Brad Williams - Professional WordPress Plugin Development

CONTENTS

Professional WordPress Plugin Development

Published by

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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Copyright 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-91622-3

ISBN: 978-1-118-07530-2 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-07532-6 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-07531-9 (ebk)

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To my Father, Robert Basket Bob Williams, for inspiring me to become the man I am today.

Brad Williams

To my wife Ariane for her support while I was escaping household chores, and to my kids Oscar and Cyrus wholl be WordPress hackers in 10 years.

Ozh Richard

To my family for allowing me to explore the online world as a career path and the WordPress community for inviting me in.

Justin Tadlock

CREDITS

Executive Editor

Carol Long

Project Editor

Kelly Talbot

Technical Editors

Doug Vann

Andrew Nacin

Production Editor

Rebecca Anderson

Copy Editor

Apostrophe Editing Services

Editorial Director

Robyn B. Siesky

Editorial Manager

Mary Beth Wakefield

Production Manager

Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Associate Publisher

Jim Minatel

Project Coordinator, Cover

Katie Crocker

Proofreader

Jen Larsen, Word One New York

Indexer

Johnna VanHoose Dinse

Cover Designer

Michael E. Trent

Cover Photo

pagadesign/istockphoto.com

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

BRAD WILLIAMS is the CEO and co-founder of WebDevStudios.com . He is also a co-host on the SitePoint podcast and the co-author of Professional WordPress . Brad has been developing websites for more than 14 years, including the last 4 where he has focused on open-source technologies like WordPress. Brad has given presentations at various WordCamps across the country, is the organizer for the New Jersey and Philadelphia WordPress Meetups and WordCamp Philly. In 2010 Brad founded Pluginize.com , a company dedicated to building custom WordPress plugins.

OZH RICHARD is a web developer who started to use WordPress at version 1.0.1, published his first WordPress-powered website in May 2004, and released his first plugin three months later. He has since developed several popular plugins, won an Annual WordPress Plugin Competition, and is now an official judge. When not coding WordPress plugins or sharing tutorials, Ozh contributes to other Open Source projects such as YOURLS, a self-hosted URL shortener, or plays Quake . You can find Ozh online at http://ozh.org/ .

JUSTIN TADLOCK is a Web developer and designer who coded his first Web page in 2003 at the age of 18, only months after getting his first computer. He found WordPress in 2005 and has been working with and contributing to the platform ever since. He has developed many popular WordPress plugins and themes while exploring several business paths using the open-source platform.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THANK YOU to the love of my life, April, for your endless support, friendship, and continuing to put up with my nerdy ways. Thank you to my awesome nieces, Indiana Brooke and Austin Margaret. Thank you Carol Long for believing in this book idea and helping make it a reality. To Ozh and Justin, two amazing co-authors, your knowledge of WordPress is unmatched, and this book wouldnt have been what it is without you both. Thank you to the entire WordPress community for your support, friendships, motivation, and guidance. Thank you fizzypop for making WordCamp after parties the stuff of legend. Last but not least thank you to my ridiculous zoo: Lecter, Clarice, and Squeaks the Cat (aka Kitty Galore). Your smiling faces and wiggly butts always put a smile on my face.

Brad Williams

ITS BEEN A LONG TIME in the WordPress community since I first started to dissect the few plugins that began to pop like daisies in 2004 and tried to understand how things worked. To all the coders who released the code that taught me the innards of WordPress, I cant express how much I owe you. To all the members of the WordPress community who dont write code but foster the creativity and water our community, thank you for your invaluable dedication. To Brad, who sent me that crazy proposal about a plugin book, I hope Ill cross the oceans one day to have a few beers with you. To Ronnie James Dio, Tom Araya, Bruce Dickinson, Blaze Bayley, Lemmy Kilmister, Dave Mustaine, Rob Zombie, Till Lindemann, and Mike Muir, whose gentle voices have lulled me and inspired me while I was writing late at night.