WordPress Plugin development education question

[iizag]

Hey guys, I have some questions regarding wordpress plugin development. Just to let you know I have used wordpress for years, and know it pretty well. I also was teaching myself javascript but stopped learning even though I loved it, because I have to concentrate on school (trying to get into dental school). But either way the point is I enjoy learning. The languages I know is html, and css. And I could understand how to read some javascript but not a ton since i had to put a hold on that for now.

So my questions are the following:

1) Is it possible for one person (so basically only me and not having a team) to develop a WordPress plugin of great quality to sell? Or do you believe that it is pretty difficult for only one person to develop a WordPress plugin of great quality ?

2) The reason I ask the above question is because I am not sure that if I where to start the task of wanting to create a wordpress plugin of great quality, If I would need just general knowledge of Javascript, and PHP. ……. or if I would need to be really really competent and knowledgeable in those languages in order to make a plugin.

3) Do you think I would be able to just read up on PHP and javascript here and there or if I would need to dedicate time to studying these languages in order to make the plugin.

4) Are there any books on wordpress development that you can recommend to me? I saw some on amazon but I dont think they can be good if they were published in 2011 since wordpress and languages come up with so many updates and changes. I would think a book on this would need to be of a more recent year to be relevant.

5.) Would any book you recommend also be able to teach me things to avoid and things to not do which would help prevent people using my plugin to hack into someones wordpress site? Because It has happened to me about 2 years ago where I bought a plugin and was hacked through that plugin because they must have done something wrong in the structure or coding to create an easy back door.

6.) Would it be easier if for practice I bought a javascript file from here : https://codecanyon.net/category/javascript …. and then Try to make a plugin that could be used on wordpress from those files ? Or would that be more complicated ?

[Senff]

1) Quality comes in various sizes: mainly, the idea of the plugin (how useful is it) and the code itself. I believe that if the balance is right, you can come up with good quality. Obviously, you can’t do a WooCommerce-scaled plugin all by yourself, but if you have a small idea that is revolutionairy enough, you can.

2) In my opinion, most plugins require knowledge of JS and PHP. Not necessarily expert knowledge, but the more you know about that, the more you can do, and the better your code quality would be.

3) You don’t have to be an expert on JS and PHP — you kinda just have to figure out the parts you need. Personally, this book helped me a lot, because it taught me the exact parts of JS and PHP that mattered for a plugin: https://www.amazon.ca/WordPress-Development-Cookbook-Yannick-Lefebvre/dp/1849517681

4) See above

5) Not sure, but it does go into how to make your plugin more secure

6) Tricky. The way I did it, I started with a plain Javascript plugin, and then “converted” that into a plugin. Not sure if that helps you, but it worked for me, since that made me feel like I was starting slowly so to speak.

Hope that helps!

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