WordPress 3.3 has a really nice new Help menu that can be used by plugin and theme developers to show a lot of helpful information to the users. It’s very similar to the Contextual Help Tab, but allows much more information to displayed in a more organized fashion. Instead of all content being displayed in [...]
View PostDisplay Messages in the Dashboard with Admin Notices
Ever noticed the messages WordPress displays when you activate a plugin, or save settings? Or the messages that some plugins show in the dashboard, perhaps notifying you of a missing requirement? These are called Admin Notices and I’m going to show you how to add your own in your plugin or theme. They’re really quite [...]
View Post admin_noticesLocalizing and Translating WordPress Plugins
In order to be kind to our friends that do not speak the language we have written our plugin in, it is always a good idea to fully localize your WordPress plugin. This means make it “ready for translation”. If you are one of those that is blessed with the fluency of more than one [...]
View Post international, localization, localize, translating, translationWrite an Advanced Maintenance Mode Plugin
This tutorial explains the process behind writing a Maintenance Mode plugin for WordPress such as the one I released a few days ago: CGC Maintenance Mode. The final result of this tutorial will give you an advanced plugin capable of putting your site into maintenance mode, while allowing authorized users to view the site normally, [...]
View Post IP, maintenance, restrictWriting Your First WordPress Plugin Part 4
In part four of Writing Your First WordPress Plugin, I demonstrate how to load style sheets with your plugin. I also walk you through some best practices in terms of efficiency in regards to when you should, and should not, load styles/scripts with your plugin. This entry is part 4 of 7 in the Writing [...]
View Post add_action, CSS, wp_enqueue_script, wp_enqueue_styleWriting Your First WordPress Plugin Part 3
In part 3 of this tutorial series, I describe a couple of fundamental techniques for beginner WordPress plugin developers. This section details a very important function for WordPress plugins: how to add any kind of content to the end of a post. I show how it is done, and then also demonstrate some real world [...]
View Post the_contentStructuring Your First WordPress Plugin
Knowing how to best structure your plugin is very, very important to the success and quality of your plugin. You should spend several minutes laying out the structure of your plugin before you ever begin writing it. This part of the Writing Your First WordPress Plugin series will walk you through the process of laying [...]
View Post plugin, pluginsHow to Begin Writing Your First WordPress plugin
The world of plugins can seem a scary place to venture if you’ve never been there before. I remember when I first started, it was because I wrote a tutorial over at Pro Blog Design about how to create a custom Font Uploader for your WordPress theme, and readers asked that I make it into [...]
View Post plugin, pluginsCustomize Plugin Action Links
Plugin Action links are the links, such as Deactivate, that are displayed on the plugin entry in the WordPress plugins page. These links are extremely useful for helping your users find their way around the admin section of your plugin, as well as for providing helpful links such as Contact or Support.
View Post links, pluginSimple Posts By Author Widget Tutorial and Plugin

This tutorial will demonstrate the methods used to write a simple Posts By Author Widget plugin. The idea of this plugin is to provide a widget that can be used to displays posts from a specific author. The plugin this tutorial is about is a much simplified version of the [highlight_green]Posts By Author Widget Pro [...]
View Post authors, users