In the burgeoning online world, standing out often requires customising your website to meet unique customer demands and elevate user experiences.

The WordPress website content management system, renowned for its versatility, empowers developers and businesses alike to extend website and web application functionality through the use of plugins.

WordPress Plugins can become a product, and revenue generator, in their own right or can be used to strengthen the stickiness of your online product or service.  Many web applications and SaaS products come with a WordPress plugin of some sort … we’ll look at why in a moment.

This guide covers:

• why you would undertake developing a custom WordPress Plugin
• what you need to consider before starting to build your own Plugin
• how WordPress plugins work
• the steps involved in building a WordPress plugin
• common “gotchas”
• the process of launching your Plugin into the WordPress Plugin Community
• other ways to promote your new WordPress Plugin.

Why Would You Want / Need to Build a WordPress Plugin?

WordPress powers over 40% of all websites on the internet, making it a dominant platform in the website development arena. While WordPress offers extensive functionality out of the box, the real magic happens through plugins. Plugins are the heart and soul of WordPress website customisation, allowing you to add, modify, or enhance features without altering the core code.

Here are some reasons why you might need to build a WordPress plugin:

1. Customisation

Every business has unique requirements that off-the-shelf solutions might not fully address. A custom WordPress plugin can allow you to tailor website functionality to meet specific needs, ensuring that your website operates exactly as desired.

2. Enhanced Functionality

Out-of-the-box WordPress provides many features, but there’s always room for improvement. Plugins can add new features, improve existing ones, or streamline administrative tasks, enhancing the overall functionality of your website.

3. User Experience

By building a plugin that caters to the specific needs of your audience, you can significantly improve their experience on your website. This could involve adding interactive elements, optimising navigation, or integrating new services directly into the WordPress interface.

4. Brand Differentiation

A custom plugin can set your website or application apart from competitors. Whether it’s a unique feature that no one else offers or an innovative way to engage with users, custom plugins can provide a competitive edge.

5. Integration with External Services

Many businesses rely on third-party services for different aspects of their operations. A custom plugin can facilitate seamless integration with these services, ensuring that your WordPress website works harmoniously and efficiently with your existing tools and systems.

Contactpoint has recently developed a WordPress Plugin for Enudge.  In particular, the Enudge Plugin is aimed at making it super easy for Enudge users to add integration with external services i.e. integrating website forms with an Enudge account.  The Plugin gives Enudge users, who are running a WordPress website, an improved User Experience of Enudge because connecting their technologies is so much easier with the plugin.

The Enudge WordPress Plugin seamlessly integrates with a wide range of popular WordPress forms builder plugins, so that the data in form submissions such as a person requesting digital content, subscribing to a newsletter, or buying a product (to name just a few examples) can be automatically sent into an Enudge account.   This data transmission can create a new, or update an existing, contact in Enudge at the same time as adding the person into a Message Series so that they will immediately start to receive a series of email / SMS messages.

What do You Need to Consider Before Starting Development of a WordPress Plugin?

Building a WordPress plugin can be a rewarding project, but it’s essential to lay a solid foundation before commencing development. Here are some crucial factors to consider:

1. Purpose and Scope

• Clearly Define the Plugin’s Functionality: Identify what problem your plugin will solve or what unique feature it will provide. A clear purpose helps keep the development process focused and manageable.
• Scope Management: Avoid feature creep by outlining the core features and functionalities. Plan for a minimal viable product (MVP) that you can expand later based on user feedback and needs.  There’s always more functionality that can be added!  Keeping to an MVP list of features will help you get to market more quickly, and help you ensure you are spending your development efforts on the right features.

2. Market Research

• Competitive Analysis: Investigate existing plugins that offer similar functionalities. Determine what gaps or improvements you can introduce to make your plugin stand out.
• Target Audience: Understand the needs and preferences of your target users. This helps in designing a user-friendly interface and relevant features.

3. Compatibility

• WordPress Versions: Ensure your plugin is compatible with the latest WordPress version as well as older versions that are still widely used.
• Themes and Other Plugins: Test compatibility with popular themes and plugins to prevent conflicts and ensure a seamless user experience.

