Wordpress Golden Rules

And Best Coding Practices

Golden Rules 1

  • Never touch WordPress core (WP overwrites these files/folder on updates), wp-admin and wp-includes. [The one possible exception to this rule is the functions.php file. The functions.php file contains all the code for all the functions on your site. It is a special case because it works in tandem with the functions.php file that exists in your active theme as well]
  • WordPress themes have a functions.php file stored in the /wp-content/themes/[currentactivetheme] or /wp-content/themes/[currentactivechildtheme] folder, which lets you add custom code for new functions. PS Typically, things like Google Analytics code and other tracker code are added to the theme’s functions.php file, but are liable to get lost if the theme is changed
  • Keep WordPress Core, Themes and plugins updated. Don’t forget backups
Golden Rules
what to know

Good To Know

  • WordPress site functionality can be changed through plugins and themes
  • Plugins = extends core functionality
  • WordPress site functionality can be changed through plugins and themes
  • wp_xxxx_xxx functions related to FrontEnd
  • admin_xxxx_xxx functions related to Backend aka WordPress dashboard
  • 2 main content WordPress deals with are posts(dynamic data aka blogs) and pages (static data)
  • template files are modular, reusable files, used to generate the web pages on your WordPress site. Some template files (such as the header and footer template) are used on all of your site’s pages, while others are used only under specific conditions.

Best Coding Practise

  • Avoid Naming Convention
  • Procedural Coding Method
  • Prefix everything
  • Check for existing implementation
  • Object Oriented programming
  • isset() [check variables]
  • function_exist() [check functions]
  • class_exist() [check classes]
  • defined() [check constants]
  • File organization and Folder structure
  • At root level, plugin-name.php, uninstall.php, index.php
  • Sanitize and validate inputs
  • Plugin Architecture
  • Conditional loading
  • Architecture Patterns
  • Architecture Pattern Explained
  • Determining Plugin and Content Directories
  • ABC
Thumbp up coding
Thumbp up coding

Wordpress folder structure

Root directory
Folders : wp-admin wp-content wp-includes

Files
.htaccess
index.php
license.txt
readme.html
wp-activate.php
wp-blog-header.php
wp-comments-post.php
wp-config-sample.php
wp-cron.php
wp-links-opml.php
wp-load.php
wp-login.php
wp-mail.php
wp-settings.php
wp-signup.php
wp-trackback.php
xmlrpc.php
wp-feed.php

Subfolders in wp-admin
css images includes js maint network user ???

Files in wp-admin
• admin.php – core file that manages the wp-admin dashboard
• index.php – loads pages in response to visitor requests
• install.php – installs WordPress
• plugins.php – controls all the plugins, active or inactive
• themes.php – controls all the installed themes
• users.php – manages users and their permissions