WordPress Plugin Template

A robust code template for creating a standards-compliant WordPress plugin.

Why this template?

After writing many WordPress plugins I slowly developed my own coding style and way of doing things - this template is the culmination of what I've learnt along the way. I use this template as a base for any plugin that I start building and I thought it might benefit more people if I shared it around.

How do I use it?

You can simply copy the files out of this repo and rename everything as you need it, but to make things easier I have included a shell script in this repo that will automatically copy the files to a new folder, remove all traces of the existing git repo, rename everything in the files according to your new plugin name, and initialise a new git repo in the folder if you choose to do so.

Running the script

You can run the script just like you would run any shell script - it does not take any arguments, so you don't need to worry about that. Once you start the script it will ask for three things:

Plugin name - this must be the full name of your plugin, with correct capitalisation and spacing.
Destination folder - this will be the folder where your new plugin will be created - typically this will be your wp-content/plugins folder. You can provide a path that is relative to the script, or an absolute path - either will work.
Initialise new git repo (y/n) - if you enter 'y' here then a git repo will be initialised in the new plugin folder.

What does this template give me?

This template includes the following features:

Plugin headers as required by WordPress & WordPress.org
Readme.txt file as required by WordPress.org
Main plugin class
Full & minified Javascript files
Standard enqueue functions for the dashboard and the frontend
A class (not utilised in the template directly) that can be used to create a new custom post type and custom taxonomies
A complete and versatile settings class like you see here
A .pot file to make localisation easier
Full text of the GPLv3 license

See the changelog for a complete list of changes as the template develops.

I've got an idea/fix for the template

If you would like to contribute to this template then please fork it and send a pull request. I'll merge the request if it fits into the goals for the template and credit you in the changelog.

This template is amazing! How can I ever repay you?

There's no need to credit me in your code for this template, but if you would like to buy me some lunch then you can donate here.