4. Security

• Data Sanitisation and Validation: You need to consider how you will implement robust data sanitisation and validation to protect against common vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).
• User Permissions: Carefully manage user permissions to ensure that only authorised users can access or modify certain plugin functionalities.

5. Performance

• Efficient Code: You need to plan how the code of your Plugin will be structured to achieve the required features, so that the plugin does not slow down the website, and so that it is easy to maintain. Consider caching and minimising database queries.
• Load Testing: Plan to test your plugin under different load conditions to ensure it performs well even on high-traffic websites.

6. User Experience (UX)

• Intuitive Design: Design a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate. Ensure that even non-technical users can utilise your plugin effectively.
• Documentation: Provide comprehensive documentation to help users understand how to install, configure, and use your plugin. Include FAQs and troubleshooting guides.

7. Legal and Licensing

• Licensing: Decide on an appropriate license for your plugin. The GPL (General Public License) is commonly used for WordPress plugins.
• Compliance: Ensure your plugin complies with relevant laws and regulations, such as data protection and privacy laws.

8. Maintenance and Support

• Regular Updates: Plan for regular updates to fix bugs, add new features, and ensure compatibility with new WordPress versions.
• User Support: Be prepared to offer support to your users, whether through forums, email, or a dedicated support system.

When we developed the Enudge plugin, we carefully considered these factors to ensure its success. We identified a specific need in the market for enhanced list building capabilities directly within WordPress websites.  We considered all the popular WordPress themes and form builder plugins that the plugin users might be using, and how to make it simple for users to get the instructions they need for their specific page / form builder.  We also focused on security and how the pre-existing Enudge security would be embedded into the Plugin.  Finally, we planned around ensuring high performance so that form submission processing was not going to be impacted by the simultaneous integration with Enudge.

We are expecting to undertake regular updates to ensure the ongoing effectiveness and reliability of the Enudge Plugin.

Our pre-existing Enudge support team has been trained on providing user support to anyone needing help with installing the new Enudge plugin.  In addition, context-sensitive installation instructions and help videos have been created to minimise the volume of support requests.

How Do WordPress Plugins Work?

WordPress plugins are powerful tools that allow you to extend the functionality of your WordPress site without altering the core code. They work by hooking into the WordPress ecosystem to add new features or modify existing ones.  WordPress plugins operate using the following concepts:

1. Hooks (Actions and Filters)

Hooks are the backbone of how plugins interact with WordPress. There are two main types of hooks: actions and filters.

• Actions: These allow you to add or modify WordPress functionality at specific points during the execution of WordPress. You can use actions to insert custom code when certain events occur, such as when a post is published or a user logs in.
• Filters: These allow you to modify data before it is used or displayed. Filters are used to change the content of posts, modify query parameters, or alter the output of WordPress functions.

2. Shortcodes

Shortcodes are small code snippets that you can insert into posts, pages, or widgets to dynamically display content. They are particularly useful for adding complex features without requiring users to write code.

3. Widgets

Widgets are blocks of content that can be added to widget-ready areas (like sidebars) on your website. Plugins can register new widgets to provide additional functionality.

4. Custom Post Types and Taxonomies

Plugins can create custom post types and taxonomies to organize content in different ways. This extends the standard posts and pages to include other types of content, such as portfolios, testimonials, or products.

5. Settings and Options

Plugins can add custom settings and options to the WordPress admin area. This allows users to configure plugin behaviour through a user-friendly interface.

6. APIs and External Services

Plugins can interact with external APIs and services to extend functionality. This could include integrating with payment gateways, third-party applications, or remote databases.

Our Enudge plugin, for example, integrates list building capability directly into WordPress, using hooks to ensure compatibility with other WordPress plugins, and custom settings for user configuration. By hooking into WordPress, Enudge enhances the native WordPress form functionality without disrupting the core code, offering a seamless user experience and powerful new features.

