What This Book Covers

Chapter 1 teaches the advantages of WordPress development, and what WordPress has to offer to plugin authors.

Chapter 2 creates a working, useful, and attractive WordPress plugin from scratch. It shows how to extract information using the WordPress API and how to use CSS to improve the look of our plugin.

Chapter 3 explores more cool things we can do with WordPress by livening up the default WordPress blogroll. The purpose of the plugin is to display the most recent posts from the sites listed in the blogroll using a nice pop-up window.

Chapter 4 uses the mixed approach, by taking advantage of creative WordPress and JavaScript techniques, in order to create an Ajax powered 'Wall’ for your blog’s sidebar. It introduces quite a few interesting techniques such as Widgets, interacting with the WordPress Database, and Ajax form submission.

Chapter 5 covers the creation of a very sleek and stylish looking WordPress enhancement. The purpose of the Snazzy Archives plugin will be to present your site archives in a unique visual way. It shows how to manipulate the layout of the template using shortcodes and custom templates.

Chapter 6 is all about digging a little deeper into WordPress and hacking the Write Post screen. It shows how to create custom panels in the various sections of the Write Post screen. It teaches how to access the current WordPress rich text editor, tinyMCE, and create a button on its toolbar.

Chapter 7 explores the possibilities of turning WordPress into a Content Management System (CMS), using methods provided to us by WordPress. It shows how to modify the Manage Posts panel to display the information we want. It also covers managing who can use your plugin by looking at the logged in user capabilities.

Chapter 8 covers the additional steps involved in localizing, documenting, publishing, and promoting your plugin. It also covers useful tips and ideas to improve your general WordPress knowledge further.