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WordPress Development Quick Start Guide
WordPress Development Quick Start Guide

WordPress Development Quick Start Guide: Build beautiful and dynamic websites for your domain from scratch

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WordPress Development Quick Start Guide

Managing Database Structure, Storage, and Retrieval

The database is the primary location for storing application data. WordPress provides a built-in database with pre-defined tables, compared to traditional web applications, where the database is designed from scratch. Getting used to the pros and cons of the existing database table is the key to developing quality themes and plugins.

In this chapter, we will learn the power and limitations of the existing database tables in Wordpress. You will get an overview of existing database tables and their role, while understanding how data is managed in common functions such as post creation, user creation, media uploads, and so on. You will also learn the uses of custom tables in development, and using the query functions to retrieve data. 

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Understanding the role of default database...

Introduction to the WordPress database

The process of planning and designing a database is one of the most critical phases of any project. A well-planned database design eases the process for future growth while increasing performance in data storage and retrieval. Usually, it's the responsibility of the development team to identify the entities and relationships between these entities. WordPress, on the other hand, is a CMS and hence offers an existing database to handle core features. So, the process of planning a database is not part of the responsibility as a developer in most scenarios. Instead, developers have a tougher task of understanding the core tables and managing the data needs with its limitations. Of course, you can create and use your own database tables for any requirement. But, doing so eliminates the whole purpose of developing on top of WordPress.

The...

Understanding the role of built-in database tables

The WordPress database structure is designed to store a minimum amount of data required for core features. Therefore, developers need to have a thorough understanding of the existing tables in order to use them effectively to build flexible websites. Let's take a look at the entity relationship diagram of the latest WordPress versions:

As may notice, all the existing tables don't have more than one or two relationships with other tables, and hence understanding and working with the database becomes a simpler task. Now, we are going to look at each database table with important columns, its role, and how it works with other tables. You need to refer to the preceding diagram to visualize the points in our discussion.

Posts...

Understanding the importance of database usage

In today's world, many of the developers doesn't have in-depth knowledge of WordPress core features and yet, capable of turning your requirement into a working solution. However, these solutions are often based on assumptions, rather than knowing the exact process and data usage under the hood.

Tracking database usage and knowing the exact data needs of any given process is crucial for building flexible and extendable solutions that integrate perfectly with other parts of the site. Let's identify some of the use cases where you need perfect knowledge of data usage in WordPress features:

Building existing features on the frontend

WordPress offers a powerful backend...

How to track database usage in WordPress

We identified the importance of tracking and knowing the data needs of core features as well as custom features. The next question is how we can track and understand data to avoid potential conflicts. So, we need a method that logs/shows all queries run within a user request. There are numerous ways to track database queries, including premium enterprise tools and the command line. As you are beginning WordPress development, we are going to look at some of the simpler and useful methods that expand your knowledge.

Using MySQL/MariaDB log files 

This is one of the simpler and must-know methods as a developer. Both MySQL and MariaDB allow us to create a log file where we can...

Tracking database usage of common WordPress features

At this point, you should be able to configure and track database usage for both backend and frontend user requests. In this section, we will be looking at the usage of database in the most common WordPress features, and understand the need for storing the specified data.

Post creation

Being the most frequently used feature in WordPress sites, you need thorough understanding of the database usage. First, you need to go to Posts | Add New section and clear the existing query logs. Then, you can add the data and publish a post to track the database usage. The Post creation screen offers wide range of features and hence database usage may vary based on the amount of options...

Overview of the multisite database structure

Multisite network is a feature that allows creation of multiple sites within the same WordPress installation, while sharing the available resources. Developers moving to WordPress from pure PHP development may be unfamiliar with this concept. The whole database structure changes in multisite in a way that we can't anticipate. So, it's important to get an idea of how multisite database works in case you are planning to develop multisite compatible plugins and themes. The following is a simple illustration of the changes in multisite compared to single site installations:

As you can see, six new tables have been added to the database and the existing tables have increased. This image only illustrates how tables are connected in multisite environment. However, this not a precise relationship diagram between the tables. Let...

Creating and managing custom tables

A default WordPress database can be extended by any number of custom tables to suit our project's requirements. The only thing we have to consider is the creation of custom tables over existing ones. There are two major reasons for creating custom tables:

  • Difficulty of matching data to existing tables: Existing database tables are flexible enough to handle many common requirements. However, we need to be wise enough to choose custom tables in certain scenarios. Assume we have a requirement where we need to store user's previous job history. If we consider existing tables, we can only match this requirement to wp_usermeta table as key-value pairs. However, it's extremely difficult to implement proper search for these data by using the same metakey with multiple values. In such requirements, we need a custom table to create predefined...

Introduction to the WordPress database


The process of planning and designing a database is one of the most critical phases of any project. A well-planned database design eases the process for future growth while increasing performance in data storage and retrieval. Usually, it's the responsibility of the development team to identify the entities and relationships between these entities. WordPress, on the other hand, is a CMS and hence offers an existing database to handle core features. So, the process of planning a database is not part of the responsibility as a developer in most scenarios. Instead, developers have a tougher task of understanding the core tables and managing the data needs with its limitations. Of course, you can create and use your own database tables for any requirement. But, doing so eliminates the whole purpose of developing on top of WordPress.

