WordPress Development Cheat Sheet: Things You Need to Know!

Posted by Nitin Jain / January 10th, 2023 / No responses

Do you want to learn WordPress development? Whether you’re a beginner or an expert developer, this cheat sheet will help you get up to speed quickly. This article will discuss the seven most important things you need to know for WordPress development. We’ll cover everything from creating a new plugin to adding custom post types and taxonomies. So whether you’re just starting or looking for a refresher course, keep reading for essential WordPress development tips!

Most Important Things You Need to Know for WordPress Development

1. WordPress Core –

WordPress Core is the most important thing to understand for WordPress development. It’s a collection of files and programming code that makes WordPress function properly. You’ll need to be familiar with WordPress core if you want to create custom themes and plugins and make changes to your WordPress site’s functionality.

2. Theme Development -

WordPress themes determine how your website looks and functions. They visually represent your content and let visitors interact with it intuitively. When developing WordPress themes, you’ll need to create HTML templates, add CSS stylesheets, and write JavaScript scripts to customize your site’s look and feel.

3. Plugin Development –

Plugins allow users to extend WordPress’ functionality beyond its core capabilities. And when you develop WordPress plugins, you’ll need to become familiar with WordPress hooks, filters, and APIs so your plugin can interact seamlessly with WordPress.

4. Security –

WordPress is a popular target for hackers and spammers because of its broad user base. To ensure your website is safe, you’ll need to know all the best practices for WordPress security, such as using strong passwords, setting up automated backups, and using a secure web hosting platform.

5. Database Management –

WordPress depends on MySQL database in order to store data about your posts, users, comments and settings. If you want to make changes to this data or create custom post types or taxonomies in WordPress, you’ll need to know the basics of MySQL.

6. WordPress APIs –

WordPress has numerous APIs that allow developers to interact with WordPress in various ways, such as creating plugins and themes or making custom queries. To use WordPress APIs effectively, you’ll need to be familiar with WordPress’ action hooks, filters, and functions.

7. WordPress Multisite –

WordPress Multisite is a feature of WordPress that allows you to run multiple websites from one WordPress installation. Suppose you want to use this powerful feature. In that case, you will need to become comfortable with its core concepts, like creating new sites, managing users and permissions, and configuring domain mapping.

These are some most important things you need to know for WordPress development. WordPress development is a complex and diverse field, but with these tips, you’ll be on the right path to creating great WordPress sites in no time!

Learn More About WordPress Development

WordPress development can be pretty complex, and it’s essential to understand the basics before diving in. WordPress has an extensive Codex that explains many of the core WordPress functions. Additionally, plenty of online tutorials can help you quickly get up to speed with WordPress development. From creating custom plugins to adding new post types and taxonomies, understanding the different WordPress functions is essential for successful WordPress development.

WordPress Functions: Essential for Successful WordPress Development

Get Familiar with Your Theme:

WordPress themes provide a great way to transform your site into something unique and attractive. When developing a WordPress theme, it’s essential to understand how all its features work together and how they interact with WordPress. Get comfortable with your chosen theme by exploring its various settings and options and getting familiar with WordPress’WordPress’s template hierarchy and the WordPress Template Tags.

Understand WordPress Hooks:

WordPress hooks are one of WordPress’ most powerful features, allowing you to add extra functionality to your site by hooking into WordPress’ native functions. Get familiar with WordPress’s various Action and Filter hooks and how they work together so that you can use them to enhance your WordPress development projects.

Secure Your Site: WordPress security is paramount when it comes to development. Always ensure that your site is up-to-date with the latest version of WordPress and any plugins or themes you use. Additionally, take advantage of secure coding practices such as escaping data inputted through forms before storing it in the database or using WordPress’ nonce functions to prevent malicious requests.

Use WordPress Coding Standards:

WordPress coding standards ensure that your code is uniform, readable and secure. Be sure to read WordPress Codex’s guidelines for coding standards and familiarize yourself with WordPress-specific PHP functions to write clean and efficient code.

Create a Development Environment:

When working on WordPress projects, it’s essential to set up a development environment where you can test out changes before pushing them live. WordPress provides an easy way to do this with its WordPress Multisite feature. With this feature, you can create multiple websites locally or on a shared server, allowing you to develop and experiment without affecting your live site.

Install WordPress Locally:

If you don’t want to use WordPress Multisite, then you can install WordPress locally on your computer. Plenty of free WordPress development tools, such as XAMPP and MAMP, let you run WordPress on your computer and easily create a local WordPress site.

Understand the WordPress Database Structure:

Before making any changes to your WordPress database, it’s essential to understand its structure. Familiarize yourself with MySQL commands such as SELECT and INSERT so that you can retrieve data from or add data to the WordPress tables safely and securely. Also, always keep regular backups of your WordPress database in case something goes wrong.

With these seven essential things in mind, WordPress development can be much easier to understand and manage. Keep these tips in mind when designing custom WordPress solutions for clients or your website.

With the proper preparation, WordPress development can be a fruitful process. If you understand the basics of WordPress development, use WordPress coding standards and create a secure development environment, you’ll be well on the way to creating successful WordPress solutions!

Final Words

WordPress development is a powerful tool for creating custom WordPress sites. With the right tools, knowledge and security measures in place, WordPress development can be fun and rewarding! So get coding and have fun building your WordPress site!