WordPress Plugin Development Roadmap

A complete step-by-step guide to learning how to build powerful, functional WordPress plugins — from beginner to advanced.

Stage 1: Foundation (Weeks 1–2)

Goal: Understand WordPress architecture and learn core web languages.

Learn:
– How WordPress works (themes, plugins, the loop, hooks)
– HTML & CSS basics (structure plugin UI/admin pages)
– PHP basics (variables, functions, arrays, if/else, loops)

Resources:
– https://www.w3schools.com/html/
– https://www.php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php
– https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/

Stage 2: Core Plugin Development (Weeks 3–4)

Goal: Build simple plugins using WordPress hooks, settings, and admin pages.

Learn:
– Actions & Filters (Hooks)
– Creating custom plugins
– Admin menu & settings pages
– Shortcodes and Widgets
– Security & data validation (esc_html, wp_nonce)

Projects to Try:
– “Coming Soon” plugin
– Contact form with admin email settings

Stage 3: Interactivity & Backend Logic (Weeks 5–6)

Goal: Build plugins with real user interaction and dynamic output.

Learn:
– JavaScript + jQuery
– AJAX in WordPress
– Form submissions
– Custom database tables (if needed)

Projects to Try:
– AJAX-powered to-do list plugin
– Poll or voting plugin with real-time results

Stage 4: REST API + Frontend Control (Weeks 7–8)

Goal: Enable frontend dashboards and plugin interaction via REST API.

Learn:
– WordPress REST API basics
– Fetching data using JavaScript
– Creating custom REST endpoints

Projects to Try:
– User dashboard showing custom contributions or orders
– Frontend form that stores data via API

Stage 5: Gutenberg Blocks & React (Optional Advanced)

Goal: Create modern, block-based plugin UIs.

Learn:
– React + JSX
– Block registration with @wordpress/scripts
– Custom blocks for front-end forms or visual components

Stage 6: Deployment & Best Practices (Ongoing)

Learn:
– Version control with Git
– Plugin packaging & ZIP export
– Plugin headers, readme.txt
– Debugging with WP_DEBUG
– Submitting to the WordPress Plugin Directory

Tools You’ll Use

Tool | Purpose
—–|——–
VS Code / Sublime | Writing code
LocalWP / XAMPP | Local development
phpMyAdmin | DB management
Postman | REST API testing
GitHub | Version control & backups

By the End of This Roadmap

You’ll be able to build plugins like:
– Payment forms with PayPal or Stripe
– Email notification tools
– Contribution trackers with export and dashboard
– PDF receipt generators