Steps Involved in Building a WordPress Plugin

Building a WordPress plugin involves several key steps, from planning and coding to testing and launching.  Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you through the process:

1. Planning and Conceptualisation

We have already covered in detail above all the areas that need to be considered before starting to develop a new Plugin, but it’s worth restating for the development team!  The team should:

• Identify the Problem: Clearly define the problem your plugin will solve or the functionality it will provide.
• Research: Check existing plugins to understand the competition and identify any gaps your plugin can fill.
• Confirm Features: List the core features and any additional functionalities you plan to include.  This will help the development team to formulate a set of tests to be used to validate that all the functionality has been developed correctly.

2. Setup and Initialization

• Create a Plugin Folder: In your WordPress installation directory, navigate to wp-content/plugins and create a new folder for your plugin. Name it appropriately.
• Create the Main PHP File: Inside your plugin folder, create a PHP file with a name that matches your plugin. This will be the main file that WordPress recognises.

3. Core Functionality Development

• Hooks and Filters: Use WordPress hooks (actions and filters) to insert your custom code at specific points.
• Shortcodes: Add shortcodes to allow users to insert plugin functionality into posts and pages.
• Widgets: Register widgets to add content to widget-ready areas.

4. Admin Interface and Settings

• Create Admin Menu: Add a menu item to the WordPress admin dashboard.
• Settings API: Use the WordPress Settings API to create and manage plugin settings.

5. Testing

• Unit Testing: Test individual functions to ensure they work as expected.
• Integration Testing: Test how your plugin interacts with WordPress and other plugins/themes.
• User Testing: Have real users test the plugin to gather feedback and identify any usability issues.
• Compatibility Testing: Test the plugin on different versions of WordPress and with various themes and plugins.

6. Optimisation and Security

• Performance Optimisation: Ensure your plugin is optimised for speed and efficiency.
• Security: Sanitise and validate all user inputs to protect against common vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).

7. Documentation

• User Guide: Create comprehensive documentation to help users install, configure, and use your plugin.
• Developer Documentation: Provide documentation for other developers who might want to extend or contribute to your plugin.

8. Launch and Distribution

• Submit to WordPress.org: We cover this process in detail below.
• Marketing and Promotion: Promote your plugin through your website, social media, email marketing, and third-party marketplaces.

When developing the Enudge plugin, we followed these steps meticulously. We identified a need for making it easy for WordPress website owners to be able to easily send form data into Enudge to create / update contact records.  We then documented the core functionalities, and developed the functionality while carefully addressing compatibility and security concerns.  Our detailed documentation and user support will be instrumental in maintaining its success.

Common “Gotchas” when Building a WordPress Plugin

Building a WordPress plugin is an intricate process, and even experienced developers can overlook crucial aspects or make mistakes that affect the plugin’s performance, security, and user experience.  Here are some common areas that people often don’t think about and mistakes they make:

1. Security

• Data Sanitisation and Validation: One of the most common mistakes is failing to properly sanitise and validate user input. This oversight can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).
• Nonces: Not using nonces (number used once) to protect forms from Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks.

2. Performance

• Inefficient Code: Writing inefficient code that leads to slow query performance and high memory usage. Avoid making unnecessary database queries within loops.
• Not Using Caching: Failing to implement caching mechanisms for data that doesn’t change often. Using transients and object caching can significantly improve performance.

3. Compatibility

• Hardcoding URLs and Paths: Hardcoding URLs and file paths can cause issues, especially when users move their site to a different directory or domain.
• Not Testing with Other Plugins and Themes: Ignoring compatibility testing with various themes and other popular plugins can lead to conflicts and breakages.

4. User Experience (UX)

• Poor Interface Design: Creating a confusing or non-intuitive admin interface can frustrate users. Ensure that the plugin interface is user-friendly and follows WordPress UI guidelines.
• Lack of Documentation: Not providing adequate documentation can make it difficult for users to understand and utilise the plugin fully. Include detailed installation guides, usage instructions, and troubleshooting tips.

5. Internationalization

• Not Preparing for Localization: Failing to make the plugin translation-ready limits its usability to a global audience. Use WordPress functions for localisation.

