Tag Archives: open source software

WordPress Plugin Writing Resources

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WordPress is easily my favorite open source software project.  I love it for it’s functionality, flexibility, and extensibility.  When it comes to writing a plugin, these are my favorite resources.  Don’t write a plugin without them!

  1. WordPress.org Codex for Writing a Plugin
    1. If you’re just getting started, this is the place to begin
  2. WordPress.org Codex Plugin API
    1. a great overview of the WordPress plugin API
  3. WordPress Action Reference
    • When WordPress displays a post, page, or the administrative pages it has to run through a number of functions and actions.  Your plugin will need to be activated at one of these points, and it is very helpful to know the order in which things happen.
  4. WordPress Filter Reference
    • The WordPress filter reference is a list of WordPress filters.  Each one will be able to deliver a little piece of the website for your to manipulate in your plugins.
  5. WordPress PHP Cross-Reference
    • The WordPress codex is pretty good – but it is not comprehensive.  If you want to know how some of the more obscure functions, variables, or constants work, you’ll just need to dive into the source code itself.  PHPXRef is, hands down, the best way to do this.  It let’s you search and read the the source code from their website.
  6. Top 10 Most Common Coding Mistakes in WordPress Plugins
    • This is quite possibly the best blog post about writing WordPress plugins.  Applying these guidelines will make you a better WordPress developer and your plugins faster, more efficient, and more awesome. :)
  7. How to Design and Style Your WordPress Plugin Admin Panel
    • In a lot of ways, a program is only as good as its user interface.  Build a good friendly and powerful interface and people will use your program.  Build a bad one and no one will use it, no matter how awesome it is.  This one blog post gives numerous little ways to make your WordPress plugin administrative interface look better.

I trust my life to open source

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I use open source software for nearly everything.  Now I get to use an open source robot too!

I stopped using MicroSoft Office, Eudora, CuteFTP, TextPad, Internet Explorer, and ASP and other proprietary products about four years ago in favor of Open Office, Thunderbird, FileZilla, Notepad++, Mozilla, PHP/MySQL,  etc.  I’m still on a Windows box… for now.

But, damn, some days you get your ass handed to you too.  Today’s been one of those days.  In the last twenty four hours I’ve spent a LOT of time unscrambling two of my WordPress installs.  They were SO messed up that they were offering anyone who cared to look the option to enter a new blog name and administrative address.  Yeah, that’s not good.

Admittedly, this can happen with any software.  But, today man.  Today I feel like I’ve been run over by an open source Humvee.

Open Everything

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The ideal is obviously using a totally open source environment to develop things with a RepRap/MakerBot.  For the most part I use open source software – FireFox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Pigin, PHP, MySQL, WordPress.

However, I’m still tied to certain closed source proprietary software.  I still use Windows and haven’t made the leap of faith to Linux/Ubuntu.  I really like the ease of use and intuitive nature of Google’s Sketchup.  But, I can’t help feel like a little bit of a sham – still clinging to Windows and Sketchup because they’re easy and familiar.  All the while cranking out wonderful plastic goodness with my open source hardware ‘bot.

I have a feeling I could get used to Linux/Ubuntu if I gave them a shot, but the alternatives to Sketchup I’ve seen and tried are nearly unintelligible.  Does this mean I try to run Wine or break down and spend the time to learn something else?