General

• John Hughes. Building a WordPress Plugin Series. Torque, 2016.
  • This series is great in many ways (covers a broad spectrum, recommends a number of other resources), but has a few significant weaknesses that keep it from being the gold standard, namely: the code samples oftentimes don’t mention exactly where they are supposed to go; a lot of things happen in the code that aren’t explained; certain parts feel very rushed.
  • Part 1: First Steps and Setting the Scene.
    • Brief intro, shows how to create hello world plugin.
  • Part 2: Getting Off to a Solid Start.
    • Introduces us to WordPress Plugin Boilerplate, which seems to have good principles but I’m not seeing actually used as a framework in popular plugins I’ve evaluated.
  • Part 3: Setting Up a Custom Content Type.
    • We create a Custom Post Type, the method in which Hughes’ defines the CPT is a bit verbose for my liking, recommending looking at other articles on this subject.
  • Part 4: Looking at Displaying Content Via Shortcodes.
    • We create shortcodes and learn about using templates for display.
  • Part 5: Finishing Off Our Settings.
    • We learn how to add a setting pages and create a checkbox option.
  • Part 6: Further Options and Final Thoughts.
    • A good list of resources for learning more about WP plugin development.
• Fred Meyer. Writing a WordPress Plugin from Scratch: A Step-by-Step Tutorial. wpshout, 2019.
• Daniel Pataki. Getting Started with WordPress Plugin Development. wpmudev, 2017.
  • The created plugin integrates Facebook’s Open Graph with WP.
• Guillaume Kanoufi. How to Build a WordPress Plugin Series. scotch, 2015.
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
• Fred Meyer. How to Write Your First Public WordPress Plugin. wpshout, 2015.
• Pippin Williamson. Plugin Development 101 Series. 2013-2014.
  • 1. Introduction.
  • 2. What Makes a Plugin?
  • 3. General Best Practices.
  • 4. An Intro to Filters.
  • 5. Intro to Actions.
  • 6. Registering a Custom Post Type.
  • 7. Intro to Shortcodes.
  • 8. Intro to Loading Scripts and Styles.
  • 9. Introduction to Adding Dashboard Menus.
  • 10. Separating Your Plugin into Multiple Files.
  • 11. Your First OOP Plugin.
  • 12. Dissecting the Featured Comments Plugin.
  • 13. Digging Into WordPress Core to Solve a Problem.
  • 14. Introduction to Extending Classes.
• Pippin Williamson. Writing Your First WordPress Plugins, Basic to Advanced. 2011.
  • 1. How to Begin Writing Your First WordPress Plugin.
  • 2. Structuring Your First WordPress Plugin.
  • 3. Writing Your First Plugin Part I.
  • 4. Writing Your First Plugin Part II.
  • 5. Writing Your First Plugin Part III.
  • 6. Writing Your First Plugin Part IV.
  • 7. Writing Your First Plugin Part V – Final.
• Official WordPress Plugin Handbook
• WordPress Make Plugins
• WordPress Codex
  • Writing a Plugin
• Tom Rankin. A Practical Guide to Developing a WordPress Plugin. torque, 2018.

Plugin API

• Carl Alexander. Designing Classes That Use the WordPress Plugin API. 2016.

Build Plugin That Does X

• Collins Agbonghama. Building a WordPress User Login Counter Plugin. sitepoint, 2015.
• Narayan Prusty. Create a Most Shared Posts Plugin for WordPress. sitepoint, 2015.
• Jeremy Heleine. Building a WordPress Carousel Plugin: Part 1. sitepoint, 2015.
• Tim Carr. Create a Simple CRM in WordPress Series. envatotuts, 2015. *
  • Part 1: Creating a Custom Post Type.
  • Part 2: Creating Custom Fields.
  • Part 3: Advanced Custom Fields.
  • Part 4: Adding Columns to WP_List_Table.
  • Part 5: Extending WordPress Search.
  • Part 6: Restricting / Hiding Menu Items.
  • Part 7: Using Custom Capabilities.
• Narayan Prusty. Creating a Post Series Plugin for WordPress. sitepoint, 2015.
• Bilal Shahid. Creating Upcoming Events Plugin in WordPress Series. envatotuts, 2014.
  • Introduction.
  • Creating the Widget.
• Lisa Sabin-Wilson. Customizing the WordPress Dashboard by Creating a Simple Admin Theme Plugin. webdevstudios, 2014.
• Collins Agbonghama. How to Build a WordPress Plugin to Identify Old Posts. envatotuts, 2014.
• Remi Corson. How to Create a Simple WordPress FAQ Plugin. wpexplorer, 2018.
• Narayan Prusty. How to Create a YouTube Embed Plugin for WordPress. sitepoint, 2015.
• Fred Meyer. Making jQuery Plugins into WordPress Plugins. wpshout, 2014.
• William Tam. Using Oauth in WordPress Plugins, Part 1: The Basics. WNET, 2015.
• William Tam. Using Oauth in WordPress Plugins, Part 2: Persistence! WNET, 2015.
• Ahmed Bouchefra. Building a WordPress Plugin with Vue. sitepoint, 2018.
• Kailan Wyatt. Create a WordPress Bookshelf Plugin. sitepoint, 2012.
• Rachel McCollin. Create a WordPress Image Gallery: Code the Plugin. envatotuts, 2018.
• Collins Agbonghama. Creating a Custom WordPress Registration Form Plugin. envatotuts, 2014.
• Pippin Williamson. Write a Better Related Posts Plugin for Custom Taxonomies. 2011.
• Pippin Williamson. Write an Advanced Maintenance Mode Plugin. 2011.
• Rakhitha Nimesh. Simple WordPress Plugin to Follow Your Favorite Authors. 2012.
• Pippin Williamson. Simple Flickr Display Plugin. 2011.
• Sameer Borate. How to Create an Embeddable Plugin for WordPress. smashing magazine, 2012.
• Catalin Dogaru. How to Create a WordPress Avatar Management Plugin from Scratch Series. envatotuts+, 2013.
  • 1. Getting Started.
  • 2. Finishing Touches.
• Japh Thompson. Building the Favorite Plugins Plugin. envatotuts+, 2012.
• Aleksandra Laczek. Building a Simple Announcements Plugin for WordPress. envatotuts+, 2012.
• Collins Agbonghama. Build Your Own WordPress Contact Form Plugin in 5 Minutes. sitepoint, 2014.
• Damian Logghe. How to Develop a Simple Content Locker Plugin Using WordPress. tutsplus, 2014.
• Jarkko Laine. Create a License Controlled Update System Series. tutsplus, 2015.
  • Part 1: The License Manager Plugin.
  • Part 2: The License Manager API.
  • Part 3: Doing the Update.

