FORM V

S. FUNCTI

ON

I S T

HA

T A

WO

RD

PR

ES

S T

HE

ME

OR

PL U

GI N

FU

NC

TI O

N?

WILL YOU USE IT IF YOU SWITCH THEMES?If you only plan to use it in the current theme, add it to the

theme

• Slideshows

• Accordions, tabbed content and other JavaScript tweaks

• Page navigation (WP-PageNavi, etc.)

• CSS tweaks

If it requires editing your theme (like WP-PageNavi), it should really be a theme function

SLIDES

HOWS A

RE THEME

ITEMS

PAGE N

AVIG

ATIO

N IS T

HEME-

SPECIFI

C

IT’S A PLUGIN

If you plan to use it no matter which theme is being used, make it a plugin

• Custom post types

• Permalink/title/content manipulation (shortcodes, Page Links To, etc.)

• Spam, backup and security measures

• SEO & analytics info

• External resources (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

ANALYTI

CS SHOULD

BE A

PLUGIN

WHAT’S A MU-PLUGIN?

If you want it to be active network-wide, no matter what theme or plugins are active, make it a mu-plugin

• Cannot be deactivated

• Don’t need plugin header

• Active network-wide

NEED SOME HELP?

Curtiss Grymalacurtiss@ten-321.comhttp://ten-321.com/cgrymala@umw.eduhttp://umw.edu

Resources for Writing PluginsWriting custom functions for end-users - http://j.mp/oQkLsuCreating a site-specific snippets plugin - http://otto42.com/arWriting a WordPress plugin - http://j.mp/p7vrKA

Creating a WordPress ThemeTheme development - http://j.mp/o3fbXRChild Themes - http://j.mp/qzV2OWWhat are frameworks, parent themes & child themes? - http://j.mp/pPOmAQIncluding files in WordPress themes - http://j.mp/o0C6e4