Reasons to write your own WordPress plugin (and the Joy of it)

Reasons to write your own WordPress plugin (and the Joy of it)
Finished Emarsys Form Plugin

Finished Emarsys Form Plugin

Until recently, I was rather reluctant to create a plugin for WordPress.

WordPress is the de facto No.1 CMS. Plugins are the means to expand the functionality of any WordPress installation. Most work rather well with any Theme (=Design). Subsequently there is a huge number of plugins available.

I was always the enemy of rampant growth, due to my many years of experiencing its downsides first hand, so I thought about when a plugin should be created.

Sure, customers will have special requirements. But in most cases there is a plugin available for just that, which can be used as it is or modified. In most other cases, the customer has a custom Theme, which I made, so I can put the new functionality just there.

Recently however, there was a customer which cannot give me FTP access to its system, so that is actually a really good reason to use a plugin. And, if this plugin is not available, to write one.

Maybe this plugin will soon be available at the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Anyway, Writing a WordPress Plugin is pure Coding Fun. Well documented, nice coding standards and the seemless integration is a breeze. It is extremely easy to set up your own settings page, so you don’t have to interim-hardcode anything, ever.

Since a plugin is complete encapsuled the reuseability is a great bonus. I’m loving it.

Written by Ben