OOP Plugin Development

• Aaron Overton. Getting Started with Object-Oriented WordPress Plugin Development. codementor, 2017.
• Jack Reichert. Object Oriented WordPress Plugin Development. 2016.

Page Templates in Plugins

• Harri Bell-Thomas. Add Page Templates to WordPress with a Plugin. wpexplorer, 2019.
  • Explains how to add a page template as an option to the WP Post Editor page type meta box.
  • Recommended by Fred Meyer.
• Rob Neu. An Alternative to WordPress Plugin Templates. wp site care, 2019.
  • Suggests using a method similar to Genesis where “the entire theme is made up of hooked callback functions and template parts which can be unhooked and/or filtered before they output to the browser.”
• Tom McFarlin. Including Custom Templates in Our WordPress Plugins. 2019.
  • Covers why it is okay to include custom templates in our plugins sometimes, how Tom organizes his template code, examples of single and archive templates, etc.
• Ben Marshall. Add WordPress Plugin Template Files. 2017.
• Pippin Williamson. Template File Loaders in Plugins. 2013. *
  • While older this is a classic article on template file loaders and uses Gary Jones’ Gamajo Template Loader, there is also a git repo with a working plugin example.

Other Articles

• Jakub. Lessons Learned While Developing WordPress Plugins. Smashing Magazine, 2018.
• Emerson. Making a WordPress Plugin That Uses Service APIs, “From Soup to Nuts.” Smashing Magazine, 2016.
• Brenda Barron. I Made a WordPress Plugin from Scratch: A Noob’s Diary of Success and Failure. wpmudev, 2015.
• Tom McFarlin. Developing Plugins With WordPress Boilerplates Series. 2013.
  • Why Boilerplates Matter.
  • Building a Plugin.
• Anne Dorko. Building a Custom WordPress Plugin From Scratch Like the Pros. 2016.
• Rachel McCollin. How to Create a WordPress Plugin. wpmudev, 2016.
• Tim Carr. Making Your WordPress Plugins Developer Friendly. sitepoint, 2015.
• Tim Carr. Making Your WordPress Plugins Even More Developer Friendly. sitepoint, 2015.
• Daniel Pataki. Pile Gallery – The Making of a WordPress Plugin. WebDesignLedger, 2014.
• Tom McFarlin. Properly Writing WordPress Plugin Constructors. 2016.
• Brady Vercher. Structuring WordPress Plugins. cedaro, 2016.
• Brandon Yanofsky. Want to Create a WordPress Plugin? Here’s What You Should Know. Torque, 2015.
• Daniel Pataki. WordPress Development for Beginners: Building Plugins. wpmudev, 2016.
• Rachel McCollin. WordPress Developer for Intermediate Users: Building Plugins. wpmudev, 2017.
• Daniel Pataki. WordPress Essentials: How To Create a WordPress Plugin. Smashing Magazine, 2011.
• Chris Burgess. WordPress Plugin Development for Beginners. sitepoint, 2016.
• Christopher Casper. Writing a Custom WordPress Plugin. residebrokerage, 2018.
• Freddy. Writing a Simple WordPress Plugin, Beginner Tutorial. wpexplorer, 2017.
• Pippin Williamson. Checking if a Dependent Plugin is Active. 2013.
• Building Reactive WordPress Plugins Series. delicious brains, 2016.

Resources

• The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate – An open source, github project providing boilerplate code for writing WordPress plugins.
  • WordPress Plugin Boilerplate Generator – Generates a customized version of the above.
  • Devin Vinson who now manages this project has written an article explaining how to create a simple WP plugin using boilerplate with just a few lines of code.
• Herbert – An open source plugin framework.
• Gary Jones’ Gamajo Template Loader – Seems to be the de facto standard class for adding templates to plugins that can be overridden by themes.
• WordPress Plugin Template.