How to create a simple WordPress plugin – Learn WordPress from a to z

WordPress is a free, open source content management system (CMS). And the best part of WordPress is that it’s pretty extensible. Thanks to plugins, you can extend more functionality than the original. Plugins allow you to add additional functions like SEO, eCommerce, security, etc.

And today, I want to show you how to create a simple WordPress plugin. If you develop a plugin of your own, let’s get started!

Basic knowledge

Before you start, make sure you have some knowledge of PHP. This will help a lot if you plan to write more plugins in the future.

In addition, you also need to have more knowledge of CSS and JS. Plus you need to be familiar with WordPress programming standards .

Rest assured, it’s a long road. We don’t get into that complicated stuff today. I’ll show you how to write a simple plugin and share some tools and resources that will make your job easy.

How to write a basic plugin

Every WordPress plugin has key files that you have to create manually. However, to save time, I will guide you to create a plugin directory automatically using Pluginplate.

Create WordPress Plugins with Pluginplate

First, go to the Pluginplate , click on the “Create Your Plugin” button.

Next, fill in your plugin information as shown below. Towards the bottom of the page, you will see a “Modules” section that allows you to add additional features to your plugin. Then press the “Generate Plugin” button.

Then click the “Download” button to download it to your computer.

Now, we have all the basic files, including the main file. The next thing is that we have to add code to execute the functions when the plugin is activated. Based on my example, the main file of my plugin is .php . This is the file that I will edit in the next part.

Add functionality to the plugin

First, unzip the folder you downloaded to your computer from the Pluginplate. Inside the folder you will see the main file, the main file of your plugin is .php .

Inside the plugin folder you can see a bunch of other files but we don’t need those at the moment.

Now I will open the file .php up.

<?php /**
 * hocwordpress
 *
 * @package       HOCWORDPRE
 * @author        Huy Kira
 * @license       gplv2
 * @version       1.0.0
 *
 * @wordpress-plugin
 * Plugin Name:   hocwordpress
 * Plugin URI:    https://hocwordpress.vn/
 * Description:   This is some demo short description...
 * Version:       1.0.0
 * Author:        Huy Kira
 * Author URI:    huykira@gmail.com
 * Text Domain:   hocwordpress
 * Domain Path:   /languages
 * License:       GPLv2
 * License URI:   https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with hocwordpress. If not, see .
 */

// Exit if accessed directly.
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) exit;

/**
 * HELPER COMMENT START
 * 
 * This file contains the main information about the plugin.
 * It is used to register all components necessary to run the plugin.
 * 
 * The comment above contains all information about the plugin 
 * that are used by WordPress to differenciate the plugin and register it properly.
 * It also contains further PHPDocs parameter for a better documentation
 * 
 * The function HOCWORDPRE() is the main function that you will be able to 
 * use throughout your plugin to extend the logic. Further information
 * about that is available within the sub classes.
 * 
 * HELPER COMMENT END
 */

// Plugin name
define( 'HOCWORDPRE_NAME', 'hocwordpress' );

// Plugin version
define( 'HOCWORDPRE_VERSION', '1.0.0' );

// Plugin Root File
define( 'HOCWORDPRE_PLUGIN_FILE', __FILE__ );

// Plugin base
define( 'HOCWORDPRE_PLUGIN_BASE', plugin_basename( HOCWORDPRE_PLUGIN_FILE ) );

// Plugin Folder Path
define( 'HOCWORDPRE_PLUGIN_DIR', plugin_dir_path( HOCWORDPRE_PLUGIN_FILE ) );

// Plugin Folder URL
define( 'HOCWORDPRE_PLUGIN_URL', plugin_dir_url( HOCWORDPRE_PLUGIN_FILE ) );

/**
 * Load the main class for the core functionality
 */
require_once HOCWORDPRE_PLUGIN_DIR . 'core/class-hocwordpress.php';

/**
 * The main function to load the only instance
 * of our master class.
 *
 * @author  Huy Kira
 * @since   1.0.0
 * @return  object|Hocwordpress
 */
function HOCWORDPRE() {
	return Hocwordpress::instance();
}

HOCWORDPRE();
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