Professional WordPress: Design and Development

by Brad Williams, David Damstra, Hal Stern

The highest rated WordPress development and design book on the market is back with an all new third edition. "Professional WordPress" is the only WordPress book targeted to developers, with advanced content that exploits the full functionality of the most popular CMS in the world. Fully updated to align with WordPress 4.1, this edition has updated examples with all new screenshots, and full exploration of additional tasks made possible by the latest tools and features. You will gain insight into real projects that currently use WordPress as an application framework, as well as the basic usage and functionality of the system from a developer's perspective. The book's key features include detailed information and real-world examples that illustrate the concepts and techniques at work, plus code downloads and examples accessible through the companion website. Written by practicing WordPress developers, the content of this edition focuses on real world application of WordPress concepts that extend beyond the current WordPress version.

WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing, and has grown to be the largest self-hosted website platform in the world. This book helps you use WordPress efficiently, effectively, and professionally, with new ideas and expert perspectives on full system exploitation. Get up to speed on the new features in WordPress 4.1 Learn cutting edge uses of WordPress, including real-world projects Discover how to migrate existing websites to WordPress Understand current best practices and tools in WordPress development

WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-architected personal publishing system built on PHP and MySQL, and has evolved to be used as a full content management system through thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes. "Professional WordPress" is the essential developer's guide to this multifunctional system.

Genres: Programming, Reference, Website Design, Computers, Nonfiction, Technology, Coding

465 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Librarian note:
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This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name
For other authors of this name, see:

Brad Williams - Political Science

Brad Williams - Fiction, Crime, Western

Brad Williams - Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Reviews

[Jason Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a decent number of wordpress books now. This one is in my top few. Easy to read. Easy to understand.

[Dhul Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure why this book doesn't have 5 stars all-around. By far the most comprehensive book you can read on WordPress design and development. Other than reading the codex, I can't think of a better resource.

[imane · Rating 5 out of 5]

القيت نظرة على الكتاب فقط اعيد قراءة الفصول التالية بالتفصيل فيما بعد
Plugin Development
Theme Development
Crafting a User Experience
Securing Wordpress
Application Framework

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es el primer libro de wordpress que leo.
Soy novata en Wordpress, y siento que este libro no respondió todas las dudas e inquietudes que tenía con respecto a cómo hacer ciertas cosas. Es un buen libro, pero se me quedó corto. Me habría gustado que tuviese más información.

[Ray Perreault · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed in this book. Perhaps I was expected too much. I knew a little about Wordpress when I bought it, and I hoped the book would give me more of an insight into the software. I found it to be a lot of the same rudimentary information that is available through many sources.
If a person in interested in WP you can find the same information for free from many sites, just do a little research and save the purchase price.

[Michael Musgrove · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential book to have on your shelf if you mess with WordPress at all. Touches on some basic things all the way up to some more advanced tasks. Lots of great information, although the layout and design of the material is a little technical and boring. I wish the book was spiral-bound as well. I use it a lot for reference, and the paper cover isn't holding up well.

[Aaron Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very difficult book for the average person. This is not intended for the starting person. This is advanced and you will struggle with a lot of it. It's good, but too deep for most people.

[Britta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful, would recommend to actually do the steps immediately while working through the book.

[Stephen Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I have found on WP Dev.

[Iran]

this book is professional about codex and core wordPress coding

[Dayton Outar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive treatment for those who want a good lay of the land for WordPress.

[Joost · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging book, packed with interesting content. It was quite easy to get through. I utilized it while designing the website https://zgift.ru

[Emorgan05 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoroughly useful, but some of the information is slightly out of date.

[Gareth Otton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was informative and an interesting read.

I did find it frustrating however as it really could have been three times as big and not been big enough. They do a good job of introducing you to many aspects of WordPress but I don't think there was anything complete enough in here to really get you started.

I bought this book looking to learn how to develop custom themes for WordPress and I have finished this book realising that it will be best for me to look elsewhere online for more information.

If anyone is looking to read this for the same reason that I was, custom theme creation, then I think that the following link would be a better option for you. It is a video tutorial that I mean to try next. I would never normally recommend something I haven't used myself yet but it is by a man named Chris Coyier and I have followed his tutorials before with great success. He has a real knack for making really complicated things easy.

Wordpress Tutorial

[Jeroen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Professional WordPress - Design and Development" is really good book on WordPress. It shows you how WP works (starting from the loop, to hooking etc... which makes it outlive the WP version it was written for (I thought 3.0). I guess this is very useful for everyone who wants to take his WP skills from just running WP to hacking it to his/her own wishes.

Starting from a top-level view on WP, it then diggs down into the Loop, database, queries, taxonomies, plugin development, shortcodes, theming and, very important as WP grows: security. It also covers content building, navigation, search optimization, migration, ... more than you could wish for.

I am just a small-time developer on WP (made some 30 sites to date) but this book has been a good reference for me in a lot of darker moments. It also led me to develop a working routine that now saves me a lot of time.

Highly recommend for everyone serious about WordPress.

[Eugene Cordell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is great if you're trying to create a website from scratch; so for those who are just using templates and plugins, don't bother -- just pay for a registrar and host, and use the new plugins to make your stuff look pro. The plugin instructions update every year, so please read their info before applying it to your wordpress site.

For the beginners out there, just read the Dummies for WordPress.

[John Hobbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, solid overview. Nothing you can't pick up by reading online, but nicely organized and explained.

[T English · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry and difficult to read.

[Madalin Ignisca · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want to learn WordPress development, don't waist time with other books "for beginners". This book will introduce you in this and teach you want you need to continue after.

[Kashif Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for both newbie and those who are coming from PHP / WordPress background.

[Sumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently reading it

[Burak · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is helpful.

[Serghei · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first, and hopefully last, WordPress book. Very decent explanation of the basics.

[Tadas Talaikis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reduce page counts, people.