The WordPress database currently supports MySQL and MariaDB, with MariaDB being the most preferred choice. However, most of...

Understanding the role of built-in database tables


The WordPress database structure is designed to store a minimum amount of data required for core features. Therefore, developers need to have a thorough understanding of the existing tables in order to use them effectively to build flexible websites. Let's take a look at the entity relationship diagram of the latest WordPress versions:

As may notice, all the existing tables don't have more than one or two relationships with other tables, and hence understanding and working with the database becomes a simpler task. Now, we are going to look at each database table with important columns, its role, and how it works with other tables. You need to refer to the preceding diagram to visualize the points in our discussion.

Posts-related database tables

Three database tables are directly involved with posts and six tables handle posts-related data. Many of the existing WordPress sites are either basic sites with a few pages, or blogs with hundreds of...

Understanding the importance of database usage


In today's world, many of the developers doesn't have in-depth knowledge of WordPress core features and yet, capable of turning your requirement into a working solution. However, these solutions are often based on assumptions, rather than knowing the exact process and data usage under the hood.

Tracking database usage and knowing the exact data needs of any given process is crucial for building flexible and extendable solutions that integrate perfectly with other parts of the site. Let's identify some of the use cases where you need perfect knowledge of data usage in WordPress features:

Building existing features on the frontend

WordPress offers a powerful backend with many features for administration-level users. Post creation and user management are some of the top features in backend. Comparatively, existing WordPress frontend features are less powerful and mainly focus on displaying data. So, it’s a common requirement to transfer these backend...

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Key benefits

  • Learn the foundations of WordPress development and its hook-based architecture
  • Choose the right components for any development task
  • Build flexible solutions that works with existing plugins and themes

Description

WordPress is the most used CMS in the world and is the ideal way to share your knowledge with a large audience or build a profitable business. Getting started with WordPress development has often been a challenge for novice developers, and this book will help you find your way. This book explains the components used in WordPress development, when and where to use them, and why you should be using each component in specific scenarios. You begin by learning the basic development setup and coding standards of WordPress. Then you move into the most important aspects of the theme and plugin development process. Here you will also learn how themes and plugins fit into the website while learning about a range of techniques for extending themes and plugins. With the basics covered, we explore many of the APIs provided by WordPress and how we can leverage them to build rapid solutions. Next, we move on to look at the techniques for capturing, processing, and displaying user data when integrating third-party components into the site design. Finally, you will learn how to test and deploy your work with secure and maintainable code, while providing the best performance for end users.

Who is this book for?

This book is for web developers and site owners who want to build custom websites with WordPress. Basic knowledge of PHP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS is required to get most out of this book.

What you will learn

  • Explore the role of themes, plugins, and built-in features in development
  • Adapt to built-in modules and built-in database structures
  • Write code for WordPress s hook-based architecture
  • Build, customize, and integrate WordPress plugins
  • Extend themes with custom design templates
  • Capture and process data with built-in features and custom forms
  • Improve usability with AJAX and third-party components
  • Manage non-functional aspects, such as security, performance, and migration
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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Oct 31, 2018
Length: 300 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789342871
Vendor :
WordPress Foundation
Languages :
Concepts :
Tools :

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Length: 300 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789342871
Vendor :
WordPress Foundation
Languages :
Concepts :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

10 Chapters
Introduction to WordPress Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Managing Database Structure, Storage, and Retrieval Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Designing Flexible Frontends with Theme Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Building Custom Modules with Plugin Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Extending Plugins with Addons, Filters, and Actions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Practical Usage of WordPress APIs Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Managing Custom Post Types and Processing Forms Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Discovering Key Modules in Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Enhancing Security, Performance, and Maintenance Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
(2 Ratings)
5 star 50%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
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1 star 50%
MikeDevDude Aug 23, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is a treasure trove of powerful WP developer information. I'm normally a full stack .NET web developer. A client wanted to switch away from .NET MVC into WordPress so a less experienced in house employee could make frequent content changes. I last looked at WordPress about a decade ago when it was only a blog tool. The latest version is much more versatile especially with the WP rest API.This book went in depth on the internals of the WP architecture and how to create custom features with it. The English and grammar were spot on and the quality of the content was excellent. I will have no problem getting under the hood to build custom features for my client based on the content of this book.Highly recommended as a resource for modern WP developers.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Mr. Paul S. Murray Sep 27, 2020
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
Purchased based on the 5 star review previously left. Dislike leaving negative reviews but having bought many similar books such as the Spring Boot Fundamentals book by the same publisher this title was very disappointing.If you have advanced knowledge of Word Press development it may prove useful as a reference title, but probably not required by someone with this level of knowledge in any case. If I could return I would.If know HTML CSS Javascript and programming experience other than PHP or Wordpress and you're looking to master Wordpress development look elsewhere.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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