The first steps…

• Pre‐development issues
– Wordpress Plugin Directory
– Plugin and File Names
– File Headers
• Wordpress Plugin Hooks 
– Actions 
– Filters
• Adding data to wordpress database
– Creating tables with plugins
• Adding Administration Menus
– Creating options page
• “Hello Dolly” example
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 Pre‐development issues (1)
Wordpress Plugin Directory 
code

javascript

wp‐content plugins your plugin

css

place your plugin here images

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 Pre‐development issues (2)
Plugin and File Names

Choose  your  plugin’s name  carefully.  Think  about 

what the plugin will do, and make a, hopefully unique, 
name for it. 

It is good for the names of your php files to be derived 
from your chosen plugin name.

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 Pre‐development issues (3)
File Headers

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Wordpress Plugin Hooks (1)
Hooks are provided to allow your plugin to 'hook into' the rest
of WordPress; that is, to call functions in your plugin at specific
times, and thereby set your plugin in motion.

Hooks

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 Wordpress Plugin Hooks (2)
Hooks = Actions + Filters
Actions are triggered by specific events (e.g. publishing a
post ) that take place in WordPress. Your plugin can respond
to the event by executing a PHP function

Action Event
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 Wordpress Plugin Hooks (3)
Hooks = Actions + Filters
Filters - Functions

DATA

Filters are functions that WordPress passes data through

at certain points in execution, just before taking some
action with the data such as adding it to the database or
sending it to the browser screen.
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 Adding data to Wordpress database
Create tables with plugins
There are two types of information you could store
• Setup Information: user choices that are entered when the user first sets up
your plugin.
• Data: information that is added as the user continues to use your plugin

Steps…
1. Write a PHP function that creates the table.
2. Ensure that WordPress calls the function when the plugin is activated.
3. Create an upgrade function, if a new version of your plugin needs to have a
different table structure.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_Tables_with_Plugins#Create_Database_Tables
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 A simple example
$table_name = $wpdb->prefix . "liveshoutbox";

// check if there is a table with the same name

if($wpdb->get_var("show tables like '$table_name'") != $table_name) {

// SQL Statement
$sql = "CREATE TABLE " . $table_name . " (
id mediumint(9) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
time bigint(11) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
name tinytext NOT NULL,
text text NOT NULL,
url VARCHAR(55) NOT NULL,
UNIQUE KEY id (id)
);";

// Creating the table

require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php');
dbDelta($sql);
 A simple example
$welcome_name = "Mr. Wordpress";
$welcome_text = "Congratulations, you just completed the installation!";

// SQL Statememt
$insert = "INSERT INTO " . $table_name .
" (time, name, text) " .
"VALUES ('" . time() . "','" . $wpdb->escape($welcome_name) . "','" . $wpdb->escape($welcome_text) .
"')";

// Adding Data into the table

$results = $wpdb->query( $insert );
 Adding Administration Menus
Create options page
Top-level menus: Settings, Manage, Plugins, Presentation, Write, Users

Admin Menu Functions

• add_menu_page: create a top-level menu
• add_submenu_page: define one or more sub-menu pages
In the above wordpress functions the developers defined the name of their php
functions which are responsible to build the options pages.
See an example here
http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_Options_Pages

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 Hello Dolly example

Hello Dolly Lyrics Chose randomly one lyric and place it

the upper right of your Administation
panels

add_action('admin_footer', 'hello_dolly');

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Wordpress Development Community
Are you ready to enter into an
evolving development community?

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Matt Mullenweg
Creator of Wordpress.org

14th place
The 25 most influential
people on the web
(2008)

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 More details on the internet…
The truth is out there…

http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_a_Plugin#WordPress_Plugin_Hooks
http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API
http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_Tables_with_Plugins
http://codex.wordpress.org/Adding_Administration_Menus

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 THE END

Thank you!

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