How to start WordPress Development
Are you a web developer and has frequently seen the word WordPress
with blogging topics? Want to take the WordPress development as a career, you
can go ahead. WordPress was initially made as a blogging platform, but
extensibility and wide user base of the platform has made it the real giant. WordPress
today is the most used CMS in the world. There are many popular websites with
millions of visitors are made with WordPress. So we can assume it is not going
anywhere sooner.
So, first you should gauge your skills,
At which level you consider yourself.
Have you ever used WordPress before?, are you a blogger who
uses WordPress but don’t know its internals? Are you a web template maker who
wishes to go ahead and continue the WordPress
theme development as a Career.
So, let’s decide your level
Beginner
- Has no coding experience at all.
- Has no or little knowledge of HTML/CSS/JS
- No experience with any programming language or has no code editing skills
Intermediate
- Know the basic web development stuffs – has coded in HTML and css
- Like to play with the structural part of the WordPress / html themes
- No programming knowledge
Advanced Rookie developer (Open to alternate suggestions)
- You know basic frontend development (HTML/CSS/JS)
- You know basic PHP and you can edit code.
Beginner Developer:
The complete beginner are those who has zero knowledge about
the code or even html –css stuffs
You have a lot of the work to do, First get familiar with
the web and how it works.
Know the basics about how browsers work and how contents are
rendered into the browser. You can also setup the web development environment
in your own computer; The only thing you should install is a software stack for
php development,
Environment for Windows Users
If you are using some version of the windows operating system,
then you have many options to choose from. There are two options which I will
show you.
1.
Wamp Server – Wamp server is the complete mysql
, php development environment which allows you to code and develop web applications on your own computer
2.
Xampp Server – Pretty much same as wamp
For Mac User
If you are using
some version of the mac OS, you can install MAMP which can be dubbed as Mac
Apache Mysql PHP.
Using these local development softwares, you can quickly
code, deploy and test your code locally. If you are complete beginner, you can
use some recommended sources like Code Academy and Udemy.
As on now, most of the modern browser are well equipped with
developer console and dom inspector tools which are great advantages compared
to few years back. You can use chrome inspector, Firefox developer tool,
scratch pad even debug the running JavaScript.
For Intermediate User:
These are the people who are not actually new to the web
development, but somewhat familiar with the HTML and CSS works. You can use
some fancy tools like Code editors, IDE or Basic text based code editors. You
know how to use the browser inspect and debugging feature to minimal. You know
what php is (but may not how it works), you can put some php variables in to
templates as directed by a developer or shown in the template manuals.
In the above case, you are an intermediate user. The first thing
you should do is install php development environment in your pc.(check above
point)
Learn basic server-side web development. Make small php-mysql website, create registration form, some posting, user management (CRUD operations). Once you get little confidence try moving up towards the image manipulation (use library) and file management. Learn a little by little about functional and OOP based php web development methodology. Some resources are,
Code Academy
Code Academy has some really quick and effective php
development tutorials with basic code examples.
Codecource
Code course is a free source of the php web development tutorial. The course offers many different view of working on php with great content.
Treehouse :
Treehouse is a premium web development cources directory. The Tree house has more than 20-25 hours of recorded video tutorials
For Rookie Web developer
You know front end programming and you have the basic php
coding knowledge, you are a php Rookie developer. You are familiar with how
wordpress functions and main loop works.
Start Learning Wordpress Themes and Plugins development.
Now, as you know php, file handling and how the general web
development is done, you start learning WordPress theme development. You can
use online Tutorials available on the
Youtube, you can subscribe to some premium tutorial such as offered by
TreeHouse, Tut+ and Udemy, like
Theme Shaper (https://themeshaper.com/)
Theme Shaper is official website where, the team of wordpress theme development team from Automattic shares their thoughts and tutorial about latest theme development trends. There are many WordPress topics covered deeply.
Tut+ wordpress Theme development tutorial
Tut+ is a premium web-development tutorial website, there you can find many tutorials on developing new WordPress website and customization.
WordPress Codex
WordPress codex is the official functional reference to the WordPress framework code. The site may not look promising, but it is the best source for new beginner to start over using the WordPress in-built functions and hooks.
Strengthen your Foundation:
Learn JavaScript and responsive
web design basics.
As you start development with WordPress, you will come to
know about the different tricks required with HTML/CSS and JS.
Try learning some advanced js framework like Jquery which is
by default bundled with WordPress. And
we all know that it has played a crucial role in the core WordPress usability. Play
with Jquery for a while.
Experiment with Plugin Hooks and actions, try to add new
features to your website like, custom excerpt, custom post type, tracking view
of the visitors of particular post, adding the custom advertisement between the
post content etc.
Help and Guidance
There are many blooming WordPress community, you can ask your question on various places to find answers and get to the peers.
Stack Overflow: Stack overflow is a programmers google for solving their problems, here you can find answers of almost any of the currently used tech, each of the community has really large userbase and supportive culture
Reddit has some dedicated
channels for the WordPress development topics.
Start doing WordPress development now.
