A WordPress plugin is added to the website to extend its functionality which wasn’t available initially. There are beyond 50,000 plugins available in the WordPress library from where you can choose. But, there will be instances when you need to perform more than what those available plugins are offering. 

That’s the time when you need to create WordPress plugins that can add such extended functionality to your website. One might think about adding the extended functionality to your WordPress theme. But, that might cause a problem if you want to change your WordPress site’s theme by keeping the functionalities intact. 

A WordPress plugin development company might help you in this venture. They will create customized plugins that might help extend your site’s functionality. And, in case you are developing a WordPress plugin yourself for your website, these considerations will help. 

Consider These Tips Before Developing WordPress Plugins 

• A plugin is created to extend existing functionality or solve an issue. Your website might lack some functionality that can be improved by adding a plugin merely. 

• Make sure you are clear about whether you are creating a WordPress plugin dedicatedly for your website or everyone’s use. In case you make it available for use by everyone, providing regular updates and support to fix issues can help your plugin grow and get more downloads. Even if you use it exclusively for your site, you will need to maintain it for optimized performance. You can also add frequently added questions sections to help users with the basic troubleshooting steps. 

• If you are building a WordPress plugin, you may not consider making them compatible with the old and outdated PHP versions. This could elevate your maintenance cost and effort. Since most WordPress users ensure to use the latest PHP versions, it shouldn’t affect you. 

• A developer should focus on writing quality codes instead of codes that can add to the technological debt. When you write codes with best practices, you don’t have to bother yourself about the various updates. Your code won’t get complicated and be flexible with the upgrades. You should also adopt the practice of structuring codes neatly so that making any changes in the future can be effortless. 

• Testing your WordPress plugin, again and again, might sound tedious. But, you won’t have to concern yourself about causing a fatal error if you have run multiple tests in advance. Whether you go for manual or automatic testing, it doesn’t take much of your time. If you check your WordPress plugin time and again for any errors, you will be able to get rid of those errors before they are made available to users or implemented on your website. 

• Documenting the developed code goes a long way than you think. It is the conventional way indeed but might be daunting. Nonetheless, documenting the code will help you in the future if you have to modify the code. You can list the variables, classes, functions, etc., and document them. Or, you can also add comments in the code itself for future reference.  

• The WordPress plugin you create contains various dummy data that aren’t usable by any other website elements apart from the plugin. So, you need to create the plugin in a way so that it can clean the extra codes themselves. Using various hooks such as register_uninstall hook, register_activation hook, or register_deactivation hook, etc. can help you in this venture. 

• There are beyond 50,000 plugins available in the WordPress directory. And, if you choose to bring your plugin in the same directory, finding it could become a real deal because of similar names. Therefore, make sure you name your WordPress plugin and other plugin elements with a certain prefix so that they can be quickly searched. 

With these quick tips, custom WordPress plugin development will be much easier. Now, creating a WordPress plugin from scratch will be easier for you. Moreover, one should be proficient with the WordPress content management platform and programming languages such as PHP so that developing plugins can be easier. 

Nonetheless, a professional agency like Auxesis Infotech can aid you substantially in this pursuit. They have skilled WordPress plugin developers that can understand your requirements well and create plugins from scratch exclusively.