6. Version Control and Updates

• No Version Control: Not using version control systems like Git can make tracking changes and collaborating with others difficult.
• Neglecting Updates: Failing to update the plugin regularly to fix bugs, add new features, or ensure compatibility with the latest WordPress version.

7. Error Handling

• Ignoring Error Handling: Not implementing proper error handling can make debugging difficult and degrade the user experience.

8. Licensing and Legal Issues

• Ignoring Licensing Requirements: Not specifying a license or violating the terms of other licensed codes can lead to legal issues. Ensure your plugin’s code adheres to the licenses of any third-party code you use.

Launching your Plugin into the WordPress Community

Launching a WordPress plugin in the official WordPress Plugin Repository is a great way to reach a broad audience and gain credibility.  Plugins that are published in the WordPress Community can easily be found and installed into any WordPress website, with a minimum of fuss.

Here are the steps to get your plugin launched:

1. Develop Your Plugin according to the Guidelines of WordPress.org

Before you can submit your plugin, ensure it meets the WordPress Plugin Guidelines and is thoroughly tested for functionality, security, and performance.

2. Prepare Your Plugin for Submission

Once you are confident that your plugin adheres to the WordPress Plugin Guidelines you need to prepare your files and information ready to upload into the ecosystem for approval.

• Plugin Header: Make sure your plugin file includes a proper header with all the necessary information.
• Readme.txt File: Create a readme.txt file in your plugin directory, formatted according to the WordPress readme standard. This file should include sections such as a short description, installation instructions, FAQs, screenshots, and a change log.

3. Submit Your Plugin

• Create a WordPress.org Account: If you don’t already have one, create an account on WordPress.org.
• Submit Your Plugin: Go to the Plugin Submission Page and submit your plugin. You’ll need to provide the plugin name, and a short description, and upload a ZIP file containing your plugin files.
• Await Approval: The WordPress team will review your submission to ensure it complies with their guidelines. This process can take a few days to a couple of weeks. You will receive an email notification once your plugin is approved or if any issues need addressing.

4. Setup Your SVN Repository

Once your plugin is approved, you’ll receive access to a Subversion (SVN) repository. This repository is used to manage your plugin’s versions and updates.

• Install an SVN Client: You will need an SVN client; popular choices include TortoiseSVN for Windows or the command-line SVN client for Mac and Linux.
• Checkout Your Repository: Use your SVN client to check out the repository.
• Organise Your Repository: The SVN repository has a specific structure.  Place your plugin files in the trunk directory for the initial release.
• Commit Your Plugin: Add your files to the repository and commit them.

5. Manage and Update Your Plugin

• Version Management: Use the tags directory to create new versions of your plugin.
• Update Plugin: Make changes in the trunk directory and commit them. Tag new versions as needed.

6. Promote Your Plugin

• Create a Plugin Page: Once your plugin is live, it will have its own page on the WordPress Plugin Repository. Customize this page with detailed descriptions, screenshots, and FAQs.
• Engage with Users: Respond to user reviews and support questions on the plugin’s support forum. Positive engagement can lead to better reviews and more downloads.
• Marketing: Promote your plugin through your website, social media, newsletters, and relevant forums. Consider writing blog posts or creating tutorial videos to showcase your plugin’s features and benefits.

Other Ways to Promote / Distribute a WordPress Plugin

• Own Website: Create a dedicated page with demos, documentation, and download links.
• Social Media: Utilise platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to reach a wider audience.
• Email Marketing: Obviously if you have an email list, you will want to announce your new plugin to your pre-existing customers.  If you don’t have a great email marketing solution, of course, we strongly recommend Enudge!
• Content Marketing: Write blog posts, tutorials, and case studies showcasing your plugin.
• Third-Party Marketplaces: List your plugin on other marketplaces like CodeCanyon.

Need a WordPress plugin developed? Call us! Our expert team can help you create a custom plugin that meet your exact needs, makes it easy for WordPress webmasters to install, and provides exceptional performance.  Reach out to us today!

Got an Enudge account, and want to implement the Enudge WordPress Plugin?  View the details of the Enudge WordPress Plugin.