Semalt: How WordPress Plugins Work
Creating a WordPress plugin of your own is not so difficult, and it can solve various problems of your site. Copying, editing and pasting the codes is not enough as you would have to understand how the WordPress plugins work and how to update them in the functions.php file. The plugin is a safe way to customize your site.
Jason Adler, a top expert from Semalt, assures that it's very easy to start with your WordPress plugins, and you can know how they work. Wordpress plugins are the PHP scripts or codes that can alter your site's layout, look and overall loading time. They provide complete functionality with hooks, and that's why understanding how the WordPress plugins work is essential for every blogger and webmaster. Just like the themes are needed to add functionality and look to your site, the WordPress plugins enhance the performance of your web pages.
1. FTP into your website
The very first thing you need to understand is how the FTP works, and this can be done using a specific FTP program, such as Coda. If you don't know anything about FTP, we suggest you forget this step and move forward to the next step.
2. Navigate to your WordPress plugin folder
Once you gain access to the website through FTP, the next step is to navigate to the WordPress plugin folder. This folder is situated in the /wp-content/plugins section and is easy to locate.
3. Create the new folders for a plugin
For every plugin you create, it's important to create a separate folder. This is easy to create, and you just need to go to the WordPress dashboard and enter the name of your folder. There is no need to insert dashes, spaces, terms or other similar words that are difficult to guess.
4. Create the primary PHP file for the WordPress plugin
In the next step, you would have to create the primary file, which has to be the PHP file inside your WordPress plugin's folder. Make sure you have given a proper name to this file such as my-only-plugin.php. Once you have named it, don't forget to edit the file and save the settings before closing the window.
5. Setup the plugin's information
The last and one of the most important steps is copying and pasting your plugin information into the main file. You should make sure that you have dited the following code to the file and saved the settings.
<?php
/**
Plugin Name: My Only Plugin
Plugin URI: http://www.abcmywebsite.com/my-only-plugin
Description: It's my very first WordPress plugin, and I am happy to create it.
Version: 2.0
Author: My Name
Author URI: http://www.abc.mywebsite.com
*/
This code is the PHP comment, which is not going to be visible directly in your WordPress' admin section. However, WordPress does use this code and relevant data to output the name of your plugin and help you get benefited from other plugins too. You should fully understand the information and remember the above-mentioned code if you want to know how the WordPress plugins work and perform their multiple functions on a daily basis.