example.com\/my-custom-plugin\nDescription: A brief description of your plugin\nVersion: 1.0.0\nAuthor: Your Name\nAuthor URI: https:\/\/www.example.com\nLicense: GPL2\n*\/\n\n\/\/ Plugin code goes here\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Step 2: Add Activation and Deactivation Hooks<\/h2>\n
register_activation_hook( __FILE__, 'my_custom_plugin_activate' );\nregister_deactivation_hook( __FILE__, 'my_custom_plugin_deactivate' );\n\nfunction my_custom_plugin_activate() {\n \/\/ Activation code goes here\n}\n\nfunction my_custom_plugin_deactivate() {\n \/\/ Deactivation code goes here\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
my_custom_plugin_activate<\/code> and
my_custom_plugin_deactivate<\/code> functions that should be executed during the activation or deactivation process.<\/p>\n
Step 3: Add a Custom Admin Menu<\/h2>\n
add_action( 'admin_menu', 'my_custom_plugin_add_admin_menu' );\nadd_action( 'admin_init', 'my_custom_plugin_settings_init' );\n\nfunction my_custom_plugin_add_admin_menu() {\n add_menu_page(\n 'My Custom Plugin',\n 'Custom Plugin',\n 'manage_options',\n 'my_custom_plugin',\n 'my_custom_plugin_options_page'\n );\n}\n\nfunction my_custom_plugin_settings_init() {\n \/\/ Register plugin settings here\n}\n\nfunction my_custom_plugin_options_page() {\n \/\/ Options page HTML goes here\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
add_menu_page<\/code> function adds a new top-level menu item to the WordPress admin menu. You can replace the placeholder text with your desired menu name and page title.<\/p>\n
admin_init<\/code> action hook is used to register the plugin settings, which we will cover in the next step. Finally, the
my_custom_plugin_options_page<\/code> function is responsible for rendering the HTML content for our plugin settings page.<\/p>\n
Step 4: Register Plugin Settings<\/h2>\n
register_setting<\/code> and
add_settings_section<\/code> functions.<\/p>\n
function my_custom_plugin_settings_init() {\n register_setting( 'my_custom_plugin_options', 'my_custom_plugin_settings' );\n\n add_settings_section(\n 'my_custom_plugin_options_section',\n 'General Settings',\n 'my_custom_plugin_options_section_callback',\n 'my_custom_plugin'\n );\n}\n\nfunction my_custom_plugin_options_section_callback() {\n \/\/ Section description goes here\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
my_custom_plugin_options<\/code> option group and
my_custom_plugin_settings<\/code> as the option name.<\/p>\n
add_settings_section<\/code> function adds a new section to our plugin settings page with a title and a callback function to render the section’s description.<\/p>\n
Step 5: Add Fields to Plugin Settings<\/h2>\n
add_settings_field<\/code> function.<\/p>\n
function my_custom_plugin_options_section_callback() {\n echo '<p>Section description goes here.<\/p>';\n}\n\nfunction my_custom_plugin_display_setting() {\n $options = get_option( 'my_custom_plugin_settings' );\n echo '<input type=\"text\" name=\"my_custom_plugin_settings[my_custom_field]\" value=\"' . esc_attr( $options['my_custom_field'] ) . '\">';\n}\n\nfunction my_custom_plugin_settings_init() {\n register_setting( 'my_custom_plugin_options', 'my_custom_plugin_settings' );\n\n add_settings_section(\n 'my_custom_plugin_options_section',\n 'General Settings',\n 'my_custom_plugin_options_section_callback',\n 'my_custom_plugin'\n );\n\n add_settings_field(\n 'my_custom_field',\n 'Custom Field',\n 'my_custom_plugin_display_setting',\n 'my_custom_plugin',\n 'my_custom_plugin_options_section'\n );\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
my_custom_plugin_display_setting<\/code> function displays the HTML content of our custom field. In this example, we have added a text input field.<\/p>\n
add_settings_field<\/code> function adds a new field to our plugin settings section. Replace the placeholders with your desired field name, label, and display callback function.<\/p>\n
Step 6: Save and Retrieve Plugin Settings<\/h2>\n
my_custom_plugin_options_page<\/code> function.<\/p>\n
function my_custom_plugin_options_page() {\n echo '<form action=\"options.php\" method=\"post\">';\n settings_fields( 'my_custom_plugin_options' );\n do_settings_sections( 'my_custom_plugin' );\n submit_button();\n echo '<\/form>';\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
settings_fields<\/code> function outputs the hidden form fields for our plugin settings. The
do_settings_sections<\/code> function outputs the settings sections and fields.<\/p>\n
get_option<\/code> function.<\/p>\n
$options = get_option( 'my_custom_plugin_settings' );\n$customFieldValue = $options['my_custom_field'];\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
my_custom_field<\/code> with your actual field name.<\/p>\n
Step 7: Test the Plugin<\/h2>\n
\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n