8 Best Tips Every WordPress Plugin Developer Should Know

Do you want to master the development of WordPress plugins?

You have landed right then! In this blog, you will learn the 8 best tips that every WordPress plugin developer should know.

Nobody needs an introduction to WordPress being the most powerful content management system around the globe. If you want to create highly flexible and extendable websites, this is the best option to go for. And the WordPress environment is enhancing day by day with advanced themes and plugins.

If you very well know all the ins and out of WordPress development, then definitely you are aware of the benefits of incorporating plugins. This is the best way to stretch the capacity and functionality of WP sites without much effort.

But this development task is not as easy as it looks. It can take a few days to learn about this most popular CMS (content management system) but takes years to master it. That’s why we are here for you.

You can learn these best practices before you start WordPress plugin development. Surely, it will give you classy results.

So, without further ado, let’s start!

Best Tips to be the High-class WordPress Plugin Developer

Remember to Namespace the Plugin

Focusing on the namespace of the plugin is one of the crucial parts of the WordPress development process. All of your files, functions, classes, and variables should be namespaced or prefixed with your plugin name.

As you know, there are various themes and plugins used for WP websites. So to avoid conflict in future work, you should always remember to namespace the plugin. It is also helpful to avoid overwriting problems.

One of the suggestions here is to cut the name length of the plugin. You can just use the starting letters or short names. For example, instead of using ‘the_plugin’ you can use ‘tp’.

Always Try to Make a Customizable Plugin

If you are a WordPress plugin developer, making a customizable or editable plugin is a necessity. This will help you to add value to your plugin in the long run. Your plugin customer can be a developer too, who maybe wants to extend its functionality. This is one of the good tips if you want to make a growing plugin development business.

You can give the option of customizing by giving APIs and various options that lets your user do easy personalization. If you are giving custom API shortcodes, you are allowing the users to edit:

• Backgrounds, colors, borders, fonts, etc.
• Edit default plugin CSS via admin dashboard.
• Enable or disable third-party dependencies.
• Modify label styles of UI buttons and input fields.

Always Select the Best Suitable Text Editor

You should choose the text editor as per your skill set. Going for a straightforward text editor that is simple to understand is good for you.

The text editors that offer syntax highlighting are a good option to go for as per many professional developers. You can easily view and edit plugin files through text editors.

If you are using an integrated plugin environment, then you can use tools like Visual Studio Code. You can also use various added functionalities specific to WordPress. It goes well with WP development and enhances your development process.

Debugging is a Necessity

Debugging is a necessary step in every development process. No matter whether you are developing an app, a website, or a plugin, it has equal importance. Whenever you are building anything for your customers, you should definitely provide a troubleshooting feature.

As per my suggestion, you should enable it while writing code. By doing this, WordPress will show your error messages altogether, if anything goes wrong.

Turning the WP-debug mode on is one of the easiest ways to enable it. It will nicely help you to search for errors while developing the plugin. And if you find any mistake, at the same time you can correct it. It will also cut a lot of your time and effort.

But one of the most important things to keep in mind here is to turn it off in the live environment. And you are good to go to get an error-free plugin.

Security Needs Special Attention

As you know, WordPress is a widely used and updated environment. So, it is more prone to vulnerabilities and SQL injections. So, one of the major concerns of this CMS is to maintain security. If you comprise with this step, you may lose all of your hard work.

You need to regularly maintain and update the themes and plugins to secure them from hackers. This is the golden rule to provide security. You should give enough time for the security of your plugins. You can also focus on some of the sanitized inputs and escape outputs: esc_attr, esc_html, esc_textarea, wp_filter_kses, etc.

Also, there is one more concept related to the security of WP plugins called Nonces. It basically provides a nonce value that you can use only once during a form generation. And you can check for this same nonce value during the form submission. This will ensure you about a valid user request. Giving special attention to security can save you from online threats which is also a major issue in this online era.

Stick to WordPress Coding Standards

Even before starting the development process, you should know about all the WordPress coding standards. You can easily cross all the stages of development if you stick to these standards.

You must be wondering as there are numerous developments for WordPress available globally. But don’t worry, there is a common coding set available for all. A common rule set for coding helps to:

• Avoid readability issues.
• To maintain consistency.

Coding snippets are written in such a way that every person around the globe can understand them well. And you know, this is possible if you stick to all the WP coding standards. WordPress also offers standard language and accessibility standards. If you follow all such standards, you can run long in the plugin development race.

Do Caching to Speed up the Process

Whether you are developing a website, an application, any theme, or a plugin, maintaining speed is one of the important parts. And one of the easiest ways to achieve this is by caching.

WordPress has cleared the way for administrations like Siteground, or Wpengine. These have the feature of sorting. It is the best secondary option if your host is having access to WordPress explicit reserving.

Google PageSpeed is one of the good options for users running on a VPS server. It assists to do sorting and enhancing the arrangements.

Also, you can monitor problems related to different plugins. By doing this, you will be able to understand the suitable plugin for managing the speed.

Last but not least,

A Proper Plan Before Starting Development

Our last tip is to have a good plan to follow during the whole development process. It may seem simple and a common tip, but trust me, it is one of the most crucial ones behind the success of your plugin.

Without having a good strategy, your efforts and time can go in vain and the result will be a big zero. Some of the things that you can consider during planning are:

• Target the right audience and learn everything about them.
• Get a list of faqs on the competitive sites, and find answers to them.
• Go for developing a fresh plugin if the previous one doesn’t solve the problem completely.
• Organize your code well.

If you plan nicely, you can market the plugin very easily and without any hurdles.

Final Note

Plugins are a dominant part of WordPress. There are various plugin options available in the market to enhance the functionality of your WP website. Like, you can enhance SEO, add contact forms, or add any pre-order feature to your site very easily through plugins.

Also, if you want to enhance the security of your website, then you can use plugins. Or if you want to add visual techniques to your platform, then also you can choose plugins.

In short, plugins are the lifeline of any WordPress website. But the development of plugins is not as easy as it seems. It may be burdensome for many people. But with these given tips for WordPress plugin development, you can jump the problems. One can also consider WordPress development services to manage the plugins.

If you follow all these important suggestions and apply them in your development plan, you can win the situation. And generate tremendous growth for your development project.

If you have any other tips in mind, you can share them with us. And you can ask too if you still have any queries related to it. We will be happy to hear from your side as well.

Hope you find this blog informative!